Idyllic Scenery and Traditional Crafts: 10 Destinations in Kyoto’s Mountainside

Glass Studio Calore is run by a family of professional glass artisans. Visit their studio and you’ll find a variety of original glassware with beautiful designs, including objects for everyday use, decorative items, and artistic pieces.

You can experience glassmaking yourself by taking part in a 20-minute workshop. Choose the shape, pattern, and color of the object you want to make from one of the samples available (shown in the foreground of the photo above). You can make a glass, a cup, or a vase. The basic workshop fee is 3,500 yen (before tax) with another fee of 500 yen for every design feature you might want to add.

You’ll experience basic steps of glassmaking such as glassblowing, creating patterns and colors by fusing glass, and shaping the liquid glass using professional tools.

Liquid glass is heated in special ovens at 1200℃ and by the time you finish your original glass object, it will still have a temperature of 500℃! The object needs to be kept overnight in a special oven that gradually decreases its temperature, so make sure you can come the next day or on another day to retrieve your glass item. It will surely become a very special keepsake of your trip to Kameoka.

Nantan is a very large municipality northwest of Kyoto, best known for the thatched roof houses in Miyama district. Visitors can find traces of the traditional rural lifestyle in Miyama Kayabuki no Sato, a village of 50 households, 39 of which are thatched-roof houses. This village has been designated a traditional building preservation district and a national heritage site. There are two museums in the village, a gallery, three cafes, and two guesthouses where you can enjoy the atmosphere of a thatched roof house.

The Miyama Kayabuki no Sato village can be reached by local bus from Hiyoshi Station, which can be accessed in about 50 minutes by train from Kyoto.

Another place of scenic beauty in Nantan is the Hiyoshi Dam, which offers great views of the surrounding mountains, Katsura River, and Lake Amawaka. At Springs Hiyoshi, a leisure facility located near the dam, visitors can enjoy hot springs, barbecue dining, and outdoor activities.

A walk through Miyama Kayabuki no Sato will fill you with wonder at the sight of houses that seems to have become one with the natural scenery around them. To make the most out of your visit, we suggest either spending at least two days in Miyama, or applying for a guided tour at the Miyama Tourist Association in order to get firsthand information on all the highlights.

Visit Miyama folklore museum to learn more about the structure of a traditional thatched roof house and what it’s like to live in such a house.

The interior has a display of objects usually found in rural and traditional households – from the Buddhist altar and the tokonoma alcove decorated with seasonal flowers to simple furniture.

Climb into the attic to see the structure of the thatched roof in detail. A distinctive feature of this type of house is that no nails were used in joining the beams. The type of pampas grass used as thatch is also on display.

A visit to the Miyama Folk Museum is a chance to learn about traditional rural lifestyles in Japan.