Discovering Japan: A trip to Tottori Prefecture

The Hiroshima prefecture/Tottori prefecture border around 700m above sea level

広島県と鳥取県の県境　１８３号線

Saturday 5th May 2007

This was the the last couple of days of the Golden Week before returning to a regular week and Naomi and I planned to drive to Tottori Prefecture which is to the north west of Hiroshima Prefecture. Tottori City is at the far east end and is a good 3 1/2 hour drive from Mukaihara where Naomi lives through winding mountain roads up to 700 metres above sea level before going downhill again once reaching the border. We left at 6am to avoid traffic and to get the most out of the day. We eventually reached the half way point and saw through the haze the outline of one of the highest mountains in western Japan, Daisen which rises to 1729 metres. Daisen slowly disappeared as we continued on and had our first stop in a place called Kurayoshi where there are old Shoyu (Soy Sauce) production houses and some retro looking buildings and cafes. There is also a beautiful park where you can go for a walk. It encloses a small zoo which is free to enter and has a few types of animals including a couple peacocks where some guy was trying to scare them stamping his feet and clapping his hands loudly. We had morning tea in a small cafe behind the tourist information office which is run by a few university students before continuing out journey to Tottori City.

Utsufuki Park
打吹公園
Japanese style garden with this springs new green

Seaside Cafe for lunch on the Japan Sea coastline

Desert in Japan?
鳥取砂丘

Who would have thought that a land made up entirely of mountains would have a so called 'desert'?! Well in Tottori, a few kilometres to the east of the city there is a massive 10km strip of sand dunes. Some sections can be as wide as 2km and from the shoreline the dunes rise steeply before dropping back down to a basin type area. Having been in Japan for 4 years I was pretty impressed to see sand dunes of this size here! The weather was a little wet so the camels they have out on the dunes took a day off as it seems they don't like rain! We walked from the car park to an entrance to the sand dunes, took our shoes off and walked in damp sand all the way up the sand mountain top and back down to the shoreline to have a paddle in the Japan Sea! What amazed me the most was that about 95% of the tourists were walking on the dunes with either their own shoes on OR with shin high gumboots on which were for hire!

The path we took!

Naomi climbing the steep sand dune mountain!

Us at the highes point of the sand dunes with Tottori in the background

Paddling in the Japan Sea with the sand dunes in the background

Uradome Coastline
浦富海岸・山陰海岸国立公園

destination reached

A few kilometres to the east of the Tottori sand dunes is a strip of spectacular coastline part of the San-in Coast National Park. We parked at the Uradome-kaigan boat tour jetty and boat tickets for a half-hour long guide along the rugged headlands. The sea was a little rough so the boat was rocking from side to side making me feel a little queasy but I managed to take some photos of the naturally weathered rock formations and hidden beaches. Afterwards we drove to the top of the coastline, parked the car and went for a walk along the somewhat paved walkway to the hidden beaches. The walk wasn't an easy one with some very steep sections weaving in and out of the rocks down to the beaches and by the time we returned to the car 2 hours later we were both wringing wet through with sweat!