Did you know that Japan has massive sand dunes? One of the lesser-known prefectures, Tottori, is located on the west coast of the main island of Japan along the Sea of Japan. The Tottori Sand Dunes (鳥取砂丘, Tottori Sakyu) are the largest in Japan and one of the main attractions for visitors, regularly pulling in a few million tourists a year.

Tottori Sand Dunes

The Tottori Sand Dunes are part of the San’in Kaigan National Park, a UNESCO Global Geopark. If you are into nature travel, this is definitely a corner of Japan you should visit. At 16 km along the coast and at one point coming nearly 2 km into the land, the tallest dunes are 50m (!).

Side note, I use to only speak metric for running, after living outside America so long, it’s grown on me completely.

The dunes were created thousands of years ago by deposits from the near by Sendai river. The main visitor center gives you a detailed history of the changes to the land as well as insight into the creatures and vegetation that make these dunes their home.

Tourist Attractions

Along with enjoying nature, you have a wide variety of gimmicky tourist attractions to choose from. Camel rides and a random little ski lift to give you an aerial view. For the more adventurous, there is sandboarding or paragliding.

Bottom line? You can spend some time here.

Hungry? There are several restaurants in the area. Make sure you try some crab while you are in Tottori, the local specialty.

Being Prepared for the Sand

Forgot to pack the right shoes for hiking around on the sand? They have slippers for you to borrow at the Visitor Center.

The weather is apt to change at any point while in Japan, especially this close to the sea so make sure you come prepared with some rain gear. (For my go–to items, check out this post.)

Getting to Tottori Sand Dunes

Probably the most convenient way to get around town is the Loop Bus. However, unless you are there in August, it only runs on weekends and holidays.

You can buy your 600 yen pass at the train station at the information booth (and it also has an English copy of the timetable) or onboard.

Not there on a day for the pass? From Tottori Station, take the Nikko or Hinomaru bus bound for Tottori Sakyuu. For more on bus rides, this guide will help you feel more comfortable.

Things to do near by

Even though it’s not as known, Tottori has a lot going for it. Don’t miss the Sand Museum which regularly changes displays.

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Getting to Tottori

From Kyoto, you can hop on the Super Hakuto (スーパーはくと), a limited express train service straight to Tottori. Getting a JR Rail Pass? If you are limiting your visit to this side of the country, the Sanyo-San’in Area Pass is much cheaper than the “All Japan” pass.

Where to stay

If you aren’t looking for anything fancy, APA Hotels are a great way to go. They are generally very inexpensive and conveniently located close to the railway stations. Many of them also have public baths on site for the true Japan experience.

Save this for later

Not all of the 100 finest castles of Japan are still intact castles. Sometimes all that remains are just really awesome foundations. Or just earthworks like Takaoka. Little remains of Tottori Castle Ruins, however, it does boast one of the original gates. Located on the eastern side of Tottori, the capital of Tottori Prefecture, the castle was built in 1532 and last served by the Ikeda clan.

Make your way up and over the castle wall foundations of the lower baileys and imagine what it use to be like with the palace structures in tact.

200 Day Seige of Tottori Castle

Tottori Castle is famous for being the location of a 200 (!!!) day siege. Everyone inside the castle slowly ran out of provisions and they were even starting to look towards cannibalism to survive – eek! Can you imagine?! As part of the surrender, the castle lord from the Kikkawa Clad had to commit suicide.

Where was the main keep of Tottori castle?

So where was the actual castle? Or what people tend to think of “the castle” in Japan – the main keep! It can be confusing with the different bailey structures that make up a Japanese castle. The original keep structure was WAY up on the hill, or should I say, Mount Kyusho. If you like and have the time, there are hiking trails to take you to the top. Didn’t end up so well of a location as in 1692 it was hit by lightning and burned.

There are two hiking trails to get you to honmaru or where the castle keep used to be. One will take an hour and one is an hour 20 minutes. There is also a trail to the neighboring mountain that was involved with the siege and is now a nationally designated historic site.

They didn’t bother rebuilding it and then a couple of decades later they lost a huge chunk of buildings to another fire. After taking the time to rebuild some of those buildings, including the ninomaru palace, it got hit by the “one castle one providence” rule from the Meiji era reforms and was destroyed.

The city is working on various projects to restore some of Tottori castle.

Best Cherry Blossom viewing

Japanese castles were giant complexes and took up a lot of space with different tiers of buildings. Similar and different from ones I’ve seen elsewhere in the world. One thing the city of Tottori has done is planted hundreds of Cherry Blossom, or Sakura 桜, trees in amongst the Tottori castle ruins making a great spot to have hanami in the spring.

Where do you get the stamp?

Stamp? Yes, Japan is full of “Stamp Rallies“. In the land of Pokemon, you can find a number of things “to catch them all”. Castles being no different. Between the 100 finest books, there is quite regularly other stamp rallys going on for tourism promotion. If that’s the case, you may have to do some digging for all of the different stamps.

The good thing? “Stamp” is a borrowed word in this case and therefore in katakana. If you are having trouble finding them, ask for “城のスタンプ” (shi-ro no su–ta-n–pu).

Tottori is in ruins so you’ll need to go to Jinpukaku, the stately white building built on the grounds to collect your stamp. It’s a cool side trip in and of itself, it was the first building in the prefecture to have electricity!

Disclosure: Kristenabroad.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate programs. For some links to products or services in this article, I may earn a small commission by you using my link.  The price for you is not affected.

Have you gotten your 100 finest castle book yet?

Visiting Tottori Castle Ruins

The best way for getting around Tottori City is to utilize the 100 yen bus. However, the castle ruins are also not a far walk from the train station. Getting your walk on in Japan is almost a rite of passage.

What’s your favorite?

Do you have a favorite castle? Leave me a note in the comments so I can check it out!