Tenki Tenki Tango Roadside Station

Observe capes formed by lava flows,and coasts where ama female divers used to work.

Shinʼonsen Town Sanʼin Kaigan Geopark CenterSanʼin Kaigan Geopark Museum of the Earth and Sea

Natsudomari‒Nagaobana Course

Lake Hanare

Mt.Shichiyama

Aoya Museum

Tottori
Nagaobana Cape Airport
Lake Koyama

Amino

TakenoNagisa Community Center
Kasumi

Tottori Sand Dunes Geopark Center

Hamasaka
Iwami

Kyoga Misaki Cape

Kami Town Geopark & Marine Cultural Center

Kumihama Bay
Mt.Kabuto

Mt. Kuruhi

Kinosaki Onsen
Kumihama
Genbudo Park Guide CenterKounotori
Tajima Airport

Tottori

Sanʼin Kaigan Geopark Walk Model Course

Mineyama

Kyoto
Kyotango oomiya

Toyooka

Amanohashidate

MiyazuFirst edition 2016.3.31

Mt. Kannabe
Ebara

Mt.Jubosan

The Nagaobana Cape was formed by lava flows from a volcano that formerly existed near the Chugoku
Mountains, in the central part of Tottori Prefecture. This cape extending into the Japan Sea has complex
coastal features formed due to severe wave erosion. At Natsudomari Fishing Port to the west of the cape,Nagaobana Capeama female divers used to collect marine products until recently. The Aoya Kaigan Coast and Idegahama
Beach, further west, are famous as beaches of singing sand.
Yuhigaoka Observatory Plaza

YoukaKawahara

Here is a rocky stretch. Wear shoes
comfortable for walking, such as
trekking shoes. There are dangerous
spots. Be particularly careful while
walking at such spots.

Lava plateau and the Nagaobana Cape
Looking at the Nagaobana Cape from the coastin the eastern part of Tottori Prefecture, you canfind a spread of gently sloped highlands. Thisplateau was formed by andesite, which less sticky
lava from an area around the Chugoku Mountainscooled into. Hard, unerodible andesite formed aplateau-like cape extending into the Japan Sea.
The area around the cape has complex coastalfeatures with steep cliffs formed due to the severe
erosion of raging waves in the Japan Sea. That is
why this area is a favorable fishery, and famous
as a mecca for surf-fishing fans.

To preserve these beautiful natural assets, please leave the sand,Natsudomari Course
START④Andesitic outcrop

Observatory45

Quiz9⑧Aoya Kaigan Coast

Maruyamazaki Cape

Here is an underpass.

8③Natsudomari
Kaigan Coast

3⑤Natsudomari Shrine④Andesitic outcrop

Myojinzaki Capelocal souvenirs!

There are some dangerous
spots in the rocky stretch
near the Nagaobana Cape.
Be particularly careful while
walking at such spots.

4③Natsudomari Kaigan Coast

Keep out of dangerous places and do not go off-limits.
What you can bring home with you are happy memories, photos andNagaobana Lighthouse3

animals and plants as they are.

Chizomegaike Pond

6⑥Gyoson Park7

The komainu (guardian dog) statues andtorii gate at Natsudomari Shrine were madeby a stonemason who worked in this areaaround the end of the Edo period (aroundthe mid-19th century). What was his name?
(For the correct answer, see the reverse ofthis map.)⑦Townscape ofthe fishing hamlet
Natsudomari Ama Hall

Idegahama Beach⑩Townscape of Aoya-cho

Basic Course
Start! ※Estimated walking time
①Aoya Community Museum
5 min.

about 200m

②Sorahama Park
25 min.

about 2,000m③Natsudomari Kaigan Coast
1 min.

about 100m

④Andesitic outcrop
10 min.

about 800m

⑧Aoya Kaigan Coast
15 min.

about 1,000m①Aoya Community Museum

Total traveling time:56min.
Total distance:about 4.1km②Sorahama Park

Aoya Course

Funaiso Shore

21 min.

①Aoya Community Museum

10about 200m
about 1,200m

1110 min.

about 600m

5 min.

⑨Aoya-cho Sports Park

JR Aoya Sta

about 600m

⑪Aoyakamijichi Ruins
Exhibition CenterToilet

Nagao Tunnel.

⑪Aoyakamijichi Ruins Exhibition Center①Aoya Community Museum
Total traveling time:42min.
Total distance:about 2.6km

about 50m

⑤Natsudomari Shrine⑩Townscape of Aoya-cho
10 min.

about 100m

④Andesitic outcrop
1 min.

⑨ Aoya-cho Sports Park
20 min.

※Estimated walking time

③Natsudomari Kaigan Coast

1①Aoya Community Museum
2 min.

Natsudomari Course
Start!

START

9Start! ※Estimated walking time

Uomidai Observatory

9Contact／Inquiries: Sanʼin Kaigan Geopark Promotion Council

Nagao

TEL.: 0796-26-3783

lTunne

FAX: 0796-26-3785

awai
Aoya H

LegendParking

Best photo spot

Route

Aoya Course

Basic Course

Natsudomari Course

sswayExpre

URL: http://sanin-geo.jp/

about 200m

⑥Gyoson Park
10 min.

about 350m

⑦Townscape of the ﬁshing hamlet
5 min.

about 300m

③Natsudomari Kaigan Coast
Total traveling time: 22 min.
Total distance: about 1 km200mNatsudomariʼs and Nagaobanaʼs many places of interest⑤④⑪③⑩and mud nor pollutants.
④The waves often wash the sand and polishthe surfaces of sand grains.
⑤The sand is adequately dry.

②⑨SendaiRiverNosaka
RiverKochi River

Lake Koyama

Singing sand is so delicate that environmental changes, such as pollution of thesea or beach, would stop it from makingsounds.

Kugami River
Higashihama
Gamou RiverKaigan Coast
Shiomi
UradomeRiverKaigan Coast

Tottori Sand Dunes(Fukube Sand Dunes
Hamasaka Sand Dunes)

Kozomi Kaigan Coast

Hakuto Kaigan CoastKachibe RiverTenjin River

Lake Togo

Hioki River

Hojo Sand Dunes
Yura River①⑧⑦

Kawaroku (Ozaki Rokurobei)
Kawaroku was a stonemason who worked in this area around the end of
the Edo period. A number of his works, including komainu (guardian dog)
statues and stone lanterns, still remain in the western part of Tottori City.

Funaiso Kaigan Coast

Beach, Sand dune

An ama female diver collecting
marine products (in a simulation)

Mizushiri Kaigan Coast

Good quality singing sandA simplified map based on the Tottori Sand Dunes Marugoto Handbook edited by the Official
Textbook Editorial Committee for the Certification Exam on Tottori Sand Dunes (2012)⑥①Sand grains are uniform in size.
②Sand grains are of round shape.
③The sand contains neither granules of sandDistribution of quality singing sand in the easternpart of Tottori PrefectureThis shrine is located at Natsudomari
Fishing Port. While its age is unknown, theshrine called “Ebisu” (or affectionately
called “Obisu-san” by local people) has
long been venerated. It boasts komainu(guardian dog) statues created in 1839 anda torii gate dating back to 1847.
(See the quiz answer.)Singing sand grains ofthe Aoya Kaigan CoastThis museum exhibits earthenware andwoodenware discovered at the Aoyakamijichi
ruins, to introduce visitors to the lives of Yayoi
people, and surrounding geomorphologicalfeatures at that time. (See Geo-Column②.)
Phone: 0857-85-0841 Open: 9:00–17:00(entry allowed till 16:30)
Closed: Mondays; days after national
holidays; New Year holidays

Gyoson (lit.: “fihing hamlet”) Park is locatedon a hill in the Natsudomari fishing hamlet.
The park provides a panoramic view of theseashore in Aoya-cho, and in clear weather,even of Mt. Daisen and the Shimane
Peninsula.

Our recommendation:
Yuhigaoka Observatory Plaza

Aoya-cho in western Tottori City is known as an areawith nationally famous beaches of singing sand (Aoya
Kaigan Coast, Idegahama Beach, and Minasehama
Beach). The beauty of these white beaches comes froma high content of transparent quartz in the sand grains.
In September 2015, the Japan Singing Sand Summit
was held in this aGyoson Park

Beaches of singing sandAoya Kaigan Coast
Idegahama Beach
Minasehama BeachQuiz Answer

Characteristics of singing sandIshiwaki Kaigan CoastTomari Kaigan Coast
Uno Kaigan CoastAt Natsudomari Fishing Port, ama female divers
collected marine products until recently. Tradition
has it that a marine product collection by ama
female divers was introduced from Chikuzen
Province to this port over 400 years ago by thewife of a fisherman named Sukeemon, whoserved as a pilot for Kamei Korenori, the lordof Shikano Castle, on the occasion of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea. The peak of themarine product collection by ama female divers
at Natsudomari was in the 1950s, with a groupof about 30 female divers collecting wakame
seaweed and other products. Collected wakame
seaweed was processed with a traditional
technique called “shibori wakame” (lit.: “wakamesqueezing”).

Geo-Column②

Aoya flourished as a post town on ahighway and a port town in olden times.
You can find some traces of the town’s
history here and there in its townscape,such as lattices and plastered walls inrows, and red Sekishu-gawara roof tiles.

Aoyakamijichi Ruins Exhibition Center

Marine product collection by ama
female divers at Natsudomari Fishing Port

It is thought that the Nagaobana Cape wasformed by lava that flowed down from anarea around the Chugoku Mountains about
1.6 million years ago. The lava spreadwidely from Mt. Hachibuse on the border
between Tottori City and Yurihama Town
to Aoya-cho in Tottori City and Yurihama
Town. The lava features platy joints, which
are generally thought to result from straincaused by friction between flowing lava andthe ground surface.

Natsudomari Shrine

Geo-Column①

This sports park is located on sand dunesin Aoya. The park offers you a view of theJapan Sea to the north, and of paddy fields
in the lowland area, which was formerly
a back slough of the sand dunes, to thesouth. (See ② Sorahama Park.)

Townscape of Aoya-cho

Together with Idegahama Beach to thewest of it, this coast is famous for singing
sand. Walking on the white beach whileslipping your feet into the sand, you canhear the sand make squeaking sounds.
(See Geo-Column ②.)

Aoya-cho Sports Park

Aoya Kaigan Coast

Townscape of the fishing hamlet

The steep slopes are covered with manyhouses, between which narrow streets
run around. The townscape shows a good
example of effective use of a small area andsteep slopes.

This is a rocky coast on the western sideof the Nagaobana Cape. Here you canfind rocks in various shapes, including
the Shishi-iwa (Lion Rock), which, due
to weathering and erosion, looks like alion opening its mouth. The coast is also
famous for ama female divers who formerlycollected marine products there. (SeeGeo-Column ①.) The Nagaobana Capewas formed by andesitic lava, and thecape area is designated as Nishi Inaba
Prefectural Natural Park.

Andesitic outcrop

Located on a hill, this park offers apanoramic view of the Japan Sea and thetownscape of Aoya. The hamlet of Aoya
spreads over sand dunes to the north of alowland area used as farming fields. It canbe inferred that the development of thesand dunes separated an enclosed bay thatformerly existed here from the sea, andtransformed it a lagoon, which dried up toform a wetland (a back slough) and became
the current lowland area.

Natsudomari Kaigan Coast

Sorahama Park

Aoya Community Museum

This museum, which reopened in 2014 after being
remodeled, provides visitors with information
about San’in Kaigan Geopark, and exhibitsmaterials and videos about must-see spots inAoya-cho, Inshu Washi paper, a marine productcollection by ama female divers, and singing
sand. The gallery housed in the facility holds
art exhibitions featuring paintings, drawings orphotos.
Phone: 0857-85-2351 Open: 9:00–17:00 (entry
allowed till 16:30)
Closed: Mondays; days after national holidays;

This observatory, located near the tipof the Nagaobana Cape, provides you
with a beautiful view of the shoreline in
Aoya-cho and sunset, and, if you arelucky, of Mt. Daisen and the Shimane
Peninsula, and even Oki Islands overthem.
The Nagaobana Cape is associatedwith a legend about a poisonous dragon.
The red and black marks on the rocksurface at the cape are believed to bepaths left by the poisonous dragon.

Geo-Column③

Ancient objects protected under the wetlands
The Aoyakamijichi ruins feature the remains of a hamlet in the Yayoi period, which werediscovered during an excavation survey conducted on the occasion of construction works
for the San’in Expressway. Many objects related to the lives of people at that time wereexcavated from the ditch surrounding the hamlet, and some of them, such as elaborate woodenware, would have rotted away and not have survived such a long history under ordinary
conditions. In ancient times, a lagoon spread over this area, and people lived in the low-lying
wetlands by the lagoon; the wetlands’ clay layers
containing a large amount of moisture happened
to create an airtight environment and prevent
organic substances, including wood, from being
decomposed by bacteria. That is why manywell-preserved ancient objects were excavatedfrom the ruins, which is called an “undergroundmuseum of the Yayoi period.” Moreover, abrain was discovered in the excavated skull of
a Yayoi-period person, and became a focus ofpublic attention. Even in global terms, only several reports have so far been made on discoveriesof human brains dating back to the prehistoricage.
Aoyakamijichi ruins
Yayoi-period objects excavated from the ruins

Production: Tottori Prefecture; Tottori City; Faculty of Regional Sciences, Tottori University(FY2015 Tottori University Regional Contribution Project);San’in Kaigan Geopark Promotion Council