The 1st Day in Fukui(Trip to Fukui and Kanazawa)

I went to Fukui and Kanazawa with my friend from Feb.9th to 11th.
  

Here is Shi-Yokohama Station.

We have two tickets to get on Shinkansen(the Bullet Train)
Please insert both tickets together to the gate machine.   

  

This is Hikari(ひかり） Shinkansen

  

  

A conductor comes to check your tickets so please give them to him or her.

 
In front of your chair, there is an announcement about your car(carriages). You can find where the toilet is.
You can also use this as a desk. When you use PC, eat something or drink something, please use this.

 

Here is Nagoya Station from the window.

Here is Nagoya Station from the window.
It was a really sunny day here. But....

After going through a tunnel in 10 minutes from the previous photo... omg

Another world...

Change trains at Maibara（米原）in Shiga Prefecture.
Take Shirasagi(しらさぎ）to Fukui.

I was very surprised to see so many people standing in line to go through the gates... First I didn't know why this happened. After passing through I found that, if we pass through the gates, we have to insert the Shinkansen tickets and the next train's tickets together.
This was the first experience to insert three tickets to the gate machine. (The crew staffs was telling us that we can insert at max. 4 tickets here. More than 4 tickets you should ask the station crews.)

Going through the crowds, finally I found the way to go...
It was a bit tight connection so I was worrying about we could pass through the crowds...   

This is the right direction for Fukui.(福井）

This is Shirasagi Train.

Inside the train it looks like Shinkansen. I couldn't take a picture but there is a pedal with a corridor-side chair.
If you use this, you can change the direction of a set of chairs(two chairs).

Outside, it was a stormy snow...

Calmer than a previous photo. But it was a still snow world.

Arrived at Fukui Station
It took about two hours from Shin-Yokohama to Maibara.
and about one hour from Maibara to Fukui.

Going down the stairs and there is an exit.

Just right next to the gates, there is a tourist information center. I'm not sure there is an English speaking people or not. But a Japanese lady was a specialist and she gave us a lot of good information.

In front of Fukui Station, there are few tall buildings.
There are few people here, too. I saw some people(about 50 people) inside the station.

Later, I could guess why there are not tall buildings here.

We were going to Eiheiji(永平寺). Thanks to the lady in the information center, we changed the plan to go to Eiheiji.
First, I planned to go there by train. But she advised us to go there by bus. It is only 30 minutes from the station by bus. Inside the building, there is a ticket vending machine.

In the back of the station, there is a ticket vending machine and on the right of the picture, there are bus stops. It was hard to find in a sight.

One way trip to Eiheiji costs 720 yen.  You can't buy a return-ticket here. You should buy the ticket on the destination again.

This is the ticket. It is activated only when you buy it.

Timetable on the bus.  If you want to go there earlier, you have to take the train.

The bus to Eiheiji.  Please hand the ticket to a bus conductor before boarding. This bus goes in front of Eiheiji. That was great.

The view from the bus.

Under Construction about Eiheiji Temple.


Near Eiheiji, we had lunch.  I ate hot vegetable soba(right) and cold soba(left). It costs 1,000 yen. It was said that this soba was made of soba powder(80%) and flour(20%).
We call it 二八蕎麦（にはちそば）.  二 means 2(20%).
八 means ８(80%) in here.
But it was not good flavor for me.  Taste was so-so.

My friend really wanted to come here. So we were here.
Sanai Hashimoto（橋本 左内) was a genius born in Fukui Prefecture in 1834. He made a great book called "keihatsuroku(啓発録)" at the age of 15.
He was killed by Naosuke Ii(井伊直弼）when he was 26 because he recommended a person to be a shogun in opposite position of Naosuke Ii.

Now here is a house someone lives in. In a garden there is a well and this signboard.

I forgot the name of the Yakitori restaurant.

This was my first experience to eat this kind of yakitori restaurant.  In here we have to order 5 sets of yakitori.
So people living here ordered like "Shiro 10 pon"
It was unbelievable in Tokyo and Yokohama.

Another question was this.
They served yakitori on the bar like this in front of us.
We would like to eat hot yakitori and we were hungry so
we ate one after another.

Then I watched around and people living around here didn't eat in a hustle at all.  Then I found that the bar was warmed so yakitori didn't become cold.  Hmm, different culture in Fukui.

We came back to the hotel "Route Inn in Fukui"
Here is a typical Japanese hotel for business persons.
The room is cozy but it's OK to stay one night.

This hotel has a big bathtub of a hot spring in the top of the buildings. That was great to relax. You can use it in early time and late time.

In the front desk, we asked the good restaurant we could eat fresh fish. Then, 2nd dinner.

Sashimi of Baigai (ばい貝の刺身 : Baigai no Sashimi)(a kind of seashell)

Sashimi of Sazae （サザエの刺身 : Sazae no Sashimi)
(a kind of seashell)  Texture and the flavor of the sea are nice.

Sashimi of raw octopus (タコの刺身 : Tako no Sashimi）

We ordered a lot and drank some good sake here.

To be continued....