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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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【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)