Hitotsu Notojima
unscored · Ikyu 4.8 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
Hitotsu Notojima is Hokuriku's first sushi auberge, opened in 2023 on Notojima island in the calm inner bay off Nanao, with six sea-facing rooms, a bar-lounge along the water and a wood-fired sauna, run around a Noto-seafood sushi dinner and a sushi-chef's breakfast at the counter (drinks were all-inclusive until September 2026). There is no hot spring, and the room baths hold plain water with the bay for a view. Ikyu guests give it 4.81 across roughly 26 stays, with hospitality and cooking their high marks, and it holds a Michelin Key. Nobody in the thread has stayed here yet.
Scores
Food
Dinner is a Noto-seafood sushi omakase at the counter and breakfast is a sushi-chef's spread at the same counter (grilled nodoguro one morning), which is why the house calls itself a sushi auberge. Ikyu guests mark the cooking high, near 4.85, and call the sushi and the sake superb, though the local sake stopped being all-inclusive in September 2026.
Bath
There is no hot spring here. The sea-facing rooms have a private view bath and a wood-fired sauna looks out over the same bay, and that sauna is one of the three things the house sells, with the sushi and the view. Ikyu guests put the bathing a little below their other marks, so the sauna and the view are what you get from the bathing here, and there is no spring water.
Service
Service is personal and all-inclusive. Check-in is a welcome drink in the lounge above the bay, and staff pour and talk with you over the water. With six rooms the stay runs between that lounge and the sushi counter, where dinner and breakfast are served, and drinks and the minibar are in the rate until September 2026. Ikyu guests mark hospitality highest of all their marks, at 4.88, and attentive, unhurried care recurs across reviews.
Room
The six rooms all face the sea and run around 51 square metres, each with a private view bath over the calm inner bay off Nanao and a minibar included with the stay. Ikyu guests give the rooms their softest mark, 4.69; they are comfortable and well-kept but the plainest part of the stay.
Place
Hitotsu Notojima stands on Notojima, an island in the sheltered inner bay off Nanao, and opened in 2023. The view over the bay as you walk in is what guests write about first, the bar-lounge runs along the water, dolphin and sunset cruises leave from the private pier below, and a golf course and a clear-water beach are nearby. The peninsula is still rebuilding after the 2024 Noto earthquake.
Getting there
- Kanazawa — 1h15, 0 transfers. Reverse of: A ~10-min taxi across the Notojima bridge to Wakura-Onsen, then the JR Ltd Exp 'Noto Kagaribi' Wakura-Onsen→Kanazawa (~1h08, ~5/day, direct) — about 1h20 door-to-door.
- Tokyo — 4h, 1 transfer. Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Kagayaki' Tokyo→Kanazawa (~2h28), change to the JR Ltd Exp 'Noto Kagaribi' Kanazawa→Wakura-Onsen (~1h08, ~5/day — confirm the connection), then a ~10-min taxi across the Notojima bridge. One change at Kanazawa.
- Kyoto — 3h45, 2 transfers. 'Thunderbird' Ltd Exp Kyoto→Tsuruga (~45 min), Hokuriku Shinkansen Tsuruga→Kanazawa (~50 min), change to the JR Ltd Exp 'Noto Kagaribi'→Wakura-Onsen (~1h08), then a ~10-min taxi across the Notojima bridge. Two changes (Tsuruga, Kanazawa).