Noto Peninsula Coast to Coast Bike Tour

We meet at our hotel in Kanazawa at 5:00 PM. After an introductory meeting and bike fitting, we take a stroll through the city and enjoy a welcome dinner in town.

Kanazawa is a city of half a million inhabitants which is sometimes given the moniker of Little Kyoto, on account of its being a nerve center of cultural life in the region. Kanazawa has great food, beautiful wooden townhouses, and serene gardens.

However, the one thing that Kanazawa is known for, above all else, is its gold leaf craft. In fact, Kanazawa in Japanese literally translates to “gold marsh”. Gold leaf is real gold that has been hand-beaten into a weightless, paper-thin sheet, which is then used in a range of products, from home decor to paintings, and even in food. The small town of Kanazawa makes all of Japan’s gold leaf. So significant is the gold leaf craft of Kanazawa that UNESCO recognizes the Kanazawa gold leaf craft as an intangible cultural heritage of the world. A local delicacy we suggest you must try when in Kanazawa is the gold leaf ice cream, which is, as the name suggests, ice cream with gold leaf on it.

Yet another Kanazawa highlight is the Kenrokuen Garden, considered one of the three most beautiful landscaped gardens in Japan.

With so much to explore, you’ll have your hands full in Kanazawa even before our cycling adventure has begun. This is why we recommend that you arrive a day earlier in Kanazawa to explore some of it on your own. Kanazawa is a 3.5-hour bullet train journey from Osaka and 3 hours by bullet train from Tokyo.

We begin our cycling journey by heading due west towards the Sea of Japan and then taking a sharp northwards course to ride along the beach. The ride takes us to the famous Chirihama Nagisa Driveway — an 8 km stretch of hard-packed sand on which it is permissible to drive and bike. This makes it perhaps the only driveway of its kind anywhere in the world. We stop by the beach for lunch and then continue onwards to our destination, which is the small town of Hakui noted for its silk textile production.

We get on our bikes in the morning and continue heading due north along the coast. The sea is our constant companion on this day, and we cross several quaint fishing villages as we ride along the rugged Noto coastline. A particularly interesting phenomenon we get to observe this day is the fascinating rock formations along the coast, where the turbulent sea has shaped the rocks into interesting shapes over thousands of years. As we near the end of the day’s ride, we might get to catch the sun going down into the sea behind the famous Hatago Iwa, or “married rocks” that are considered sacred in the Japanese Shinto religion. We end the day’s ride at Togi, a town known for its ancient gold and silver mines.

Today we strike a north-westerly course, straying away from the coast for a while as we ride through quiet backroads, passing by quaint wooden houses with black-tiled roofs to re-emerge along the coast. We even get to stop and step into one such house at the Kadomi Heritage House, where we experience firsthand what life inside a traditional Japanese wooden house is like. Today’s ride is quite unlike anything you’ve experienced before, as we head towards our destination for the day, Wajima. Wajima is a small town of about 30,000 inhabitants that is known for two things — its lacquerware, and its 1000 rice fields. The latter is quite a spectacle, as these rice fields are lit using solar LED lights for four hours after sunset, presenting a mesmerizing sight of beautiful rice paddies lit in colorful light.

We start off the day with a visit to Wajima’s famous morning market, one of the largest and oldest morning markets in Japan, having been in operation for over 1000 years. The market opens at 8 AM and stays running till about noon. Locals come to shop here for fresh sea and land produce. Visitors can buy souvenirs such as the famous Wajima lacquerware, or gold leaf-covered chopsticks. We then get on our bikes and ride past the famous 1000 rice fields and onwards in a northeasterly direction. Riding along the coast, we stop and see how salt is made from the sea using the ancient evaporation technique still in operation. You can even try your hand at the seawater spraying technique. We end the day’s cycling at Suzu, which is the northernmost point in the Noto Peninsula.

Since Suzu is the northernmost tip of the Noto peninsula, we now start biking in a southerly direction. We bike past fishing villages and white sand beaches, where we get off our bikes and dip our feet in the sand, relaxing for some time. We then get back on our bikes and ride through Noto Jima Island, a small island cut off from the rest of the Noto Peninsula by small strips of the Sea of Japan, forming natural bays. We ride over the bridges that connect the island to mainland Noto, and since it is quiet all around, we get to stop and admire the view of the bay from the bridge. We then ride onwards to our destination for the day, the famous Wakura Onsen.

Wakura Onsen is a system of hot water springs located close to Nanao Bay and was founded over 1,200 years ago. It is one of the oldest hot spring resorts in the region. The large ryokan offers guests excellent baths with gorgeous views. Today don't miss soaking in one of Wakura's world-famous hot springs and catching a glimpse of bottlenose dolphins from Noto Island.

Today is a splendid day on a bike along Toyama Bay with a backdrop of Mount Sekido and scenic Himi Hills. Toyama Bay area has long been cherished for its picturesque scenery and is known for bioluminescent firefly squid is only 3 inches long but packs a stunning feature in that small package. As we make our way to Toyama, admire a magnificent view of the 3000-meter Tateyama mountain range over the sea. Today's ride offers lush natural scenery, flaunting ocean and alpine vistas ending at Toyama's coastal and mountain-flanked city on Japan’s main island, Honshu.

Here we stay at Isohanabi, a hot spring ryokan with a splendid view of Toyama Bay and the 3,000-meter Tateyama mountain range soaring from the sea, a very rare sight.

We meet for breakfast in the morning to reminisce over a remarkable cycling adventure. The tour ends here. You can take a train from Toyama to Kanazawa (1 hour), Kyoto (4.5 hours), or Tokyo (4.5 hours).