Along Rte 38, about 20 minutes' drive west of Ashiu, is Miyama-chō’s star attraction, Kitamura (North Village), a hamlet boasting a cluster of some 50 thatched-roof farmhouses. In 1994 the village was designated a national preservation site, and since then the local government has been generously subsidising the exorbitant cost of rethatching the roofs (at an average cost of ¥6 million – around US$50,000).
Sometimes known as Kayabuki-no-Sato (the Village of Thatched-Roof Houses; かやぶきの里), this quaint hamlet is said to contain the thickest concentration of thatched-roof houses in all Japan.
Sights worth seeing here include the Minzoku Shiryokan (Folk Museum) and the Chisana Aibijutsukan (Little Indigo Museum).
