Tottori Sand Dunes Day Trip

Tottori Sand Dunes (鳥取砂丘, Tottori Sakyu)

 

We headed out for a quick day trip to Tottori city. Tottori is located on the Sea of Japan, which is also called the East Sea in Korea. The Sea of Japan is on the opposite side of the Japanese mainland in relation to where we live - Himeji is on the Seto Inland Sea, so we had to cross the mainland to get there. We caught a bus at terminal #11 in Himeji Station. There are only four buses a day that head to Tottori but you can also get there by train. We decided to use the first bus at 7:15am. The bus fare was ¥2,500 per person and there was only one other person on the bus besides Blake and I for the two-hour bus ride to Tottori Station. 

 

When we arrived Google said that a bus heading for Tottori Sand Dunes wouldn't be available for an hour, but we took a look at the bus schedule anyway. We found there was a bus heading that way in 15 minutes! Google usually is a good source of information but we have found that sometimes it is not as accurate as it could be. I have as backup a Japanese app called Japan Travel by NAVITIME (it is available in English) and I use it to double check Google's recommendations. I have found that when Google fails us NAVITIME has sometimes been better at displaying possible routes.

The time saved by finding the earlier bus was great. We had originally wanted to stay overnight and possibly make a trip to nearby Matsue city the next day but we didn't have time to do two days. Instead, we decided to try and squeeze the sand dunes, sand museum and Tottori Castle into one day.

 

The bus dropped us off at the Tottori Sand Dune Observatory. There was also a gift shop and restaurant inside. We ate lunch here. They had the machine where you pay for you meal first and then hand them the ticket for your order. Blake and I both ordered a kani-don (a crab rice bowl) and miso soup. 

 

 

 

From the observatory you can walk down to the sand dunes or you can pay to take a chairlift that takes you part of the way down. I though it would be fun to do the chairlift and less walking for me too.

 

The sand dunes have existed for over 100,000 years but have been decreasing in size in recent years due to various factors, most of them human in origin. There are measures being implemented to slow or stop the shrinking since the dunes bring tourism to the area and, from what we've heard, are probably the most famous place in Tottori. There are even camels you can pay to ride on, sandboarding, and paragliding in the sand dunes.

Pear ice cream

 

After walking around the sand dunes, we stopped by for some ice cream. They had a pear ice cream flavor! I wasn't sure if I would like it so I got half vanilla and half pear flavor. Turns out they have pear farms in Tottori that grow Asian pears and a pear is even one of their mascots. That explained why they were selling a lot of pear products in the souvenir shop.

 

 

 

Once we devoured our ice cream, we sat inside the air conditioned building taking a small break. We then walked down the street to the Sand Museum. Don't worry, it's more interesting than it sounds. The museum has large sand sculptures that are sculpted by artists from around the world. The exhibitions change every year and the theme for 2020 was the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

 

 

After exploring the Sand Museum, we took a bus that dropped us off near Tottori Castle. Tottori Castle is mostly ruins that are left with some observation points you can climb up to see. There was also some construction going on in the area.

Tottori Castle is a few minutes away from Tottori Station by bus. By the time we made it to the station, there was one bus left heading to Himeji, but it wasn't leaving for two hours. We instead took a train back to Himeji station. There was one leaving in two minutes! We quickly went up to the ticket booth and bought our tickets. They asked us what time we were catching the train and when they knew that we were trying to make the next one they held the train for us, which is something we'd never seen done in Japan. Thanks to them the two of us - as well as a couple of other late passengers - were able to make the train on time. We think that the fact that Tottori Station is pretty small may give the station operators a little more flexibility with their schedule; we don't think something like this would happen in a larger station like those in Osaka or Kyoto. If we had missed this train we would've had to wait at least an another hour for it. It was a nice ending to our long day at Tottori city.