Kehi no Matsubara (気比の松原)

This past week I've been in Japan on a work trip. I'm actually writing this at the airport about to head back to the states. Although I had a lot of long work days, I did squeeze in a bunch of fun over the past weekend. One of those things was visiting Kehi no Matsubara (気比の松原) in Fukui Prefecture on Saturday morning.

I took the train to Tsuruga and then walked about 40 minutes to get to Kehi no Matsubara. Along the way I passed though a cute small shrine, Matsubara Jinja (松原神社),  nestled among some pine trees.

Approaching Kehi no Matsubara I walked through the lovely pine grove on the way to the water.

It was blistering hot outside so most of the Japanese visitors were enjoying the view from the shade of the trees or in pop-up beach tents.

The view was really spectacular with the pine grove along the water. Over 17,000 trees line the shore on Tsuruga Bay.

I walked down to the water to put my feet in. Honestly, it was not the most fun beach to walk on since it was very coarse pebbles instead of sand. I did think it was pretty neat that just a week and a half earlier I was walking in the surf on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean.

The extreme heat was getting to me (it was about 90 degress and very humid) so I walked around in the shade of the pine grove for a little bit and then decided to take a taxi back to the station.

If you find yourself in Fukui, I think that Kehi no Matsubara is worth a stop for the view, but due to the rocky beach maybe not the best spot for a beach day and swimming.

To get to Kehi no Matsubara you can take a bus to Matsuba-cho from JR Tsuruga train station and get off at Kehi no Matsubara stop. I walked from Tsuruga station and taxied back which is also an option.