Having just arrived in Nara, we decided to make a detour the next morning to Wazuka, a town in the middle of the mountains, famous for its tea plantations. The idea once again was to get away from the more classic circuits of which Nara is a part.
It was also while seeing a report in Thailand on this destination that we became interested in it, more Jitima at the base than me in fact (less of a tea fan).
Wazuka: A Family Tea Story
Tea has been cultivated in Wazuka for a long time. As early as the Kamakura period (from 1185 to 1333), tea production appeared in these mountainous regions south of Kyoto. For over 800 years, most families have been planting and living from tea (there are about 300 families out of 4 inhabitants).
Wazuka produces at least half of the total production of Kyoto Prefecture. However, the destination remains little known to travelers due to its proximity to the city of Uji, south of Kyoto. Also famous for its green tea, it is preferred by tourists for its easy access from Kyoto.
Getting to Wazuka: A Day Trip
From Kyoto, take the JR Nara Line to Kizu Station, then take the JR Yamatoji Line train to Kamo Station.
The village is located only 20 kilometers north of Nara. It is therefore quite easy to get there from Nara, since it was enough to take the JR Yamatoji line from Nara main station to Kamo (only 15 minutes of travel for 240 yen).
From there, you will have a bus station at the foot of the station, line 66, which goes to Wazuka (with a departure roughly every hour between 7am and 21pm, see timetables on the photo below). Normally it takes 20 minutes by bus.
Getting lost in Wazuka and 1st hitchhiking!
Despite the nice map that came with the timetables for the bus stop in Kamo, since everything was in Japanese, we weren't much further ahead on where we were supposed to stop... As a result, we observed the landscape while being gently rocked by the bus as it continued its climb up the mountain.
Although we did pass a residential area with tea plantations (where we should have stopped), we didn't notice much, thinking that the main area of Wazuka was simply the terminus of this line.
Except that, arriving at a certain point, in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere (while we had been the only ones on the bus for a while), we understood that the driver was telling us "this is the end of the line", and that we had to get off...
Well well well.
So what? A little disoriented, I then embarked on the logical thing at that moment, to retrace our steps, on foot, because waiting for the next bus going back down would be too long. The fact is that when you drive, you don't necessarily realize the distance traveled. It therefore seemed quite possible to me to return to the city seen "a few minutes" earlier.
What I didn't know at the time was that we were exactly 8,3 km too far, or at least a 2-hour walk, on a narrow mountain road with no sidewalk... (OK, there wasn't much traffic so it wasn't dangerous in itself, especially since it's Japan, not Thailand).
By the way, I tell myself that it allows you to see a bit of the landscape and more unusual villages. So at first it was okay. The weather is nice and I appreciate this little walk in the Japanese countryside, especially since we fulfill our objective aka "get off the beaten track", see tea plantations (and also rice fields).
So we pass several villages, quite calm. A few people busy in their rice fields or harvesting tea leaves. In one of these villages, we see a first little granny, while we take a look at her "shop", a few oranges, traditional sandals, etc., right on the side of the road.
We are starting to get seriously hungry and we wanted to stop at the first restaurant we came across, but there was nothing in sight, not even something to nibble on... Further on, another little lady, gardening in front of her house and although she only spoke Japanese, greeted us politely and asked what we were doing there.
The funny thing is that even without speaking Japanese, we managed to exchange a few words, explaining that we were hungry and that we were going back down to Wazuka, and the little lady had a satisfied smile enough to tell me that "getting lost" is still good.
We pass an old abandoned gas station next to an old bridge. The river winds along the road we are taking while the forest and the green mountains surround us. We pass by houses again, landscapes that I tried to take pictures of on the way there on the bus.
The first 20 minutes go by pretty quickly and personally, I enjoy the ride. Jitima too, I think, but it's on the next 20 that we start to find the time long. Moreover, we hardly came across a single car, which reinforced a feeling of solitude that was becoming monotonous.
After passing a closed garage, in front of which there is an old Mazda tuk tuk, I feel that my wife is starting to be reluctant to walk any further. We have been walking downhill for about 40 minutes now, and judging by what we are passing, I don't feel like we are getting there soon. Looking at Google Maps, even though I don't have a signal, I want to estimate the distance we have left to go.
In this case, I quickly understand that we had done less than half. Precisely, we have just walked 3 km, so there are 5,3 km left. Too much, because we had not planned to spend so much time in Wazuka.
That's when we said to ourselves, "Hey, what if we tried hitchhiking?", something we've never had to do in Asia until now and therefore never tried at all. This is the opportunity or never, even for such a short distance.
Just after the garage, there is a space where a car can stop without blocking traffic, with good visibility. And hop, thumbs up. Then a first car arrives, nope. A small truck, nope.
And at the only 3rd car a few minutes later (while we had hardly passed any before), boom, a little old man stops next to us. Here again, language problem, we say "Wazuka" but the man seems hesitant, because he is not sure where he should take us (the fact that we don't really know exactly where we should stop either!).
We try to indicate that we want to stop at a restaurant, which ultimately leads to more confusion. After a moment of hesitation, which seems like an eternity, the grandpa finally agrees to let us get in, in his small, square car typical of Japan.
Here we are, hitchhiking. For 5 km… Knowing that the gentleman is careful and literally drives at 30 km, we were at the bottom about 10 minutes later. First experience then, 5 km/10 minutes. Who can beat that?
On the long straight line where I recognize the village passed almost 2 hours ago, we almost scare our host by suddenly shouting that we want to get off there, then seeing a healthy café on the side of the road, the d:matcha Kyoto CAFE&KITCHEN.
Well-deserved break in a tea room
Small problem when arriving at the café, it is not yet open… But fortunately, there are only a few minutes to wait. Time for me to take photos of the surroundings. In doing so, I realize, big stroke of luck, that the Wazuka tourist office is right next door! What's more, according to Google Street View, it didn't exist a few years ago.
But first, we had to perk ourselves up, and we were finally allowed into the café, a few minutes before opening time (at 11am, knowing that we had left Nara that morning at around 7:30am, without breakfast).
Big relief when we are given the menu seeing that they have plenty to eat, on the other hand, it is more "fusion" and limited dishes, and it is more of a tea room than a "café" as such. No matter, we were hungry so happy. We savored this meal, happy to be able to sit down, with as a bonus, a view of the hills covered with tea plantations at the back of the building, itself stuck to the rice fields which are on the flat part of the valley.
By electric bike through the tea plantations
Once we had recovered from our emotions, we left the café to go and see what information we could glean from the tourist office next door. The atmosphere was calm inside and quite quickly, someone came to us, only to tell us to wait, an English-speaking person who was part of the staff was going to come and meet us.
From there, we collected all the information we needed. A map of the surrounding area with suggested routes, ideal to do by bike, and what's more, an electric one. We were relieved to finally be able to visit Wazuka properly and we warmly thanked the young woman from the office who gave us all the information.
We quickly, on his advice, rent the bikes available at the office, which then allow us to set off to explore the tea plantations in complete freedom.
After this false morning start, we are rather happy to start this visit. We will quickly realize that electric bikes are more than welcome, because the road will be far from flat on the 9 km that we are about to travel (except at the beginning and consequently, at the end), of which here is the map, landmarks included.
The idea was basically to follow route B that we had on our booklet provided by the office. The choice was made among other things by the time we had and the things to see, this route seemed to us to be a good compromise.
So at the beginning, we cross the main road in front of the tourist office and head towards the first bridge not far from there, crossing the same river that we had followed all morning in the mountains.
We quickly find ourselves walking along rice fields, just planted so with only a little green shoot and the water, mostly visible, reflecting the houses in the surrounding area. In the background, we can see hills covered in tea plants.
It is shortly after that we begin the climb, which turns out to be a pleasure given the assisting motor of the electric bike. A little less for the wife for whom it requires more effort despite the fact that it is the same bike.
Well, it's very green and tidy, but it's far from being our first tea plantations, so it's beautiful but with a feeling of déjà vu (the first ones were in Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka, already 5 years ago, after we came across some at Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, also seen at Vietnam to Thai Nguyen, and of course, don't forget that there are some right here in Thailand, mainly in Chiang Rai province as in Mae Salong).
Personally, I really appreciate the electric assistance, not particularly in the sense of being in favor of the least effort, but taking more photos than Jitima, I can easily catch up with her since she drags her feet a little on the pedals (ending up wondering if her bike was working properly).
The small road we take is quiet, if we ignore a Japanese tourist car, we hardly meet anyone. The tea room where we were able to eat is obviously not the only one in the area, the most famous being the Sky Cafe Wazuka, which we passed nearby.
Some tea bushes are covered with tarpaulins, probably because the leaves have already been harvested and they are protected while waiting to produce new leaves. We also don't notice many people at work. It really feels like we're a bit alone on our bikes playing tourists.
Further on, we come across a village, with these typical houses. There are a few more colors there, because we can see flowers decorating the low walls and fronts of the gardens. Given the tea/rice paddy ratio, we can deduce that the rice fields are mainly for local consumption while the tea is exported throughout the region if not the whole country.
The village in question is the passage of the loop on the B route mentioned above, so we have already done almost half and are already starting to retrace our steps, not without continuing to go back up after having gone down for a while, observing on our left the extent of the plantations in this area, the prettiest observed since our departure (indicated as a "photo spot" on my map).
It was on our way back to the next fork that we came across 2 Japanese men of a certain age in the middle of an artistic exercise. And for the record, I realized with a vengeance that yes, here, we don't take pictures of everything and anyone as we please. Accustomed to taking portraits in Southeast Asia, rarely encountering any reluctance, mostly smiles, I wanted here not even to take a portrait of one of the gentlemen, but only their work in progress.
Which earned me a reprimand in Japanese when I had just taken the photo below… And despite my humble apologies (in Japanese, all the same) and without understanding what he was saying specifically, we could tell that the man was really not happy…
After this unpleasant experience, both a little confused and ashamed of my bad reflex, we continue and go down via a secondary path to reach the Buddha sculpture in the rock, the only real “attraction” apart from the tea plantations themselves.
On the other hand, no information on dates and why or how... Just that we put our bikes down for a moment, walked 2 minutes on a path along the river and hop, there is the sculpture, one and only. Good. Not enough to break 3 legs of a duck so we get back on our lazy bikes and continue this quiet ride along the river, first on the plantation side, then on the main road side after crossing a bridge.
Until returning to our starting point and returning the bikes, after 1h30 of a leisurely ride.
So, Wazuka, is it a must-do?
Conclusion? Particularly mixed for Jitima, disappointed with what it looks like compared to the report that idealized the place a bit. Personally, I don't know if it's the fact that she didn't expect to have to pedal so much (once again, even if it's with an electric bike, which normally provides most of the effort for us) but I still enjoyed this little loop.
No regrets about making the detour to Wazuka even having already seen tea plantations. It allowed us to see another side of Japan, perhaps more considered as off the beaten track (after all, there was no temple or ultra-photogenic village or other Instagram spot, although).
And if you are a tea fan, then it is obvious and a must-see of course.
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