Senmaida Wedding and Rice Harvesting

One of the lucky couples to get married at Senmaida

I jump at the chance of doing anything that's cultural whilst here in Japan so when I heard that we could watch a wedding and do some rice harvesting at the famous senmaida rice paddies in the Noto Penninsula I jumped on the first bus there (7am on a Sunday morning mind!)

Every year, apparently, there's a competition for 2 couples to get married at Senmaida rice paddies, a stunning location overlooking the sea, in a "go to town" lavish ceremony. When I got there the place was packed with photographers, journalists, TV crews and locals. The ceremony, which had already started, was taking place on a purpose built stage.

Stage for the wedding overlooking the sea

The ceremony lasted about 1 1/2 hrs and it was all rather formal. I actually learnt through a friend (who gets paid to feign a catholic priest and conducts weddings here) that the Japanese can have any religious ceremony they choose whether it be Shinto, Christian, Buddhist and they don't have to be practicing. For example, a couple can choose to have a Christian style ceremony at a Christian church even though they're not Christian. It's big business here and a lot of the hotels will have built in European looking chapels for couples to create that authentic experience!

Shinto priest conducting the wedding ceremony

Back to this wedding; a traditional Shinto ceremony as a shinto priest was conducting it. Both brides wore the most equisite, brightly coloured wedding kimonos (known as "uchikake") I've ever seen.

After the ceremony 2 dancers, a male and female, came onto the stage to entertain the company with a traditional fan dance.

The couples were then invited to cut some rice with a small sickle (rice cutter).

Me and my rice sickle

When it was all over we went and joined the locals to help harvest the rice which involved cutting it with sickles and laying it in piles of 6 bunches ready to be tied together into bundles by some strong hay type string.

Local helping Erika tie up the bundles of rice crop

The rice bundles are then hung out on huge wooden rice racks to dry out.

Rice crop drying racks

At Senmaida each row of rice crop has a different owner and hence a name post at the end of each row. We ended up cutting a row that was owned by a local businessman who didn't look like he wanted to get his hands dirty so I guess we did him a favour! The local news journalist took a billion photos of us (hard to look glam cutting rice crop) so I'm sure we'll end up in some Noto paper.

Owners name on post therefore his row of rice crop

After cutting we were all given a free lunch of rice balls and pork stew, yum. After a quick TV interview (only ones proficient in Japanese, i.e not me) I set off home. Fab day and well worth the early start.

Adventures in the Noto Penninsula: Senmaida & The Miraculous Petrol Station

Senmaida rice paddies near Wajima

As we headed up the coast towards Senmaida from Wajima I realised we were running out of fuel. Using our trusty Japanese sat nav I located our nearest petrol station. (ok I didn’t understand the words but could see the petrol stations and onsen icons so quite handy!) Got there and it was shut, crap! Mum was starting to get wound up as the petrol light had come on. Went to the next station and it was also shut. Ah it was Sunday. Note to self: don’t run out of petrol in rural Japan on a Sunday...

We decided to head back to the B&B, feeling defeated and quietly sulking. After 5 miles nothing, another 5 miles nothing. Now we're starting to panic that we might not actually make it back. eeeek.....but never fear....

The mighty lord shined upon us and giveth an OPEN petrol station another mile down the road (it had to be him, or some miraculous intervention as it wasn’t on the sat nav) So the lovely lady filled up our tank, even practiced some English with us and we were back on our Noto tour. Next stop Senmaida Rice Fields, having done a 20 mile detour...



"Senmaida" literally means "a thousand rice paddies". Apparently in the past, tiered rice paddies like this were a common site all along the Sea of Japan coast. This is one of the most famous existing seaside rice paddies in Japan and it didn’t disappoint. Small terraced rice paddies on the dramatically steep hillsides tiered down to the sea.


Although it was raining we still took the extremely steep (and fairly dangerous when wet) path down to the sea. NB Don’t take the path parallel to the sea because it leads to nowhere! We loved Senmaida and as usual stopped for a “softo” (aka Mr Whippy ice cream) and enjoyed the view from the top.

See my other post about the wedding that took place at Senmaida as well as me helping out the locals with their rice harvest. Amazing!

Adventures in the Noto Penninsula: Wajima market & the best coffee in Noto

Huge spider crabs for sale at Wajima morning market

Another Wajima fish stall

When we arrived it was raining again so with our umbrellas in tow we strolled through the market watching the women (yes ONLY women) selling their local produce, everything from fish, veggies to the famous laquerware goods. There was a really good buzz there but me and mum were desperate for a coffee. Green tea just doesn’t start the day off like a caffeine induced coffee.

So we walked all over Wajima and just as we were surrendering to a vending machine canned coffee we stumbled upon a really trendy café right next to the port. CALLED?! I can't remember, that's what. (Another sidenote, Japanese don’t really do coffee shops unless you’re in the big cities so take a supply if you’re a coffee addict.)

As we drank our cappuccinos in super trendy mugs & dried off mum was asking me whether I thought they’d have biscuits. I was like “Mum, this isn’t England, we’re in a very rare coffee shop in the remotest part of mainland Japan (although it honestly doesn’t feel that remote) Why on earth do you think they’d serve cakes and biscuits, be lucky we found coffee, ?! but she gave me that look so I said “Sumimasen, keki ga arimasu ka?” (do you have any cake, didn’t know the word of biscuit) and I swear to god she bought out the hugest cake. It was like Christmas had come early!!

After 2 huge cappuccino’s and a massive slab of cake we were full, wired and ready to go. Since it was still peeing it down, we decided to go to the local onsen just outside of Wajima called Buta No Something. Yoko from Flatts by the sea had recommended to us. She was right, it really made our skin feel like silk and it was blissful sat in the rotemburo (outside hot tub) which overlooked a cute little carp pond. I was mesmerised by the carp. I think I’d like to have them one day. Really calming to watch and be around.

If only we had onsens in England to chill out on a rainy day!

Adventures in the Noto Penninsula. Chirihama Beach Drive

So apparently the rainy season has lasted a lot longer than it usually does so we had monsoon type rain throughout our 3 day weekend in the Noto Penninsula! Bloody typical, it’s got to be because I’m English.

FUK-U-MI (named after a bridge in Noto)- our little lilac delight

Didn’t put a dampner on our sprits too much though. We hit the road on Friday in our tiny but rather fetching lilac rental car which I think had a half litre engine or was battery run it struggled that much!

First stop, Chirihama Beach Drive, a 5 mile stretch of hard packed sand that you can drive along (and that includes tour buses. I’ll get to that later). The rain was getting worse.

Seeking refuge and hot tins of coffee in the tin shack, Chirihama beach

We pulled into a tin shack (literally) of a snack bar at the start of the driveway for a quick coffee. Now that was an experience, coffee in a tin was put in front of us. I explained we were after a “hotto coffee” so she bought back two SCOLDING HOT tins of coffee, unbelievable. I hope she didn’t whack it in the microwave.

The tin shack was fab though, right on the beach, old rugs scattered on the floor and knee high Japanese tables with families tucking into udon lunches watching their kids playing in the sea (in the rain). How can I describe it? Rugged cool.. ?

The rugged cool beach shack (corrugated roof and all), Chirihama beach

Back in the car. By this point the rain was getting heavier, so we decided to do a U turn & get back on the Noto Toll Road for fear of actually sinking us and our little lilac delight in the wet sand. When got to the junction though it was like a lake & only big beefy cars were getting through. After a heated discussion with mumma I decided sinking in sand with the tide coming in would make a far better story than breaking down on a highway so we decided to head back for Chirihama beach. To be honest, we shouldn’t have feared.

Fear not. You know you're safe driving on sand when a Japanese tourist bus coming the other way

Despite the peeing rain the beach drive was safe as houses, even a bus full of Japanese tourists came past which eased the fears. In true Japanese style it even had lay bys, 2 proper lanes, cafes and of course loos every 5 minutes along the way.

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

Adventures in Noto Penninsula: Wakura Onsen

View at Tadaya Spa, Wakura Onsen

An easy drive up to Wakura. Still raining so we decided to go to the Ryokan (Japanese style hotel) that we booked for one night, called Tadaya Ryokan. To anyone tempted by the beautiful web pictures of this place, take note! This isn’t really a luxurious place. Maybe I’ve been too spoilt elsewhere but for the money we paid for the one night, ￥38,100 (249 quid) for 2 people including breakfast and din and I was expecting a higher standard. OK SORRY moan over!!

Boiling meat in a nabe type pot

Tadaya’s saving grace is their food. Beautifully presented and they bring each of the 7 courses to your tatami mat room. Our waitress was so lovely (in fact all of the staff were friendly) and gave us a running commentary of each dish in Japglish (half English, half Japanese) I even understood some of what she was saying. Progress!

Seirin-ji temple, Wakura Onsen

We went for a walk into Wakura Onsen town. I had already read some comments about the town and yes it isn’t exactly picturesque, big concrete high rise hotels are the biz here. We did however find a beautiful temple Seirin-ji almost hidden amongst a bamboo grove forest. A climb up it’s 100 plus steps takes you to a beautiful viewpoint. It was definitely the nicest place in Wakura onsen town!

After dinner we went to the onsen (hot spring) which was only part of the ryokan that I think was new. It was quiet, clean and pretty big. We sat in the outside rock pool overlooking the ocean. It even stopped raining for a few hours.

Me in the nud in the onsen (hot spring) overlooking the sea at Wakura Onsen