Location Spots of the Wajima Area
Wajima Morning Market
- Category ：
- Shopping Street / Entertainment District
- Location ：
- Kawai-machi (Honmachi-dori), Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- With as many as 250 stalls lined up for about 360 meters, this market is one of the most popular attractions of Wajima. The market offers fresh local vegetables and fishery products, allowing you to enjoy buying them while conversing with local women selling them.
Shiroyone Senmaida (Terraced rice fields)
- Category ：
- Historic Site / Scenic Site
- Location ：
- Shiroyone-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- The Senmaida terraced rice fields were developed by reclaiming the steep slope dropping into the Japan Sea. The geometric pattern drawn by a series of Azemichi (path between rice fields) is artistic.
Magaki-no-sato
- Category ：
- Town / Village
- Location ：
- Ozawa-machi and Kami-Ozawa-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Magaki is a tightly arranged bamboo fence with the height about 5 m used to protect houses from the north wind blowing from the Japan Sea. Wisdom of people living in the stark nature of Oku-Noto can be glimpsed.
Streets of Kuroshima
- Category ：
- Town / Village
- Location ：
- Kuroshima, Monzen-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- These streets make you feel the taste of the port town once flourished with ship owners.
Kanakura District
- Category ：
- Town / Village
- Location ：
- Kanakura, Nodamachi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- It offers a peaceful country view surrounded by mountain range, and historical five temples.
Hegura Island
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Ama-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Attractions: This flat island with approx. 5 kilometers in circumference and 12.4 meters elevation is located 50 kilometers north of Wajima Port. Because it is a good fishing ground, Ama, female divers stay on the island to catch abalones and sea snails during summer.
Nishiho Coastline
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- A series of bluffs swept by the north wind blowing from the Japan Sea (some of them reach 80 meters high) and rock reeves are laid out.
Kotogahama Beach
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Tsurugiji, Monzen-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Known as a Nakisuna (Singing Sand) beach, Kotogahama offers a fantastic scenery in the evening as the sky and sea glow with the splendor of the setting sun.
Sosogi Beach
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Sosogi, Machino-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Washed by angry waves of the Japan Sea in winter, the beach has masculine characteristics. Its symbol is “Mado-iwa,” an oddly shaped monolith with a two-meter radius hole in the middle. “Nami-no-hana,” flowerlike patterns on waves are often seen during winter.
Minazuki Beach
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Monzen-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- This beach makes you associate with a peculiar landscape of the Noto Peninsula. The Toho movie “Zero Focas” was filmed here because of the nostalgic atmosphere the scenery provides.
Kamogaura
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Marine abrasion produced a series of oddly shaped whitish rocks, including the one uniquely named as “Hell for cats.”
Kiss Tunnel and Fukuga-Ana
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Sosogi, Machino-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- The manually dug tunnel got this name after the kissing scene of a film was shot here. Fukuga-ana is a cave with 10-meter-wide entrance and 90-meter in length, and a stone statue of Fudomyoo (Cetaka) is standing at the end. There are bats too.
Wajima Port
- Category ：
- Port / Seaside / Beach
- Location ：
- Wajimazaki-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Although small-sized, approx. 250 fishing boats crowding the port gives a magnificent view.
Monzen Motor Sports Park
- Category ：
- Park / Leisure
- Location ：
- Monzen-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- The first dirt trial course on the Japan-Sea side. In the middle of a vast wilderness, riding on the course with many uphills and downhills is a sheer fun.
Keyaki (Zelkova) Tunnel of Nishiho
- Category ：
- Mountain / River / Valley / Lake
- Location ：
- Shimoyama-machi, Wajima City
- Attractions ：
- Zelkova and maple trees lined on the both sides of the street are naturally bent leeward, forming a kind of roof over it for the length of about 200 meters.
About the Wajima Area
Located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula, Wajima City provides a wide variety of film-location sites ranging from natural beauties such as indented coastlines, sheer cliffs, terraced rice fields, etc. to traditional sceneries like Wajima-nuri lacquer ware and the Wajima Morning Market, fishing villages of Noto, the bustle of Wajima port, the streets of Kuroshima where buildings of the Taisho and early Showa period are still remaining. Also, the Noto people like cheerful old ladies at the market and the devil-masked performers of Gojinjo Daiko add a touch of life to make them even more attractive.
Information of Wajima Film Commission
We at Wajima Film Commission provide various services such as assisting location hunting, arranging extras, negotiating with possible locations, applying for road use permit, etc. to facilitate your filming needs. Contact us at Wajima Filming Commission if you are looking for filming locations in the region of Noto.
