Steam has been rising from Awara's ryokan quarter since 1884, when the hot spring first broke through the ground. The town that grew around it sits at the northernmost tip of Fukui Prefecture, where the Hokuriku plain meets the Kaetsu plateau and the Japan Sea climate delivers winters of heavy snow. Two distinct centers share the municipality: Kanazu, an old post-town on the ancient Hokuriku road, and the spa district that accumulated around the spring.
The older layer of this place belongs to Rennyo, the Buddhist reformer who founded Yoshizaki Gobō in 1471 on a promontory near the prefectural border. The temple ruins and the memorial hall at Yoshizaki Gobō still anchor the Jōdo Shinshū faith community that has gathered here for centuries. Closer to the lake, Kitagata-ko feeds a small fishing economy — kokanago and wakasagi are landed at Hamasaka port, the same water that hosts the canoe polo tournament and the iris festival along the shore in early summer.
The Kanazu Creative Forest and its glass workshop occupy the inland plateau, where ceramic and batik-dyeing courses run alongside the main gallery. Market stalls and farmstands carry Echizen kaki — a seedless persimmon — alongside Koshi no Ruby tomatoes and Tomistu Beni sweet potatoes, produce that marks the agricultural rhythm running quietly beneath the better-known hot spring trade. Awara Yunomachi Station, on the Echizen Railway line, drops passengers at the edge of the spa streets; the Awara Onsen Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen handles the longer arrivals. Between those two nodes, the daily texture of the town moves at its own pace.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
1 in this city. 25 within 25 km of the city hall.
- Kanaz Forest of Creation
- Sakai City Museum
- Brief Messages from the Heart Museum
- Fukui Prefectural Science Museum for Children
- Kutaniyaki Art Museum
See 20 more
- 深田久弥山の文化館
- Mugen-an
- Fukui Prefectural Museum of Cultural History
- Echizen Bamboo Doll Village
- Iroha Sōan
- Fukui Fine Arts Museum
- Yōkōkan Garden
- Fukui City History Museum
- Kaga City Art Museum
- Fukui Children's Museum
- Fukui City Atagozaka Tea Ceremony Museum
- Fukui City Akemi Tachibana Literature Memorial Museum
- Kitamae Senshu Yashiki - Zorokuen
- Kitamaebune Ship Museum
- Fukui City Museum of Natural History
- Osagoe Minkaen
- Fukui Museum of Literature
- Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice
- Motorcar Museum of Japan
- Fukui Prefectural Ichijodani Asakura Family Site Museum
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Yoshizaki Gobo Ruins
- Echizen-Kaga Kaigan
- Awara Onsen
- Awara Onsen
- Awara-Onsen
- Awara-Onsen
- Awara-Yunomachi
- Hosorogi
- Honjo
- Ushinotani
- Banda
- Hamasaka Fishing Port