敦賀

Tsuruga is a port city on Tsuruga Bay in Fukui Prefecture, where the Hokuriku coast bends along the Sea of Japan. It has been a gateway for a millennium, and it holds a humane claim to fame: in the 1940s it welcomed Jewish refugees traveling on Chiune Sugihara's transit visas.

The Port of Humanity museum tells that story by the harbor. The great wooden torii of Kehi Jingu, among Japan's largest, guards the town center, and the pines of Kehi no Matsubara shade a beloved swimming beach. The Red Brick Warehouses by the port hold restaurants and a model railway.

With the Hokuriku Shinkansen now running direct from Tokyo, Tsuruga's crab and sweet shrimp are easier to reach than ever, and the city makes a natural pause between Kyoto and Kanazawa. Winter is crab season; summer fills the pine-backed beach. Rail fans linger over the harbor-line relics.