Ichijōdani Asakura Ruins — Attraction in Fukui

Ichijōdani Asakura Family Historic Ruins is one of the most worthwhile attractions in Fukui. Due to the inconvenient transportation of the ruins, we took a bus to the Ichijōdani Asakura Family museum and borrowed bicycles from the museum. The deposit for each bicycle was 1000 yen, and would be refunded after the bicycle was returned. In fact, museum also provided free shuttle service. The staffs of the museum were very kind and patiently guided us to the ruins.Then, we rode the bicycles among the fields and enjoyed the beautiful country scenery. We spended about 10 minutes to reach the ruins. The gate of the ruins was very elegant, and many tourists stop at the front of the door to take pictures. After entering the gate, we saw that many ruins of wells, walls, gardens and palaces were preserved on the ground. Following the stone steps, there was a platform with ruins of water and a bridge. It was said that when the castle was attacked, the castle owner bridge can destroy the bridge to prevent the enemies entering, which is the same as the design of Hikone Castle. Otherwise, there were some photographers taked pictures here.If you have enough time, I will suggest you to spend 2 to 3 hours to enjoy everything...

This was a very nice place to go back in time on. The place was almost empty when we were there, my companions and three other elderly couples. We rented two samurai armors for half an hour(500 yen, only coins) which was the highlight of the trip. The elderly couples came by while we were posing and asked if they could take photographs with us, which was fun. Other than that, this place has a reconstructed town street, houses and more, which costed around 250yen to get inside to. After that we took a stroll in the beautiful valley over to another set of ruins, where we fed some fish and turtles, saw a crow snake going all out after a frog, and more.

We travelled from Kyoto to Fukui, and took a taxi from there, three train tickets costing 26000 yen both ways, and another 5600 yen for the taxi. When we were about to leave three buses with tourists came by. After chatting a while with one of the tour guides he mentioned they were from Osaka, where one could order a trip by bus to Ichijodani, which likely would have been much cheaper. The only drawback I have with this place is its location, although knowing one could take a bus from Osaka would have...

Underwhelming. While interesting to see the houses in the same condition as they would've been back in the day, there's just not a whole lot going on. You can see the ruins, and they've placed signs in spots to indicate what used to be there, long ago.

But to a foreigner, it feels a bit out of context, and I expected more of the story around it to unfold. That's why I think the ¥330 admission fee is too high.

This park consists of two halves: the paid area and the free area. The free area is more of a combination of ruins and a public park. And of course you are completely free to only visit the free halve of this place.

There's free parking at either end of the park. The gift shop is only on the south end, so you might like to choose to park at the north end and walk southwards. Wheelchair accessibility is very limited. Entrances to the traditional houses have a ceiling that is so low that most people will have to take care not to...