Noto Peninsula

The rice paddies fall into the sea. Senmaida's 1,004 terraces cascade down a coastal cliff face in strips so narrow that machines cannot work them — each one is planted and harvested by hand, as they have been for centuries. The Noto Peninsula in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture reaches into the Sea of Japan like a raised fist, and its fishing villages, lacquerware workshops, and rice rituals feel like a Japan that the rest of the country has forgotten.

Noto Peninsula was designated a UNESCO-recognised Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System for its satoyama landscape — the integrated management of forest, farmland, and coast that sustains both ecology and community. Wajima lacquerware, produced here for over 600 years, involves applying more than 120 coats by hand to create objects that are sold in department stores across Japan. The Aenokoto ritual, performed in December and February, involves welcoming rice field gods into farmhouses with a prepared seat, a hot bath, and a feast — a tradition so old its origins are uncertain. The coastal road passes through fishing villages where squid dries on racks and the smell of drying salt and seaweed pervades every lane.