From the moment that you arrive at Kanazawa Station, you may sense that there is something different about this city. Long ruled by the powerful Maeda clan, Kanazawa emerged during the Edo Period (1603-1868) as one of the most important castle towns along the coast of the Sea of Japan and the dominant force in the Hokuriku region. Kanazawa’s wealth and prestige attracted artists, scholars, and entertainers who sparked the beginnings of the vibrant local culture that persists to this day.

Maki No Oto Kanazawa is an inn constructed within a typical traditional townhouse of the historic Higashi Chaya district. This location is the perfect base for exploring the maze-like alleyways that lead off the main avenue of Higashi Chaya, which is flanked by old teahouses straight out of the days when rich merchants and townspeople would walk these streets as evening fell, enticed indoors by the plaintive strains of a geisha’s shamisen.

After checking in at Maki no Oto Kanazawa, take some time to explore your new accommodation. Because it has been constructed within a renovated traditional townhouse (machiya), this intimate four-room inn offers unique insight into Higashi Chaya’s history. The building is constructed in the traditional machiya style, with a narrow frontage onto the street that belies a deep set interior arranged around a central courtyard.

This courtyard may only be a few meters from a busy street, but it will make you feel like you have stepped into another world. The NISHI room in the main building offers views over the courtyard from the bedroom, while if you stay in the YUZEN room on the first floor of the annex, you can look out on the courtyard from your bathtub. Rooms in Maki no Oto Kanazawa are floored either with hardwood or traditional tatami mats and the Japanese-style baths provide the perfect respite after a long day on your feet.

For dinner in Kanazawa, the choice is up to you. One excellent option is to simply remain at your auberge for your evening meal. The first floor of Maki no Oto Kanazawa is home to Higashiyama Wakon, which offers fine modern Japanese dining within a cozy yet elegant space. Meals are served in courses, kappo-style, one dish after another, with the counter oriented around the kitchen so that you can watch with great anticipation as each delicious creation is prepared.

Should you prefer something to dine outside the auberge, the owner of Maki no Oto Kanazawa will be happy to furnish you with a list of top recommendations. There are plentiful fine dining options in Kanazawa, serving different types of Japanese cuisine as well as Italian, French, and Chinese.

While the Maeda samurai lords who once ruled from Kanazawa Castle are now part of the city’s rich history, the geisha of the Higashi Chaya teahouses remain a living tradition, still welcoming special guests into their teahouses just as they have for hundreds of years. As an optional addition to your Hokuriku journey, this exclusive Wabunka experience offers you the rare opportunity to spend an evening in a teahouse entertained by geisha, arranged between the owner of Maki No Oto Kanazawa and proprietress of the teahouse.

Your audience with these talented and charming entertainers will be held in one of the teahouse’s private rooms, entered through sliding doors and floored with tatami mats. The evening’s entertainment will include dance, musical performances with traditional instruments such as the shamisen, shakuhachi flute, and taiko drum, and simple parlor games.

The second day of your Hokuriku journey will see you move from Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture to the spectacular neighboring prefecture of Toyama. Traveling by private car, you will first visit the stunning Amaharashi Coast with its pine trees, sandy beaches, and otherworldly rock formations. The tour will stop at one viewpoint that provides particularly dramatic views back over the coastline with the snow-capped peaks of the Tateyama Mountain Range towering in behind.

After lunch your tour will continue with a drive up through narrow mountain valleys to one of the most unique cultural sites in all of Japan. Due to the harsh winters, local farmers in this mountainous region traditionally built homes called gassho-zukuri, thatched A-frames with steeply pitched roofs specially designed to shed snow and upper storeys used to cultivate silkworms and dry tobacco. Some gassho-zukuri have been inhabited by the same families for many generations. The gassho-zukuri village that you will visit is Ainokura in Gokayama, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In Ainokura, an interpreter will accompany you as you explore the village to view the thatched roofs and unique architecture of the gassho-zukuri farmhouses and visit the Ainokura Folk Museum, all amidst a backdrop of lush forests and majestic mountain peaks.

Your tour will conclude at your second night's accommodation at the picture-perfect auberge of Maki no Oto Satoyama in the village of Noguchi. Surrounded by vegetable gardens and rice fields in a valley amidst the mountains of Toyama, Maki no Oto Satoyama combines the best of the traditional Japanese ryokan inn and the charming rural auberge of the French countryside.

With a wood fire crackling in the fireplace and enticing aromas emanating from the traditional wood-fired makigama rice pot, Maki no Oto Satoyama is your home away from home in rural Toyama. Take some time to stroll outside and marvel at the gorgeous natural surroundings or relax in your luxurious room to enjoy expansive views of meadows, fields, and mountains.

The auberge of Maki no Oto Satoyama offers three different types of rooms that provide slightly different experiences to guests. Edatsubaki is a Western-style room with a wooden floor and two large windows opening out onto a terrace, allowing you to enjoy fantastic views from inside or outside the room, or from its ceramic bath. Kozakura is a Japanese-style room with tatami-mat flooring and walls that make use of Japanese washi paper. While lounging in your luxurious private bath, gaze out on the beauty of the landscape or open the windows for an experience akin to sitting in an outdoor Japanese rotemburo bath.

Dinner at Maki no Oto Satoyama will be served to you within the comfort of the on-site restaurant as night begins to fall upon your bucolic natural surroundings outside. The auberge takes a unique approach to meals, making use of vegetables and rice grown on its very own farm along with fresh seafood from the nearby Sea of Japan to provide attractive French-style cuisine. Breakfast includes seasonal home-grown vegetables as well as rice cooked in the wood-fired makigama.

This exclusive Wabunka 2-night, 3-day itinerary offers you the opportunity to experience two very different sides of Hokuriku, from the cultured former castle town of Kanazawa to the natural splendor of Toyama’s countryside, where timeless traditions continued to shape daily life. The auberges where you will stay complement this contrast as well, with Maki no Oto Kanazawa built in a former townhouse and Maki no Oto Satoyama reminiscent of a traditional ryokan inn.

To enhance the depth of your experience in Hokuriku, Wabunka offers two optional additions to your itinerary: a tour by private car from rugged coast to lofty mountains, taking in the unique gassho-zukuri farmhouses of Ainokura (a World Heritage site), or an evening with geisha at traditional Kanazawa teahouse. Both are emblematic of Hokuriku, where history and tradition are not confined to museums but are very much a living, breathing part of local culture.