Miyama-cho.

I would like to share with you a tip for a weekend trip in the Kansai area. For the last one week I’m recommending it to all of our students at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi(スミス英会話京橋校), and using it for the Routines lesson (R5 – ‘The Japan Sea’) as a story out of context. I thought that some of you might enjoy a trip to this great place.

So, last weekend I spent two days in a beautiful place called Miyama-cho(美山町).  It’s an area in the middle of Kyoto prefecture. About 1.5 hours by car from Kyoto. There, located in a green valley is a small village called Kayabuki-no-sato(茅葺の里). What makes this place special is not just its amazing surroundings, but also traditional architecture of the whole village, the roofs in particular.

All houses in this small village have thatched roof. Thatching is used all around the world for thousand of years and become recently very popular again, because of renewed interest in preserving historic buildings and using more sustainable building materials.

This area is great for one or two days trip, with many things to do. Hiking in the mountains would be the most obvious one. For those who are less active, there is an option of short or long walks in the beautiful valley. For those who don’t like to walk at all, there is a small spa resort where you can rest your body for the whole day. You can have a hot bath filled with freshly cut roses. Perfect! Or, you can rent a small cottage for a night or two and do a little bit of everything.

That was my case. I went there with my wife and couple of friends. We rented a cottage for one night. On the first day we went fishing in Yura river and then had a BBQ outside our cottage. I must admit, that there wasn’t a single fish on the BBQ that day. We spent the second day by hiking, relaxing in the spa after the hike and of course going for a walk in Kayabuki-no-sato, before we headed back to Kyoto by late afternoon.  I must tell you, that it was really great.

So if you are wondering where to spend a weekend outside the city with your friends or family. There it is. Miyama-cho.

Tom.

English Conversation Teacher at Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi (スミス英会話　京橋校).