SEE SURREAL SAND DUNES IN JAPAN
TOTTORI SAND DUNES -- JAPAN
Like a reverse oasis, the Tottori Sand Dunes (鳥取砂丘 Tottori sakyū) rises up as a giant swath of sand, like a desert that meets the sea, just outside the city of Tottori.
Stretching 9 miles long and 1½ miles wide, they form the only major dune system in Japan. They are part of San’in Kaigan National Park, a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Like a scene out of Arabian Nights, waves of sand crest at almost 160 feet high, as they do in the Sahara Desert. Take a camel ride for full effect. Head to the tops of the dunes for crazy beautiful views that stretch for miles in every direction.
The dunes were created by sediment deposits which washed down from the Chūgoku Mountains, via the Sendai River, into the Sea of Japan.
Raised by sea currents bringing sand from the ocean bottom up on the shore, sculpted by the wind, the dunes have been continuously shape shifting for over 100,000 years. They’ve been shrinking, however, over the past 60 years, due to reforestation programs and the installation of tsunami barriers which disrupt the ocean currents. Recent efforts aim to stop the shrinkage.
Japanese poet Takeo Arishima made the Tottori Dunes famous, as did Kōbō Abe’s existential novel, Woman in the Dunes, which later was turned into an Academy Award-nominated film.
If you want to expand your Tottori experience, take a horse drawn cart ride, go paragliding, or try sandboarding (a variation of snowboarding).
Check out Tottori’s Sand Museum, to see impressive sand sculptures, created by a range of international artists. Exhibition themes change annually. In 2017, the theme is the United States of America. See it through January 3, 2018.
Read more about Desert & Beach Beauties all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
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