Tsuruga Japan Fukui
27
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Azamara Club Cruises (4 Cruises)
Holland America Line (5 Cruises)
Princess Cruises (11 Cruises)
Seabourn Cruise Line (7 Cruises)
Frequently Asked Questions
At the closest berth, yes: the Kanegasaki quay puts the historic waterfront within walking distance. Other berths need a few minutes of shuttle. The station is about ten minutes by road, and a small tourist bus links the main sights.
Everything can be taken unhurried in this town of 65,000: the Port of Humanity museum and the red-brick warehouse on the waterfront, Kehi Shrine and its great torii, then the Matsubara pine grove or the fish market.
A waterfront museum telling two little-known episodes. In the 1920s, Tsuruga received hundreds of Polish orphans evacuated from Siberia. Then in 1940 and 1941, Jewish refugees landed here carrying the visas for life signed by Japanese diplomat Sugihara Chiune. The visit is plain, short and moving.
Because an express train ran from Tokyo down to the quays, where passengers boarded for Vladivostok before continuing on the Trans-Siberian to Paris. The red-brick warehouse built in 1905 recalls that era and now holds a large railway diorama of the town as it was.
A shrine founded in the year 702 that watches over the whole Hokuriku region. Its eleven-metre wooden torii, lacquered vermilion, is counted among the three largest gates in the country. Pilgrims have passed beneath it for thirteen centuries.
Matsuo Basho stopped at Kehi Shrine during his famous journey to the north, and stone markers engraved with his verses are scattered nearby. It is a quiet thread to follow for anyone who loves Japanese poetry.
Yes, the Matsubara pine grove stretches its red and black pines behind 1.5 km of pale sand, a little further along the bay. Locals walk there at all hours, and the stroll under the needles facing the calm sea is one of the day's simple pleasures.
At the Nihonkai Sakana-machi market, lined with fish, shellfish and prepared dishes. You can try seafood skewers grilled to order and, in winter, the famous Echizen crab, the prefecture's pride. Vendors are generous with tastings.
Yes, a small railway museum housed in a replica of the old port station, in addition to the diorama in the brick warehouse. Walking up the shopping street towards the station, you even pass bronze statues drawn from Galaxy Express 999.
No, and that is precisely its strength. It reminds you that a port of call can be something other than a place you pass through: a place where a hand was extended. You think of all those who landed here before you, orphans, refugees, travellers on the great express to Europe.
