Bouyourou
A · 8.5 / 10anchor a leg
Bouyourou is a seven-room crab inn on the Fukui coast, rebuilt in 2021, whose owner personally delivers Echizen-gani to the Imperial household, and in season this may be the best crab meal in Japan, eaten in a private room after a soak in your own source-fed ocean-view bath. Rates are near the top of the whole field, roughly double Nishimuraya Honkan in crab season, and outside November to March there is less reason to come. KI-NRT came for the crab and the soak and the inn knocked both out of the park, but there is no garden, the town has little charm and the rooms are not vast.
Scores
Food 4.5 / 5
In-season Echizen-gani is the meal here, and KI-NRT called it sublime: sweet, plump and fatty in a way other crabs are not, served as sashimi, shabu-shabu, grilled, boiled, tempura and chilled with caviar, all of it magnificent, and they never got crabbed-out. The preparations are kept simple to bring out the crab, and he still gives Nishimuraya Honkan the edge for creativity and refinement. Fc912 found the crab better than at top Tokyo places.
Bath 4.5 / 5
Every room has its own hot-spring bath facing the ocean, free-flowing straight from the source and never recirculated, and there are no communal baths at all. KI-NRT came for the crab and the soak and said the inn knocked both out of the park, and on his summer stay the in-room bath was so comfortable that they spent the afternoon jumping in and out of it and went to dinner much later than usual.
Service 5 / 5
KI-NRT calls the service flawless, and the inn kept its small staff intact through the pandemic. Each of the seven parties eats in its own private koshitsu dining room (seven of them for seven rooms), and instead of committing to an exact meal time at check-in you simply show up any time between 5 and 7, which he found a real convenience after an afternoon in the bath. The courtesy van collects guests at Awara Onsen station.
Room 4 / 5
All seven rooms were rebuilt in November 2021 and are suite-style, modern and understated, with heated floors and an uninterrupted ocean view from every one. They are all the same rate and differ mainly in layout, so pick the plan you like on the website. KI-NRT wishes they were roomier, since at around 70 square meters they are comfortable but tight next to the separate-living-room suites of 100 square meters or more that he prefers.
Place 4 / 5
The inn is a single modern structure that juts out along the violent Sea of Japan coast, and every room has an uninterrupted ocean view. That view is the whole of the setting, because there are no grounds and no garden, and if you want zen-style traditional architecture you will not find it here. Mikuni Onsen town is a recent invention that KI-NRT found drab and dreary, with no main strip to stroll, though the Tojinbo Cliffs are not far.
Getting there
- Kanazawa — 0h40, 0 transfers. Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Tsurugi' Kanazawa→Awara-Onsen (~27 min), then the inn's free ~10-min shuttle (reserve by the day before; pickup 14:30–18:00) — Kofuyuden Beniya is in central Awara Onsen town, not out on the Mikuni coast (awara.co.jp/access; 2026-07 audit).
- Tokyo — 3h15, 0 transfers. Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Hakutaka' direct Tokyo→Awara-Onsen (~2h55, a through service since the 2024 Tsuruga extension), then chauffeured car to Bouyourou on the Mikuni coast (~20 min).
- Kyoto — 1h45, 1 transfer. Reverse of: Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Tsurugi' Awara-Onsen→Tsuruga (~30 min), cross-platform change (~10 min), 'Thunderbird' Ltd Exp→Kyoto (~55 min) — segments re-timed 2026-07 audit; total holds.
- Fukuoka — 3h45, 2 transfers. Reverse of: ~30-min taxi/bus from Mikuni/Awara to Komatsu Airport, the KMQ→Fukuoka hop (~1h40, ~4 daily ANA/ORC), then the subway 2 stops into Hakata (~5 min). ~3.75h door-to-door.
- Nagasaki — 5h45, 4 transfers. Reverse of: ~30-min taxi/bus to Komatsu + KMQ→Fukuoka (~1h40) into Hakata, then Nishi-Kyushu relay→Nagasaki via Takeo-Onsen (~2h). ~5.75h door-to-door.
- Kagoshima — 5h15, 3 transfers. Reverse of: ~30-min taxi/bus to Komatsu + KMQ→Fukuoka (~1h40) into Hakata, then Kyushu Shinkansen 'Mizuho'→Kagoshima-Chūō (~1h17). ~5.25h door-to-door.
Sources
FlyerTalk review #54 · FlyerTalk review by Fc912 #192 · FlyerTalk review by kurl #711 · TripAdvisor 5★ (December 2022) · TripAdvisor 5★ (June 2022) · #682 · #696 (thread mentions)