Ohara is actually an hour out of Kyoto. (But you knew that, didn't you, Pickles?)

Anyway, it's in a lovely, serene rural area about an hour's bus ride out of the city. I stayed in a minshuku called Ryoso Chatani, and its location wasn't obvious. I had to ask a fellow passenger where the stop was, and I still had to walk down a side road to get there.

If you reserve at that ryokan, print its Japanese webpage and take it with you. Then, if you need to ask a local passenger where the bus stop for the ryokan is, you'll have a visual aid. If you don't speak Japanese (or even if you do, as I do), those webpages and the maps on them can be a priceless help in finding unfamiliar locations.