Japan's only desert — sand dunes, pears, and the Sea of Japan coast
Tottori is the least-populated prefecture capital in Japan, but its calling card is unique in the country: the Tottori Sand Dunes — a stretch of coastal dunes up to 90 metres high and 16 kilometres long that feel genuinely Saharan from the crests. The dunes are a result of sand carried from the Chugoku mountains by the Sendai River and shaped by the prevailing Sea of Japan winds, and have been accumulating for 100,000 years. The city also grows the Nijisseiki pear — a sweet, crunchy variety prized across Japan — and has a small but excellent castle ruin.
Tottori was the castle town of the Ikeda clan during the Edo period, and the castle ruins (Tottori Castle, or Takujo — 'crane's nest castle') sit on a steep forested hill above the city with views to the coast. The region was the scene of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's brutal 'hunger siege' of 1580–81, during which he cut off Tottori Castle's food supply for over 200 days, reducing the defenders to cannibalism before surrender — an episode that shocked even contemporary observers. Tottori's sand dunes have been a tourist attraction since the late 19th century and are now the centrepiece of the San'in K…