Shodoshima floats in the Seto Inland Sea.
NOTEL is a small hotel nestled in a farming village on the island.
Farm stay
Stay in a farming village where tradition lives on
Blessed with the rich nature of sea and mountains, Shodoshima is the second-largest island in the Seto Inland Sea. NOTEL is a seven-room small hotel in Hitoyama, a farming village located near the center of the island.
The building is a renovation of the former Otaku Elementary School, which closed in 2005. The second floor is the accommodation floor, with seven private rooms in total—two triples, four twins, and one single—along with a spacious dining kitchen that guests are free to use. On the first floor, HOMEMAKERS FARM & CAFE serves meals made with local seasonal vegetables and delicious coffee.
Hitoyama, where NOTEL is located, is a historic farming village dating back to the Heian period. Around 200 households and about 500 people still live here, and the local culture and traditions are carried on by the community—from the Hitoyama rural kabuki, with more than 300 years of history, to the summer mushi-okuri (insect-sending) ritual and the autumn taiko festival.
Walk through the village and you will find landscapes shaped by generations of daily life: narrow lanes threading between houses, stone walls, flowing irrigation channels, and well-tended fields and gardens. This is not a tourist destination but a place where people live, work, and pass through the seasons—an everyday village life that still breathes as it always has.
Within Hitoyama, the area where NOTEL stands is known to locals as "Noute." Written with the characters for "seedling" and "hand," the word evokes the work of village life—planting seedlings and raising them by hand.
The name NOTEL comes from this word, "Noute." Our wish is for guests to stay in this farming village passed down through people's hands, feeling the precious everyday life of this land. That is the hope we placed in the name.
Active rest
Walk through nature, cook and eat, sleep deeply
Time spent at NOTEL is time to savor everyday life slowly.
Walking the ridge paths between the mountains and rice fields. Cooking and slowly eating local fish and vegetables. Sleeping soundly in soft, comfortable bedding.
None of it is extraordinary, yet these are the ordinary moments that busy days somehow make hard to enjoy. We hope you can spend that kind of time here.
A guest who stayed with us once left these words:
"I was tired, but somehow I feel refreshed. Next time I'll come before I get tired."
Perhaps time spent gently moving your body in a place a little different from usual naturally eases both mind and body.
The calm Seto Inland Sea, mountains easy to walk, and a rural landscape that feels somehow nostalgic.
Use NOTEL as your base for a journey that touches everyday life on Shodoshima, not just its sightseeing spots.
We would be delighted if, while feeling the lives that have been passed down in this land, you could spend time in which your mind and body gradually grow lighter.
History
How NOTEL came to be
We chronicled the journey to opening the guesthouse NOTEL in the web magazine "Colocal" by Magazine House. Please read about why we decided to start NOTEL and how we carried out the renovation.
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We are renovating a closed elementary school on Shodoshima into a farming village hotel, NOTEL!
In 2023, we take on a big challenge. In Hitoyama, a farming village on Shodoshima where we live, we are creating a new hotel. In this Shodoshima diary, we would like to share the background of this challenge and where things stand today.
Colocal -
NOTEL, a farming village hotel on Shodoshima. Building it up through small experiments
It was July 2023 when we declared in this Shodoshima diary, "We are renovating a closed elementary school into a farming village hotel, NOTEL!" Half a year has passed since then. We received a great response from many people, and questions about how to make use of disused public buildings such as closed schools.
Colocal -
NOTEL, the farming village guesthouse on Shodoshima, will open on August 23, 2024!
How many times have we been asked, "When does the inn open?" We have been preparing this project since the summer of 2022, and at last we can announce the opening date. The farming village guesthouse NOTEL will open in Hitoyama, Shodoshima, on Friday, August 23, 2024. Reservations are now open.
Colocal