Tottori Japan Part 1 (Amarube – scary but beautiful mountain road – Tottori – camel ride)

Tottori Japan Part 1 (Amarube – scary but beautiful mountain road – Tottori – camel ride)

Thanks for joining us on our 3-week Miniwink camping trip. Today, I will get to ride a camel on the dunes. But first, we will drive the scariest road we’ve traveled yet in Japan and do some laundry. Today, we traveled from Amaru to Tori Sand Dunes to Shinjjo village. Well, today was a beach day. I don’t know. It’s thundering and lightning. Uh we have about an hour drive to Tortoi Beach uh Sand Dunes and then we’ll see. But it’s supposed to clear up about 10:00. So um we’re going to do some laundry when we get there. After we got back from our trip, I looked this area up on the map because I couldn’t believe we went the most typical way because it was terrifying. I videoed most of the journey because I couldn’t believe the situation we found ourselves in. I think this is where we made a wrong turn. Continue for 14 km. This is our drive this morning in the rain. [Music] Oh, good. There’s leaves on the right. Yeah, there’s Oh, wet leaves. There is fog over the sea of Japan between the trees. You can see in the fog Japanese sea. Right here we’re driving on top of a cliff. It is very scary. It’s a long drop down to the Sea of Japan. You’ll notice that some areas don’t have guardrails. [Laughter] Heat. Heat. There are some farms up in these mountains. Here is a map of the road. Notice all the curves and the hairpin turns. Notice there is a drainage system on the left and we don’t want to get too far to the right either. Road is narrow and I hope no one wants to pass. I had a near accident in my 20s on wet leaves. So, this is making me very nervous. I also keep thinking Japan has a lot of earthquakes. I hope there isn’t one now. [Music] Turn the fan over. Sure. Hold or hot? Turn the fan on. Two. Is that what you want? Yes. Thank you. No, no, no. What? Yeah, obviously. Maybe we need to go this way. Hang on. Just hang on. Betsy has a hold of the old part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I am old He god share the bar because look what look like. I don’t want to look. I’m not looking. I’m not looking. I’m praying. Getting closer to God today. Yep. Yep. Literally. I should look at the map ahead of time and know that if it’s wiggly that we don’t want to drive those roads. This can’t be the normal way. We must have missed the tunnel. The tunnel probably added 2 minutes to our journey or something something strange because this can’t be the normal way people go. This is why they added an hour and a half with all these switchbacks. Yeah. Oh god, the the side. It’s no guardrail in there. [Music] So if you travel to Japan, make sure you don’t do this. You You can’t avoid this. Yeah. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know. And there’s no gorilla over here, too. I don’t know. If you’re going to drive in Japan, you will be experiencing this. Beautiful and terrifying at the same moment. We’re just going to take it slow and get there. Also, it’s difficult because on the sides of the roads are like the water. What do they call them? Gullies. the water trenches and it’s not like the side of the roads at home where you can pull over. There’s deep water trenches to manage the water which makes it safer, but also if you fall off the road, your tire is definitely going to get stuck and then you’ll be there forever. And then how do you get help because nobody’s up here? I think we’re coming towards the less squiggly spots on the road map, so it should be getting easier. What did you say? Says the one not driving. Yep. Well, hopefully it gets easier. Thank God’s driving cuz he is a very good driver. branch or something there. Road’s getting a little bit less squiggly on the map and it’s the road’s getting a little wider. We’re still on the edge of the Red Sea that you can’t see. Not the Red Sea, the Japan Sea. The Sea of Japan. It’s getting foggy. Looks like it’s getting a little windy. So, there’s a lookout point, but we are not going to stop. There’s a fern that flew by. Lots of sticks here. Aril over here. The trees are making it so dark. The car lights are on. [Music] No car rail here again. Heat. Heat. This is one of the reasons I think uh the Japanese have such small cars. You couldn’t do this with a big car. There’s lightning. I think we’re almost done with the horrible driving. The map is getting a little less squiggly now. We’re going down sometimes. Oh, yeah. This is less quickly. Oh, it is. It is less quickly than it used to be. It was really squiggly before. Yeah, this is way better. Uhhuh. In the winter time, if you live up these mountains, you must have to drive home really slow cuz how do you manage? I guess you know the roads really well, but still I think it would be very dangerous, especially in the winter time with the snow and the ice. It’s dangerous now. less squiggle, but it still looks squiggly on the drive. Lots of uh broken branches in the road, too. And we’ve only passed one car, thankfully. So, we must have missed a major road. There’s deer up here. I saw them running down the down the street. I didn’t catch it on camera. Right in this area, I saw them. I thought they were dogs at first. There’s a bit Cha said, “I’m glad this Road is less wiggly. Had the camera off for a second. It is getting less wiggly. Look at the wind. The rain coming down more. Heat. [Laughter] Heat. [Laughter] Fuel light just came. Oh no. Yes. Heat. Heat. Well, when you’re not busy there, but I will. I’m going to stop the video and try to find the nearest gas station cuz we’re empty. And look at this road. Oh, sticks, leaves. Looks like the uh water area is all clogged up in that area. All right, got to go find gas. Our internet here and so we lost our map and the ability to find a gas station. But we’re not going to have to find a gas station right immediately anyway cuz look at this place. There’s a waterfall over here. Here’s step the road. [Laughter] Heat. Heat. [Music] We get more gas when we’re going uphill, right? I thought we were almost there earlier. Avalanche signs. There’s a bridge. There’s a sign there that said something in 2 km, but it was in Japanese, so we couldn’t read it. But hopefully that means regular roads. 2 km. Good view. I see a house down there. That means we’re getting to wellraveled roads. Looks like a little farm. Looking far in Japanese. Sorry, but put your ticket. [Music] Lots of wet leaves. Looks like a garden. Looks like an old garden. all burns down and is opening up here. Should be able to see the sea down there. More gardens. Those are good gardens. Is it a farm? Don’t see the farmhouse yet. The shed. A farm. A dam there. and a town. We found a town and hopefully that means better roads. We don’t know whether we should go right or left because we have no map. Hopefully, we’ll get back a map in the bottom of this town. I’m going to go Can’t see if you’re getting internet yet. Let’s see if we get internet. Oh, we have internet. And look, we’re right along the coast now. Hopefully better roads. There’s a a town here. You see the water uh we need to go the straight. Looks like maybe the road is going to be treacherous a little bit more, but we’ll see. There’s Sea of Japan. Look at construction. There’s a boat ramp down there. some puddles. Some nice houses. Oh, there’s a car in front of us. Huh? Go straight. You go straight. He’s going to drive a lot. Right. Right. I totally understand. I didn’t know someone was behind us. I thought you needed instructions where to go. I know. Look. Look how fast they fly. There’s a white car in front of us. He just knows the roads. I think he’s low on it. I think he’s a local. I don’t think he’s concerned about the roads at all. Look at those beautiful flowers. There’s another car behind us, too, coming up. It’s probably getting to time when people are get trying to get to work. It’s a Thursday. Pretty flowers along the side of the road there. Take a photo of this and I’ll watch it later. Chad and I both don’t like heights. Can you believe it? We’re doing this. I’ll watch the film later because I’m not looking out the window. Roads are actually better. They’ve got side rails and they’re wider. Oo, a tunnel. That was a tunnel. I like tunnels because there’s falls on both sides and there’s no rain, no leaves. So hopefully there’s something better on the other side of the tunnel. Hopefully there’s gas stations soon. The mode is looking better on the map. Look, we have signs for arrows and things like that. Look, there’s a waterfall coming on the rocks. Look, the road is getting more normal. A lot of a lot of people have gardens here. It looks like a little another little village. Take the next right. Now I’m going to try to find some gas again. Continue for 3 km. We have internet again. And in 5 km in 5 kilometers we’re getting to a gas station. Roads are better than they were. Hopefully they’ll stay pretty good. The roads are much better now. Less windy down in the valley. Everything is very green. small town. Oh, we’ve got rice fields to the right and rice fields to the left. In 300 m, turn left. end up getting shot. Oh. Oh, lady. Lady with a walker in the rain with an umbrella. Something you never see in America. Well, jeez. I just didn’t want to see her. Look at there’s ducks or something flying. Nope. No ducks. Just birds. Was it a bird? It flew like a duck. I thought this birds don’t land on water. Ducks land on water. I’ve read that we saw so many construction workers out working in the rain, which doesn’t happen too much or doesn’t happen as often in the States. So, we looked it up and it’s because of the rainy season and it rains so much that uh the people really aren’t bothered by the rain as much. They uh they work through the rain. Yesterday, it was warm out and we saw several men at construction sites um using like a puffed up like winter looking jacket. Looked like it had air conditioning or a fan attached to it. Really interesting. And according to the map, we’re getting closer to our gas station. Looks like we’re in a regular town area. Passing trucks, cars now, which we weren’t before. Is it garb? No. Is it a garbage truck? No. Just a truck with a tarp. Tarp truck. A tarp truck. Yeah. The weather’s starting to clear. It’s supposed to be clear by I think 10 or 11. It’s not really early in the morning yet, though. There’s a river that leads out to the ocean or take left. Make a right. Take the next left then sharp left. in the little harbor boats. [Music] Right here playing the gas station. We’re in town. We make a left of the light. At the light, turn left. Turn left. Yep. Left at the light. I think we’re almost at the gas station. Yep. Almost at the gas station. Okay. The gas in 300 measin will be on the left. Is on the left there. I think it’s the the guy with the red face with a hair blowing. Just look that logo off and see what it represents. Yeah. I don’t know. The name of the gas station starts with something. I don’t know. All right. We’re here at the gas station. We made it into the logger road. Yep. But we got gas. We didn’t run out of gas and we got down that mountain and it looks like regular roads now. Woohoo. On for a day at the beach. Okay, the breakfast of the morning. We’ve got two coffees. Chad has these eggs. Smoked eggs. Smoked eggs. He’s an egg guy. I found comfort food after that terrifying drive of my favorite tuna triangle thing. And check out a some sort of rolled cake. Do you know? Can you describe this better? I can’t. Oh, it’s egg roll cake with milk cream. And what was this? Chocolatey Claire. No, chocolate mocha roll. I think wanted a chocolate cla, but you know, some some of these things are really good. So, we’ll see. We’re at Lawson’s now. And look, after that terrifying ride in the rain, the sun has cleared 5 minutes after getting here, which is good for the beach. We’re still going to go go do some laundry, though. This is Chit’s egg. I don’t know. It’s kind of wrinkled. It look doesn’t look like a round egg. Took the form of the packaging. It took the form of the packaging. M. All right, take a bite. Oh, it smells disgusting. Take a bite, Chad. Can I take a picture of you? Ch doesn’t allow me to take pictures of him eating. Oo, what’s inside? What do you think? It’s like smoked cheese only an egg. Smoked smoked cheese only an egg. M. Yeah, very good. Highly recommend it. Highly recommend. I would not eat that. But I’m not an egg person. I don’t like eggs or boiled of any any kind. [Music] This is a chocolate mochi roll. M O C H I. All right, we’re going to give it a try. Chad thought it was a chocolate Claire, so we’re not sure if they’re going to like it or not. Okay, this is what it looks like. That’s really good. What do you think, Chad? Good. Good. Not bad at all. Tastes like a chocolate cake rolled with chocolate cream inside. on our way to the beach to the sand dunes the sand museum and the laundromat. Here comes the train. [Music] Oh, I thought there was a train coming. There is. Easy. Nothing happens fast enough for you, does it? Oh, I had my coffee. [Music] There’s some kids walking to school in the distance. It is 8:10 in the morning. I’m going to put this on pause because there’s no train coming. There’s train. There’s a police car going by. No train yet. Turn on pause again. Here it comes. Chad hears it. Oh, here it comes. I hear it now. One car. Isn’t that cool? Look at how the weather has changed. It’s going to be a nice day at the beach. I think it’s going to dry up a little bit. Now look at this this little beach area here in this small town. That’s beautiful. Nice. There’s some like some fishing boats out there. There’s a crab sign. There’s some ladies and aprons. And here’s a tunnel. It’s going up now. The sign back there that this area is a national park area. And look at look at that beautiful. Oh, here’s another tunnel. The tunnel opens out into this beautiful area with these rocks jutting out into getting out of the water. I’m so happy that they made these tunnels or we be going up and over on wiggly roads. if they did have the temples. But here’s another one. Beautiful sea. Look at the beautiful sea. Look at those rocks. Over here to the left. Seems really nice. It looks like a park and has um in the pine trees that you’ll see at the beach, at least at the New Jersey shore. Um the water is over here, but you can’t see it yet. We found the laundromat. We’re going to go to do the laundry. But look at the sky is really It’s going to be a nice day. I I’m shocked. I thought it was going to rain all day or most of the day. [Music] Let me try that again because my camera was not on. All right. So, there’s a regular load, uh, small load, there’s a dry only load, a wash only load. Uh, if you do the normal routine, it is wash and dry, which is what we chose. And then you can put your number in the phone uh that keyboard there and it’ll alert you by phone if you when your wash is done. Um that way you can go shopping next door and as soon as you put your your money in the slot, it starts working. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s so much better than our laundromats at home. And they have bigger washers, too, I guess, if you’re doing bigger blankets and things. This is my view while waiting for the laundry to be done. See our Mini Wink camper. There weren’t rest rooms here, but they were across the street at the grocery store. Here’s a photo of some of the coins. We used coins. I don’t remember the cost, but I remember it was reasonable to do laundry. [Music] I’m going to try to see about getting a camel ride. And the sand museum is just right down the street. You want to go? As soon as this car passes, we’ll go. I think we buy the tickets over here. We are now at the Totorii sand dunes looking to purchase camel riding tickets. We thought it was here, but these are gift shops with many souvenirs. Many camel souvenirs. You can purchase camel riding tickets near the camels across the street. This interesting building is the Kangokkuma’s Totorii Cafe and Obs Observatory. It is envisioned as a stairway to the sky. The top floor has a view of the dunes. This is so cool. I can’t believe [Music] [Music] [Music] Yeah, Thank you. That was short but fun. Thank you for joining us for tutori part one. Please join us for part two where we go to the incredible Sam Museum and see a beautiful Japanese village. Please subscribe and give us a thumbs up if you like our video.

If you are into scary mountain drives in the rain, with deer, wet leaves, curvy hairpin turn roads without much gas ending with laundry and a camel ride in beautiful weather by the Tottori Dunes this is the video for you.

I mention some accessibility at the Tottori Dunes. Part 1 mentions the ramps. (Season 2 Episode 9)

This is a two part video. I’m working on part 2 now that will show the beach wheelchairs that are available at the visitor center.

Additional road trip information:
For my 60th birthday year, Chet and I took my dream trip Japan. We journeyed as far north as Nikko National Park and as far south as Nagasaki. We saw ancient temples and shrines, wild monkeys, amazing forests, and interesting museums. We ate at 7 11, Family Mart and Lawson convenience stores, restaurants, and local markets. We dipped our toes in the Japan Sea, climbed sand dunes, and even rode a camel. We traveled in a Mini Wink camper van from Japan Campers for three weeks, driving up and down crazy mountain roads, driving through rice paddies, and in the city traffic of Toyoko and Osaka. We camped at Michi No Eki roadside stops and other stops recommended by the Japan Campers app. We hope you will join us on this trip of a lifetime. We had a blast, and I hope you will enjoy joining us through this video series. We also lightly discuss accessibility that we see in our journey.

We are Betsy and Chet, and our oldest son, Alex. For 33 years, we thought Alex, had nonverbal autism, intellectual disability, ADHD, but a few years ago we found out that he has Phelan McDermid. Alex goes on many trips with us, but this time the plane trip is too far.

There are many reasons we make these videos. One reason we make these videos because I love watching travel videos. I love to dream about my next vacation so I’m challenging myself to learn to make my own. I hope we can help others dream about their vacations.

Another reason we make these videos is to share the world with Alex and others who are unable to make a journey to Japan and for those with disabilities whose comfort may be increased by knowing a little bit more about accessibility. We have no idea what Alex understands receptively, so videos are a way to visually communicate where we went for three weeks. He likes to use his eye gaze communication device to watch his vacation videos, so now in a way he can see Japan with us.

Our videos, Goal 1: Joyful Life are based on our family’s journey and strategies we use to improve the quality of our life through meaningful leisure experiences. It is our hope to reach our number one goal of having a joyful life and to help others reach that goal too. We are hoping that our videos will encourage everyone to get out and have fun.