I finally made it Fukui! I wanted to stay here when I made my long trip south from Hokkaido to Kagoshima during my sabbatical vacation but there were no hotels available. Even the taxi driver in the next town over knew about the lack of hotel rooms that trip and had no idea why. It turned out OK since that was how I made it to Sabae and the Lacquerware town where I wandered around and met some interesting people.

I started my day in Osaka at the same breakfast spot again. Why mess with what works? I got a egg sando today.

You have to be kind of foolish to visit Japan during Golden Week. Today is the start of Golden Week and I am kind of foolish. The train announcement said the train was full but there were a few empty seats but it was busier than usual.

This has nothing to do with anything but here’s a picture of a building that looks like a chocolate bar near Osaka.

Fukui wasn’t that bad. I had no idea what to do and one of the several tourist information desks said maybe I should just stay in town since I was getting a “late” start around noon. I dropped off my bags at my hotel and went to the Loft on the way back to the station because of my crazy Zento Signature pen search and bought some scissors. I don’t think I’ll need them unless I go shopping for more clothes but I couldnt find my tiny travel scissors so I bought another pair.

When I got back to the station a different tourist information guy said, “Yeah, you can make it to Eiheiji Temple but you just missed the bus.” I decided to get a light lunch and then head to Eiheiji. I don’t know much about Eiheiji other than Steve Jobs wanted to become a monk there. I’d even forgotten it was an important Zen temple.

I did say light lunch, right? I overdid it.

The woman at the hotel suggested taking a train and then a bus but there is a single bus that goes straight from the station to Eiheiji that leaves about once an hour. Once I got to the area there was a busy tourist trap until you got closer to the temple grounds.

I have a few pictures but I’m sure there are lots more good pictures of Eiheiji online. If you do go, I would highly recommend going during a cooler time. The temple is built on a hill and is HUGE. I couldn’t believe how many stairs I went up to get to the main temple. There were Zen monks going to afternoon prayers or meditation. It was all very surreal to me. I think my maternal grandfather might’ve been a Zen Buddhist but I’m not.

It’s hard to see but there’s a monk ringing that giant bell once every few minutes (also hard to see the bell).

I tried to go to the waterfall but on the way I saw a sign that looked like it said “stop” and “not working”. I used Google Translate that told me there’s construction and the water has been diverted from the waterfall.

I got out my timetable and I ALMOST MISSED THE NEXT BUS BACK. Honestly, I’m not very religious and I also didn’t want to hang out in a tourist trap cafe so I walked fast to the bus.

Turns out Eiheiji is one of the main Zen temples in Japan and where monks go for their training.

Fukui is also known for dinosaurs, but the main “park” and museum are out past Eiheiji. The train station has animatronic models out front with informational plaques which were cooler than I expected.

Next I went to the castle ruins. There’s reproductions of parts of the castle like the bridge over the moat.

And a caste gate.

And I’m guessing the walls are reproductions too. The middle, where the castle buildings were, is the prefectural office and the police station. Why waste the space?

Then I went to the history museum and the Yoyokan gardens next to it. The gardens and a building were the villa of someone important. Nevertheless it was nice. The only picture I have is of some flowers because I was trying to get my phone to tell me what they were. Rhododendrons was what the phone said. That was my second guess after azaleas.

Oh and there were some ducks hanging out on the street. My phone was no help identifying them.

Two different women at the front desk told me I needed to try sauce katsu so I decided to give it a go. I think I picked the right place because there was a line.

It wasn’t even crowded inside. I guess they didn’t want to overwhelm the kitchen. It’s thin pork cutlets (still thicker than the paper thin crap the Korean pretend-Japanese restaurants in Portland have) covered in Worcestershire sauce. It was even better than I expected. The rest was a little mid. The miso soup was watery and the salad need tons more dressing (there was a lot of cabbage). Even the takuan wasn’t the best. Would I go again? Heck yeah.

So time to eat my bribe (I got it everywhere and it’s kind of sticky) and here’s my obligatory Wilkinson picture. I’m in a double so there’s two bribes along with two bottles of water. I am NOT drinking all that. I’m having to get up to use the bathroom enough times in the middle of the night without drinking all that.

Honestly I think I’d rather drink the water but I can’t count on the hotel having free bottles of water so I buy Wilkinson. Oh and I got my MacBook Air charger back. I had the Onyado Nono in Matsue ship it to this one (I figured I wouldn’t need to tell them the address of another hotel in the same chain) and it cost me a whole ¥710 for shipping. Sure beats buying a new one for ¥6800. Oddly enough I found out that you can’t buy the 35w one-hole charger (the one that comes with the laptop) in the US. They sell it in Japan though.