Nihonkai Sakanamachi is a large scale seafood market in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture. The market has more than 60 establishment selling fresh seafood from the Sea of Japan. With a name that translates into ‘Sea of Japan’s Fish City’, the market stocks seafood direct from the port. We decided to make a trip there en-route our journey back to Nagoya from Fukui.
The seafood market is clean with dry floors, well-ventilated with no strong fishy smell. Comparing this with the wet markets back home, the contrast is stark.
Coming to the market, we had hoped to see a good variety of fresh seafood. What we saw within the market however were mostly Echizen crabs, which are in season from early November to late March. Echizen crab is a type of snow crab, caught off the Echizen coast located in Fukui Prefecture. The crab is a winter food which is offered to the Royal Family every year. Echizen crabs can grow to 50cm wide and best eaten boiled for appreciation of its intense taste and sweetness. For local and regional visitors, the vendors can pack them in boxes for easy transport. We saw some Hong Kong tourists ordering the crabs in boxes, bringing them home I presume. But the prices are beyond our budget, so we didn’t try it this time.
There are also stalls selling foodstuff such as seafood products, kombu (edible kelp), Japanese snacks and green tea.
If you like to try a quick seafood snack, head for the stalls selling grilled seafood or fresh oysters. These stalls are mostly along the perimeter facing the external. We spent most of our time seeking shelter from the rain inside the market, we did not see these stalls till at the tail end of our visit. It was really unfortunate we had no time to stop and make any purchase with a bus to catch!
But we had a good lunch of fresh seafood in one of the restaurants.
The restaurant menu is mainly in Japanese, but luckily we have my sister who can read basic Japanese so we need not confine ourselves to the items in pictures.
DL is the only one who is not into raw seafood so it was tonkatsu for him. Between the rest of us, we tried various sashimi don. Absolutely love the sweetness and freshness of the thick slices of fish, crab legs, shrimps and shellfish. There are many choices with prices starting from JPY1,080.
CL’s sashimi kids meal.
Credit: Some of the photos above are courtesy of my sister’s blog, Stride Across the Globe.
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Read about our trip itinerary and the places we visited in Japan Nagoya Itinerary 2017 .
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Useful Information
Address: 1-1531, Wakabacho, Tsuruga-shi, Fukui, 914-0125, Japan
Telephone: +81-770-24-3800
Operating Hours: 10:00 to 18:00 (shops start opening at 8:30)
Official Website:: Nihonkai Sakanamachi
~ From Nagoya or Fukui, take a train to Tsuruga Station. The journey from Nagoya takes around 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 58 min depending on train taken. It is a shorter ride from Fukui. We left our luggage in the station’s lockers at JPY500 per locker per use.
~ Take community bus Nakago Saki Line to the market. Bus fare at JPY200 per adult per way and JPY100 per child per way.
~ Take note of the bus schedule as buses are infrequent. This schedule was found at Nihonkai Sakanmachi bus stop. Do stop and check to ensure the timing you have is up-to-date.
