I haven't flown off for a side trip to North Africa.  This is Tottori on the Sea of Japan side of the country.  It's famous for its sand dunes which are said to extend for 16 kilometres.  The tourist literature declares camel rides to be a thing but sitting on a camel to have your photo taken was all I saw.

I had my photo taken as I travelled up a chairlift from the sands by an automatic camera that asked me to smile and promised me a holiday memorial.  There it was on display at a stall as I dismounted but I didn't buy.  

The journey from Beppu to Tottori involved three trains.  My first change was another finely timed move between platforms that delivered me just in time to step aboard a bullet train.  It was the Japanese who invented just in time manufacturing after all.  From the bullet train that fairly whipped along I transferred to one that did a fair bit of hanging about to let oncoming trains past but that was all built into the timetable and we arrived on schedule.

That single track section was through very lovely countryside.  I enjoyed the views of fields and tree covered mountains.

When I set off to find my hotel assisted by Google I wondered why I was circumnavigating the station.  Fool that I am I was following the driving route not the walking route!!

The TV news in the evening of my arrival had an item about the theatre that I posted about a couple of days ago.  There was a show going on, some sort of comedy involving kids and adults, but they showed you the workings of the revolve and in the action someone was hoisted up on a trap.  It was a confirmation that that theatre is an important cultural spot.

I didn't fancy trudging down to the bottom and up the other side to stare at the sea and then trudge back again so I went up the chairlift I'd arrived on and set off to walk to the sand dunes visitor centre.  Unfortunately I went entirely the wrong way and found myself heading along a road called Pear Picking Street in the general direction of Kyoto.  I don't suppose I walked more than a mile, maybe two but I was happy to wait ten minutes at a bus stop and ride back into town.

Tottori didn't seem to have many other attractions centrally.  There was a pear museum I fancied visiting but it was in a town an hour or so away so having done a few bus circuits of the town I settled on a visit to the ruins of its castle.

That was worth doing.  The ruins are actually the stone foundations and walls.  The actual castle building was of wood and suffered from fires and so forth and was eventually demolished.  You can go up various flights of steps to different viewpoints and sit contemplating the town.

How they managed to build those stone walls in the 16th and 17th centuries is a mystery to me.  Shaping the corner stones on its own seems like a lifetime's work.

There's also a fine looking western style building called Jinpukaku but although you could get into the garden the house itself was fenced off sadly.

It was beautifully warm today with a pleasant breeze so I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade luxuriating in the weather and deciding against visiting the various museums on offer.