Adventures in the Noto Penninsula: Ganmon Cliffs and Sosogi Coast

Me and mumma at Ganmon Cliffs

We left Tadaya spa in the morning and set off for the Ganmon Cliffs and the Sosogi coast. The weather had cleared, hurrah! We hopped on one of the sightseeing boats there, I think it was ￥1000 (about 6 quid) for a 20min trip with commentary. It left at 2 and was back in port by 2.20 on the bloody dot. That’s what I love about the Japanese, so punctual, no messing about!

Ganmon was very pretty, a huge cave mouth jutting out of the sea, which was a beautiful turquoise colour. I was tempted to jump in the water but that wouldn’t be very Japanese, far too crazy…! Aftger getting off the boat, I ordered 2 sea snails that I’d seen the locals cooking up on these mini BBQ grills.

Always game for trying the local delicacy. With the toothpick type instrument I was given I pulled out the inner entrails of the snail. Oh my god, I squealed! It was like a big purple slug and all curly at the end. YUK.

By this point I had attracted some attention from some other Japanese tourists (with my squeal) so then felt compelled to eat the darn things. Well needless to say they tasted foul, like salt water mostly and chewy. On return to Kanazawa my stomach was dodgy for days...

The Sosogi drive was very pretty too although I have to admit when we stopped the car at one point to get some photos we realised that the shore was littered with rubbish. Such a shame. The Japanese apparently blame the Koreans, say that they dump rubbish in the sea and it makes its way across to Japan. The Koreans say the same thing about the Japanese. Talk about absolving responsibilities!

Anyway, after a long drive we found our next port of call. Flatts by the sea. Run by an Australian Ben and his Japanese wife Yoko? Recommended by a girl I met Erika who lives nearby. I’ll write more about Flatts in my next post.