Kayabuki No Sato

Must stop for photos of a traditional Japanese village. Beautiful thatch-roof village only an hour from Kyoto City. The village is beautifully maintained, and has so many thatch-roofed houses with amazing gardens at practically every house. I was very impressed with the signage on the street corners, tastefully done in Japanese and English, helping visitors decide which little street they want to take next. There are guesthouses you can stay in, a café, bakery, museum, and other places to explore. I was also quite impressed by the restroom facilities. They blend into the town, and some of them even have mini-thatched rooves. I came on a whim by car, but wished I had planned a little more time, because I would love to have rented an e-bike from the Miyama tourist center (a few miles away), and ridden into the town. The road and village are along a winding river. The ride would have been really pleasant, even in summer. My parting comment will be about how this village compares to other thatch-roof villages like the famous Shirakawa-go. I have been to Shirakawa-go, and while the village is on a much larger scale, with larger houses, it feels very commercial, and it usually packed with tourists and tour buses. I managed to get some beautiful pictures in that village, but I had to time my shots in between people walking by. The pictures might be idyllic, but my experience wasn't. But Miyama wasn't like that at all. It felt more natural, it felt like people actually live there, and I also liked the scale of it as well. I was more impressed by Miyama, its gardens, gorgeous houses, mountain and river landscape, and the little roadside streams running through the village. Highly recommend if you are going to be visiting Kyoto, especially to spend a little time out of the city.