Kyoto Mountain Restaurant “Yama no Ie Hasegawa”
NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Pot-Bellied Stove and a Rack of Wine Cozy Restaurant and Inn “Yama no Ie Hasegawa” deep in the mountains north-west of Kyoto, Japan -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Pot-Bellied Stove and a Rack of Wine
Cozy Restaurant and Inn “Yama no Ie Hasegawa”
deep in the mountains north-west of Kyoto, Japan

In my previous post about the carpet of yellow at the Iwato Ochiba Shrine in the mountains of north-west Kyoto, I mentioned that my inspiration for venturing out to see the shrine was a blog post by Britto about his bicycle ride there. He also mentions stopping for a bite to eat at the middle-of-nowhere restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家 はせがわ — “Mountain House Hasegawa”, with “Hasegawa” being the family name of the proprietor). As it so happened, on my trip out to the shrine, Paul and I were getting hungry about the time we came upon the restaurant's sign, and recognizing it from Britto's post, we stopped in.

Sign at the Road -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO 1100 — map & image datanearby photos
Sign at the Road

There wasn't much along this road through the mountain forest except mountains and forest, but behind the sign is an area of carved stone that reminds me of my “Mysterious Cut Stones in the Mountains of Kyoto” post.

The restaurant and its parking lot are set fairly far back from the road.

Hammocks on the Front Porch this is looking like my kind of place -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.2, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
Hammocks on the Front Porch
this is looking like my kind of place
Two Seconds After Sitting Down half a second after “Hey, Paul” -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/5000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Two Seconds After Sitting Down
half a second after “Hey, Paul”

We ordered coffee and lunch and looked around inside (having sat outside in the enclosed patio). The far end of the large one-room floor, beyond the pot-bellied wood-burning stove, was sort of an open storage/kitchen area...

Preparing Our Coffee heating water in the background; serving tray in the foreground -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/5, ISO 5600 — map & image datanearby photos
Preparing Our Coffee
heating water in the background; serving tray in the foreground
Almost Ready -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 360 — map & image datanearby photos
Almost Ready

There's a small second-floor open loft where you can stay for 5,000 yen/night (about $60/night)...

Small Loft Area -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Small Loft Area
There Goes Our Coffee -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image datanearby photos
There Goes Our Coffee
Vicks a good-natured member of the restaurant staff -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Vicks
a good-natured member of the restaurant staff
Another Good-Natured Member of the Staff -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.2, ISO 1250 — map & image datanearby photos
Another Good-Natured Member of the Staff

We thought that the lady might be the owner, but it turns out it's an older guy that could well be her dad. It adds to the quaintness to assume she's the daughter, but we don't know. She was very nice.

Near the entrance to the restaurant is a path leading up into the mountains...

Mystery Path -- Restaurant Yama no Ie Hasegawa (山の家はせがわ) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/800 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Mystery Path

I would have liked to see where it led.

I'd like to take Fumie here for lunch sometime... I think she'd really like it.

Update: I did, and she did. 🙂


All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Looks like an awesome place!

— comment by Damien on November 17th, 2012 at 1:06pm JST (12 years ago) comment permalink

Nice place. I’ve gone past this restaurant so many times but I only ever stopped there to use the restroom. This place looks totally out of the way, but it’s just a 15 minute, possibly tough, bike ride from the city, which is what’s so great about living in Kyoto.

— comment by Tomas Svab on May 25th, 2015 at 3:47pm JST (9 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink
Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting