Fukui – 2

We again headed to the bus station and travelled first to Maruoka Castle. This is one of the oldest remaining  castle towers in Japan and is approached through many cherry blossom trees. The wooden castle sits on a hill and once you have climbed the very steep wooden staircase inside it gives excellent views of the surrounding countryside.

We then took another bus to the Eiheiji Temple which is a huge Zen Buddhist Temple located in the mountains among many cedar trees. When we arrived it was raining heavily and we were able to get a shuttle bus from the bus stop up to the temple. The temple consists of around 70 buildings all connected by covered walkways and the architecture is amazing with many rooms having ornate carving on the walls and ceiling. It was very quiet and peaceful walking round the different buildings and reading and watching videos on Zen Buddhism. It was a really pleasant few hours walking round the temple and although I am by no means a Buddhist you came away with an uplifted spirit having experienced such a beautiful place. Definitely one of our high points of the whole trip.

We headed back down the hill and boarded the bus back to Fukui City. We then found the only Vegetarian restaurant we could find in Fukui – Fukamidori – and we had some excellent food.

We then had a further walk around Fukui and headed back to the hotel. Alison used the onsen on the hotel and later in the evening we went downstairs as the hotel advertised a free bowl of ramen for every guest. As we came into the reception we saw a bit of a queue, joined this and soon had out free bowl of noodles, veg and soup. Very appetising.

We then headed to bed.

As I have said previously we were not sure what to expect from Fukui province but it proved to be an absolute highlight of the holiday not only for the places we visited but also the quieter and less hectic atmosphere.