The whole house is yours

NOROSHI takes one group per day, up to nine guests. Children aged three and under stay free, and are counted in the nine. Whether you come as a family or as a group of friends, every room in the house is yours to use.

Read this before you book

There is no road into the fishing village where NOROSHI stands.

You leave your car at the YABITSU VILLAGE car park and walk the rest of the way. It takes about five minutes on foot.

The lane runs between houses on a slope above the harbour. There are no steps, but part of it is steep. Staff will carry anything you cannot manage yourself.

If that already sounds like too much, this is not the right house for you.

Past the car park, no engine reaches the lane. That is the whole point of the place.

The building

Yabitsu was settled in the Genna era, in the early 1600s. Tokugawa Yorinobu, the first lord of the Kishu domain, moved two fishing couples here from Koza and gave them the job of watching the sea.

Four hundred years on, the houses still stand packed on the slope above the water. Narrow lanes and stone steps run between the eaves. In 2006 the Fisheries Agency listed the village among one hundred fishing communities worth keeping. The shrine here, Nanryu Jinja, is dedicated to Yorinobu.

Fifteen minutes uphill on foot is the signal station, where the domain watched for foreign ships. Smoke was passed from hilltop to hilltop until it reached Wakayama Castle. This house stood in that village for a long time. We took it on and renovated it.

Inside NOROSHI

There is no schedule here.

Go out on the water in the morning, or stay on the engawa veranda with a book all day.

In the evening, talk with the people you came with.

A night here is not the end of a day. It is the signal for the next one.

The rooms

Four bedrooms.

Second floor: one room with three single beds, and two rooms with two single beds each.

First floor: one Japanese-style room with two futons on tatami.

Two of the second-floor rooms look out to the sea: the three-bed room, and one of the two-bed rooms. Seven single beds and two futons make nine places to sleep.

Wi-Fi

Wireless LAN

Air conditioning

In every room

Smoking

No smoking inside the house. Smoking is permitted only in the designated area

Pets

Not permitted

Amenities

  • Hairdryer
  • Shampoo
  • Conditioner
  • Toothbrush
  • Toothpaste
  • Bath towels
  • Hand towels

Kitchen

  • Microwave
  • Oven
  • Rice cooker
  • Dining table
  • Hob
  • Cookware
  • Electric kettle
  • Refrigerator
  • Washing-up liquid