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What village in Japan has the highest concentration of thatched-roof houses?  Shirakawa-go, or maybe Gokayama?  Those would be popular guesses, but the answer might surprise you.  It’s Kayabuki-no-Sato, a small hamlet nestled in the town of Miyama, 30 kilometers from downtown Kyoto.  I visited Miyama a few days ago, desperate to escape the summer heat and taking advantage of a rare rainless day.  It was still hot (Kauyabuki-no-Sato sits at about 300 meters of elevation) but certainly less stifling than central Kyoto in August.

I’ve been wanting to visit Miyama for a long time, having avoided doing so because it’s fairly difficult to access without a car.  In truth it really isn’t all that bad – about two hours by train and bus.  And despite its proximity to a major international city, Miyama is far less touristy than Shirakawa-go.  Like its more famous counterpart it has a number of hamlets with clusters of thatched-roof “gasshou zukuri” farmhouses, of which Kayabuki-no-Sato has the greatest number.  A couple have been turned into folk museums and a couple more into minshuku, and there are a few cafes.  But midweek at least, it was mercifully uncrowded.

Kayabuki-no-Sato isn’t nestled amongst high mountains like Shirakawa-go and Goayama, and perhaps lacks some of the attendant dramatic vistas as a result.  Nevertheless it’s quite lovely, a relatively unspoiled relic of rural Japan that subsists mainly on farming rather than tourism.  If you want to see a place with that vibe and Shirakawa-go is impossible, it makes a pretty good alternative and I highly recommend it.