38 broken thatched cottage has become a net red village, 300,000 people every year to play card

A beautiful village,

even a fire drill,

has become a grand carnival for tourists and locals.

- Rural Transformation -

NO.1 | One

Although it looks very high, but it always feels as if the flavor of the countryside has been when swept away.

But in Japan there is a small village, did not invest much money, as usual, has become a "net red village", every year 300,000 people to hit the card, even the village to engage in a "fire drill", have become a festival of tourists carnival.

In fact, a few decades ago, Meishan Town, like many villages in China, is located in the depths of the mountains, backward transportation, environmentally closed, to what nothing, the local people also rely on agriculture as a livelihood, the average annual income is less than 10,000 yuan.

How to develop here, the local government is at a loss. After all, they don't have a lot of money.

In the end, they put their eyes on those old thatched roofs in the village, the mountains, the rice paddies, these landscapes are everywhere, but the thatched roofs are the biggest feature here.

The professional name for this kind of thatched roof is "thatched roof building".

In a village of 50 families, there are 38 thatched roofs. Most of them were built in the mid-to-late Edo period, and the oldest of them is 220 years old.

From the exterior, the wooden walls and doors, the charcoal stove in the living room to the stove in the kitchen, the houses have been preserved as they have been since the Edo period and the way of life at that time.

The thatched roof houses in Miyama are one of the three "thatched roof towns" in Japan, along with Shirakawa-go Ajou Village and Ouchijuku in Shimogo-machi, which are so old that the government spends money on their repair every year, but now they have become the biggest "IPs" in the village.

These thatched roofs are also old, and the government spends money to repair them every year.

These thatched roofs, covered in the sea of flowers, backed by the verdant mountains, in the village of clean road walk, the doorway of the courtyard of the house dotted with mailboxes, newspaper boxes, occasionally a few sounds of chickens and dogs barking, a full of life breath of the quiet and peaceful village atmosphere comes to the forefront.

NO.2 | II

In such a small village, there is no excessive commercialization development, and there are very few projects for tourists to browse and have fun, so as not to destroy the natural atmosphere of the village.

In Miyama-cho, there is a thatched roof museum, where you can see the inner structure of a thatched roof:

It is not fixed with a single nail, but rather with a katsura, a knotted rope ~ it is said that there are only a few dozen people who can do this kind of craftsmanship today.

The thatched roofs are made of mango grass, which is hard and wear-resistant, making it the best material for roofing, as well as keeping the roof warm in winter and cool in summer.

Of course, thatched roofs are great, but they also wear out because of the sun and rain~

Therefore, thatched roof owners will change the roof of their houses once every 20 years.

The corners and bottom of the roof are required to be made straight, and the corners are the hardest part to make, and it takes a veteran with many years of experience to make them.

The number of roofing slats is a reflection of the owner's affluence; a large number is a large house, and a large area is affluent.

Because of the high cost of replacing such roofs, and because fewer and fewer people know how to do it, most of the villages have replaced their roofs with metal, and only a few villages, like Kitamura, have retained thatched roofs on a large scale.

That is why thatched roofs are the most distinctive feature of this area and a valuable cultural heritage of the Japanese countryside.

Nowadays, the roofs are covered with moss, and some of them have some wild flowers sprouting up, making them the most beautiful scenery.

NO.3 | San

Every winter, when there is a lot of snow, a snow lantern gallery and fireworks are held in the area. This is a cultural event that brings together beautiful snow scenes, light shows, and fireworks displays.

The soft light emanating from the lanterns of the Snow Lantern Gallery illuminates the snow-covered mountain villages with a beautiful snowy landscape.

The fireworks display is held only on the first (January 27) and last (February 3) days of the Snow Lantern Gallery Festival. In addition, on the first and last days, there is also the "Dance of the Dance of the Lantern" ceremony at Chii Hachiman Shrine, east of Miyama-cho, where visitors can see traditional Japanese dances.

There is also a Miyama Folklore Museum in the village. Although a fire destroyed most of the buildings in the 12th year of the Heisei era, it is fortunate that detailed information related to the past Edo period has survived.

There is also the Kozana Blue Art Museum, which describes in detail the construction of thatched roof houses with hand-drawn pictures.

This museum is the private studio and art gallery of Hiroyuki Shindo, a blue-dye writer who moved to Miyama 35 years ago.

On the first floor, there are huge dye pots and works by Mr. Hiroyuki Shindo side by side in the studio.

On the second floor, blue-dyed fabrics and works collected from all over the world are displayed.

Even the folklore found in the villages of rural China has become a tourist attraction.

For example, the mobile vending trucks in the countryside have become a mini-bus grocery store that many people visit! Miyama town is sparsely populated, and even fewer stores, so the birth of this unique mobile minibus grocery store. Whenever the local people hear the music from the minibus grocery store, they come out of their homes to buy things~

This is the only place in the village where you can shop, and the ordinary-looking minibus has everything you need, including household goods, snacks, groceries, and even fresh food and frozen meat in the freezer.

This kind of "countryside", actually become a "card project", some people are happy to buy a small commodity in the mobile bus store, excited than the hands of the photo.

Although most of the houses in Miyama Town are ordinary houses, there are many cafes and small restaurants hidden in the town. However, in order to maintain the original appearance of the street, and restaurants are not set up signboards, tourists can only explore on their own, and the result is that many people have made a guide - "Miyama-cho hidden food", and each store as "Netflix"! "

One of the flowing water vegetarian noodles is the representative food of the summer here. A long bamboo is split in two, water flows down the bamboo tube, and thin snow-white noodles are pushed to the front by the current. Diners must be quick to experience the refreshing moment.

In addition, there is a Michi no Eki Miyama Exchange Square near Miyama-cho, surrounded by mountains and neighboring the crystal clear Miyama River, which is a rest stop for many people on their journey.

Not only is there a tourist service center, but there are also local specialty products for sale, such as ice cream from the popular Miyama Dairy Shop~

And locally grown rice, beautifully packaged and designed, has become one of the most famous souvenirs for local tourists~

Of course, in addition to the cafe, restaurant, and a few bed and breakfasts, which are identified on the village's tourist map, you can find a list of them on the map. The village tourist map will be identified one by one, although there are only 2 or 3 B&Bs, but it is often difficult to find a night. After all, this village is too small~

Stepping into the thatched roof house, which is over 150 years old, you will see a large tatami-mat Japanese room, a traditional charcoal stove in the center of the living room, wooden pillars with traces of age, and wooden plank floor corridors that rattle when you walk past them, as if you were walking across the street. The wood-paneled corridors make you feel as if you have traveled back in time.

NO.4 | Restaurant

But the most interesting thing is that the most famous festival in this village is the fire drill day twice a year.

In fact, the thatched roof is most afraid of fire.

There was a fire here in 2000, and many houses were damaged, which gave the locals a wake-up call. So they invented a special fire extinguishing system that automatically sprays water like a fountain.

So as not to destroy the traditional pristine environment, they also built little miniature wooden houses to hold the fire extinguishers. The kind of thing you look at like a dog house.

Instead of hydrants, which are common in big cities, they were made in the shape of little wooden houses, which became a local specialty.

In the event of a fire, the roof of the cabin opens automatically.

Then, you will see the fire hose hidden inside~

After the fire hose is automatically raised, it will start spraying water violently!

The coolest thing is that this faucet can also rotate the angle automatically.

In this way, it increases the water spray coverage area. This way the whole surrounding of a thatched house can be enveloped by water. If there is a fire, the fire can be quickly controlled.

The entire village **** installed 62 such fire extinguishers. When it comes to fire drills, the scene is quite spectacular.

Once the system is activated, it is like a downpour in a flash, and the whole village is protected.

From a distance, a row of beautiful white water columns in the green hills and water across the sky, dancing a beautiful arc ~

And if you catch the sunny days, you can see the rainbow looming.

These water columns are mischievous and are especially spectacular from the sky.

The village holds drills twice a year to keep the fire suppression system working and to remind people of the fire.

But what we didn't expect was this.

The fire drills have become one of the most popular attractions for tourists!

The scene was as joyous as a water festival in Yunnan.

A fire drill can bring a lot of tourists to the area, and also bring income to the local villagers.

Although tourism is getting hotter and hotter here, the locals are still farming, and you can see scenes of village life all the time.

Many times, we think about how to make the countryside a place where everyone wants to be, and we spend a lot of money to build it, but in the end, we spend more and more money, and the feeling of "village" is less and less.

Perhaps villages like Miyama can be a template for us to follow, as it carries on from the past, but also grows naturally, slowly forming many of the most unique points of communication in our time.

We hope that our towns and villages will retain their former elegance in the face of the changing times.