Machiya, for which ja.wikipedia.org use 町屋 (商家)

choi

Elaine Glusac, Old Home Weeks (or Nights); Machiya, once merchants’ townhouses, resurface as lodging, restaurants and shops. New York Times, June 15, 2014 (in the Travel section of Sunday newspaper).
www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/trave ... on-meets-today.html

Note:
(1) “Accommodations rarely get more atmospheric than this: a 100-plus-year-old Kyoto townhouse that once housed maiko, or apprentice geisha, now thoroughly renovated to 21st-century standards trimmed in 1,000-year-old temple beams, antique art and tatami mats. On the banks of the Kamogawa River, the two-bedroom named Kamogawa-tei (Kiyamachi Street; 81-75-354-7770) is one of six traditional townhouses known as machiya renovated by Aoi Kyoto Stay.”
(a) maiko 舞子 【まいこ】 (n): "apprentice geisha"  (where “mai” is Chinese pronunciation)
(b) For Kamogawa River, see Kamo River  鴨川
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamo_River
(Japanese pronunciation: Kamo-gawa; Length  31 km (19 mi); section 2 Onomastics; In the past, the river was a crucial source of relatively pure drinking water for Kyoto residents)
(c) kamo かも 《鴨》 (n): "duck"
(d) Section 2 states, “鴨川. The first kanji means ‘wild duck’ and is read kamo, and the second kanji means "river" and is read gawa. However, other kanji applied to this name are 賀茂川 or 加茂川.”

This is insignificant to you as a casual reader about Japan. But what is said applies to many other situations in Japan: The river name Kamo (together meaning duck”--the original meaning) can be read separately, into “ka” and “mo.”  The former can be represented by 賀, 加 or many other kanji of the same sound--so is mo.  But 賀, especially 加, is usually chosen because 加 is the kanji hiragana か and katakana カ are simplified from.
(e) machiya  町屋/町家
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiya
(together with nōka 農家 form minka)

* minka 民家 【みんか】 (n): “private house”
(f) “Kamogawa-tei 鴨川 邸 (Kiyamachi Street 木屋町通 [search the street name in images,google.com; the street is quite beautiful]; 81-75-354-7770) is one of six traditional townhouses known as machiya renovated by Aoi Kyoto Stay.”
(i) Aoi Kyoto Stay   京都の町家宿泊｜葵 KYOTO STAY
www.kyoto-stay.jp/

(ii) aoi (noun) 葵
(iii) アオイ科
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アオイ科
(family: Malvaceae; the illustration shows徳川家の 家紋「三つ葉葵」[, whose translation is: the family crest of 徳川幕府 (based on founder's surname) or 江戸幕府 (based on location) is three-leaf aoi 葵)

(2) “Shiho KAWASHIMA 川島, general manager of Aoi, a three-year-old company that restores and rents the traditional townhouses to travelers.”

The given name Shiho can be 志保 志帆 志穂 or a few others kanji combinations.

choi

(3) “Most closely associated with Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan, machiya developed as merchant townhouses from the 17th to the 19th centuries with several common features. To avoid excessive taxation, which was based on width, many facades were narrow. Wood-slat-covered windows balanced privacy and natural light. Interior courtyard gardens honored nature. Before World War II, these structures, which often included shops in the front and family dwellings in the rear, were crowded into lively blocks”
(a) A “[w]ood-slat-covered window” is displayed in a photo in (1)(e), whose legend includes: “Kōshi latticework on the ground floor”
(b) kōshi 格子 【こうし】 (n): “(crystal[lisation]) lattice; grid pattern”

(4) “By all accounts, the American expatriate and author Alex Kerr, who has been living in Japan since 1977, started the renovation movement in 2004. ‘Over the years I watched old houses in Kyoto being destroyed by the hundreds, even thousands, turned into parking lots and ugly structures,’ he said in a phone interview. * * * The uninsulated buildings [町家] lacked central heating, air-conditioning and adequate plumbing. They were considered cold in winter, hot in summer and too rustic for modern tastes. Though Mr. Kerr parted ways with the machiya stay company he helped found, Iori (81-75-352-0211) now rents 12 vacation homes in Kyoto. With upgrades including under-floor heating and modern bathrooms, machiya are now considered romantic by Japanese travelers, evocative of the Imperial era.”
(a) Iori  京都町家（町屋）の庵
www.kyoto-machiya.com
(b) iori 庵(P); 菴; 廬 【いおり(P); あん(庵,菴)】 (n): "hermitage; retreat"

(5) “Shedding my shoes, I slid open the door to a dining room at the machiya-based Japanese restaurant Rojimon (71 Shinmeichō 神明町, Nakagyōku 中京区 [‘kyō’ shoftened to ‘gyō’]; 81-75-212-9393) when the septuagenarian diner at the next table, noting my appreciation for the mat-floored rooms and internal garden, lifted his beer glass in salute, ‘This is very Japanese!’”
(a) Rojimon  露地もん

Use images.google.com and you will find it plain looking (kind of ugly).
(b)
(i) roji 露地 【ろじ】 (n): “teahouse garden”
Jim Breen’s online Japanese dictionary
(ii) two photos in 露地
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9C%B2%E5%9C%B0
(c) rojimon 露地門 【ろじもん】 (n): “gate to the garden of a tea ceremony house”

(6) “Though larger and more elaborate machiya-for-rent can run over $400 per night, modest options abound. I stayed in one of the least expensive ones, Shirakawa Cottage (Umemiya-Cho梅宮町, Higashiyama-ku 東山区, 81-75-711-2527). The 12,000 yen rate ($121 at 99 yen to the dollar) got me a full kitchen, bedroom and itty-bitty bathroom with a deep Japanese tub opposite a tiny moss garden visible through a porthole-like window. The experience introduced me to local life on a lane so slim that my immediate neighbor and I giggled as she effected a three-point turn to reverse her bike.”
(a) Shirakawa Cottage--HOME
www.kyotomachiyastay.com/index.p ... ion-ja/shirakawa-ja
(“Shirakawaは白い小川を意味しますので”白い小川そばの小住居”です”)

translation: Because Shirakawa [kanji: 白川] means small white river (or white creek), [the store name] is the little home by the white creek

This “そば” (pronounced “soba”) does not mean 蕎麦, but
soba 側(P); 傍; 端 【そば(側,傍)(P)】
(Both are homophones.)
(b) three-point turn
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_turn

(7) “Midrise apartment buildings and offices often tower over neighboring machiya, usually clad in dark wood with opaque or mat-covered windows, throughout town, though many historic examples [町家] are clustered together in popular tourist districts such as the night-life-focused Gion. On a busy pedestrian lane leading to Kiyomizu Temple, the ceramics gallery Rokuroku Dou (3-342 Kiyomizu Higashiyama-ku, 81-75-605-0862) still operates like a traditional machiya, with a shop in front and private living quarters behind. The townhouses are so popular that Kyoto Cycling Tour Project (81-75-354-3636) runs a full-day machiya bike tour combining mainstream sites like Kyoto Imperial Palace Park with interior home tours (from 11,000 yen per person).”
(a) Gion  祇園
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A5%87%E5%9C%92
(京都市東山区にある、京都の代表的な繁華街及び歓楽街)

translation: located at Higashiyama-ku, City of Kyoto; shopping district and district of pleasure representative of Kyoto

View Photos please.
(b) Rokuroku Dou (the ther Romanization spelling: Rokuroku Dō)  六々堂
www.rokuroku.net/

Its address is Kiyomizu-3 chōme 清水3丁目 (abbreviated 清水3)  (This is what the first “3” means in “3-342 Kiyomizu.”)
(c) For Kiyomizu Temple, see Kiyomizu-dera
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera
(its present buildings were constructed in 1633, ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu  徳川 家光)

Ja.wikipedia.org for the temple says, “創建年 （伝）宝亀9年（778年）”
(d) Kyoto Cycling Tour Project  京都サイクリングツアープロジェクト
www.kctp.net/

(8)The online version has two photos (as opposed to four in the print). Online the top photo’s PRINTlegend is “one of 12 machiya for rent by Iori” and the bottom photo, “dinner at Japanese restaurant Rojimon, in an old machiya.”