Overview
Echizen Awara Onsen Tsuruya brings you into one of Awara Onsen’s long-standing ryokan traditions. Founded in Meiji 17, or 1884, Tsuruya opened the year after hot spring water was first discovered in Awara, and it has continued alongside the history of this hot spring town ever since. You stay in a ryokan shaped by natural spring water, sukiya-style architecture, private dining, and the quiet warmth of a classic Japanese inn.
The current main building was designed and built by the late Masaya Hirata, a master carpenter known for sukiya-zukuri architecture. Inside, you move through tatami corridors, soft shoji light, fine woodwork, and small details that invite you to slow down. This is a stay for unhurried bathing, seasonal Fukui cuisine, and the gentle feeling of being cared for without excess.
Accommodation
Each room at Tsuruya has its own character, so you never feel as though you have stepped into a standard hotel layout. The rooms use sukiya-style design, precious woods, tatami, alcoves, and quiet Japanese details. You can choose from general Japanese-style rooms, Japanese-Western rooms, open-air bath rooms, and the newer semi-open-air bath rooms Sokaku and Jugaku, which opened in March 2024.
Sokaku gives you a spacious 100-square-meter layout with a living room, refined furnishings, and drinks such as wine, sake, local beer, and coffee prepared in the room. Its semi-open-air bath uses source-flowing hot spring water, so you can soak at your own pace. Jugaku offers a 60-square-meter space with the same thoughtful drink setup and a source-flowing semi-open-air bath, making it a strong choice when you want a private bath experience in a newer room.
For a more classic suite feel, Taikan includes a source-flowing indoor bath and open-air bath, a 15-tatami main room, a 6-tatami tea room, and wide garden views from large windows. Kangetsu offers a 13-tatami main room with a source-flowing rock-carved open-air bath, where you can soak while looking toward the garden or the night sky. The Japanese-Western rooms combine a 12-tatami Japanese room with two semi-double beds, while the general rooms offer 10 to 12.5 tatami mats with a wide veranda.
Your room includes essentials such as toothbrushes, towels, bath towels, yukata, hair dryer, soap, body soap, shampoo, conditioner, refrigerator, TV, safe, air conditioning, heating, toilet, and shower booth. Rooms with open-air baths also include hot spring water supply. Children’s items such as a baby bath, diaper bin, baby soap, crib, chair belt, height-adjustment cushion, high-low chair, children’s samue, and children’s yukata can be requested in advance.
Dining
Dining at Tsuruya focuses on creative kaiseki cuisine made with seasonal local ingredients from Echizen and Fukui. You enjoy seafood from the Sea of Japan, vegetables and wild plants grown in the area, and dishes served one by one so hot items arrive hot and chilled items arrive cool. The cooking style values quality over quantity, with food presented on Echizen pottery and Kawada lacquerware.
The main kaiseki choices include creative kaiseki meals such as Tsuru, Kame, and Fuku. Kame lets you choose a main fish or meat dish when you arrive, while Fuku offers a monthly seasonal creative kaiseki menu. During the warmer months, you can also choose a Wakasa Beef kaiseki plan or an abalone kaiseki plan, both offered from April to October.
In winter, Tsuruya serves Echizen local crab kaiseki using live Fukui crab with the yellow tag. Depending on your plan and advance choice, the crab may be prepared as crab sashimi with shell-grilled crab miso and tempura, or boiled whole. Crab availability may depend on the latest fishing conditions, so winter crab stays should be planned with care.
Breakfast brings you a gentle Japanese morning meal with Fukui Awara-grown Koshihikari rice, dried fish, and local vegetables. Dinner and breakfast are served in private dining rooms, either at Kikaku, which has 16 private rooms with chairs and tables, or in the private dining rooms Tsuki and Hana. Dinner starts between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM, and breakfast starts between 7:30 AM and 9:00 AM
Onsen and Wellness
Tsuruya’s hot spring water comes from three sources on the property and flows directly into the baths. The large baths and open-air baths use 100% natural hot spring water without circulation, added water, heating, or filtration. The water is a sodium-calcium chloride spring, colorless and clear with a sulfur scent, and the source temperature is listed at about 80°C, with bath temperatures around 42.0°C to 42.5°C.
You can bathe in Fuku no Yu and Ashi no Yu, the two large bathing areas with indoor baths and garden or open-air baths. Fuku no Yu includes a garden bath and a reclining bath, while Ashi no Yu gives you a more traditional hot spring atmosphere with indoor and open-air bathing. The baths are open from 3:00 PM to 10:00 AM the next morning, except during cleaning and the midnight gender switch, so you can enjoy both bathing areas during your stay.
Tsuru no Su is a reservable private bath filled with 100% source-flowing hot spring water. You can reserve it for a 45-minute session between 3:00 PM and 11:00 PM or between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM, and it is available only when you stay at Tsuruya. You can also enjoy the foot bath in the salon garden and make onsen eggs for free using the source-flowing hot spring water.
The listed bathing benefits include relief for neuralgia, muscle pain, joint pain, chronic skin conditions, and chronic gynecological conditions. The spring is also listed for drinking benefits related to chronic gastritis, chronic low stomach acid, and chronic constipation, although you should treat these as traditional hot spring indications rather than medical treatment.
Guests with tattoos
If you have tattoos, the smoothest choice is a room with a private source-flowing bath or the reservable private bath Tsuru no Su. These options let you enjoy Tsuruya’s hot spring water in your own space, without using the shared large baths. For shared bath use, please confirm the current rule when you book.
Facilities
Tsuruya gives you more than a room and a bath. You can walk through tatami corridors, pause by small courtyard gardens, use the source-flowing foot bath, and make onsen eggs in the garden near the salon. The building also includes a reading corner with selected books and magazines, an irori hearth area, the Club Centennial lounge with karaoke, a shop with Fukui products and Tsuruya original items, private dining rooms, and banquet and meeting spaces for celebrations, memorial gatherings, training sessions, and group stays.
You can also use the large source baths, two garden open-air baths attached to the large bathing areas, and the reservable private bath Tsuru no Su. Free parking is available for 20 cars. Barrier-free support includes wheelchair access, loan wheelchairs, a barrier-free room, Western-style toilets in rooms, handrails in the large bath tubs, and support for allergy-aware meals or meals suited to older travelers when arranged in advance.
Activities
You can spend your time inside the ryokan with a gentle rhythm: arrive from 3:00 PM, rest in your room, enjoy the foot bath, make onsen eggs, soak before dinner, eat seasonal kaiseki in a private dining room, then return to the baths or relax in the salon with music and books. This style suits you when you want the ryokan itself to be the main experience.
Awara also gives you easy access to Fukui’s coast, temples, craft areas, and family attractions. By car, you can reach Tojinbo in about 15 minutes, Takidanji Temple in about 10 minutes, Eiheiji Temple in about 40 minutes, Ichijodani Asakura Clan Ruins in about 50 minutes, and the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in about 60 minutes. For local exploring, Mikuni Minatoza is about 10 minutes away by car, while Yukemuri Yokocho and Ashiyu foot bath are about 3 minutes away on foot.
You can also visit Kanazu Forest of Creation in about 13 minutes by car, Echizen Washi Village in about 55 minutes, Takefu Knife Village in about 50 minutes, Shibamasa World in about 10 minutes, Awara Golf Club in about 16 minutes, Ski Jam Katsuyama in about 60 minutes, and Kitagata Lakeside Park in about 10 minutes. This makes Tsuruya a comfortable base for coastal scenery, crafts, golf, skiing, temples, and easy evening walks around Awara Onsen.
Additional features
Tsuruya is located at 4-601 Onsen, Awara City, Fukui, 910-4104. You can reach the ryokan in about 15 minutes by car from JR Awara Onsen Station or about 15 minutes from Kanazu IC on the Hokuriku Expressway. Free shuttle service is available from JR Awara Onsen Station with advance reservation, with pick-up between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM. If you arrive by highway bus, Awara-Yunomachi Station is about 5 minutes away on foot.
Tsuruya suits you when you want a ryokan with history, source-flowing hot spring water, private dining, and rooms that keep the character of Japanese architecture. You come here to soak often, eat carefully, move slowly, and experience Awara Onsen through water, food, wood, tatami, and quiet attention to detail.
