Tottori

On the last weekend of my summer vacation, I went on a trip to Tottori with Shinya. It was our big event for the summer. I chose Tottori because even though it’s not super popular, it has a few famous sights, and it’s somewhere I hadn’t been yet. I’ve already been to most of the really famous places, so I’m trying to make my way around to the slightly less famous places and increase the number of prefectures I’ve visited. We left on a Saturday morning and returned Sunday night. It was short, but nice. It would’ve been too expensive to stay two nights since we were staying in a nice ryokan. Plus, Shinya had to work on late on Friday and early on Monday (my first day back to work was on the following Tuesday).

On Saturday, we rode trains from our town to Tottori Station. We reserved our seats in advance so we would be able to sit. It was roughly a 3 hour trip. We didn’t take a shinkansen, but instead we rode a tokkyu train (in English maybe it’s called like super express or something). It’s fast, but not as fast as a shinkansen…or as expensive. I always kind of like long train rides. It’s fun to relax, eat snacks, play games on your phone, and sleep lol.

When we arrived in Tottori, it was around lunch time, so we went to a soba restaurant we researched in advance. One of the specialties in Tottori is soba apparently. On the way, I was able to take in the atmosphere of Tottori. I saw these umbrella things all over the place on manhole covers, in the station, in stores, etc. I later found out that they are called “shan shan.” They are umbrellas used in Tottori’s most famous festival. People dance with the umbrellas in a parade. So basically shan shan is their mascot. I came to like shan shan very much because they were silly and fun to say.

Huge shan shan in the station.

Shan shan man hole cover,

Me with a shan shan. :)

Tottori City had a rural feel to it. It was pretty small and quaint. There was one main street that extended away from the station and was lined with little mom & pop shops and restaurants. There were hardly any people anywhere! I don’t think I saw any other foreigners.

Tottori looked like this.

The soba restaurant was fun. The noodles were cut differently than regular soba. It tasted very homemade and delicious!

Soba!

After lunch, we wanted to explore a little before checking in to our ryokan (Japanese style hotel). We went to the tourist center and learned about this awesome deal where you could rent a taxi for 3 hours for only 1000 yen. This special service was only available for foreigners, and since I’m a foreigner, I was able to get the deal! The tourist center worker made us an itinerary and gave it to our taxi driver who became our own little tourist guide.

We got to see two different lakes, a shrine, and the ocean. Our taxi driver was the one who taught us about shan shan and other various things about Tottori. I was really excited to see the ocean. The taxi driver even took our picture for us! The shrine we went to was called Hakuto Shrine. There’s a historical story behind the shrine involving a woman and a rabbit, but I didn’t really understand. Shinya and I went through all of the processes of going to a shrine. We washed our hands and mouth, bowed to the god, threw in money, clapped, rang the bell and so on. We also chose mikuji (fortunes). They weren’t that good, so we tied them to the tree.

LakeKoyama.

Sea of Japan.

At Hakuto Shrine.

Bad mikuji.

We got to our ryokan around 6pm. Our room was so spacious and nie! We could see the harbor from our window. We had some hot tea and then immediately went to take baths in the onsen. The onsen also had a nice view of the harbor. I relaxed and bathed for an hour or so, put on my yukata, and met Shinya in a private dining room. Kaiseki ryouri (a meal consisting of many courses of seasonal/regional specialties) is one of the amazing things about staying in a ryokan. It was my first time to eat it. I’ve stayed in cheap ryokan before, and one even had an onsen, but this was my first time to stay in such a nice place and have kaiseki ryouri. The meal was probably my favorite thing about the trip. I think it was Shinya’s too. There was an old woman who served us all the food in our private room. She complimented us a lot and called us oniisan and oneesan. It was so much fun haha! The food was INCREDIBLE! I’ve never had such a fresh feast of seafood before! I got to eat crab legs which I was really excited about. We got to try white squid which is famous in Tottori. There was also sashimi, scallops cooked in rice wine, kamameishi (which we had to have made into onigiri because we were so full), and much much much more! We were so stuffed, we couldn’t move haha! We both had drinks during dinner, and I had fun pouring Shinya’s beer for him. It’s a Japanese thing. After dinner, we relaxed in our room while drinking, playing games, and watching TV. It was a really good day!

Dinner time!!

Scallops cooked in sake.

Sashimi.

White squid.

Crab legs.

I forgot what this is called, but ya, it's a fish lol.
I put a shiso leaf over its face as I ate it.

Shinya very full and happy.

The next morning, we woke up, and after I took a shower, we had a nice Japanese style breakfast. It was my first time to have a Japanese breakfast. Shinya taught me how to eat rice with tsukemono and nori.

Breakfast.

After breakfast, we checked out and took a taxi to Tottori Sakyu. Tottori Sakyu is the main famous sight in Tottori. It’s basically a small desert with large sand dunes that borders the ocean. There are also camels! It was a tough climb to the top, but we made it and could see the beautiful ocean…it was overcast outside though. I learned Shinya was afraid of heights, so we quickly went down the other side so I could play in the water. There were people practicing parasailing off of the sand dunes. That was fun to watch.

Tottori Sakyu.

View from the top. It doesn't look very high, but if you look
at the coast, there is a tiny dot whit is actually a person.
That should give you some perspective. Poor Shinya was
shaking at the top because he was scared of the height.

Playing in the water.

So then, something kind of bad happened…it started down pouring! Like the worst it could possibly be. We got drenched to the point where it would be impossible to ride on a train back because we would ruin the seats and probably get sick from being soaked and under the air conditioning. We still had quite a while before our scheduled train time, so Shinya suggested that after buying souvenirs at the nearby shop and changing into our dirty, sweaty clothes from the previous day (Shinya only brought one pair of jeans and shoes so he couldn’t change), that we go to a love hotel to shower, and dry our clothes with a hair dryer. We were planning on going to the sand museum and possibly having lunch somewhere, but our plans had to change.

*********************************************************************************

So now I’m going to tell you about love hotels haha! It was my first time to go to one! The reason I am telling you about it is because we didn’t go there to do the dirty lol. I wouldn’t want to share the story if that were the case. Love hotels are an interesting part of Japanese culture, so I’m glad I can give you explanation!

Maybe you are wondering why Shinya would suggest going to a love hotel and not some other hotel. Good question. Love hotels can be rented for a short period of time like 2 hours, 3 hours, half days, etc. Love hotels range in price depending on how nice they are and how long you stay. Nice ones can be quite expensive (they resemble regular hotels and can have different amenities), but standard ones are quite affordable. I believe we rented our room for about 3 hours and it was around 4000 yen (2000 yen each).

So when you walk in, there is no receptionist. I think there is someone on staff, but they are hidden and will only come if beckoned. There is a wall with pictures of rooms with buttons for each room. The pictures that are lit up mean that those rooms are available. The rooms usually have different themes or styles. When you press the button, signs light up on the walls pointing you in the direction of your room. Your room of choice will automatically be unlocked for you. There are no keys involved. You can lock the door once you enter.

The rooms themselves aren’t that much different at first glance from a regular hotel room, unless you get a crazy themed one or something. There are some differences though. Overall, the décor is a little more tacky than a regular hotel (I’m sure there are all sorts of style love hotels, though). The color scheme is a little less neutral and there are gaudy fake flower arrangements and whatnot.

I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s pretty standard that every love hotel room has a full size bath in case you’d like to bathe together and a washlet toilet for cleaning your privates before and after you know what. In the shower, they have every necessity you can think of: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, shaving cream, towels, robes, hair brushes, dryers, aftershave, lotions, cologne/perfume, and more. In the fridge, there is wide selection of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. It’s set up where you can put in a coin and open each slot for where each drink is contained. On the table, they provide a lighter and ashtray. Next to the bed in a heart-shaped dish are condoms. The lights are on dimmers. There is a very large screened TV in which I believe you can watch porn. We didn’t turn on the TV, though. I have just been told that that’s what you can do. There is also a small vending machine in the room that contains…things. I didn’t look too close because I didn’t want Shinya to notice, but I think there were things like mini vibrators, condoms, panties, handcuffs, lube and stuff like that. Kinda wish I took a closer look haha!

When you are finished, you put your money into a machine in the room. You don’t set the amount of time you want stay in advance. From the time you open the door, a timer begins that keeps track of how long you’ve been there. When you are ready to leave, it tells you how much money you owe according to how long you stayed. The whole process is so discreet, and you don’t have to deal with any staff.

I actually think love hotels are really cool! I’d like to go back sometime when I don’t have to go just to dry my clothes and take a shower haha. ;) I kind of wonder why we don’t have things like this in the U.S. My first thought was that many young Japanese people live with their parents until they get married, so Japanese couples have nowhere to go to be alone and do their business. In America, there are cheap motels for people in that situation…but they are not clean or well equipped like Japanese love hotels. Also, Japan does have this whole weird sex culture thing. I don’t know…what are your thoughts? Why do you think love hotels are popular in Japan but not so much overseas?

*********************************************************************************

Anyway, just to finish up my Tottori trip story, when we finished showering, eating our leftover onigiri, and, drying our clothes, we made our way towards the station by walking. We killed the last little bit of time by having tea and coffee in a café while talking about the highlights of our trip. The train ride home felt long, and we were both very tired by the end of it, but we had a nice first trip together. Shinya doesn’t travel that much, so he was really excited about the whole experience and wanted to talk about the next trip right away. I told him it was up to him where we went next since I chose Tottori. I’m looking forward to wherever and whenever that’ll be. I’ll keep you updated!