Monday Morning Star Count - Week 38

Year five of the temperature quilt 

Week 38 

January 16 - 22 

52, 50, 45, 45, 46, 45, 48

 

I am reporting the high temperature each day.  My Year Five temperature/color scheme remains the same as previous years: 

100+ Brown 

90-99 Red 

80-89 Orange 

70-79 Yellow 

60-69 Green 

50-59 Blue 

40-49 Purple 

30-39 Pink 

20-29 White 

You can see my finished Year One Quilt here.

Tottori Sand Dunes

At the Tottori Train Station, there was a little information booth about the size of a closet, with two women inside. They were the absolute best at giving information and pulling out maps and bus schedules and explaining it all in English!  First place to go that day - Tottori Sand Dunes by bus.

From Wikipedia:

The Tottori Sand Dunes (鳥取砂丘, Tottori sakyū) are sand dunes located outside the city center of Tottori in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. At a length of 9 miles (14 km) and less than 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, it is the largest sand dune in Japan. The sand dunes are part of San'in Kaigan Geopark, which is part of The UNESCO Global Geoparks.
The sand formations were created when sediment deposits carried from the Chūgoku Mountains by the Sendai River were thrown away into the Sea of Japan. Strong winds then shaped the dunes over a span of 100,000 years.
The area of the dunes has been steadily decreasing due to a government reforestation program following World War II. Concrete barriers have been built along the coast to prevent the formations from eroding. Authorities have adopted measures to stop the shrinkage of the dunes, partly because they attract a significant amount of tourism to the area.

I haven't been to any other sand dunes, so I don't know how this compares.  I thought the Tottori Sand Dunes were pretty interesting, but it was cold and windy that day.

Everywhere is uphill in Japan.

People can pay to ride the camels here.  I didn't, but I did take these two pictures.

There was one sand dune ninja.

There were only a few people on the dune and you can see one far behind me.  The dunes are really big.

Enough sand and wind.  Back on the bus and the next stop is Tottori Castle Ruins.

Tottori Train Station

 

Yonago Castle Ruins

I left Matsue, in Shimane Prefecture, early in the morning and took the train to Yonago in Tottori Prefecture. It was a wet gloomy day. I don't know what this bird is about, but it was on my way to Yonago Castle Ruins.

This is what Jcastle has to say about Yonago Castle - - 

Around 1467 Yamana Muneyuki built a fort on Mt. Iinoyama just to the East of Minatoyama where Yonago Castle stands today. Kikkawa Hiroi founded the first real castle here on Minatoyama in 1591, but was not there to see it completed. After losing in the Battle of Sekigahara Kikkawa was moved to Iwakuni and Nakamura Kazutada became the new lord of Yonago in 1601. The castle was completed in 1602. Kazutada's family line abruptly ended with his sudden death in 1609. Kato Sadayasu became the new lord until he was transferred to Ozu in 1617. The Ikeda clan then ruled until 1632 when control of the castle was passed to their retainer the Arao Naritoshi. The Arao family ruled over Yonago Castle until the Meiji Restoration when they voluntarily returned the castle to the government in 1869. In 1873 most of the castle buildings were sold and a few years later the remaining castle structures were dismantled.

I felt very adventurous this day, with the poor weather. I have to say this was the best castle ruins of the trip. I think it was better than some of the rebuilt castles I visited. 

Here is where it starts at the bottom of the hill.

There was a lot of uphill and  the stones and mud were slick. And, I was carrying my pack so I had to be careful not to fall.

The falling rain turned to a slushy snow.  It was cold!

View from mid-way up.

Almost to the top.

Even with the gloomy sky, the views from the top were incredible.

I accidentally took a different trail down and ended up on the sea side. There were many of these statue sets on this trail down.

Because of the extra time for the wrong trail, I had to quickly return to the train station. There were few trains and I didn't want to have to wait a long time for the next one.  This really was a great place to visit!

If you are interested in Japanese Castles, you can find links to other castle visits I've made on my Japanese Castle page.