Michi-no-Eki Ocha-no-Ktoto Minamiyamashiro-Mura is a roadside rest area for drivers, which is located in Minamiyamashiro, a village on the south-east side of Kyoto Prefecture. Tea is a specialty of the village, and there you can buy food and drinks made with the village’s tea, as well as many other local products.
This rest area opened in April 2017, so when I went there in May 2017, the building was new, and it was very crowded all the time. People were having a good time, shopping and eating there. The local vegetables were fresh and delicious, and green tea in a plastic bottle was consumer-friendly. A wide variety of sweets would make a great gift for your family.
You can see a tea plantation in front of the building, and it seemed that green tea sweets were obviously very popular. I tried soft serve ice cream made with matcha green tea that was produced in the village. It was rich in high-quality matcha, and had a beautiful balance of sweetness and bitterness. The matcha syrup poured on it was nice, too.
Also, they sell bento lunch boxes containing fresh local vegetables, and serve lunch sets that have actually been eaten by the local tea farmers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any of them because too many people came that day. Instead, I bought a bagel and botamochi (a traditional Japanese sweet made with azuki red beans, sticky rice and sugar), and they tasted good. The botamochi I ate had a hojicha (roasted tea) flavor that I really like.
【Michi-no-Eki Ocha-no-Ktoto Minamiyamashiro-Mura (A Roadside Rest Area in Kyoto)】
102 Tonda, Kitaokawara, Minamiyamashiromura, Soraku-Gun, Kyoto
Tel: +81 743-93-1392
9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Closed: the third Wednesday of each month
URL: https://michinoeki.kyoto.jp/(Japanese)