The remote mountain village of Miyama is located 50km north of Kyoto-city, approximately 1hour 30minutes – 2hours away by car. Miyama-village is famous for its traditional thatched roof houses (kayabuki).  The thatched roof houses were seen in various regions in the old days in Japan, especially areas experiencing heavy snowfall. However, in recnent years, most of them have disappered. We can see gourp of thatched roof houses in very limited area, such as Shirakawa-go(World heritage sites), as well as here in Miyama.

We’ve had an abnormally warm winter this year, so I hadn’t  expected to see the snowscape of Miyama village. However, luckily at the end of January, I heard the news on the TV that the biggest cold wave would bring heavy snow across a wide area of Kinki region, so I decided to go Miyama to take photos.

It lived up to my expectations !

Miyama village was covered with snow.

The thatched roof house and the contrast of white snow were so beautiful.

The tempature dropped to below freezing, so I was able to see many icicles under the thatched roofs.