Tottori is a Prefecture in Japan. Tottori is also the name of the capital and largest city in the Tottori Prefecture.

Places I visited in Tottori: Tottori Flower Park, Conan Town, The Sand Museum

I actually stayed 2 nights in Tottori but because I took the train from Osaka, and I was going back to Tokyo after Tottori, a lot of my time was consumed by train rides.

FIRST DAY

Arrived in Tottori via Train from Shin-Osaka.

I took the Super Hakuto 5 Train in Platform 9 ( I had a misconception but realized later Super Hakuto is not a Shinkansen). It is less comfy. The train is a bit dated with a funny smell and it was a bit bumpy.

After arriving in Tottori, I just left my bags at the hotel and waited for my next train to Yonago. In Yonago station, I waited for the free shuttle that will take me to the flower park.

Note: Prepare to wait a bit for the next train or bus or whatever. As some of the trains/bus run only every 30 minutes or hourly this part of Japan.

The train ride from Tottori City to Yonagi (another city) also took an hour, and by this time I was already getting tired of all my train rides.

After arriving in the flower park, it was really, really hot (I was in Tottori July 29-31 2023). To protect myself from heat stroke, I boarded the flower train for 300 yen. The admission to the flower park was discounted for foreign nationals if you show your passport, so I only paid 400 yen.

The flower park is pretty but now I get it why people would rather go to Japan in the cooler months. Some of the flowers were also not yet in full bloom in the park.

But the flower field area where there was a long stretch of flowers against Mt. Daisen as a backdrop was particularly stunning.

After riding the flower train, I walked a bit to check out the dome, then I walked up to access the walkway that was supposed to give panoramic views of the park. It was also a shortcut to get to the flower field (plus saves me from the sun).

I managed to catch the free shuttle bus back early because I thought I can get back to Tottori earlier. Unfortunately, the train going back to Tottori isn’t for another hour and a half.

There was nothing to do nearby at Yonago station unless I really want to risk it and venture out. But I don’t want to miss my train and get stuck in Yonago as it is quite far from Tottori. So, I just ate at this newly opened restaurant by the station, and shopped some snacks at 7-11.

It was quickly getting dark when I arrived and had to check in at my hotel. (Read my detailed review on my hotel in Tottori somewhere in the future).

SECOND DAY

Woke up early so I can catch an early train to Yura arriving slightly before 9am. From Tottori to Yura it was nearly an hour and a half of travel time as it was a local train and it stopped at all stations.

I had a bit of an allergy waking up so took some cetirizine (anti-allergy). I was also nauseous from the train rides yesterday so thought I’d take some SeaLegs (anti nausea) for the trip.

Results – I dozed on the train and mistakenly went down 3 stops earlier than my intended stop.

Got off from the train at Matsuzaki accidentally. It was before 9am so hardly saw any people. Waited for another 30-40 minutes to wait for my next train to take me to Yura town.

Arrived in Yura town around 0940 am. That’s okay as the Conan Café and Belka shopping street open at 10am. However, the museum already opened at 0930 and that place was still about 20 min walk from the station.

And so, I walked in the heat. There were a lot of Conan Stuff to occupy me, so I stopped now and again to take photos of Conan characters.

Read more about Conan Town in my future post.  

I made sure to check my time on what time the train would get back to Tottori. I was hoping to ride the Conan train but no luck. I saw in their timetable it runs very early and quite late.

Did not Make a glitch getting back even though I had to transfer trains (with no platform guide or anything) it was the only train there at that time so I guess that was it.

After arriving, went straight to the tourist information desk at Tottori station and asked for help to get to the sand museum. I read in other websites and blogs about a 3000 yen blue taxi for tourist in Tottori. Unfortunately, it’s not happening anymore. Had to take a bus to get to the sand museum.

As per the lady from the tourist center, I was supposed to get off at the 2^nd to the last stop. But the guide online said to get off at the tenko sanboden (or guest center) and it’s a 1 min walk from there.

This is also true but it’s not available all the time. This is the second entrance and the lady said it was going to close at 3:30 pm although the sand museum will still be open at 5pm via the Main Entrance. It’s a good thing I did not dawdle at the chairlift. So the tourist center was right and the guide online was partially right.

Note: Theme this year was EGYPT and it was a really amazing exhibition.

I exited the museum again an hour early till the next bus ride. There was another bus stop down the road as per google but I did not check it beforehand. I only followed the tourist guide they printed so I missed the timing for this bus and sticked around to follow my original bus plan back to Tottori station.

Bus fare was 380 yen per way from tottori station to the sand dunes. How do I know the fare price? I asked the tourist center lady :D.

Sand museum entrance was 600 yen which I bought at the information section inside the train station. I think it had a slight discount.

And that’s it for Tottori.

(Btw, Had to pay extra via cash on the conductor when passing thru chizu railway on my train ride from Osaka to Tottori.)

My expense in Tottori for 2 days for sightseeing (excluding train rides as I had a JR pass)

Tottori Flower Park : Flower train + admission = 700 yen

Sand Museum: Admission + Bus ride = 1,360 yen

Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory = 700 yen