Myotsuji

Myotsuji sits in Fukui the way most sacred sites in Japan do: unhurried, and easy to rush past if you don't know to slow down.

Fukui has exactly two National Treasure buildings and both are here, in a wooded valley outside Obama. The main hall dates from 1258 and the three-storey pagoda from 1270 — both Kamakura period, both cypress-bark roofed, both standing where they were built. The pagoda is just over twenty-two metres and rises out of the trees at the top of a stone stairway.

What makes the visit unusual is how little has been done to it. There is no ticket hall, no coach park and generally no other visitors; a priest takes ¥500 and gives an explanation if you want one. Obama has an extraordinary density of old temples for a small port town — the reason is the mackerel road and the trade with Kyoto — and Myotsuji is the best of them by a distance.