Central Japan Tour Day 6

Fujifilm X100VI 23mm f/2: 1/1000s, f/5.6, ISO800

Day 6 turned into quite the bus-riding day.. We went all the way up to the tip of the Noto peninsula and circled backed to Toyama. I used my Uniqlo heat tech long underwear and heat tech pants I had bought earlier on the trip on this day because I figured it was the furthest north we would be, but it turns out… the cold hadn’t got to us anyway… yet. More on that later. Being a big bus day, there aren’t a lot of pictures for me to share, so I hope y’all don’t mind a bit more prose. The ride up to the Noto peninsula was a bit rough because, for those that don’t know, the region suffered a massive earthquake just after the New Year in 2024. It was remarkable that a bus could even drive us all the way up to Wajima having seen firsthand the destruction to the highways on the way there! I felt guilty photographing some of the destruction still visible in the Wajima area too, so I don’t have photos to share of that either. I would like to have recorded some of the crumbling road spots but I was not on the right side of the bus. A few months earlier and our bus would not even have been allowed to make the journey, but Japan’s road crews diligently created road pass-throughs in these areas to allow vehicles to go in and out of the peninsula. I can’t imagine the United States being quite so steadfast!

The first “stop” was actually more like a “drive-through.” There are very few beaches where the sand is fine enough and condensed enough to where they can support the weight and tread of vehicular traffic, but we experienced one of them that could support a bus full of people: Chirihama Beach (see the title photo). We were told that the bus wasn’t able to park on the sand though. If anyone would like to try this with a car, be sure to keep track of the tide! At the end of the five-minute drive, we stopped at the Noto-Chirihama Resthouse… but it wasn’t scheduled to open for an hour! As with many places in Japan however, the employees heard the pleas from our tour guide and opened the rest area early for us! Just another example of how Japan is awesome. Around the resthouse were several sand-sculptures. The dense sand is apparently very good for sculpting too. Of course I was drawn to the anime-themed ones (Dragon Ball and Frieren!) Frieren being one of my recent favorites! The Noto peninsula also happens to be in the path of Korean (North and South) ocean currents so it’s not unusual for debris from those areas to wash ashore here (like the buoy pictured above).

The next stop was for lunch at the Noto Shokusai Market (I think?), followed by the relocated Wajima Morning Market (it had moved from the city streets to inside the Power City Wajima Wai Plaza. We were told about the trials of a Tohoku Travel-friendly vendor who lost her home, and then her temporary home after the earthquake, but she still persevered selling her seafood daily at the Wajima morning market! She was friendlier than advertised, and even left her stall to wave goodbye when our tour-bus left. We ate the abalone we purchased from her for New Year’s 2025 dinner, and it was delightful.

The final stop before returning back to the hotel for the evening was Wakatsuru Saburomaru Distillery. Now I’m not a whiskey connoisseur. In fact, I find a lot of whiskeys taste like soap to me. I’m also not shy to partake, so I did. We were given two coins with which we could redeem an ounce from one of the bottles in the sample dispensers. (Personally, I think it might’ve served the business better if we could sample a bit of everything). I used my coins on recommendations suggested by the staff members. Neither tasted like soap, so I determined this whiskey was quite good! To my taste buds, they were vanilla-ie and smokey, so smokey that I involuntarily cough when I drink it. I bought a 500ml bottle to take home to my Whiskey snob friends for second opinions. They seemed to like it! I think they use the term “peaty” to describe the smokiness.

We were taken back to the hotel and holo-holo’d around to find dinner. My folks were a bit tired, so they found some bentos and went back to the hotel room. I selfishly wanted to eat some Tonkatsu because I had seen this restaurant and caught the craving. It did not disappoint! Sadly I do not have any photos of the outside of the hotel for this leg of the trip, but there’ll be a few interior photos next time. Until then, Ja mata!