So, you’re coming to Tottori?
Tottori, Japan’s least populous prefecture without the glitz, glamour and every-3-minute trains like Tokyo, still has a lot to offer.
But if you’re going to be living, creating a life for yourself, or even just visiting, here are 5 things you need to know to get around.
Continue readingSome of you may remember the designs I made a few months back of some stickers based on special areas around Tottori.
Well now you can buy said stickers! And then some!
Hey all!
So you knew I drew comics, but maybe you didn’t know that I’m also a designer by trade. I’ve been practicing and working on my portfolio, and I came up with these patches.
Let me know your thoughts, and if you want to download or use them, please just ask.
Until next time, STAY AWESOME!
-R
Sometimes the weather in Tottori-shi gets crazy… Continue reading
Tottori winters are long and the transition to spring is notorious for the “三寒四温” (sankanshion), meaning 3 days cold, four days warm. Though my opinion is that the cold days are stronger….
Until next time, STAY AWESOME!
-R
We live in community with a lot of farms and gardens, so passing by on some mornings are less fresh than others.
Still might be better than Tokyo’s occasional terrible smells.
Until next time, STAY AWESOME!
-R
What do you know about dancing with umbrellas?
Not as much as Tottori City in Tottori-ken, Japan. The Shan Shan Matsuri (鳥取しゃんしゃん祭) is Tottori’s biggest festival. Every year during Obon week, around 4,000 people line the streets dressed in summer festival clothes (usually Happi or Kimono) and do Kasa-odori, choreographed dances with umbrellas… for 3 hours! Continue reading
So last week I had an adventure. It all started earlier this year when I decided I needed to do something big for the summer, but going to SE Asia was looking less and less likely. I started looking around the Chuugoku region of Japan for things to do, and Andrea suggested the ShimaNami Kaido, a 70km bike trail that goes across the Seto Sea from Hiroshima to Ehime.
That sounded fantastic, but I needed to up the ante. I know! Why not bike from Tottori all the way there! It’s only 200 km away! Easy peasy!
The above map is closer to the actual path I took. But my first day of the trip, I decided to make it a doozy and go from Tottori to Okayama City. Thats around 125 km, but I didn’t take the direct route so it was a little bit longer.
It was exhausting but I made it. The beauty of the mountain areas of Tottori (mainly between Tottori and Chizu) was a sight to behold.
I’ll write more about it over several posts, and I’ll even get some video up.
Until next time, STAY AWESOME!
If you’re familiar with Japan or Japanese culture, cat cafes are nothing new. But I’m glad to say(and Andrea is glad to hear) that they even exist here in Tottori. With Andrea’s love of the feline kind, I know that we would eventually visit the cafe. And so we did!
All cafes will be unique to their areas, but in most of them you’ll find a wide open room Continue reading
Konnichiwa Ya’ll, and greetings from Tottori!
Thanks to Andrea’s great fortune she landed some tickets to go see Tottori’s local J3 Soccer Team, Gainare Tottori, ガイナーレ鳥取.
Japan’s soccer system follows that of the Premiere league in England, which means as teams move up and down in rankings, they can be moved to higher/lower leagues accordingly. Gainare Tottori started as a J2 team, but as their wins declined they eventually fell into the J3 league.
GainaMan with his specialty T-shirt cannon, the GAINABUSTER!!!
The Team is actually based out of Yonago City, but Tottori Torigin (Bird Bank) Stadium is the only J.League capable stadium in the region, and actually hosted a match back in the 2002 World Cup.
The enjoyable part of going anywhere in Japan, is seeing what food they have, and that still extends to lower level soccer games. I had what I think is a spaghetti burger. Andrea had some delicious たこ焼き (Takoyaki- Octopus Dumplings) .
While the J3 level may be a lower caliber than the MLS (Go Orlando City), the game is still fun. And so is the Supporters section.
If you’ve ever been to a soccer game, you’ll know that the supporters club chants are part of the game day experience, and Japan is no exception to the rule.
Check out this short video to see what I mean:
In case you feel like brushing up on your Japanese, here is Gainare’s website:
If you’re ever in Japan during soccer season, try to pony up to see a soccer game. If you don’t feel like paying J1 tier price, J2 and J3 games are still enjoyable.
Until next time, Stay Awesome!
Tottori Awesome 