Certified Driver/Guide for Noto Peninsula
 

My husband and I would like to travel to the Noto Peninsula to see some festivals next summer. We plan to take the bus from Kanazawa to Wajima and stay a few days, possibly changing accommodations as we move along the coast. We would like to find an English-speaking certified driver/guide to transport and guide us once we get there. At our age, we do not want to self drive. We would like a guide who knows the peninsula well and lives there. We prefer not to get a guide from Kanazawa (meaning someone who goes back and forth each day to guide us). Any leads?

burta,
I don’t believe the Noto peninsula is accessible for tourism yet. There was a huge earthquake on Jan 1 and the Noto peninsula had major damage throughout the region. I read that Wajima, which was one of the worst affected cities, is nowhere near back to normal functioning and many of its residents are still living in shelters. Many hotels are still closed.

Good luck developing alternative plans. Kanazawa is a great city and the Kaga onsen region was a wonderful surprise.

JTB is advertising tours from Hawaii to Noto this Fall. They are trying to help by taking business to the area. I am hoping that by next summer restoration and rebuilding will be on its way so we can contribute too. The Japanese people are so hardworking and resilient that we hope for the best.

Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place, but I haven’t been able to find any tour that is actually going to Noto now. I did find the Noto support tour, which is going to the region where the peninsula is located; presumably the money from that particular tour is dedicated to the restoration of the region:
Attachment 9022

It’s a wonderful idea; who knows what will be in a year from now, and I hope that by then, the Noto peninsula will be in a state where tourism is thriving.

I was intrigued by the many tours the JTB offers, though!

Edited to add: I do see a short tour listed, Takayama and the Noto peninsula, which I suspect was developed before the earthquake. It seems that the Wakura Onsen is open but the inns and hotels in the region are not yet open for business. Believe me,mi would be happy if this is old news!
https://www.kanpai-japan.com/wakura-onsen

You want a guide, one who is certified, lives in Noto, has a car, and is fluent in Japanese and English? A Japanexse might reply to that question with "That would be difficult", meaing
"no"

There might be a local tourism association that you can contact or the Ishikawa and maybe Toyama prefectural tourism associations.

The company that the late KimJapan founded, The Art of Travel, is based in Kanazawa but they may be able to find what you want. Or another Kanazawa-based travel agency.

Also check japan-guide.com and jnto.go.jp

Thank you for your suggestions. I understand that finding THAT GUIDE will be difficult. I have been doing a lot of research, and even before the January earthquake, the options were limited to non-existent.

My husband and I have been to Kanazawa and used a wonderful Goodwill Guide there (there and in other cities, they have been so gracious and fun to spend time with that I am sold on the concept), but cannot find the same in Noto. My desire to use a guide from Noto rather than Kanazawa is because we hope to spend multiple days on the peninsula, and don't imagine that a guide will be willing to go back and forth unless the fee is extraordinarily high. Still hoping for a practical option.

From this article, the Japanese government is fully committed to reconstruction and even subsidizing tourism to rebuilding the economy. And the resilience of the Japanese people in the face of adversity has and continues to be remarkable.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...shikawa-visit/