A wonderful combination of hot spring and beach resort, Kaike Onsen is located in Tottori's Yonago city, next to Shimane and within view of Mt. Daisen. The white beach has been voted one of Japan's hundred best, and the hot springs were discovered in 1890 when a local fisherman found hot water gush...
Opened in 1999, Tottori Hanakairo Park, or simply Flower Park, is an immense flower garden spreading across 50 hectares within view of Mt. Daisen. Flowers are in bloom all year round, including lilies, orchids, hibiscus and a rose garden. Near the center of the park, you can stroll through the mai...
Rising from the Japan Sea coast, Daisen is both the Chugoku region's highest mountain and, from ancient times, a vital part of the area's spiritual culture. The Izumo Kokudo Fudoki, an early 8th century document chronicling features of the Izumo area, referred to the volcano as Ōkami-take, the Moun...
Chiyoda is located in northwestern Hiroshima prefecture, about one and a half hours from the city by car. The town, though small, is famous for its preservation of local performing arts, including kagura dance, the hanadaue rice-planting event, and hanagasa.
In the hanagasa dance male dancers dre...
For 1,300 years, both locals and visitors have enjoyed the Iwai Hot Springs, located on Tottori's Gamo River. Among onsen aficionados, Iwai is known both for its special bathing song and for the custom called "yukamuri," in which hot water is ladled up and poured over the bather's towel-covered hea...
Near Tottori's famous dune fields lies the Uradome coastline, part of the Sanin Coast National Park. The area is celebrated for the fantastic shapes created by wind and water, including cliffs, beckoning caves, and strange, twisted islets bristling with windswept pine trees. The blue-green water i...
Far and away the most famous sight in Tottori are its sand dunes, stretching across 16 kilometers east to west at the prefecture's easternmost end. Reaching as high as 90 meters, the dunes are an instantly recognizable symbol of Tottori for Japanese visitors, who arrive in droves to disappear among...
800 years ago, according to legend, a samurai named Okubo Samanosuke was traveling through modern day Tottori prefecture. In return for his having spared the life of a white wolf, Myoken, god of the North Star, appeared in his dreams and directed him to a steaming hot spring, the origin for the famo...
Just north of the quaint city of Kurayoshi, visitors will find Lake Togo, with Hawai Onsen on the western shore and Togo Onsen on the east. At Hawai, the hot water gushes from the floor of the lake, and some of the hotels are built to look as though they rise straight from the water. At Togo, orch...
So named because they were first discovered growing wild by a 13 year old boy near the turn of the last century, Tottori's 20th Century Pears are one of the prefecture's most successful exports. Round and delicately green or golden, the juicy pears are usually served chilled and cut, and are a favo...
The city of Kurayoshi is located in central Tottori prefecture, and must be one of the most charming spots in Japan. The old Edo period grid of streets is lined with picturesque buildings, including many with the handsome whitewash "soil-lacquered" walls and rich red roof tiles that are an emblem o...
In addition to being Tottori's leading port city, Sakaiminato is the birthplace of Mizuki Shigeru, one of Japan's best-loved manga artists. Born left-handed, Mizuki lost his left arm in New Guinea during the Second World War, teaching himself to write and draw with his right hand after his return. ...
