Name: Obama: Japan's Hidden Historical Port Town | 2-Day Trip
Uploaded: 2025-05-01T02:32:25.000Z
Duration: 10 min 45 s
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Sushi and sashimi are popular ways to eat fish from around Japan these days, but what do you do when you're a hungry Kyoto merchant in the 1500s and 50km from the sea with no car to travel and no fridge to preserve that fish?

You head along one of the trade routes to the sea.

One of those routes connecting Kyoto with Wakasa Bay is the Sabakaido, or Mackerel Road, named after the most popular catch that travelers would carry on their backs across the mountain trails.

But the Sabakaido would not have existed without the city of Obama.

For Kyoto, it was the closest port on the Sea of Japan, so it played a key role in providing the capital with seafood that differed from that of the Pacific coast.

Because of this, it thrived as a port town, and to this day retains much of its beauty from its heyday.

Despite being a relatively unknown spot even among Japanese travelers, it has traditional temples, a preserved old town, and many interesting spots to explore.

To get to Obama, if you're not feeling like walking the entire trail from Kyoto, you have several other options.

The fastest would be to board a train from Kyoto to Omiyamazu Station, then get a direct bus to Obama Station, which is what I'm going to do.

I'm Cassandra Lord, and in this video I'll be exploring the hidden treasures the region has to offer.

After arriving at Obama Station, I'm going to spend two days in the area, staying at Obama Machieste.

On my first day, I'll cycle around Obama and learn a bit about its history.

Then I'll eat some of its fresh seafood and visit an old merchant house.

On the second day, I'll take a taxi from Obama Station to the start of my hike along the Abakaido Trail.

To get around, I'm first renting an electric bike at the information center, just in front of Obama Station.

I've decided to go with a bike for today, as everything in Obama is quite close together.

This is the starting point of the Sabakaido Trail.

With the town built up around it, it may not look much like a hiking trail now, but it was once an important connection point between Obama and Kyoto, where people would pick up seafood caught at the ports and carry it all the way across the mountain trails.

I want to really stress the importance of this area back in the day, because Wakasa was once called a food province, or miketsukuni, and that was a name given only to three areas providing food to the capital.

So to learn more about this, I'm now heading to the Food Culture Museum.

Here you can learn all about the Sabakaido Trail, as well as some information about local food culture and Japanese food culture as a whole.

But what I found most interesting here was getting to learn more about the evolution of sushi, because it actually started not as fresh raw fish, but as something called naruzushi, which was salted to be preserved for a year or more.

When thinking about merchants carrying fish to the capital, that makes a lot more sense.

All this talk of food has got me pretty hungry now.

Thankfully, there is a restaurant right next door to the museum where I'm going to try out some of the famous locally caught fish.

I wanted to try as much fresh fish as possible, so I got the Obama brand kaisendon, which has seven different types of fish.

And of course, this is the home of the sabakaido, so I had to get something that had mackerel in it.

In this case, it is a type of vinegared mackerel called shimesaba.

The vinegar flavour really comes through, but the texture is also quite different.

If you want to see where everything is caught and sold for yourself, the Obama Fishing Port is just a few minutes walk from the museum, and you can join a tour bright and early to see the fish auction in the mornings.

But right now, I'm still in a cultural mindset, so I'm going to head to Goshoen, a 200-year-old merchant's residence.

Another important aspect of Obama's history is that it was a stop along a major shipping trade route during the Feudal Age.

One of the successful trade route merchants of the time set up Goshoen in 1815 to entertain people of high status.

Now it has been renovated to entertain us with a space for relaxation, a museum, a chopstick shop, and a coffee stand.

The shop is Matsukan, one of Obama's historic chopstick makers.

On the other side of the shop, there is also a cosy coffee stand with hot drinks, light snacks, and the most beautiful matcha latte I have ever seen.

For my accommodation, the check-in has to be done at a separate location, so I'll go there first, return my bike, and head towards it.

This special type of building is called a machiya.

Machiya are traditional townhouses that, in the past, often doubled as a place of business.

Today, I'm staying in a former Japanese confectionery shop that was built over 100 years ago.

The spacious area still has some of the traditional structures and decorations, but the modern comforts like electric heating make it warm and inviting the moment I step inside.

Near the machiya is Obama's old town district, perfect for a peaceful stroll.

Tomorrow I have a lot of hiking to do, so I'm looking forward to having a relaxing bath and then getting some rest before the excitement of the sabakai-do.

Day 2 Before my hike, I'm starting the day with a bakery breakfast at Boulangerie Kokoro.

This atmospheric bakery is set in a former Japanese confectionery shop from the Meiji era, but now serves a variety of French and Japanese baked goods.

I love this antique atmosphere with the smell of freshly baked bread.

I'm so excited to eat this before my hike.

Day 3 And now to visit the thread tying this all together, the sabakai-do trail itself.

At the height of its popularity, the sabakai-do was a network of trails that brought economic success to Obama.

But when modern ships and railway connections made other cities more accessible, it started to go out of use.

Only sections of the sabakai-do remain today, being used primarily by adventurous hikers.

Even without carrying mackerel with me though, these days getting to the entrance of the trail can be a little bit difficult.

It takes around 30 minutes by taxi or rental car, or 1-2 hours by bike.

So today I'm going by taxi, stopping at a few of the historic temples and shrines and even an abandoned town along the way.

For example, Mantokuchi Temple is surrounded by 200 maple trees and looks particularly beautiful on this colourful autumn day.

Whereas Jinguji Temple has a rare combination of both Shinto and Buddhist elements and is the site of the Omizu Okuri ceremony.

And this is the entrance to the sabakai-do hiking trail, let's see what awaited those merchants with mackerel on their backs.

Of the sabakai-do's multiple trails, today I'm on the Harihatagoe trail, the shortest but also one of the toughest.

I can certainly believe that, the paths are not well trodden so blend in with the scenery and start at quite a steep incline.

Among the mountaintop scenes and woodland trails, the first point of interest is the large rock called Gozaiwa.

The rock is related to a tale of a local deity and his elder brother.

Then, along the trail there is a statue of the Jizo Bodhisattva that watches over travellers.

A bit like a modern day service station, next to it is a simple well that collects groundwater that travellers could use.

Before hiking back to Obama, I'm ending my Fukui trip at the beautiful Onyu Pass, the last scenic point still within the prefecture.

It's hard to imagine carrying salted fish on my back on the mountainous sabakai-do trail, but I feel a little closer to the area's history now and I hope you do too.