We started the day bright and early, leaving from Haneda on an 08:25 ANA flight to head to Komatsu Airport. It's a short flight, just about an hour. Once arriving, we caught the shuttle to our rental car office, picked up a car and got on our way to Fukui!
Before entering the museum, we got a katsu wrap from Saurus Kitchen near the exterior gift shop. It included a little dino cut out in it too. Most of the food at this restaurant is dinosaur themed and really cute.
You start by descending on a long escalator that gives you a nice view of some of the sections of the museum. After passing through a hallway, you get to the main attraction.
All the dinosaurs! There is a large animatronic T-rex in the front and center and the movement is actually quite good. There were so many children running around it and screaming haha.
The main level open area has a lot of different displays and sections. We took our time going through and reading anything that was interesting to us before heading up the ramp to the higher levels.
And there was actually more up there than I expected! My husband and I particularly liked how they did this timeline.
My husband ordered the Kamadaki Kagetsuro Gozen (set) which had a lot of local items and I ordered the sauce katsudon set. Sauce katsu is another local dish (but wasn't included in what my husband's set) so we figured we'd be able to cover all the bases this way lol.
Next, we drove about 10 more minutes to get to Echizen Daibutsu. I had seen someone post about this on Instagram randomly and it just happened to be in the area we would be visiting, so I pinned it and we actually visited! It has its own free parking lot and is easy to access.
Seems like they had already prepped for anticipated snow/slippery grounds with the walkways and guides set up. It is probably a bit more picturesque during the summer without the green barriers, but I'll take the slightly downgraded aesthetics over the summer humidity.
The one of the largest seated Buddhas in Japan is inside at 17m! Supposed to be taller than the one in Nara at Todaiji and this temple is much, much less crowded as well.
Biggest surprise? Over a thousand seated buddhas surrounding it. It is really kind of remarkable feeling in person. They are all unique.
Last stop in Katsuyama, we went over to Katsuyama Castle Museum. We could actually see it from the pagoda balcony and it was only 4 minutes drive further. This has its own little free parking lot as well next to a small cafe.
So this wasn't immediately obvious to us, but this wasn't an actual historical castle in Katsuyama lol. It is a museum that's in a building designed to look like a Japanese castle lol. I believe this was also funded by local benefactor Kiyoshi Tada. There are 6 floors, and we were recommended to start at the top.
To be honest, a lot of the other floors were a bit lost on us. It was a lot of Japanese text without much we could infer just by looking, so we didn't spend a lot of time on 4 and 5F.
But we were more entertained by all the armor displays on 3F! There were lots of different ones and all had something unique about them. We had the whole space to ourselves, so we could take our time and gawk as long as we wanted to lol.
Some cute areas on 2F which mostly seemed like a conference area maybe but also had more modern-type art? (Oh yeah you had to take your shoes off for this museum lol.)
And you end back on the first floor that had a few more informational displays!
The admission here was 1100yen (more than the dinosaur museum!) with not as many things that interested us in particular, but I do think it might be worth coming by if you're already going to Echizen Daibutsu and you have a car, if only to check out the exterior of the castle and maybe the grounds area if the season is right (which is free).
The grounds are actually pretty expansive. I can imagine it being so full of kids running everywhere during the summer! The ticket we got through AsoView is for the museum specifically, so we headed there next to make sure we entered during our allotted time period.
The ticket for the museum was 1000yen and for the amount of content in there, I think that's quite reasonable! Even though we visited on a peak time on a Saturday (although maybe a slightly off season), we still didn't feel too crowded compared to what I think an aquarium would have been like with the same circumstances. Definitely worth a visit if you're in this region.
For lunch, we drove about 10 minutes to get to "Former restaurant Kagetsuro" (this is the title on Google lol). I think the restaurant itself is just called Kagetsuro 花月楼. It has it's own parking lot and it wasn't very busy when we arrived at about 13:10 (they close at 14:00 for lunch).
When we ordered, the staff had informed us that my husband's set would take some time but that we were welcome to go up to the second floor of the restaurant to take a look around. When we went up, there was a local guide who was providing some background information about the building and its history. She was able to use simple Japanese and a little English with us which we really appreciated. The building is particularly known for its umbrella ceiling on the second floor which was really interesting. She also introduced the local festival to us which happens in February and the components of it. Unfortunately we hadn't taken our phones up with us so I don't have any photos, but it was nice to have this included as part of our lunch experience unexpectedly. When we returned downstairs, our food was ready!
According to the pamphlet, the temple is fairly new, built in 1987, commissioned by Kiyoshi Tada who is from Katsuyama. The grounds also feature one of the tallest 5-story pagodas in Japan, and you can actually enter and walk around with a great view at the top (even includes an elevator).
We had wanted to take a look through the Japanese garden as well, but unfortunately a lot of it was closed due to bear sightings! Admission was 500yen, and I think it was worth spending an hour or so there, especially with how different it felt because a lot of it was so modern.
Another nice view! We could see Echizen Daibutsu from here (just as we saw the castle building from there lol).
The helmet details!!
Last stop in Fukui was to get habutae mochi from Matsuokaken 羽二重餅總本舗 松岡軒 in the Fukui city area. There is a shop connected to Fukui train station, but since we were traveling by car, I opted for this standalone shop instead. We got there about 1/2 hour before closing, but since we were buying omiyage, it didn't matter much.
This habutae mochi is a type of mochi that originates from Fukui and is known for being silky smooth. We bought them in boxes and gave them to our coworkers when we returned from travel.
During our half day visit to Fukui, we mostly spent our time in Katsuyama because it was nice that the things we were interested in were clustered in that area. If we stayed longer, I definitely would have wanted to check out Fukui city/downtown area more and maybe Daihonzan Eiheiji as well. But regardless, I don't have any regrets about how we spent our time and I'm glad we were able to see what we did. We were able to learn more about the area from each of the places we went to, from the Fukuisaurus to the Sagicho Matusuri and more.
Next, we visit Ishikawa prefecture!
✤ Hokuriku 3-day trip
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