Miyama - Kayabuki-no-Sato - | Linger in the East

What?
Miyama is famed for Kayabuki-no-Sato (かやぶきの里), a small village where several farmhouses with thatched roofs are located.
Where?
Miyama lies north of Kyoto (京都) and is part of Nantan City (南丹). It’s pretty cumbersome to get there. From Kyoto we headed for JR Hiyoshi Station (日吉駅) where we transferred to a bus which lead us to the rustic village in about an hour.
URL
Japan Guide Outline Visit Miyama

I love to travel around Japan, but it’s not always easy due to lack of finances and time. In that sense I was playing with the idea of doing more daytrips nearby in the Kansai area. To that end I bought 3 well documented magazines from the same editor: walking in Kansai, hiking in Kansai and mountain trekking in Kansai. That last magazine contains some challenging routes and might not really be suited for day trips though.
When I saw Miyama figure in both the walking and the hiking magazine I really wanted to go there. The walking part was around town while the hiking part was in the nearby Ashiu Forest. We decided to go for the long route initially, but some research showed us that because of the increase in missing people they do not let people enter the forest anymore.

Snowed under.

General view of Kayabuki-no-Sato.

Eventually that wasn’t a bad thing as the days before our trip it was freezing cold and snow packed the town; walking 2 hours would be challenging enough.
Luckily the weather was very mild when we got there. So we had the beauty of the snow but could eat our bento in the warming sun at the side of the Yura River.
While the thatched houses are right across the Kita bus stop, we got off at Minami and walked along the small winding roads, heading to a walking bridge that lead straight to the village. While the magazine stated this would be a walk of an hour and a half, and while we thought the snow would slow us down, distances in this village are really not great. We took our time, threw a lot of snowballs, did an interview for a high school, stopped to stare for a considerable time at a monkey that crossed our path and sat down to relax and listen to the gentle splashing of the river. All this took us 2 and a half hours.

So yes, Miyama is very beautiful and picturesque. I liked it in snow, and I’m pretty sure it’s also very lovely in bright green colours. The only problem is the distance you have to travel for merely 2 and a half hours. If you have time enough in Kyoto Miyama is a good side-trip though.