Tottori Prefectural Orientation 2014, Day Two

View from my hotel room.

Unfortunately I had to wake up early again the next morning for our second day of orientation. I was pretty tired, but luckily the night before I had purchased some coffee just for this reason!

We had to check out first and then everyone had to meet Mayumi in the lobby. We all walked together to the Hopestar, the location for the day. Here’s what our schedule was like:

9:00am-9:05am Introduction of senpai JETs (there were a few new people today)

9:05am-9:35am Introduction to TPIEF and emergency preparedness

9:45am-11:35am Workshop (divided by school levels)

11:45am-12:15pm Bus to lunch

12:15pm-1:15pm Lunch at Kuimonya Sazanami in Iwami

1:15pm-1:30pm Bus to boat ride

1:30pm-2:30pm Boat ride along the Uradome coast

2:30pm-3:00pm Bus to Tottori sand dunes

3:00pm-4:00pm Tottori sand dunes

4:00pm-4:30pm Bus to Tottori station

The boat ride was nice and relaxing, and there was a great cool breeze, but overall to be honest it was a bit boring. The rocks were pretty, but after about 10 minutes it just all looked the same. The seagulls and lone hawk following the boat and catching food was the most exciting part.

Uradome boat cruise.

The sand dunes were actually a bit more exciting. I explored with R1 and R2. R1 desperately wanted to sit on a camel, and we found that you can get photos for Y500; still a rip off, but cheaper than a 3 minute ride for Y2,500. So we waited in line for that, R2 and I did a photoshoot for R1 and then we decided to climb to the highest sand dune.

On top of the largest sand dune. It is a deceptively steep  drop to the water below.

It was a bit of a walk and on the way there we argued over whether or not we should attempt to scale the nearly vertical wall of sand or go for the gently sloping easy path. In the end we decided on the middle path, which was a bit steep, but not too much. Even that turned out to be a challenge though, so props to the people who attempt that vertical wall! The top was surprisingly high, and my fear of heights kind of began to kick in when I realized just how tiny the people at the bottom were. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then took the much less harrowing climb down. R2 decided he wanted to run down the vertical wall, but R1 and I declined after seeing another guy attempt the same and end up doing several impromptu summersaults and just completely eating it. 

The hike back was almost worse, because we had to go back up to the small dune, which was loooong and gently sloping. My legs got a serious work out! We rinsed our feet off and then went to get some of the famous nashi (pear) soft cream. They also had peeled, fresh pears to eat too. The soft cream was delicious, just as advertised. I only wish my cone had been larger! We took our ice cream inside the gift shop, where it was air conditioned. There were a bunch of free samples there, and I bought a pear to take home and try.

My 20th century pear soft cream.

Then it was time for the bus ride back to the station. I had been thinking of doing some shopping, but I was tired and my bags were heavy, so I stuck with R2 and L and took the train home with them.