We've said it before and we'll say it again: Japan is so much more than Tokyo and Kyoto, though the two are definitely among the country's top attractions—there's a reason, after all, that they were voted the first and second best cities in the world in our annual Readers' Choice Awards. But when it comes to getting out of the city, Japan has nature in spades, including some of the world's best beaches on Okinawa, opportunities for whale-watching off of Hokkaido, and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea, which is considered the "Mediterranean of Japan" by locals. Another one of our favorite places in Japan? Its desert. Yes, desert.
Located in the Tottori Prefecture on Japan's Honshu island, the Tottori Sand Dunes are the largest sand hills in Japan; specifically, these golden dunes stretch nine miles from east to west, and are little more than a mile wide. At their tallest, the hills are about 165 feet, which makes climbing them no easy feat. Not in the mood for hiking? Fear not: You can tour the area via camel or in a horse-drawn carriage.
Formed over the course of 100,000 years by strong winds, the Tottori Sand Dunes are part of Japan’s San'inkaigan National Park, a UNESCO Global Geopark. And though they're not widely known outside of the country, the dunes have something of an iconic status in Japan, thanks to several mentions in popular culture: 20th-century poet Takeo Arishima wrote a poem about an affair he was having with a married woman in which he described how it felt to be surrounded by the steep sands. Shortly after his visit to Tottori, Arishima and the woman committed a double suicide, making the dunes infamous across Japan. In 1962, Tottori was again showcased by a writer, this time in Kōbō Abe’s existential novel, Woman in the Dunes.
Though the Tottori Sand Dunes are commonly referred to as Japan's "desert," the climate here isn't arid, nor is it surrounded by an otherwise barren landscape—the Sea of Japan is visible at certain crests, as is a coniferous forest and a growing lagoon. More than two million people a year visit Tottori, and while that number is expected to grow, the dunes themselves are getting smaller: In the past 50 years, the sandy hills have shrunk some 130 feet due to vegetation. Better add it to your list of places to see before they disappear.