Tottori and Sand

Tottori sits on the west coast of Japan, just like Kanazawa. It is known for crab and sand dunes!

Getting to Tottori

We left from Osaka station, on a diesel train! We didn’t really notice it was non-electric, till it started moving and made a grumbling engine noise. Definitely an older train, but other than the noise it felt like any other train. The ride was about 2.5 hours.

A bit shocking was the lack of IC card usage in Tottori. Pretty much the rest of Japan you use an IC card or tickets through an automated machine… but Tottori station had people collecting your tickets:). This reminds me of when I was a kid, and the ticket guys would punch notches in your paper tickets when getting on the train and people validating the ticket/notches when you got off at the destination. Definitely a different kinda place!

Do you think they get some tourists?

Sand Dunes

We went on a weekday when M’s school was off, so there was only 1 bus every couple of hours to the Sand Dunes. We ended up taking a taxi instead of waiting, and there are no subways or trolleys it seems. Might be a good place to rent a car next time?

Anyhow, I kept hearing about the Sand Dunes and they were quite big and impressive. Maybe a bit like Bonny Dunes in Santa Cruz, CA. Might be a good place for a party, as we used to say.

After a bit of trekking around the dunes and beach, the wife mentioned we could get camel rides. She didn’t think it was odd, after all camels like sand and there is sand in the desert, right? For some reason, I don’t think camels are from around here though.

Sand Museum

My favorite part of the trip was the Sand Museum, where they brought in sand sculptors from around the world to build out some amazing works of art on a particular theme. They change it up ever year or so too, so it will be worth another visit someday! This time the theme was Egypt, okay, so maybe the camels do make sense for now.

I was always tempted to touch them, but there were many signs against that idea. It’s amazing that they only use sand and water to construct these, so it’s pretty sustainable too! Imagine your job is to make sand castles all day! Most of the scenes were in a large indoor building to help preserve them, but a couple were outside too.

Kani (Crab) and Seafood Bowls

We can’t skip out on the local specialties, which of course involved local seafoods. The Kani-don (crab over rice) was an incredible deal for like 1200 yen ($10) and we also had a couple of the Kaisen-don (Sashimi over rice). All were quite tasty.

Hotel Monarque

Our hotel was interesting in that it was near the main downtown train station, but had a natural onsen too. The place has a bit of an identity crisis though, since it is a western style city hotel with western style rooms. No yukata (japanese bath robes) allowed in the lobby or restaurants, only when going to the baths. So we had to change back into clothes to go eat:(. Life is tough sometimes, we are used to being in our yukata till we gotta leave.

Dinner was also a mix of western/Japanese, with sashimi salad, potato soup, and Teppanyaki wagyu steak. Food was great, and we happened to be the only diners so the service was always taking care of us. M didn’t eat any of the appetizer, so they threw in an extra desert for her, too. Can you imagine, not liking sashimi/sushi in Japan?!

Sometimes steaks come with a Wasabi sauce.

Is it safe?

It’s amazing to see an Amazon delivery bike parked in front of our condo building, sometimes for like an hour while the delivery person is hauling around packages, while all their stuff is left out. It’s not just Amazon, but Yodobashi (electronics) and all manners of delivery services leave their stuff unlocked/exposed. How quickly would the entire bike would be gone in San Francisco?! Now come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car with smashed in glass either. Do they even sell car alarms? Someone asked me, where are the homeless people? I know of just one guy, who hangs out near the park near the gym. I wish I knew more about the policies that keep the city clean, maybe they could export some of that to the rest of us savages.