Fukui: Eiheiji and Oshima [OC]

I visited Fukui last year and went to Eiheiji Temple and Oshima Island, and thought I'd share some pics from there since it's a less-visited corner of Japan!

While the opening of a shinkansen line in Fukui in 2024 has positioned Fukui less than 30 minutes from Kanazawa and led to a surge in tourism in the prefecture, Fukui remains a relatively off-the-beaten-path destination for most overseas tourists. Both Eiheiji and Oshima are accessible by public transportation from Fukui Station.

Eiheiji is a major Zen Buddhist temple complex founded in 1244, and is an active monastery; when I visited, dozens of monks were in the main hall chanting in prayer, with many others ambling through the sprawling grounds, dodging tourist groups, but even with the large number of visitors, it was a peaceful and calm atmosphere.

Oshima Island is a sacred, now-uninhabited island with remnants of a shrine whose history dates back to the 600s. I walked around the perimeter of the small island on a pleasant, clear summer afternoon and saw stunning ocean vistas, including views of the nearby Tojinbo columnar basalt cliffs, although walking the route counter-clockwise is said to be haunted. While many people walk across the red bridge connecting the mainland to the torii gate at the entrance of the island, there was hardly anyone else on the island itself.