Japan, a place still filled with unknown wonders.
Nara isn’t just the birthplace of ancient Japanese history. If you’re imagining the typical temples and deers in the park, sorry to mention it, but that’s totally a stereotype. If you’re visiting the city, yeah, that’s probably what you’ll get.
What if there’s still a hidden place in the further east side of Nara?
A place that hasn’t been set under the spotlight yet because it’s so small and still unrecognized even to Japanese people too? How about becoming the one to take the adventure deeper inside Nara?
There is a village that used to be a post station when people passed by for the pilgrimage journey to Ise Shrine from Osaka.
A place surrounded by mountains around 1000m high which were formed by ancient volcanic activities (columnar joints are rare to see in the West side of Japan).
Here, in Soni village, the villagers have maintained their lifestyles and ceremonies that have been past on for more than 300 years. There was once a time when the villages used cows for farming and transportation while living together with the cows under the same roof.
The ones who were not rich enough, walked to the villages next door to rent a cow.
As time passed by, cultivators became popular in exchange of the cows, and the historical thatched houses decreased right down to the final existing one which still stands lonesomely inside the village. A 10 mins drive from there, remains a beautiful pampas field covering a highland. These Pampas grass were used for the roof top materials of thatched houses.
The river flowing from the highland runs down to Kizu river (Kyoto) and Osaka Bay. Here is the upstream. A place where fireflies exist in the early Summer, a place where you could glance the milky way.
If you need help in the language, we could help you around with a english guide 🙂