Obama小浜

Wakasa-nuri lacquer is built up in coloured layers over crushed eggshell and abalone, then ground back to reveal the pattern (togidashi, 研ぎ出し). The craft dates to the early Edo period and became a national Traditional Craft in 1978.

At the cooperative's showroom you polish a shell-inlaid pair yourself: ¥1,100, about 10 minutes, and around 3,000 designs to buy afterwards. Book by phone (0770-52-1733) by 15:00 on the day.

Six kilometres of granite cliffs, arches and caves on the open-sea side of the Uchitomi peninsula, carved by winter waves. The highlight is the pair of rock gates Ōmon and Komon (大門・小門).

Boats take about 60 minutes: 09:30, 11:00, 12:30, 14:00, and 15:30 at weekends. April to August is the calm season; no sailings December to February. When the open sea is rough there is a shorter Obama Bay cruise instead.

The covered Izumi-chō shopping street is the official start of the Saba-kaidō: find the plate in the road. Fishmongers grill whole skewered mackerel (hama-yaki saba) out front, and Kutsukiya (朽木屋), a mackerel specialist for over 260 years, sells it with heshiko and saba-zushi.

The free Saba-kaidō Museum is 6 minutes from the station. The old saying: Kyoto may be far, but it's only 18 ri, about 72 km, a day and a night on foot. Wakasa food guide →

The free Miketsukuni Food Culture Museum tells the story of Wakasa's food, with a demonstration kitchen and craft studios upstairs. Next door, the Fisherman's Wharf has a seafood restaurant, conveyor sushi and heshiko shops.

Come early for the Wakasa Obama Fish Centre: stalls open from 07:00 and close when sold out, usually by midday.

Nishizu began as a fishing village and became a Kitamae-bune port: the harbour closest to Kyoto on the Sea of Japan. Its lacquer workshops gave rise to Wakasa-nuri, and the district is still where most of Japan's lacquered chopsticks are made.

Goshoen (護松園) was the guest house of Furukawaya, the shipping merchant who became one of the richest families in Japan and entertained the Sakai lords of Obama Castle here. Stand on the veranda: there is no pillar in the way of the garden view, because the roof rests on posts cut from the heartwood of huge Akita cedars. Now a prefectural cultural property run by a local chopstick maker, with a small Furukawaya and Wakasa-nuri museum, chopstick shop and coffee stand.