I recently stayed for a few weeks in a small house in the farming suburbs of Okayama, 20 minutes drive from the city. This is a house in which foreign travellers often stay for a few weeks to learn about a side of japan they would not normally see on the tourist/backpackers trail. They help out with the farm work and enjoy meals and company. This was my experience. I shared the house with Tetsuya, we ate all our meals together and worked in the farm during the day times. He is an active member of the community and he took me to a really nice bar where he is friends with the staff, to the temple for zazen, we went hiking a few times, and I met some of his friends. We went to the countryside  to work on the jinenjyo club group farm and stayed with one of his friends, a member of the jinenjyo farmers club. 

Tetsuya and I exchanged some recipes and cooked each other meals. He has a very small restaurant business where people come around from a jinenjyo meal, this was not like a normal restaraunt but more like a friend coming to have a dinner party. we chatted, ate, had fun, and i played some songs on guitar.

The house is located on a farm, it is a small building consisting of bedroom and living room and bathroom outside. It regularly has foreign travellers so i think it would be a great place for a Japanese person who wanted to meet and talk with travellers.