Beyond Kyoto: Three Ways of Living

Days 1-2: Living in a Thatched Village

The journey begins in Miyama, a village in the mountains north of Kyoto where farmhouses are still roofed with thatch and the same families have worked these hills for generations. You gather around an irori, a traditional sunken hearth, with local farmers, cook and share a meal together, and stay the night in the farmhouse. In nearby Kameoka, a master bamboo artisan helps you make your own chopsticks, and you ride a wooden boat down the Hozugawa River through a wooded valley.

Days 3-4: Picking Tea in the Hills of Wazuka

An hour south of Kyoto City, in the hills of Wazuka, a tea farmer walks you through the rows she tends without chemicals. You pick fresh leaves by hand, make tea soba for lunch, and sit for a tea ceremony in the farmhouse. The next day, you travel into Kyoto City for a private visit to Kennin-ji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, where Japanese tea culture began eight hundred years ago.

Days 5-7: Diving with the Ama

The week ends south of Nagoya, in Ise-Shima, a coastline of quiet bays known for pearl farming. Here you meet the ama, the pearl divers of Japan, women who free-dive for shellfish on a single breath, the way they have for more than two thousand years. You see how they work, share a meal in their hut, and spend your last days on a coast shaped by the sea.