South Kyoto
The Tea Valley Line
South of the city, where the tea actually grows: terraced hillsides, the only village in the prefecture, the documented birthplace of sencha, and a temple with a heart-shaped window.
4 stops · one day
The route
- 01
Kyoto south · Wazuka · From Kyoto Stn · ~80 min · Better early
Wazuka Ishitera Tea Fields
Kyoto's first protected landscape: 800-year-old tea terraces, a free lookout, off-route.
What to look for
- Viewpoint facility — parking, restrooms and railed paths at the edge of the fields, completed after construction began in 2022
- Signed lookout — marked viewpoint with signboards and benches overlooking the hillside
- Ishitera hillside — curving rows of clipped tea bushes with farmhouses set among them
- 02
Kyoto south · Minami-Yamashiro · From Kyoto Stn · ~80-90 min · Better early
Dosenbo
Kyoto's only village: a silent 500 m plateau of tea fields, paddies and cool air.
What to look for
- Tea and paddies together — tea fields and rice paddies laid side by side across the plateau's slopes and flats
- Frost-fan fields — tall electric fans standing over the tea rows — a visible sign of how frost-prone the highland is
- Cool highland air — at about 500 metres, noticeably cooler than the valleys below
- 03
Kyoto south · Ujitawara · Yuyadani · From Kyoto Stn · ~90 min
Nagatani Soen's Birthplace
The documented birthplace of modern Japanese sencha, in a quiet working tea valley.
What to look for
- Terraced tea slopes — rows of tea hedges climbing the valley that Soen worked, seen from the valley lane
- Chasoumei Shrine — the small shrine the old family compound once reached toward, just next door
- The restored thatched house — a 1960 rebuild on the Nagatani family plot, smaller than the original
- 04
Kyoto south · Ujitawara · From Kyoto Station · ~75-80 min
Shoju-in
A heart-shaped window and a 160-panel flower ceiling, out in Kyoto's quiet tea hills.
What to look for
- The inome window — a heart-shaped window in the guest hall that frames seasonal views of the garden
- The flower ceiling — 160 painted wooden panels of flowers and Japanese landscapes covering the ceiling above
- Summer wind chimes — over 2,000 small wind chimes hung across the grounds from June 1 to September 30