Tottori City, Tottori

“Oh man, I love Tottori” - Felix

Tottori is the least populated prefecture, and home to the Tottori Sand Dune. Also the author of Detective Conan was from there. That’s why their airport is the Tottori Sand Dune Conan airport or something like that.

The sand dune is nice! It is truly a singular dune, not plural, but very unique landscape, especially where the sandy stretches meet the greenery at the very ends of the dune. There are two camels from the local zoo who come out to play (one of them is named Lisa).

The real highlight was taking a small boat tour of the nearby coastline. We went first thing in the morning, which turned out to be ideal as the lighting was fantastic. There are larger boat tours, but the smaller boat was able to navigate closer to the coast and even peek into some of the natural caves. Incredibly picturesque, and easily one of the best activities I’ve experienced in Japan. Highly recommended. Fun snacks in the gift shop. Also a pickled onion store? Pickled onions are the Tottori specialty.

We also checked out the Tottori Karo Crab Aquarium, which was very nice! And free! I felt like I understood crabs better after visiting. If you want to understand crabs better, it is the place to go.