Adventures in the Noto Penninsula: Flatts by the Sea, near Suzu

Mum outside Flatts by the Sea bakery (next door to the B&B)

View from our room at Flatts by the Sea, it didn't stop bloody raining!

Flatts by the Sea is a bakery, cafe, restaurant and minshuku (B&B) all rolled into one. On arrival we were given a warm welcome and told dinner would be served at 6.30pm. Home from home or what? We sat and had OZZIE wine (bliss!) in their cute tatami mat restaurant. There were 2 other families staying too. It was all very friendly and cosy.

Me and mum at our table at Flatts by the Sea's tiny restaurant

Yoko, Ben’s wife gave us a fantastic lowdown of the dishes as she brought out each course, each one in some way containing local ingredients, from handpicked blueberry pie to her mothers 3 year old fermented fish (that was for breakfast) Funazushi? I can’t remember but it did taste so strong and stank.

Wonderfully presented sashimi dish at Flatts

Bless Mum. She was praying for a yogurt/fruit/juice breakfast but alas it was Japanese. A Japanese breakfast basically consists of everything mum doesn’t like to eat in the morning: miso soup (a clear soup with tofu and seaweed floating about), rice, fish, Japanese pickles and lashings of green tea to wash it all down with, yum yum.

The room we had at Flatts was a nice, average sized tatami mat room. Shared bathroom but I think all the carpets in there were new (newer than at Tadaya, haha) I’m not quite sure why I have a sudden interest in carpet.

After our yummy Japanese morning breakfast we headed across Noto to Wajima, the home of an infamous market. Important sidenote to anyone staying in a minshuku or ryokan (Japanese style hotel): Once you get up for breakfast your makeshift futon beds are put away by little fairies so when you get back stuffed and needing a lie down you can’t, your bed’s disappeared! More about Wajima in my next post


Oh almost forgot Flatts by the Sea bakery/cafe is definately worth a visit. Yummy cakes and fresh coffee in a Ozzie style surf cafe.

Flatts by the Sea surf style cafe

Yep mum holding the mascot wicker kangaroo in Flatts by the Sea cafe