Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [233]
Day trips from Kanazawa, while possible, don’t do the peninsula justice; buzzing through the sights leaves little time to savour the day-to-day pace. Unless you’re under your own power, a speedy trip may not be an option anyway: public transport is infrequent. If staying overnight, be sure to reserve; accommodation fills up in summer, and many lodgings close in winter.
Kanazawa’s tourist information office (076-232-6200) stocks the Unforgettable Ishikawa map and guide, which includes the peninsula. On the peninsula, the most user-friendly tourist office is in Wajima.
GETTING THERE & AROUND
In the centre of Oku-Noto, Noto airport (NTQ; 0768-26-2100) connects the peninsula with Tokyo’s Haneda airport. ANA (0120-029-222) offers two return flights daily (one way ¥19,800, 65 minutes). Furusato Taxi (0768-22-7411) is a van service to locations around the peninsula. Fares start at ¥700 to nearby communities including Wajima (about 30 minutes).
Although there are trains, most sights can be reached by road only. For the west Noto coast, get off the JR Nanao Line at Hakui (tokkyū, ¥1370; futsū, ¥740), and connect to buses. For Oku-Noto, trains continue to Wakura Onsen, connecting to less frequent buses. Check departure and arrival times with the bus company Hokutetsu (076-234-0123 in Kanazawa) to avoid long waits. Hokutetsu also runs express buses between Kanazawa and Wajima (¥2200, two hours, 10 daily), with a couple continuing to Sosogi (¥2510, 2¾ hours). Buses leave from outside Kanazawa Station.
Daily tour buses from Kanazawa (¥7200, 8.10am to 3.30pm) include Wajima’s morning market Click here, Ganmon and more, plus lunch, a Japanese-speaking guide and admission fees, with a very quick turnaround.
Driving has become a popular option. The 83km Noto Yūryo (; Noto Toll Rd) speeds you as far as Anamizu (toll ¥1180); allow two hours to complete the journey to Wajima via Rte 1. The toll road does not serve most of Noto’s west-coast sights, so allow a day to see those sights en route to Wajima.
Noto’s mostly flat west coast appeals to cyclists. However, cycling is not recommended on the Noto-kongō coast and east because of steep, blind curves.
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KITA KAZUKO, OWNER OF KITA-KE, NOTO-HANTō
I am the 12th generation of the Kita family in this place. Actually, we trace our ancestry back 28 generations, to the Kamakura-period samurai Nitta Yoshisada, who fought on the side of the emperor Go-Daigo against the Ashikaga warlords (Click here). Centuries later, one of his descendants found himself an orphan, penniless and stranded, when a local from Noto took a liking to him and invited him here.
It was around that time that the Hyaku-man-goku (Click here) Maeda family took over as daimyō (domain lords) of the Kaga fief Click here and became familiar with the hard work of the Kita family. A Maeda lord presented our ancestors with a thatched-roof gate, which still stands today as the entryway to this house.
The Maeda and Kita families became so close that we were eventually given a special title of tomurayaku, overseeing a total of 203 villages from this property, now 13,000 tsubo (42,900 sq m). The title of tomurayaku was unique to the Kaga fief. Normally, the daimyō himself oversaw his region, but we are at the junction of three provinces (Kaga, Noto and Etchū), and the tomurayaku was a private nobleman whose job was to oversee villages in all three fiefs. In order not to be confused for a castle and arouse the suspicion of the Tokugawa shōgunate, our house was built down a hill and concealed behind a forest. [Castles were typically built on a plain