The cliff face at Tōjinbō drops sheer into the Sea of Japan, columnar basalt columns crowded together like organ pipes. It is a famous edge, but Sakai City extends far inland from it — across fishing harbors at Saki and Kaji, along the Kuzuryūgawa river plain, and up toward the forested slopes of Jōhōji-san to the east.
In Mikuni, the old port district, the weight of the Kitamaebune trading era is still readable in the streetscape. The Ryūshō Museum, built to echo the Meiji-period Ryūshō primary school, holds records of Mikuni Harbor and the culture of the Hokuriku coast. Nearby, the Essel Dike — a breakwater constructed using Dutch engineering — stands as a rare piece of early port infrastructure. The former Morita Bank main building, a reinforced concrete structure from 1920, sits quietly in the same neighborhood, its facade suggesting a prosperity that once moved north along the sea routes. During the Mikuni Festival, the streets take on a different register entirely.
Inland, Maruoka Castle retains its original keep, a structure from the Edo period that still reads as a castle rather than a reconstruction. The local table draws from the surrounding land and sea: Koshihikari rice from the plain, hana-rakkyo, Koshi-no-Ruby tomatoes, and Wakasa beef.丸岡そば — Maruoka soba — is grown and eaten here, a short loop from field to bowl.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
4 in this city. 25 within 25 km of the city hall.
- Brief Messages from the Heart Museum
- Fukui Prefectural Science Museum for Children
- Sakai City Museum
- Echizen Bamboo Doll Village
- Kanaz Forest of Creation
See 20 more
- Fukui Prefectural Museum of Cultural History
- Fukui Fine Arts Museum
- Yōkōkan Garden
- Fukui City History Museum
- Fukui Children's Museum
- Fukui City Atagozaka Tea Ceremony Museum
- Fukui City Akemi Tachibana Literature Memorial Museum
- Fukui City Museum of Natural History
- Osagoe Minkaen
- Fukui Museum of Literature
- Mugen-an
- Kutaniyaki Art Museum
- 深田久弥山の文化館
- Iroha Sōan
- Fukui Prefectural Ichijodani Asakura Family Site Museum
- Kaga City Art Museum
- Kitamae Senshu Yashiki - Zorokuen
- Kitamaebune Ship Museum
- Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice
- Sabae Manabe Museum
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Rokurosezan Tumulus Group
- Takidani-ji Garden
- Tojinbo
- Takidani-ji Temple
- Takigaya-ji Temple
- Maruoka Castle Tower
- Tsubokawa Family Residence (Maruoka-cho, Sakai-gun, Fukui)
- Takidani-ji Temple
- Takidani-ji Temple
- Takidani-ji Temple
- Takidani-ji Temple
- Mikuni Port (Former Sakai Port) Jetty
- Tsubokawa Family Garden
- Echizen-Kaga Kaigan
- Mikuni Onsen
- Tojinbo Onsen
- Mount Johoji
- Harue
- Maruoka
- Mikuni
- Nishi-Nagata-Yurinosato
- Taromaru-Enzerrando
- Mikuni-ko
- Nishiharuehaatopia
- Shimohyogo-Kofuku
- Mikuni-Jinja
- Oseki
- Mizui
- Fukui Airport
- Saki Fishing Port
- Kaji Fishing Port