A Place to Stay, a Place to Begin

The Forest welcomes one group a day in Yoshura, a coastal village in Wajima’s Monzen area. Guests come for a stay, but the kitchen offers another way to know this part of Noto. Its meals follow what the nearby sea, hills, and fields provide. A wild mountain vegetable or a piece of wakame seaweed carries the season into the dining room.

For host Sayaka Mori, gathering and cooking are pleasures she wants to share. The flavors are not always showy. She describes the taste of Noto as something that comes to you slowly and returns to mind later. It is a way of paying attention: to the ingredient, the place it came from, and the hands that brought it to the table.

The old Forest building was destroyed in the January 2024 earthquake. Mori found the new site while gathering mountain vegetables during a difficult period after the disaster. The feeling of being there helped her imagine beginning again. Finding and renovating the property took around two and a half years, with help from many people. The inn reopened on 1 June 2026.

Mori sees that support in the landscape around her, too. She says the beauty of Noto’s mountains, sea, and settlements has been shaped by generations of care. The people who maintain paths, fields, and villages are part of what a visitor sees. Her neighbors helped her put down roots in the new place; their kindness is part of the story of the inn’s return.

Stays include dinner and breakfast. Guests staying more than one night may be able to join Mori, by arrangement, to gather seasonal ingredients and prepare them. What is possible depends on the season and local conditions, and gathering without a local guide is not permitted in the village. The invitation is to experience the place with someone who knows it, then bring that experience back to the table.