An inconspicuous wooden teahouse stands midway on a winding road that connects the center of a remote mountainous town in western Tokyo to a scenic lake that supplies water to the capital.
Inside the old Japanese-style residence, there are several mismatching tables and chairs on a tatami mat floor, where hikers and bikers can take a break along the roughly 9-kilometer route between Okutama Station and Lake Okutama.
Naoko Ida and her husband, Takayuki, who moved to the town several years ago from Kawasaki, opened the store last year after reforming a 100-year-old house they bought as part of the town's rejuvenation program.