From a Mountain Guesthouse to the World: Ten Years of Sky Tea House

Over the years, Sky Tea House has been featured in many media outlets, both in Japan and overseas. from documentary such as NHK to comical one

We have also welcomed some remarkable guests, including one of South Korea’s most famous comedians, as well as several K-pop stars and film actors.

More recently, we received an inquiry about using Sky Tea House as a possible filming location for a movie. Nothing has been decided yet, but I am sincerely proud that this place is even being considered, and I truly hope it happens.

After all, this old farmhouse was once destined to be demolished and disappear forever. Seeing it transformed into a place that now welcomes people from around the world—and may even appear in a movie—feels incredibly meaningful to me.

This latest feature comes from Yamatogokoro.jp, a Japanese online magazine specializing in inbound tourism. What makes this interview particularly meaningful to me is that it captures and summarizes the journey of Sky Tea House over the past ten years.

So, I would like to introduce some of what was written in the article, together with a few thoughts and stories of my own.

Below is an English summary of the original Japanese article.

Link

How Sky Tea House Became a Destination for Travelers from Around the World

Around 80 percent of the guests staying at Sky Tea House, a traditional farmhouse guesthouse deep in the mountains of Fukuoka Prefecture, are international travelers.

Despite its location, which is difficult to reach by public transportation, people from all over the world make their way here. Why do they choose to visit such a remote place?

The answer lies in two things that have long been part of the local community: tea and life in the satoyama countryside.

Sky Tea House is not located near a famous tourist attraction. Yet this old farmhouse has gradually become a destination in its own right.

Behind that transformation are years of steady work by the owner, Jiro Sakamoto who has turned local resources into experiences that international travelers can understand and enjoy, while continuing to share them directly with audiences overseas.

This article explores the story of Sky Tea House and what it can teach us about the potential of inbound tourism in rural Japan.

Why Travelers from Around the World Gather in a Village Surrounded by Tea Fields

Sky Tea House is located in Kurogi, Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture.

It takes around an hour and a half to reach the area by car from central Fukuoka, and visitors can also drive there from Fukuoka Airport.

As travelers make their way into the mountains, beautifully maintained tea fields begin to appear along the road. Eventually, a traditional farmhouse comes into view on the mountainside.

There are few other houses nearby. The main sounds are birdsong, the wind, and the rustling of tea leaves. It is a place where the rural landscape of old Japan still remains.

Sky Tea House consists of several traditional buildings, including the main farmhouse, separate guest rooms, and a renovated barn.

From the garden, guests can look across the surrounding villages and distant mountains. Time seems to move differently here from the way it does in a city hotel.

The guesthouse offers five types of accommodation for different travel styles.

These include a spacious private room with a balcony, toilet, and panoramic mountain views for up to six guests; a room with a workspace for up to two guests; a detached room with a desk for solo travelers; a separate group room for up to four guests; and a small dormitory where travelers can meet one another.

On the day of the interview, guests from several European and Asian countries were staying at the property.

In recent years, more international travelers have begun looking for deeper experiences of rural Japan and everyday life. Many of the visitors to Sky Tea House belong to this growing group.

According to owner Jiro Sakamoto, guests are often attracted by the traditional Japanese countryside and the experience of living in a satoyama community.

For international travelers, being located deep in the mountains is not necessarily a disadvantage.

A growing number of people value landscapes, cultures, and everyday experiences that cannot be found in major cities.

However, the beauty of the countryside alone is not enough to attract visitors.

The guesthouse’s popularity is also the result of years of work by Sakamoto to communicate the value of the region to people overseas.

To understand why this traditional farmhouse attracts international travelers, we also need to understand the owner’s unusual life story and his efforts to turn local resources into meaningful experiences.

Discovering a More Human Way of Life After Five Years of Traveling the World

“I wanted to live in a way that felt true to myself, so I started thinking about living somewhere far away from the cities. Then I happened to find a large traditional farmhouse and decided to start the guesthouse I had always dreamed of. People only began talking widely about rural revitalization afterward,” Sakamoto explains with a smile.

Today, Jiro Sakamoto is both the owner of a traditional guesthouse and a first-term member of the Yame City Council. However, his original motivation was neither tourism development nor regional revitalization.

From a young age, he had been searching for an answer to the question of how he wanted to live.

He left Japan and spent around five years traveling through different parts of the world, including Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Along the way, he met people from many backgrounds and experienced local cultures and lifestyles. During a working holiday in New Zealand, he also worked at a guesthouse.

Eventually, he reached a personal conclusion: perhaps a truly rich and meaningful life remained more strongly in rural communities than in large cities.

During his travels, the places that impressed him most were not always famous tourist cities. He was often more attracted to small villages where local lifestyles and cultures still remained visible.

That experience inspired him to try living in the countryside himself.

When he returned to Japan in 2015, he chose Yame, where his grandmother’s family came from.

At the time, he did not have a detailed business plan.

He first stayed at his grandmother’s house and tried to live as simply and inexpensively as possible while searching for his own ideal way of life.

As he settled into the area, friends he had met overseas began visiting him in Yame.

They were not particularly interested in famous tourist sites. Instead, they were fascinated by ordinary life in the countryside.

They walked through the village, looked across the tea fields, and met local residents.

Sakamoto began to understand that these everyday experiences, which local people might take for granted, could be deeply meaningful to international visitors.

“The satoyama countryside already had value. But that value would not be communicated simply by waiting for people to discover it.”

In 2016, he began working with local farmers to organize tea tours for international visitors, bringing travelers into the community and introducing them to the region.

These early activities later became an important step toward the tea-picking and tea-making experiences now offered at Sky Tea House.

Starting Before It Was Finished: Renovating Through Guest Feedback

During the same year, a respected elder in the local community approached Sakamoto.

He asked whether Sakamoto would be interested in using an old farmhouse that was scheduled to be demolished.

That building later became the main house of Sky Tea House.

The property was old and in poor condition, but Sakamoto immediately saw its potential.

Beautiful tea fields surrounded the house, and the traditions and daily life of the community were still clearly visible.

It was exactly the kind of local landscape that had fascinated him while traveling around the world.

However, the farmhouse was not ready to operate as accommodation.

Sakamoto began renovating it largely through DIY work, while also using crowdfunding and public grants.

Friends he had met during his travels came from different parts of Japan to help with the renovation.

His goal was not to create a perfect facility from the beginning.

Instead of waiting until every detail was complete, he began welcoming guests as soon as the house was safe and minimally suitable for accommodation.

He then continued improving the property based on feedback from the people who stayed there.

In its early years, Sky Tea House was less like a conventional inbound tourism business and more like a place where people gathered.

Guests, local residents, and people interested in moving to the countryside naturally met one another.

New relationships emerged from these encounters.

In this way, Sky Tea House began as a place connecting people with the local community.

The foundations for its later development as a center for migration, cultural exchange, and international tourism were built during this period.

From a Base for More Than 30 New Residents to a Guesthouse Welcoming the World

When the guesthouse first opened, Sakamoto’s main focus was connecting people with the local area.

The farmhouse included rooms for long-term stays and also functioned somewhat like a shared house.

Young people interested in moving to the countryside, as well as those who simply wanted to experience rural life, stayed there and built relationships with local residents.

More than 30 people eventually moved to Yame after first becoming connected to the region through Sky Tea House.

How did this community space later develop into a guesthouse where international travelers now make up around 80 percent of the visitors?

During the third year of operation, Sakamoto got married and began prioritizing a stable environment for raising a family.

It became more difficult to continue accepting as many long-term residents and people considering relocation.

As more rooms were gradually allocated to short-term guests, the proportion of international travelers naturally increased.

Even before opening the guesthouse, Sakamoto had experience working in accommodation overseas.

After moving to Yame, he had also organized tea tours for foreign visitors and continued building connections between the region and people abroad.

The development of Sky Tea House as an international guesthouse was therefore a natural extension of those earlier activities.

Airbnb became the main source of bookings.

From an early stage, Sakamoto also created an English-language website and blog.

Rather than only sharing information about the rooms, he introduced the tea culture, mountain landscapes, and rural life of Yame to overseas audiences.

thanks to his long global journey, its very rare to meet someone who are fruent in English in rural Japan.

He regularly posted updates in English on Facebook and linked them to the official website, helping travelers see that the guesthouse remained active.

The English website also used videos to communicate not only the atmosphere of the property but also the feeling of the surrounding tea fields and mountain community.

According to Sakamoto, these images helped potential visitors connect emotionally with the place.

Positive reviews from previous guests also accumulated over time.

These recommendations on Airbnb and other travel platforms gradually created a cycle in which international visitors attracted more international visitors.

The day I visited, around 80 percent of the guests are from overseas.

Many come from Europe and North America, while others travel from Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and other parts of Asia.

A large number are repeat visitors to Japan who have already experienced cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

They are now interested in rural communities and the deeper cultural life of Japan.

Most guests stay for one or two nights, although longer stays are not unusual.

Some visit while traveling around Kyushu, while others come specifically because staying at Sky Tea House is itself one of the main purposes of their journey.

According to Sakamoto, the accommodation experience itself is the guesthouse’s most important attraction.

Why International Travelers Choose Sky Tea House: Tea and Satoyama Life

There are two main reasons international travelers choose Sky Tea House.

The first is tea.

The second is the experience of life in the satoyama countryside.

Yame is widely known as one of Japan’s leading tea-producing regions and is particularly famous for high-quality gyokuro.

However, international travelers are not only interested in drinking tea.

Many want to see the landscape where tea is grown and understand the culture and lives of the people who produce it.

Sky Tea House offers tea-picking and tea-making experiences guided by Sakamoto in English.

Guests can harvest tea leaves, steam or roast them, roll them by hand, and learn how fresh leaves are transformed into tea.

Through this process, they gain a deeper understanding of Japanese tea.

Interest in Japanese tea has also grown in recent years due to the global popularity of matcha.

According to Sakamoto, an increasing number of international visitors first discover Japanese tea through matcha and then become interested in visiting production areas such as Yame.

The second attraction is satoyama life itself.

Many guests prefer walking around the surrounding village, sitting on the veranda, or simply enjoying the scenery rather than visiting conventional tourist attractions.

They appreciate casual conversations with local residents and the feeling of spending time in the rural landscape.

Many of these travelers have visited Japan before.

They want to understand the country more deeply and experience ordinary life in places that have not been heavily developed for tourism.

“The value was always here in the Yame countryside,” Sakamoto says. “The world is simply beginning to notice it.”

By presenting tea culture and satoyama life as experiences that visitors can participate in and understand, Sky Tea House has become a place that attracts travelers from around the world.

A First-Term City Councilor Exploring a New Model of Inbound Tourism Through Yame Tea

Sky Tea House continues to welcome many international guests.

However, Sakamoto’s interests now extend beyond the management of his own business.

In 2023, he was elected to the Yame City Council.

This gave him a new role in considering the future of the wider region.

Through years of meeting domestic and international visitors, he has come to believe that Yame still has enormous potential.

One opportunity is to present Yame tea not only as a local product, but as part of the landscape, culture, and everyday life of the region.

Sakamoto believes the future lies not simply in selling tea, but in allowing visitors to experience a life and landscape shaped by tea.

As both a guesthouse operator and a city councilor, he continues exploring new ways to communicate the appeal of Yame and develop inbound tourism around its tea culture.

What Sky Tea House Teaches Us About Successful Rural Accommodation

One important lesson from Sky Tea House is that it did not create an entirely new tourism resource.

Instead, it continued to reinterpret the tea culture and satoyama lifestyle that had long existed in Yame, presenting them in a way that modern travelers—especially international travelers—could understand and appreciate.

The story suggests several important conditions for successful rural accommodation:

• Rediscover local resources and present their value in a new way.

• Offer experiences that are unique to the region, rather than accommodation alone.

• Build a clear theme, such as tea.

• Continue sharing information in English and maintaining connections with overseas audiences.

• Live within the community and build relationships over the long term.

In recent years, more international travelers have been using Fukuoka Airport as a starting point for journeys around Kyushu.

The growth of international routes at regional airports and the increasing number of repeat visitors to Japan are creating new opportunities for accommodation businesses in rural areas.

It is sometimes said that even a remote or declining village can attract visitors, and that isolation itself can become a strength.

However, local resources alone do not automatically bring people.

Sky Tea House exists because Sakamoto has spent many years living in the community, building connections with people overseas, and continuing to share the region’s story.

The potential of rural accommodation is certainly growing.

But this example also shows that attractive experiences, consistent communication, long-term local relationships, and committed people are all essential.

By using tea and satoyama life as the foundations of its identity, Sky Tea House continues to share Yame with the world.

Its journey offers valuable lessons for anyone considering the future of inbound tourism in rural Japan.

#Yame #ruraljapan