What to see in Japan: the dunes of Tottori

If you think of Japan, what comes to mind? Surely everything except the desert, dunes and camels, things from the Middle East to Japan. But are landscapes that can be admired even going to the East, specifically in Tottori. Tottori is a city of Japan, the capital of the prefecture of the same name which is located on the island of Honshu. The city is famous for its sand dunes, which cover an area of ​​over 30 square kilometers and is the only desert of Japan. These dunes are very old: they were formed over 100 million years ago thanks to the sediments transported by the river that flows down from the mountains Chūgoku Sendai, transforming them into the Sea of ​​Japan. Sea currents and the wind moving the sand, constantly changing the shape of the dunes. The dunes of Tottori are a tourist attraction, especially for the Japanese, who reach Tottori to make a unique experience, turning camel in the sand dunes. At the time the camels are only five, but the dunes of Tottori are a tourist attraction that you are thinking of enhancing, including through the opening of an educational museum: it's Hokuei-cho, an interesting interactive museum of manga. Camels, desert and manga. Could miss Japan Japanese comics? Of course not. So the Tottori airport was recently renamed "Airport Sand Dunes Conan", dedicating it to another important attraction of the city. And 'here that is born Gosho Aoyama, the creator of the sympathetic detective Conan that has earned a good number of followers in Italy, so the governor of the prefecture has opened a few days ago the airport with a lot of characters and souls around the airport. In fact, he just put the clothes of the young detective, disguising himself as Conan, in blue with big red parpaglino. To reach Tottori, located in the southwest of the island of Honshu, you can get there by train, with the JR pass, going down by Shinkansen to take a local train: one hour and 50 minutes from Okayama, a bit ' more from Osaka and Himeji. In Tottori, finally, is held every year the World Sand Sculpture, tournament of sand sculptures, in which competing artists from all over the world.