So why 6AM? Because the only direct limited express train between Kyoto and Tottori was a 3 hour ride one way, and it ran so infrequently that if I didn't catch the 7AM train, I wouldn't be able to get to Tottori until noon (which wouldn't have worked with what I had planned)! And the journey didn't come without extra costs either. Like the trip to Amanohashidate, the direct train to Tottori used a private line for part of the trip. Fortunately, the JR representative who gave me my reserved seat tickets informed me about the extra costs this time (like they're supposed to; that other day seemed to be a rare lapse in efficient Japanese customer service). So I made the smart choice this time: not use my reserved seat tickets and ride in the unreserved seat car. It still cost me an extra 1670 yen one way, so I don't want to think about how much it would have cost me for a reserved seat!
Like I said in the previous post, everything works out for a reason. I had originally planned to visit Tottori the day before, and while searching up things I could do at the sand dunes, I found a few activities of interest: hang gliding, paragliding, and sandboarding. And of the 3, the cheapest was sandboarding. but it required booking a day in advance, so I had to go to Tottori on Saturday instead of Friday. But it worked out perfectly because I was able to catch the Loop Kirinjishi bus, which only operated on weekends after the summer months. So I was able to easily get to the sand dunes (which are actually north of the town) by a direct bus instead of having to figure out a small town public bus system.
In Tottori.
The sand dunes were incredible. I'm not even going to try to describe it, I'll let the photos do the talking. To say the least, it was quite a sight to take in. As I walked to one of the biggest dunes, which is the one most tourists frequent, I couldn't stop smiling. And the weather was perfect: clear sunny skies, and warm but not too hot, with a nice cool breeze (at least when I first got there). And when I finally made it up the steep slope of the dune (I didn't want to take the more commonly taken steady slope which had a crowd of people) and I was looking out at the Sea of Japan, I had to keep reminding myself I was Japan...I think it's safe to say this type of scenery doesn't come to mind when Japan is mentioned to most people. And as I enjoyed the view from the top of the dune (I think I easily spent at least a half hour just taking in the view), the breeze picked up to quite a strong gust. But despite the large amount of sand now flying around in the air (it was blowing so hard the sand actually stung on bare skin), I exposed my camera to the elements to remember as much as I could, so please enjoy some of my captures!
At the bus stop and parking lot outside the Tottori Sakyu. It's quite evident that attraction has been turned into quite a tourist trap.
See what I mean? Horse-drawn carriage rides and camel rides were available (I didn't try them)...pure touristy activities.
Making my way to the bigger dune closer to the shore. All the people walking to the dune looked reminded me of the exodus scene from "The Ten Commandments" hahaha.
Working my way up the steeper slope of the big dune. I found it difficult to really capture how steep the slope was, but you can get some sort of idea from the last photo - every step actually sank into the sand.
The view from the top of the big dune...truly magnificent.
So magnificent I just sat there and soaked in the view!
Some more views from the top.
I really wish I had something that could record video. The wind had become so strong, the poor bird couldn't fly into the wind. It was actually continually pushed back! I'd never seen anything like that before - it kept flapping, trying to move forward, but it just kept moving backward! It was actually hunting; it had successfully caught a fish from the sea, but the wind was so strong it blew the fish out of its talons and the bird couldn't fly down to its dropped meal.
Trying my best to capture how strong the wind was (look above the surface).
Still enjoying the view.
About to head back down.
Running down the steep slope was so fun! I didn't even care about the sand getting into my boots.
One last photo from the sand dunes.
I had booked a spot for the 1PM sandboarding session (which is why I couldn't take a later train to Tottori), and when I got back to the bus stop area (where all the shops were located), it was already around 12:30PM. So I headed to the only restaurant in the area and grabbed the cheapest thing they had (which wasn't that cheap, it was priced as the only restaurant in the area) - pizza. And it wasn't even pizza with a Japanese spin (sort of like the Pizza Hut pizza in Shanghai), I could tell it was pre-made, just-pop-into-the-oven pizza, and it was $11 CDN! But I didn't really care at that point, I just wanted some food and didn't want to miss the sandboarding. I managed to wolf down the pizza and got to the sandboarding office literally just on time (the Japanese are very punctual). I've never been sandboarding (or snowboarding) before, and the instructor couldn't speak much English, yet I wasn't that nervous trying to learn how to sandboard from instructions given only in Japanese. Tottori is a small town and is mainly visited by local Japanese tourists, so the activities like sandboarding and paragliding are normally only done by the local tourists (I had the people at the K's House hostel make my reservation for me), so there's not real need to know English. But learning to sandboard is pretty easy; I had so much fun trying sandboarding for the first time (Canada has a lot of things, but I don't think sandboarding is one of them?)! After my experience in Japan, I would definitely try sandboarding again. And even though I didn't have a single perfect run (I actually made a run near the end of the 2 hour session without falling over, but I couldn't stick the braking at the end!), it was worth every bit of the 2500 yen (about $30 CDN). Sandboarding is like snowboarding, but the board is smaller, you ride the board barefoot, and you just go straight down the hill (unlike all the zigzagging in snowboarding)! How many people can say they've been sandboarding in Japan? Unfortunately (and this is a big one), I have no photos from the sandboarding! The instructor wouldn't let me bring my DSLR (since it looks like a fancy camera, which I guess it is) because he had past experiences where peoples' camera got ruined by the sand being blown up by the wind, and even though I was willing to take the risk, he didn't want to be held responsible. So you'll just have to take my word for it that I did it; all I have are my memories. Once again, not having a compact camera really screwed me over.
Some much needed ice cream after sandboarding. I had the one on the right, pear flavour. This one actually tasted like pear!
A bus so happened to show up after I bought some ice cream, so I said goodbye to the other Japanese from the group and took the bus back into town to Tottori-jo (Tottori Castle), or at least what remains (all that's left is the foundation). Surprisingly, 90 minutes of straight sandboarding really takes it out of you (I didn't take any breaks like the instructor recommended, I was having way too much fun), mainly climbing up the steep slope to the top each time. So when I saw that I'd have to walk an unknown time uphill (there was surprisingly no signs or marked path anywhere!), I decided not to attempt finding Tottori-jo. Plus, from the foot of Mt. Kyusho (on which the remains of Tottori-jo sit), there didn't look like there was anything spectacular at the top (which is why I guess there were only a couple of Japanese tourists there). The bus was pretty infrequent, and my location didn't look too far away from the train station on the map, so I decided just to walk back. And it actually was pretty close, about a 35 minute stroll. I ended up walking along the main street along the sheltered sidewalks (similar to Kyoto's downtown area), but it was very strange - all the businesses were closed, but it was a Saturday and not even 5PM yet.
At the foot of Mt. Kyusho, in front of the Tottori-jo site. I'm not 100% sure since there were absolutely no signs, but I think the structure in the second photo is the foundation that remains of Tottori-jo. There was a colonial-looking building at the foot too. The sign was in Japanese, so I'm not sure what it is; I was just surprised to see that type of architecture in a small town like Tottori.
A statue I passed along the walk to the train station. Don't ask me who it is, it just looked interesting to me.
I had some time to kill at the station before the next train, so I decided to try grabbing a drink from the vending machine (I'd only bought water, Gatorade, and Aquarius sport drinks from the vending machines, which ). I chose the cheapest one...I had absolutely no idea what I'd get when I chose it since, as you can tell from the 1st and 3rd photos, there wasn't really any obvious indication of what it was (and the few words on it was in Japanese). I was half-expecting something like beef-flavoured soda haha. But it ended up just being clear soda; it tasted a lot like ramune soda (the soda that comes in bottles where you have to pop in a marble to open).
While waiting for the train, I unexpectedly ran into a Japanese girl, Aki, I had met at sandboarding! She spoke the best English of the group, so she tried helping me out with translating the instructions and we talked a bit while sandboarding. Turns out she was from Kyoto and was catching the same train back, and she was riding in the unreserved section too, so we ended up sitting together and chatting the entire 3 hours train ride back. She spoke pretty good English, i mean no where near fluent, but good enough that we could have a good conversation. It was nice to finally get to talk to a local for an extended period of time...I taught her some English, she taught me some Japanese, and she was only 24 there was a lot in common we could talk about. Turns out she worked as a hot yoga instructor! I didn't even think that was done in Japan (don't ask me why). She already had dinner plans with a friend, so we said our goodbyes when we finally got back to Kyoto, and I went to eat at the stand-up noodle shop again - cheap, quick, tasty, and a great portion for the price, what more could you ask for?
The stand-up noodle shop (I don't know the name, it was in Japanese) inside Kyoto station, which I grew to love.
I stopped by the Ministop convenie on the way back to the hostel. I felt I needed another cool treat after spending the day in the sand, and what looked like lemon ice caught my eye. The Japanese are great at a lot (a lot) of things, but the need to work on their lemon ice haha. It literally was lemon ice - a sweetened slice of real lemon at the very top, frozen in ice, with a consistency close to very poorly shaved ice, so it wasn't easy to eat like usual lemon ice should be.
I grabbed a much needed shower (because I had tumbled so many times, there was sand everywhere). Quite tired, I hit the bed pretty quickly, resting up to move to my next destination: Hiroshima.
Bye Kyoto (for now)!
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