The Hokuriku Shinkansen Reaches Fukui and Tsuruga
On 16 March 2024 Japan's bullet train was extended from Kanazawa to Tsuruga, putting Fukui, its Zen monastery and the hot-spring towns of Kaga on a direct line from Tokyo.
The Hokuriku Shinkansen was extended on 16 March 2024 from Kanazawa to Tsuruga, along the coast of the Sea of Japan. The new section gives Fukui prefecture its first bullet train service and brings one of the less visited parts of Honshu within about three hours of Tokyo.
The new section
The line from Tokyo crosses the mountains through Nagano and reached Kanazawa in 2015, an opening that turned that city into one of the most popular in Japan. The extension continues south-west for about 125 kilometres, with six stations: Komatsu, Kaga Onsen, Awara Onsen, Fukui, Echizen-Takefu and Tsuruga. The journey from Tokyo to Fukui was shortened by around half an hour and no longer requires a change of train.
For travellers coming from the other direction the change is less convenient. The limited express trains that used to run directly from Osaka and Kyoto to Kanazawa now stop at Tsuruga, where passengers transfer to the shinkansen. The overall journey is some 15 to 20 minutes faster, at a slightly higher fare. A further extension from Tsuruga to Osaka is planned, but its route has not been settled and it is many years away.
What it opens up
Kaga Onsen station serves four old hot-spring towns, Yamashiro, Yamanaka, Katayamazu and Awazu, with long-established ryokan and a tradition of lacquer and Kutani porcelain. Awara Onsen, further on, is another spa town. Both make the region a natural stop for anyone interested in Japan’s hot-spring culture.
Fukui is the station for Eiheiji, a monastery founded in the thirteenth century by the Zen master Dogen and still one of the two head temples of the Soto school, where visitors can stay and sit in meditation with the monks. The prefecture is also known for its dinosaur museum, among the largest in the world, for the cliffs of Tojinbo, and for winter crab. Echizen-Takefu lies in a district of craft workshops making paper, knives and lacquerware. Tsuruga is an old port that once linked Japan to the Trans-Siberian railway.
For travellers
The extension makes a loop possible: Tokyo to Kanazawa and Fukui by the Hokuriku line, on to Kyoto by way of Tsuruga, and back to Tokyo by the Tokaido Shinkansen. The whole route is covered by the national rail pass and by a regional Hokuriku arch pass. For rail travel of a slower kind, see our comparison of Japan’s three cruise trains.
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