Japan Trip Day 5: From Tottori to Tokyo

The amazing experience I have at Tottori is ruined by the bus trip to the airport. I don't know why the bus driver did not open the trunk for my luggage. Lucky my luggage size is just nice to move in and the bus was not as crowded as the bus in Tokyo. The staff at ANA check in counter was amazing though. Initially she spoke to me in Japanese but after seeing my passport, she spoke to me in English. To make use of the time, I still took photos of the Conan stuff around the airport. I found out that there is a viewing gallery on the third floor. There is a place to take photo but I did not dare to ask the only man who was around that area. I am biased looking at his cigarette and beer. If only there was staff or other tourist, I would be daring to ask them to help take a photo. I also did not dare to take photos in the walking area from the gate to the plane T_T The framed pictures are Conan illustrations available in the artbooks so it is okay to miss.

The Airport Limousine bus that stopped directly at Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay only started at 11am. I should have had a meal in the airport first and took the 11am bus instead of taking 1030am bus that stopped at Disneyland. I wasted more time to find the bus stop for the shuttle bus to the hotels and after finding it, the shuttle bus to my hotel is not as frequent as to Hilton Tokyo Bay hotel, for example.

My first impression for Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay is not good. The Disney shop is small and there isn't even a kombini. There is a drug store with overpriced drinks and lack of the usual kombini food for breakfast. Bleah..

I had lunch at Ikspiari food court for the first time. I tried Susan's Meat Ball since I wanted to have rice. I saw a sign for Mastercard Paypass but my card did not work :( Funny.. The normal credit card function worked though.

I went to Akihabara and for the first time in history, I came back without anime or manga stuff. I only bought a new SD card for my camera. I went to Zoff to get my sister Winnie the Pooh spectacles. While waiting for it, I only visited Akihabara Radio Kaikan, Lashinbang, and Mandarake. I could not find the GraffArt shop for Digimon items even with Google Maps. Haiz.. As usual I went to Don Quijote for Kit Kat and other Japanese snacks to bring home. The PRC guy at the tax free counter was fucking rude sia. These people really spoil Japanese hospitality reputation. I bought Conan face masks. I was tempted to buy a box for each design but decided to try a piece each first. Haha.. I don't normally like to use face mask since I find it sticky. Currently my face is peeling so I don't mind trying these Conan masks. Lol.

So cute right? Except for the hannin of course

I decided to just return to hotel and say goodbye to Nakano or Odaiba. My legs were tired which is an obvious sign of aging sigh.. Back in the hotel, my impression improved slightly as my luggages were already delivered to my room. Wow.. The hotel room is even more amazing than the King Celebrio Room at Hilton Tokyo Bay that I had last September. The bathroom is luxuriously spacious with separate bath tub for soaking and shower room for showering. Suprisingly there is no bottled drinking water since the water from tap is safe to drink o_0 I have 5000 yen voucher to use in the restaurant downstairs. There is no drink but at least I can use it to get breakfast from the bakery and perhaps a proper hotel breakfast once. One more amazing thing that I have to mention with the hotel room is audio system goes all the way to the toilet. So yes I can soak and relax in the bathtub with music from the room instead of from my mobile device. Lol.

With such a long corridor, it feels like an apartment than a hotel room :D

There is still quite a big space next to the bed farther from the window. The music box to control the audio is here (not in the photo).

I was standing at the sink area so the bathroom is even bigger than what the photo shows

Shiseido wor :p

The toiletries near to the sink. The moisturising gel will be useful for my sunburnt neck.

I spent the evening checking out Disney Store at Ikspiari and Bon Voyage. I only bought peanut snacks from Bon Voyage. I am tempted to get Baymax plushie or a Baymax and Hiro hugging plushie but I will reserve them until the final day if my luggage still have space. I bought drinking water from kombini here and carried them back to the hotel. Another sign of aging is that I decide to just wait for the shuttle bus from Bayside station to the hotel. In September, I was impatient to wait for the bus and I preferred to walk to Hilton which is actually further than Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay from Bayside station. All this aging in mere 6 months.. Sheesh.. For now, I shall have a good rest to prepare for hopefully another magical day at Disneysea.

Japan Trip Day 4: Tottori Sand Dunes and Hokuei (aka Conan Town) again

Today is the day I have been looking forward to. After Conan Town, doing the activities at Tottori Sand Dunes is reason why I want to visit Tottori. The instructor at the paragliding school was kind. I initially opted a rakuchin course which is 3500 yen more expensive than the normal course. The difference is for the instructor to help me carry the 10kg equipment. I thought we would walk all the way to the top of Umanose like what I did on Friday. There is no way I can do that with a 10kg load. That is not where we would try flying so I was convinced to carry the 10kg equipment and save my money. Haha..

3 layers were not good enough for the wind and I had to put on the additional layer of 'flight suit'. I should have removed my ultra light down. I looked so puffed and fat :( And pink was not my choice wor..

Walking with the 10kg load to the flying spot

Sadly the wind was too strong for paragliding :( The activity was switched to hang gliding. Although I prefer paragliding, I never experienced hang gliding before and I was okay to try it. Well I came all the way here after all so why not. I will definitely recommend paragliding over hang gliding. Paragliding allows you to fly on air by yourself. Hang gliding is more lame: you don't fly so high and you have 2 people holding the wings of the glider. It is natural since hang glider is heavier and there is no way unexperienced people to operate it alone.

Another irritating for me is the false advertisement that this is a half-day activity. There were two other tourists with me and we took turns. Overall it only took 2.5 hours from the first time I reached the office (for registration etc) until I left the place. If there were no other tourists, it would be even shorter for me. It should not be called as half-days since essentially it was only for 5 attempts: 

1) Hanging on my arms with feet unsupported. I was only on air for less than 15 seconds and my feet were only 50cm (or less) above the ground.

It is actually very tiring for both arms to support the whole body weight like this

2) Hanging on my arms with feet resting on the frame. It was like flying but in a sitting position. The duration on air was also about 15 seconds. The flight height was the same but it felt higher as in this position the leg was raised to a sitting position and the lowest of point of the body (i.e. butt) was about 1.5m from the ground.

What a weird sitting position lol

3) Repeat of 1) now with a harness to support the body. Flight time was 20 seconds.

Behind my back is a harness and I was actually 'sitting' on the butt support instead of fully standing

4) Repeat of 3) but this time I was to let go my hands off the frame to experience a more natural feel of flying. Flight time was 25 seconds. I was actually quite scared to let go both of my arms so during the 25 seconds on air, the instructors and I kept exchanging "let go" and "are you sure I can let go?" lol.

Quite obvious that I felt uncomfortable letting my arms free

5) The final and most 'shiok' one. I had to put on an additional flying jacket that will support my lower body when my body was in a Superman's flight position.

Without the jacket, there is no way I can make my body straight horizontally like that

I did not take photos as I asked my guide to help me shoot videos instead. That is how I can remember the flight time and height. The picture above are the screenshots from the videos. Because the frame has to be supported by the instructors, the flight height is always about there. I don't usually take videos so my threshold for quality is quite low. I am emo with the photos taken by my guide but I am pretty happy with the videos.

Although the wind was strong, I think my guide somehow convinced his friend to allow us to try paragliding but in tandem with him (instead of alone like in the actual paragliding activity). The flight was only for less than 15 seconds and this was the most shiok one. It really felt like flying because we were so high on air. No video but photos for this one and all the photos were bad T_T

The only nice paragliding photo that I have

It was the other tourist up there. I took this just to show how high on air the flight was.

If I want to be positive, I will think it is a blessing in disguise that I was able to experience both hang gliding and paragliding. If I want to be negative, I am quite emo because I think paragliding is a better experience and I did not really do that because of the wind.

After this, I went to ride the camel. It is expensive (1300 yen per person) and I just went YOLO since where else can I find camel in this part of the world? I have a change of thought now. Haha.. It is not worth it. It was only a 3-4 minutes ride and it was not even a far journey towards the Umanose. Bleah. I also did not get to interact with the camel :(

I wanted to go to toilet first before going to the sand museum. I ended up stuck at the Service Center. I was not interested but my guide was so eager to explain to me. Although I was not that interested, I still learnt a few things so it was not really wasting time. I learn the sand dunes history (read: how it is shrinking thanks to human development), I solve the mystery of the oasis (there is clay layer beneath the oasis and that is why water cannot seep through fully), and I know someday I have to return to Tottori to visit the Uradome Coast which I do not have the chance during this trip.

I had to finally bid farewell to my guide. It really has been my pleasure and honour to get such a nice guide like him. He even gave me a packet of rice cracker produced by his farm. Tottori Sand Museum is not something I am that excited with. It feels more like something 'compulsory' to see since I am already here. No doubt the sculptures are amazing. It is just that I don't really enjoy the South Asia theme and the overall museum is quite small.

The sculpture greeting us at the entrance

The view from 2nd floor of the viewing gallery. Yup.. that's all the area of the whole museum

I took my own bus trip to return to Tottori City and everything I learnt from my guide on Friday could not be fully applied since the bus ticket machine was not working. I did not know the number when I boarded and how much to pay so with half-baked Japanese, I had to ask the bus driver upon arrival. I survived. Haha..

With half a day left, it was time to decide how to make a full use of it. I wanted to go to post office to ship my Conan plushies home to give more shopping space for me at Tokyo. I wanted to explore the shopping malls in Tottori City. I also wanted to go back to Conan Town for the purikura as souvenir. 

Despite the tight timing, I decided to return to Conan Town by train this time. I only bought snack from 7-11 for lunch so that I did not miss the 2pm train to reach Yura Station at about 3pm. I only had less than 2 hours since I had to take the next train returning to Tottori at 450pm. The next one after that will be too late.

I did not make a wrong decision since the train station is also full of Conan. I bought the guidebook and Conan postal stamp sheets from the tourist information center. Since I would be walking all the way to Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory (GAMF) again, I decided to play the stamp collection. It brought me to a bookshop where I bought a book about the most recent Conan movie only released last Friday.

Stamp sheets, notebook, guidebook, and the sticker prize for getting at least 5 out of 9 stamps for the stamp rally

1.5 hours to explore Conan Town is not enough :( I initially wanted to eat or buy ice cream at Conan House but I had no time. Sigh.. perhaps I should not waste too much time with taking photos of the things around the city since I already took photos on Saturday. I was hesitating about purikura but in the end I was glad I did 2 rounds. My only regret was that my hair was already a mess because of the head gear this morning. I also bought Conan medallions from the Conan shop. I never saw this during the previous 2 visits. I met the tourists that went hang gliding to me this morning. I decided to be antisocial haha.. If we had a small chat, I would be losing even more time.

As a nice surprise, I got a Conan train for the journey back to Tottori. Hehe..

Conan decoration is only at the outside of the train

I decided to be thick skin and somehow was successful in sending my plushies home with a mixture of Japanese and English. Lol. I went to check the bus terminal so that I would know where to go tomorrow morning and then I had dinner at Nana's Green Tea. With my hand luggage empty now, I decided to buy souvenirs to give away something special from Tottori instead from Tokyo. I also bought pear juice to drink. Overall it is my first time not overeating on my final night. Haha..

My guide said that he might contact me in the evening for dinner. I had a mixed feeling about this as I want to rest but at the same time I also look forward to try local places. He was still stuck at the school until past 830pm so no more dinner and that means I can rest earlier tonight. He may be travelling to Singapore sometime this year so perhaps we still can meet up. So far, it has been amazing at Tottori and I thank God for having me to stay here for 4 days. It is still not enough going to Tokyo Disney Resort for the remaining of this holiday is also equally imporant for me. Haha..

My biggest mistake for the whole trip is not getting the Hokuei town guidebook first. Although most of the statues are along the way of Conan Street from the station to GAMF, a few are a bit out of place e.g. Ran and Conan (which is outside Daiei Elementary school), Ran waiting statue that complements Shinichi waiting statue (which seems to be quite a far detour from Conan street), some stone statues of the later volumes,  and the bronze Conan statue in his pose for Volume 1 of the manga (which is across the street past GAMF). Sigh.. Having said that, I will not say that there is anything I would change from this trip. Things cannot be perfect but they have been great and fantastic in these past 4 days. I shall just look at this as a reason to return here someday..

Japan Trip Day 3: Mount Daisen, Sakaiminato, Miho Shrine, Hakuto Shrine

I can't be lucky all the time and my prayers for a good weather as opposed to the wet weather forecast were unanswered. At least I slept better than the night before. Sadly, I have sore throat (as expected) thanks to the fantastic BBQ dinner last night.

Koyama-ike and Aoshima

Today we journeyed to the western part of Tottori preferecture. My guide made a brief stop at Koyama-ike. An interesting fact shared by my guide that despite the size, this body of water is still smaller than the minimum size of a lake in Japan. So although it feels big enough as a lake, Koyama is still considered a pond. I hope that helps to minimise the confusion when you google and find Lake Koyama instead of Koyama Pond. Lol.

The rain was not too bad (no need umbrella) but the wind was strong (umbrella would be blown away). There is a small island (Aoshima) in the middle of the lake and we walked across a bridge from where we parked the car. The view is pretty: sakura trees are still plentiful in this island, pink sakura against green grass and leaves and blue water and blue sky. Unfortunately because of the weather, we did not spend too much time here or we would be drenched in no time. Walking back across the bridge against the wind was like walking in the middle of a storm.

We bypassed Hakuto Shrine for now. The weather was expected to be better in the afternoon so we would visit on our way back. The journey to Mt Daisen was through the same way from Conan Town yesterday. That means we would pass by Conan Town. No brainer so I asked to make a quick stop at Conan's House Beika Shopping Street and Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory again for me to shop. I decided to just buy all the plushies which are only available in Tottori, the expensive Conan t-shirt from Beika Shopping Street, and a pin to commemorate 2nd anniversary of the Beika Shopping Street. I also Heiji plushie since it is quite a rare find. Second time visiting Hokuei Town and I still return with regrets of not trying the purikura T_T I was a self-conscious to do that since the shop was quite crowded.

Mt Daisen

Okay no more hiking on foot today but by car. Haha.. Mt Daisen is much higher than Mt Mitoku and at the higher altitudes, sakura has not bloomed yet and snow was still visible covering the peaks. Sakura trees are still available at the lower altitudes and I was brought to a 'secret place' with only sakura trees around, fallen sakura petals on the ground, and flying sakura petals in the air as the wind blows. It was amazing and I did not mind getting drenched a little bit to enjoy this sakura environment. Sigh.. if only it was not raining.

At the 'secret' sakura spot on the journey up to Mt Daisen

Mt Daisen is usually busy during winter as there are ski resorts around. However with spring, the whole place feels deserted. We hardly saw other cars visiting here. The good thing is that I got to enjoy the sakura place all by myself. At the higher altitudes, I saw the ski resorts. Although currently there is no snow, I can imagine how amazing the areas will be during winter time. I am never interested in ski resorts but after seeing and imagining how this place is in the winter, I think I am ready to give ski resorts a try. Another glimpse of what this place looks like in winter is from the red-and-white poles at the roadside. These poles serve as markers of the road when everything is covered in snow. Those poles are taller than me so just imagine how thick the snow can be. Minus the rain, I also enjoyed the coolness and the windiness here.

Ski resort in spring. Snow is still visible at the mountain in the background.

Ski resort in spring

For lunch, I was offered the options of seafood don or traditional food with mostly vegetable for lunch. I chose the later. I expected a table restaurant with a spread of vegetable meals but it turned out to be a buffet restaurant. Although the food options had a lot of vegetables, staples such as udon, curry rice, ramen, etc were also available. All these for less than 1000 yen. Wow.

On the way to Sakaiminato, my guide stopped by to show me the other option for lunch. I am so glad I did not choose that as the eatery is in a fish market. I am not a fan of fish smell haha. We also stopped at a beach which I cannot remember the name. I only remember there is a jetty as well. Based on what I can recall combined with the power of google and google map, I think that place is Yumigahama beach.

Not sure if this is Yumigahama beach

Mizuki Shigeru Road
At Sakaiminato, we only went to Mizuki Shigeru Road. I never follow the anime GeGeGe no Kitaro so I am not too familiar with this. Although I know that this is one of the famous attraction in Tottori, I am okay to miss it if there is no time. My priority is Conan. My guide saw how excited I was with Conan and hence he brought me here as well.

Mizuki Shigeru Road is just a straight road. Google says is it about 800m long. However I feel that it is much shorter than at Conan Town from Yura station to Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory which is only about 1300m long. Nevertheless, Mizuki Shigeru Road has more bronze statues depicting the various youkais. They are definitely more interesting that Conan plaques of manga covers. I find the bronze statues rather small (except for the main characters) although some have impressive design surrounding the statues. There is Mizuki Shigeru Museum and when we passed by, there was a character mascot of Neko Musume. I don't know the character but since it was not busy, I still took the opportunity to take photos.

There are hundreds of statues but I don't think I even saw half of them. I did not explore the whole stretch since it started to rain quite heavily and I decided we should just return to the car. I will not be posting a separate post on Mizuki Shigeru Road so I will just share some of the photos here.

 There are more than one statue of the main character, Kitaro

Nezumi Otoko

Just to show that not only the statues are interesting but also their pedestals

With the light, the atmosphere of the road will be very different in the evening

 Manhole covers with GeGeGe no Kitaro characters

I was hoping that I would pass the famous steep bridge at Sakaiminato but I don't think it was the bridge that we used to cross to Miho Shrine. Despite it being pretty late in the afternoon and the rain, my guide was really amazing. Since we were already so far here, he insisted on recommending me to visit the Miho Shrine. Miho Shrine is located in Shimane prefecture which is neighbouring to Tottori.

Miho Shrine
My guide told me that Miho Shrine is regarded as the bigger and more important among several Shinto shrines in Japan. The temple was already closed by my guide taught me how to pray in a Shinto shrine. After dropping a coin (the amount is up to the person), bowing, clapping, praying, and bowing again, we got a piece of paper with a 100 yen coin wrapped inside. I can't understand the writing on the paper. My guide advised me that I should spend the 100 yen coin from the shrine in Japan and not to keep them as souvenir. We went to a souvenir shop nearby and I spent the coin to get a small plushie of the mascot of Shimane prefecture: Shimanekko.

Torii of Miho Shrine

Hakuto Shrine
Miho Shrine marked the end of the adventure today and we returned to Tottori. Although it was getting quite dark and it was still raining, I still requested to drop by to Hakuto Shrine since we had to pass it by to return to Tottori anyways. It was raining quite heavily but not heavy enough to open umbrella. Hakuto Shrine is a famous place to pray for soulmate but that is not my main reason of visiting. My main reason for visiting is the legend of white rabbit behind the Hakuto Shrine.

Hakuto Shrine has rabbit stone statues lining the steps and it is nice that there are lights in the evening. I have been thinking to get a new digital camera after this trip. My camera 'knew' it and it surprised me with the photos taken at Hakuto Shrine. It was already quite dark but the photo quality shows otherwise. As it was raining, I did not walk towards the big statue depicting the white rabbit and Okuninushi across the car park area. I had to miss Hakuto beach as well. Oh well, can't have everything.

Taken past 6pm under pretty heavy drizzle. Good job, camera!

The lights were switched on on my way back

Love letter box :p

Sadly my guide is returning to his house at Okayama today. Tomorrow he will start teaching his class at Tottori University so when he asked about dinner, I declined so that he can go home earlier. I wanted to get kombini food but he insisted that they are not healthy. He recommended me to buy food from the local supermarket. I told him that unlike kombini, the supermarket does not have microwave. He called the hotel to check if there is microwave. Unfortunately there is no instruction on how to heat the food so I estimated to heat it for 1 minute. I failed: the outer layer of the skin looked overcooked already but the meat was not that hot.

Another great day today which really exceeds my expectations. To be able to visit places that I thought I would have to miss is great. To be able to visit the neighbouring prefecture is simply wow.. I am hyped for tomorrow and I hope it will be another great day. The paragliding shop says that the weather should be okay and there is no need to cancel. And surprise surprise: my tour guide knows the owner of the paragliding shop who is the person who has been in contact with me. My guide says he will try to use his 'connection' so that I can try to fly longer. Hehe.. I have to admit that I feel pretty sad that tomorrow is the last day at Tottori :( It has been fantastic experience here so far.

Japan Trip Day 2: Mount Mitoku, Misasa, Kurayoshi, Hokuei (aka Conan Town)

The aircon-heater issue affected my sleep last night. I left my curtain open to a certain degree to ensure that some sunlight could come in in case I could not wake up with my alarm alone. That resulted in the cold air seeping through the window and I was awakened at about 4am since the room suddenly became too cold.

I still woke up on time to catch the 725am train. My guide informed me to look towards my right during the train ride for good view but I simply fell asleep on the train. Haha. Luckily I still managed to wake up at Kurayoshi. Yesterday I mentioned that IC card is not in use in Tottori yet. So to ride the train, I have to show the ticket to the staff manning the gantry during departure and at arrival, the staff manning the gantry will collect the ticket. The train ride took about an hour and my guide was driving his car again for our journey today.

Kabu-yu

On our journey to Mt Mitoku, we drove through Misasa. I only know that Misasa is famous for its onsens but it is a beautiful city. With quite a wide river flowing through the town, the whole area is very picturesque. The layout of the city reminds me of Arima Onsen which I visited before. We stopped by at Kabu-yu for my guide to fill his water bottle. There is a water spring here and people are allowed to collect the water. I had a full water bottle so I only tried to drink the water on the spot. The water is fresh and 'light' without the 'metallic' feel of processed tap water. There is free foot bath here as well.

Statue depicting the legend of the finding of Misasa Onsen

This statue at Kabu-yu depicts the legend of the finding of Misasa Onsen. A man found a wolf and decided to spare its life. The wolf turned out to be a god in disguise and as a gratitude for sparing its life, the wolf visited the man in the dream to show a location of a hot spring. At least that is what I was told by my guide.

Mt Mitoku - Sanbutsuji

We reached Mt Mitoku and the view as we walked from the carpark to the base of Sanbutsuji is already so amazing.

Aaah.. I really love nature~~

Before entering, I learnt how to do the cleaning ritual before entering a shrine: use the scoop to wash right hand, then left hand, then rinse the mouth, before finally cleaning handle of the scoop. There are 2 entrances fee to be paid: one is to enter the shrine complex and one if we want to do the climb to Nagereido. We started our climb to at about 930am. After paying the second fee, we were given a sash and had to record our name in the visitors book. It took us about 1.5 hours to climb all the way up to Nagereido (which included the time taken to take photos haha.). The hike is challenging and cannot be considered easy. It is not an exaggeration that Mt Mitoku is considered as Japan's most dangerous national heritage. The hike should be considered a pilgrimage, instead of a touristy sight-seeing. When I mention 'take photos', I actually took photos during the short breaks during the hike just to make use of time. Yes, it was tiring and I needed short breaks to catch my breath or take a sip of water. Otherwise, the terrain is not that conducive to take those touristy photos.

Those pictures in the internet are not accurate in depicting the reality whether regarding on how difficult the hike is. The pathway is rugged and natural as opposed to nice pavement meant for tourists. I would even say the pathway is dangerous and do not expect a lot of safety nets at the sides to catch us in case we fall off. Yup that means if someone falls off, they may just fall of to their death.

There are a few temples along the way. A few of the memorable ones are Monjudo, Shorodo, and of course Nagereido. Monjudo is somewhere in the middle of the hike and it provides a resting place and a nice treat for all the hardwork to make it all the way up. It will be scary for people who are afraid of height (such as my guide) as the side that opens to the mountain really has nothing at the bottom to support. Photos cannot capture the majestic view from here or how vast/high/scary it is as there is limited space to angle the camera. Not to mention the sun and shadow when I was up there so basically I had no good pictures to share here on the view from Monjudo. Shorodo is the giant bell for us to say a prayer and ring that bell. Nagereido is the 'end' or 'peak'. We can only see Nagereido but not to climb towards it. Photos cannot capture how difficult the terrain is. When you see the pictures of Nagereido, they are mostly from similar angle. It is not because that it is the best angle but because that is the only possible angle to take photos there. I am looking at my photos now and I am disappointed :( I take photos to show off and these photos simply do not show what I saw or what I experienced accurately. So at the end of the day, it is really just for my good memory and experience.

Not taken from google :p Proof that I climbed all the way up

The descent proves to be more difficult and I slipped about 2 metres downwards on my butt. I saw blood on my wrist but surprisingly after I cleaned the wound, there was no open wound and I only had a small flap of skin hanging loose. I would say that it was a miracle.

If I did not pull the 'flap' of skin, it will not have red bleeding border

Some advice for those intending to ascend all the way up to Nagereido:

1) Buy a pair of gloves at the registration area. You will need to hold to trees, roots, rocks, chains, etc during your journey. Gloves will protect your hands from dirt as well as abrasion.

Kazurazaka (Kazura Slope)
This is not trees at the surrounding area. This is actually the pathway to climb up.

2) This is not a tourist sightseeing area. You have to be physically ready to climb as it is just not about walking. I climbed to the top at Fushimi Inari and that is like a stroll in the park compared to this. At Mt Mitoku, there are sections with poor footing that I could only use my arms to pull myself up whether by holding on to rocks, roots, or chains. Wow.. those gym sessions really paid off.

Kusarizaka (Chain Slope)
These chains are not for showing off. This slope has poor hold for hands and feet so you will really have to rely on your arm strength to hold on to the chain while finding good enough footing.

3) Wear something comfortable and easy to move (and you don't mind getting dirty). I am glad that I wore a pair of pants which fit just nicely. If I wore my other pants which are rather loose, I would have to keep pulling up the waistband. Surprisingly this new pair of pants is very flexible as well so I had no problem when having to take a 'bigger' stride. Be prepared for your clothes to end up dirty as the pathway may be slippery, you may slip, you may want to take a break sitting on a random rock or bark of tree, etc.

4) Wear shoes with good grip. The pathway may be slippery especially since the air may be cool at night which results in condensation in the following morning. If the weather is wet, they will close the area and forbid climbing. I wore my new pair of sport shoes and it was still not good enough. You can purchase the straw sandals at the registration area as these sandals are what usually worn by the monks to climb. I did not personally test the grip of these sandals but I will still recommend perhaps wearing socks if you choose to wear these sandals to avoid having your feet exposed to all the natural elements. Just to be safe in case you slip.

5) Do not to bring bulky backpack. I saw weather forecast expecting temperatures 4-7 deg C. Thus I decided to standby my fleece jacket and ultra light down in my backpack. They turned out to be unnecessary since I did not feel cold with all the physical exertion. Bulky backpack will add burden and hinder movement/manouever in between the trees.

6) Come and start the hike early before it gets too crowded. The pathway is rather narrow and having other people to behind you will only make you stress. Most pathway is shared by people climbing up and down so imagine you have to think of 'traffic' to stress you more. I did not really get a nice photo with Nagereido at the background since there were already so many inconsiderate tourists who were impatient and could not share the phototaking spot. Jeez..

As we were walking back to the carpark, we met and struck conversation with the head monk. 'We' actually refers to my tour guide since I understand no Japanese. Waah.. that was easily 30 not-so-fruitful minutes for me.

Kajika Bridge
Before lunch, my guide brought me to Kajika Bridge which has an amazing view of the river as well as free open foot bath to care for our tired legs. The river banks are also beautiful with sakura trees but I was too tired to really walk and take picture around the banks. I definitely prefer the foot bath here than the indoor one at Kabu-yu.

Kurayoshi

We had lunch at Kurayoshi at a hipster café serving an interesting fusion of curry. It did not taste like Japanese curry or Indian curry but it was more creamy like European pasta. I don't know how to describe it well but it is a unique (in a good way) flavour. We walked around the Kurayoshi Old Town. I saw this place appearing quite often during my research for itinerary plan but I find it very disappointing and not worth going. Almost all the shops were closed or out of business and it felt like walking through an empty deserted town.

Hokuei Town (Conan Town)

Hokuei Town, or Conan Town, was the last stop for the day. My guide has never visited or heard Conan Town before and we sort of missed it initially. I was very worried that Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory (GAMF) would already be closed. We managed to reach at 430pm so there was still an hour before closing time.

I was emo that my guide did not want to accompany to enter GAMF which meant no one helped me to take photo. Well actually there were nothing much to take photo with. At this point I was already rather emo with all the chopped off legs from the photos so I sort of gave up about photos already. The souvenir shop at GAMF was exciting. Since there was car, I decided to buy the sand sculptures and plushie of Conan riding on a camel. There were other plushies but I held myself first as I did not know what Conan's House Beika Shopping Street would offer me.

My guide suggested that I could walk towards the Shopping Street so that I could take photos along the way while he would park his car there. After seeing the map of Conan Town, I told him we could just take the car directly to the Shopping Street. It was already almost evening so I had to prioritise statues over stone monuments of Conan manga covers along the way.

On the way to the Shopping Street, we passed by a bus stop with statue of sleeping Kogoro and Conan. Ouch... 1 thing missed. From the Shopping Street, we walked to the bridge that has mini Conan statues. The Conan House is just next to a river and the river bank is lined with sakura trees. It looks very nice and romantic. Hehe... My camera battery started acting up and I decided to throw away this particular non-original battery. From there my guide asked me to walk towards the bus stop with sleeping Kogoro while he drove his car to meet me there. I made the wrong turn and ended up having to jog to catch up with the car. Lol. I always wondered why people were still jogging in this cool weather and now I knew why. It is actually quite shiok.

From there we went to Yura Station (aka Conan Station) to take picture with the iconic Conan statue which is not as big as I imagined. Along the way from the station towards the library (where Shinichi statue is) are the coloured statues of Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ai. It is quite weird to have only the statues of the Detective Boys in colour while the rest of the statues in the town is the metallic/bronze type. On our way back, we stopped by at the town hall for me to take a photo with a coloured statue of Conan eating watermelon which is one of Tottori's specialty.

Just like the airport, I will put photos and more details of Conan Town and GAMF in a separate post as this post is already very long. I really need to come back here some day. Today coming here by car is not a good thing. Ideally I would like to walk and take pictures with all the plaques of manga covers, manhole covers, and everything that shows Conan in this town.

My guide will be staying over at his house in Tottori tonight so he drove me back to Tottori. It is about an hour drive to Tottori and the road has an amazing view towards Japan Sea with giant wind turbines. We made a quick stop at a spot to enjoy the sea view but I forgot what the place is called. Haha.. Oh well..

It was already dark as we approached Hakuto so Hakuto Shrine has to be on another day. Again my guide asked if I would like to have dinner with him although it was already past the hours I paid him. Of course I agreed. It is Saturday night and the first restaurant that he recommended had an hour wait. We were too hungry and as guys, we were not going to spend time waiting for food. We had BBQ as an alternative. I was hesitant since I worried about getting sore throat. Since I had no other suggestion on what I wanted to eat, I was okay with it. I left the ordering to my guide and aaah.. the beef here is amazing yummy yummy. It was my first time trying beef intestines and I find it good. I avoid beef tongue after my first traumatic try from ekiben during my very first trip to Japan in 2015. After tonight beef tongue, I will be willing to give it a try again in the future.

I have another amazing day today although now I am also regretting that I did not buy the Conan t-shirt. Yes it is expensive but since I am already here in Tottori and I don't know when I will come back, I should have just YOLO. Perhaps I should return to Conan Town on Monday afternoon. Now I just hope that I will be able to sleep better by opening the curtain smaller than yesterday and turning on the room heater. Hahaha...

Japan Trip Day 1: Tottori (Castle Ruins, Sand Dunes)

It was my first time coming to Tokyo via Haneda and I am not a fan. Firstly the timing of the flight and the in-flight services are messing with normal biological clock. The cabin light was dimmed close to 12pm and I found my seating position very uncomfortable. I basically did not sleep well. The flight time was an hour shorter than projection which meant breakfast was at about 3am SG time. We landed at 520am and despite the long immigration queue, I was out by 610am.

During landing announcement, the mentioned ground temperature was 9 deg C. Surprisingly it was comfortable enough for me to remove my ultra light down. I was cranky as I did not get to shower. The wait time for the shower room at the international arrival was 100 minutes (32 people in the queue). Madness! I had never need to queue for my previous shower rooms at Kansai Airport and Narita Airport. 

The domestic check-in for my next flight to Tottori was surprising as they only needed to scan my luggage tag from SG. Lucky I did not remove it as I was expecting that I would get a new luggage tag. After domestic check-in, there was special transfer bus instead of public bus. It was already the gate areas after I alighted and the only lounge inside the gate areas which has shower facilities is closed for renovation. Sianz to the max :( Although the weather was comfortable enough for me not to sweat, I wanted to wash my face to take nice photos sigh..

I will definitely get fat from this trip. Barely 4 hours after breakfast on air, I had kakiage udon while waiting for my Tottori flight haha.. My excuse was because of the weather. I basically slept through the flight from Haneda to Tottori. Nothing much was missed as only one drink was served in-flight.

Upon exiting the plane, the walkway to the gate areas at Tottori Sakyu Conan Airport is already lined with framed Conan illustration. Yeah.. it is going to be a start of exciting trip indeed. Despite being dubbed the least populated prefecture, the airport is actually very modern, clean, and comfortable. It was not crowded and I met my guide easily after exiting. He had me try miso clam soup which was served for free just at the waiting area. In order to prevent this post from becoming too long, I will not discuss much or put photos of the airport. I will have a dedicated post for that. I just would like to summarise it that there are many interesting things to take photos with although they are not as many as what I expected. Well, I have to remember that this is an airport after all. Haha.. There is a souvenir shop full of Conan merchandises. I was already so tempted to start shopping but I had to remind myself that I just arrived and I should be patient as there may be more amazing merchandises at Conan town.

My tour guide surprised me that he was using his personal car to drive me around in order not to waste time waiting for public transport. The airport is not linked to the city by rail and there are buses to the city. The bus timing is coordinated with flight timing so it will be inconvenient if flight is delayed (my flight arrival was late by about 10 mins) and after spending time taking pictures. Lol.

Tottori Castle Ruins
We went to Tottori Castle Ruins first and I am so happy that sakura trees are still around here in Tottori. Yay!! I totally expect that sakura season is over and I hate to go during crowded times so I always think that I will never get to experience sakura season in Japan. This is a very nice surprise. Experiencing those sakura petals falling down when the wind blow is surreal. This is something that photos cannot capture so I am very happy to experience this.

I was so distracted and excited with the sakura that I did not take any photos with the actual castle ruins. Although honestly, I think the name 'ruins' is an overstatement. There is no leftover building structure and all I can see are the remaining stone walls and steps. Or perhaps I was simply not paying attention. Jinpukaku is also just at the 'foot' of the castle ruins.

The river between the city (on the left) and the castle ruins (on the right)

Sakura!!!

More sakura!!!

Jinpukaku

After that we dropped by to the hotel first. My guide was so kind and helped to try my luck if I could check in earlier. I declined since I had to pay for early check in. On the way to a lunch place that he recommended, I asked to stop at Lawson first to collect my Megane Ichiba spectacles. Haha I am amazed that I was able to somehow collect it without his help. I simply showed the print out and the Lawson staff helped me to retrive. Fiuh... We had lunch at a traditional restaurant which according to my guide is famous as it has been there for many years. Obviously with everything only in Japanese, I don't know what the restaurant name is. Haha.. I had beef bowl and the beef pieces were more like steak type rather than the Yoshinoya type. I am not a food connoisseur so I don't know if it is good or not. What important to me is that I enjoyed it. Hehe..

We discussed about plan for tomorrow. With weather forecast rain on Sunday, I simply have to switch my plan to go to Mt Mitoku tomorrow. It irks me but no point complaining about the weather that I have no control of. I learn that my guide actually lives in Okayama which is a 2 hour drive from Tottori City. It does not make sense to make him drive to Tottori and then go to Kurayoshi (which is a 1 hour drive for him) to go to Mt Mitoku. Thus I offered to meet him at Kurayoshi instead. I told him not to worry that it would be find for me to just board the train alone since it is a direct train anyway. He helped me to see the schedule and to buy the train ticket for tomorrow because surprise surprise: the train station at Tottori is not using IC card yet o_0 Hahaha... Well something new to learn.

Since on my last day in Tottori my guide will only be available for half a day and I have to return to the city from the sand dunes by myself, my guide brought me to sand dunes by public bus. Yay! Finally I learnt how to navigate bus system in Japan -something that I never know despite having visited Japan a few times. He parked near the Library which is near the Cultural Hall. Ooh la la.. just like the train station, the bus also is not using IC card yet. Looks like I will not be able to avoid handling coins here.

I learn that we board bus from the back door and take a ticket from the machine. The ticket will have the bus stop number to compare against the bus fare on the screen when we alight later. So if let's say my ticket number is 2 when boarding, the fare displayed under number 2 when I alight is the amount that I need to pay. Since there is no IC machine, the bus has a coin exchange machine next to the machine to drop the fare. It was confusing for me at first to know which machine is for which.

Tottori Sand Dunes (Tottori Sakyu)
Tottori Sand Dunes (Tottori Sakyu) is amazing. Having used to fake sands in Singapore, it is nice to step on real sand which is very fine in texture. The sand dunes open to Japan Sea so the wind brr... I had to wear my jacket. With eyes, the sand dunes do not look that huge. Once you start walking, WOW.. Yes all those sand will trick our eyes. Climbing the Umanose is really physically challenging since there is nothing to hold and sand is not exactly something solid to step on. I did not fall haha.. Well the 'hike' was worth it as the view and breeze from the top was amazing. Sadly I was so tired after that hike that I did not walk towards the sea. Of course I would like to take photos there but the thought of having to climb back that dune (from the opposite direction now) was simply impossible after the lack of sleep in the plane.

Photos do not do justice to the vastness of this natural phenomenon or how high that umanose

There is an oasis! This is real and not a fata morgana.

Ripples that form when the wind is blowing at certain speed

We walked across the sand dunes towards paragliding school which my guide has a friend working there. Sadly, it does not seem to be the paragliding school that I sign up with for Monday. My guide's friend is currently away on business trip as we found out from the people working there. While finding the bus stop to return to the city, we dropped by at Kodomo no Kuni which was not open. We just played a little bit at the locomotive outside.

My guide is really kind. Although my hours with him had ended, he offered to bring me for dinner if I would love to since he also had to have dinner. No extra fees whatsoever as he said "Business time is over and I ask you as a friend". Wow. He brought me to a sushi restaurant called Hokkaido. I am not a sushi fan and I never eat sushi before when I am in Japan. This time I am open to explore whatever my guide recommends so yeah. I just followed whatever he ordered. Most were hits and only the last two I did not like. Nevertheless, it was amazing: the rice just had a nice amount of vinegar goodness, the overall quality of the sushi was great, and the price was reasonable. The both of us spent a total of ~$30 which is like what I usually spend per person in a sushi restaurant in Singapore. Before returning to the hotel, we went to a supermarket for me to buy mineral water and bread for breakfast.

Now I am back in the hotel and the room is quite spacious compared to APA hotel rooms that I read in Tokyo. I thought I had a broken aircon as it was blowing hot air. I was contemplating between asking the front desk about it vs too lazy to change room. In the end I decided to call them and I was told that since the weather is still cold, the aircon is functioning as a heater. Whaaat... This is what happens when a trip is done with poor research. Lol.. Some reviews of APA hotels actually state this but I think the hotel should have the courtesy to inform this unique policy.

Time to rest now and I thank God for the amazing birthday present today. Although I learnt that there was nothing special in travelling on birthday, I really had an amazing day and experience at Tottori. I have a great guide, I was already so happy at Conan airport, I finally get my desert experience at the sand dunes (since I don't foresee myself going to the Middle East to experience a desert), I had great meals, and I get to see sakura.

Things cannot be perfect but I shall not let these imperfections ruin my trip. I think my guide's photography skills are as bad as my sister's. All my feet get chopped off in the photos :'( He is already so nice to me with his car without any extra charges for me so I should not be complaining. He is also very flexible with the itinerary change because of the weather and I am very grateful with that. So let's just enjoy another day of adventure tomorrow.