Important: Wikitravel is exploring a license upgrade to CC by-sa 3.0, please give your consent or refusal here.

From Wikitravel

Fukui (福井, [1]) is the southernmost prefecture in the Hokuriku (北陸) part of the Chubu area of Honshu, Japan.

[edit] Cities

• Fukui - seat of government in the northern part of the prefecture and an important crossroads historically and today
• Echizen - second largest city in the prefecture and ancient capital of the prefecture. Famous as the one-time home of the celebrate author Murasaki Shikibu
• Obama - renowned for having the same name as the US President, as well as a large marketing campaign based on that coincidence
• Ono - historic castle town. Often referred to as 'Little Kyoto'.
• Tsuruga - a small harbor city on both the Hokuriku Toll Road and the Hokuriku Rail Line, and home to two of the JAPCO Nuclear Power Stations
• Sakai - re-oganized in 2006 to incorporate the towns of Harue, Maruoka, Mikuni and Awara; Awara is famous for its onsens
• Sabae
• Katsuyama - mountainous city with popular ski slopes and a very nice dinosaur museum; two dinosaurs, Fukuiraptor and Fukuisaurus, were discovered in Katsuyama

[edit] Other destinations

• Echizen Coast - Echizen's rocky coastline is famous it's beauty and for delicious crab, as well as other seafood
• Tojimbo - a beautiful rock formation located in the north of the prefecture; sadly also a popular suicide location and rumored to be haunted
• Eiheiji Temple - the head temple of the Soto Zen school of Buddhism, established in 1244
• Mihama - literally "Beautiful Beach", a small ancient fishing village near Tsuruga also where apparently Oda Nobunaga, who is famous for uniting almost all of Japan under one rule, spent a night after a rough battle and thanked the locals by having a garden placed in the backyard of the fief lord's house

[edit] Understand

Fukui is directly across the Sea of Japan from the Korean Peninsula. Its harbors are frequented by Russian and Korean cargo vessels.

Although the present characters for Fukui means "lucky well" (福 = lucky or fortunate 井 = well - ie. water hole), the city was originally given the name "福居" in 1623 by its daimyo Matsudaira Tadamasa. The name was changed during the Genroku era for uncertain reasons -- one theory even claims that it was due to a clerical error.

[edit] Talk

The dialect most spoken in Fukui now is the Kansai dialect, however several smaller dialects still persist from long ago. Fukui also has its own dialect known as Fukui dialect, which has a sing-song-y rural feeling to it. The Mihama dialect is like many country dialects in Chubu.

[edit] Get in

[edit] By train

Fukui is on the Hokuriku Rail Line from Osaka and Kyoto.

[edit] By car

If you are able to travel by car or by bus, Fukui is accessible via the Hokuriku Tollway by car from all parts of Chubu, and several different bus lines make stops at Tsuruga and Fukui City from places like the new Chubu International Airport and Nagoya home of the 2005 World Expo.

[edit] Get around

[edit][add listing] See

[edit][add listing] Do

• Beach Activities
• Historical Sites
• Skiing and Snow boarding - Ski Jam Katsuyama, Izumi, Imajo 365, Ono

[edit][add listing] Eat

Fukui is well know for its beef grown in the Wakasa area of Western Fukui Prefecture, its crabs (越前蟹 echizen-gani) which are prized for their guts called kani-miso, and for soba buckwheat noodles.

[edit][add listing] Drink

Water in Fukui comes from mountain springs, and the rice claimed as the best in Japan (although Niigata next door might dispute that). Add these two together and you'll get some excellent sake.

[edit] Get out