Fukui

So much to see in Fukui Prefecture, yet some ask "why Fukui?". With numerous places of quiet beauty, thought provoking museums, rugged scenery, castles, charming trains, etc I respond with "why not?"

Fukui city has a population of around 265,000 people. 

We visited Fukui at the end of October, 2022. We flew to Tokyo Haneda with the award winning Japan Airlines (JAL). After overnighting at a JAL CITY hotel ( what is this ? A paid advertisement ?) near the airport, we flew to Komatsu Airfield, an hour's bus trip north of Fukui.

TOKYO HANEDA

Haneda airport seems to go for kilometres and kilometres. One of the runways is 3 kilometres long. I couldn't find the length of the terminals on the net. This probabaly isn't published for fear of scaring off those who don't exercise much. There are motorised wee seat trolleys parked near one gate, 

Thank goodness for the rest of us there some moving walkways.

A five minute stroll from the hotel at Haneda is the fox shrine, Konchan. If you ask for a blessing here, you will be granted good luck while travelling. 

The shrine is in front of the Anamori Inaru Station. Take care crossing the road / tracks.

TOJINBO

My pictures do not do justice to these pencil cliffs.  They are a 45 minute train trip north of Fukui, then a five minute bus trip up the top of the cliffs. The green tea soft serve ice cream available at the shops here is certainly the best. Umm had one going in, and one going out ......

 

EIHEIJI TEMPLE GROUNDS

 

Eiheiji is about a forty minutes train trip NE of Fukui, then a $20 taxi trip if you don't want to wait for the bus. The grounds are quite large, and the further you stroll from the road, and if away from the waterfalls, the more you hear nothing. Stop walking, and listen. Amazing.

This is one of the most beautiful park/nature reserves in the country, surely. 

ASUKAWA MOUNTAIN PARK

Now what can I say ? Other than stairs ?  Stairs ! And at the top ? A temple and a good view of the city below.

If you cannot sleep, walk up the stairs, turn the corner, more stairs. Maybe I thought that a mountain park was flat ?

FUKUI CASTLE RUINS 

The Fukui castle must have been massive. The area these walls cover is large. And surrounded by a moat with keen hungry fish. A great walk that is flat and not far from the railway station.

HEISENJI SHRINE SURROUNDS 

Ah, as if Eiheiji wasn't enough beauty and quiet for one trip there is Heisenji. About 50 minutes NE  from Fukui, then a $20 taxi trip.

Cedar trees so tall. Moss. Quiet so deafening you have to stop to listen.

Together with Eiheiji, this place makes the trip worthwhile.

KATSUYAMA CASTLE

This colossal castle is on the way to Heisenji.

A wee moat around the castle.

DAI BUTSU, large Buddha

The very large Buddha is near the castle and the park in Katsuyama, north of Fukui.

Turning the corner to see this colossal gold statue elicitated a gasp of wonder. 

Incredible.

The door in the photo is about two metres high. This complex is very high !

DINOSAUR MUSEUM

Fifty minutes train north of Fukui, with a bus from the station to the museum.

Normally museums bore me, so I go in the front door, do a circle and exit.

This museum intrigued me. Fascinating. Dinosaurs lived for ummm millions of years longer than humans have.

And as the sign says as one leaves, the planet's changing climate saw an end to these giants and enabled humans to develop.   Oh, and birds have much in common with many dinosaurs. Are therefore dinosaurs really extinct ?

Escalator down, stairs up ..

YOKOKAN GARDENS

Yokokan Gardens are in Fukui city. You can catch a Y100 loop us, or a taxi. Rick is a Japanese Gardens sort of guy, whereas I am an in the front, walk to the exit type. This garden is highly regarded but.

TRAINS  n TRAMS

Trams ? They run in Fukui, but mostly go south, and our itinerary was mostly north.

Here's one !

Old train at Katsuyama.

Standing at the front of a train is one of the joys for kids in Japan. This day, a wet one.

A sunny day.

Ah, tracks, rails epitomise all that is glorious about humanity ! ! 

See the train approaching ?

A dinosaur awaiting a train at Fukui Station.

ASSORTED

This sushi restaurant in a shopping centre was a few minutes walk from the hotel. The food was exceptional quality, and inexpensive. About $60 for two including a small sake. Friendly staff. We went there every night and yet only just mastered the tablet based ordering system. But it was fun. 

Enho comes from Komatsu, where the airfield is just north of Fukui. My favourite sumo wrestler is small and clever. He has to be when many of his opponents are almost double his weight.

One of the very good pamphlets from the tourist welcome centre, outside the railway station.

The thing is how to ask for the 'how to get there' info ? The Tourist Information staff very patiently listened at my poor pronunciation until they eventually understood my request.

We only saw one other non Japanese couple in Fukui, and the level of English language skills from those in our hotel, the railway/tram stations was limited.

However once on the Echizen train bound for the northern sites, the conductor knew enough to politely ask if you were going to ¬ ¬ ¬ and ask if you wanted to take the bus, or would you like some taxi discount vouchers.

AND, waiting for the bus to take us to Komatsu Airfield for the return trip to Haneda, the bus driver approached us in a slight dither, and indicated that the bus would not be departing. He gesticulated that we should follow him, which we did, and he arranged a refund for the bus tickets, then took us to the railway station where an employee explained that there was an accident which closed the road and we'd have to go by train then catch a bus. All worked well and we arrived at Komatsu Airfield in enough time to see the Japanese Air Force jets take off speedily in response to North Korean missiles landing in Japanese waters. Exciting. Those small airforce jets can certainly take off with extreme haste.

The best coffee I had was after my wee stroll to the convenience store at 5 am. (After steps and all the strolling, I would be asleep by 8.30, so 5 was a good time for coffee). They have machines that ground the beans while you wait !!

Fukui is one of the most enjoyable destinations we have visited in Japan. There were a couple of times one failed in communicating some small point,  and had to accept that one wouldn't get exactly what one wanted. It was never a big deal. One would politely bow, and move on. 

Fukui. In the five day stay we visited some of the sites in the city and to the north. One could have spent another week, for there were more castles north and many more sites to the south.