Ishikawa · Oku-Noto coastNo.496★★★Open in map →
Shiroyone Senmaida
— Rice terraces stepping into the Sea of Japan
On the Oku-Noto coast, a thousand small rice paddies drop in curved steps from the roadside down to the water. The plots are too small and too steep for machinery, so the field is still worked by hand, and the whole slope is visible from the road above.
- FromKanazawa Station
- ~3 hrExpress bus, then local bus
- Get off atShiroyone Senmaida (Hokutetsu Okunoto Bus, Machino line)
- On foot
- Shiroyone Senmaida
Where it is
16 more notes in Ishikawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Senmaida Pocket Parkthe roadside station on Route 249, with parking, shelter and the main view over the field
- The viewing decka railed terrace at the top of the slope, where all the bands read as one pattern
- The paddy ridgeshand-cut earth banks curving around the contour, each one holding a plot of a few square metres
- The Sea of Japan horizonopen water below the lowest terrace, with the sun going down into it through the warm months
How to actually get there
- Kanazawa Station → Wajima Ekimae by Hokutetsu express bus (about 2 hr 30 min).
- Wajima Ekimae → Shiroyone Senmaida on the Okunoto Bus Machino line, east along the coast.
- Look from the deck at the roadside station first, where the whole slope reads as one shape.
- Follow the upper edge of the field for the angle where the paddies and the horizon line up, then return to the same stop.
- Wajima express bus, then the Machino line
- Kanazawa Station →(Hokutetsu express bus for Wajima, about 2 hr 30 min)→ Wajima Ekimae, the bus terminal in the middle of town. Change there to the Okunoto Bus Machino line heading east along the coast and get off at Shiroyone Senmaida. Services in Oku-Noto have been reorganised since the earthquake, so confirm both legs on the operator's timetable before the day.
- Back along the same coast road
- The return bus leaves from the same stop at the roadside station, and the last useful departure for a same-day return to Kanazawa is well before dark. Fix the time you must leave before you settle in for the light, because there is no second option out of Shiroyone.
About the place
The hillside here is too steep, too narrow and too prone to slipping for a machine to work, so the fields were cut small and kept small. There are 1,004 of them, stacked in curved bands between the coast road and the shoreline, some no bigger than a tatami mat. Planting and cutting are done by hand, and much of the labour comes from outside the village through a scheme that lets people take on a paddy for the season. Water fills the field in spring, and for a few weeks each terrace holds its own piece of sky above the sea.
How to enjoy it
Two seasons suit the field best. From the flooding in May until the young rice closes over, the water turns every terrace into a mirror; from late summer the same slope is solid green, and cutting follows in September. Late afternoon is the hour to aim for, because the light comes in low off the water and the ridges cast the lines that make the pattern readable.
Background & history
Terracing this slope was a way of farming ground that would otherwise be useless: thin soil on a coast that slides. The state made it a National Scenic Beauty, and it stands within the Noto satoyama and satoumi landscape recognised as a globally important agricultural heritage. The 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake cracked the majority of the paddies, and heavy rain the same year undid part of the first repairs. Planting resumed on the fields that could hold water, and the scheme that lets outsiders farm a paddy restarted after a three-year gap.
Before you go
- Cash
- There is no admission and no ticket. The car park at the roadside station is free and needs no booking. Carry cash for the buses and the counter at the roadside station.
- Before you go
- The field is outdoors and always in view from the road, in every season. The Aze no Kirameki illumination that once ran through winter was not held in the 2025-26 season, so do not plan a cold-month trip around it. Recovery from the 2024 earthquake and the heavy rain that followed is still under way, and paths inside the field open and close with the farming and the repair work.
- Another way
- By car it is about 20 min from the Noto Satoyama Kaido expressway, leaving at Noto-Mii, cutting through Wajima and turning east onto Route 249 at the Kawai-chuo crossing. The road runs along the top of the terraces, and the car park is on the inland side.
- After you get off
- The stop is at Senmaida Pocket Park, the roadside station built on the shoulder above the field. The viewing deck is a few steps from the shelter, and the terraces begin immediately below the railing.