Laid Back Kurayoshi

What?
Kurayoshi’s (倉吉) claim to fame are its white walled warehouses or shirakabe storehouses (白壁土蔵群). These are the buildings of old sake breweries, soy sauce breweries and craft shops that are still standing after being built in the 17th century. What began as an area in support of the local castle quickly became a bustling merchant town which prospered throughout the Edo Period (1603-1868). The area is now an “Important Preservation District for Traditional Buildings” and still houses local craft shops, a winery and a small craft brewery. Closeby to the shirakabe storeshouses is the Utsubuki Park (打吹公園) with its many cherry trees.
Where?
Kurayoshi is located centrally in Tottori Prefecture (鳥取県), but just like any other town or city in the remote province, it’s not an easy place to get to. I took the train along the Sanin-line (山陰本線) from Tottori Station (鳥取駅). While this is the longest train line of Japan, it is served quite infrequently. There are however 1 to 2 trains an hour, but the time it takes to make the trip varies from half an hour to trice that long.
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After visiting Tottori I planned to go straight home, but unlike what the forecasts predicted, the weather was great. I had a little bit of energy left - not too much though - so I decided to pay nearby Kurayoshi a quick visit.

Kurayoshi is proud of its white walled storehouses and preserved old quarter. As I reported in my entry about Omihachiman and Hagi, these kind of attractions don’t really thrill me.
And also here in Kurayoshi, the area that has been kept in its original condition is just very, very small. It takes maybe 10 minutes, 20 if you stop at each shop, to see the whole place. I did think it was a nice stroll, and I am a sucker for the rank chimney, but it doesn’t really justify the time and effort to get here. Unlike Hagi though, the buildings really looked like they were old and as such had a more authentic atmosphere.
As it was a great day I enjoyed a lunchbox on one of the few benches and a beer with sake lees in the small craft brewery Brew Lab Kurayoshi (it was ok).

I also visited the next door Utsubuki Park, but that’s really just one in a dozen. Pleasant for the locals and probably beautiful when the cherry trees are blooming, but otherwise your regular local garden.

The Utsubuki Park is just a local park.

Mount Daisen in the distance.

A monkey fish?

Concrete bridges over the small canal.

That all doesn’t sound very enthusiastic, but in general I did like the atmosphere of the town. Just riding my rental cycle through small shopping streets and along calm rivers, Mount Daisen constantly popping up in the distance, it gave me a very comfortable feeling. And I honestly regret not having known that I passed a pear museum both on my to and fro the storehouses. It’s the only pear museum in the whole of Japan and those Japanese pears are really juicy and finger licking good.
I can really imagine myself coming here in winter and staying in one of the many onsen towns nearby, paying the town another visit.

On my way back to Tottori to catch my bus home, I saw this big Chinese theme park through the window of the train. At least I thought it was a theme park. Apparently this is called Encho-en (燕趙園) and it is a fairly big Chinese garden. I can’t say anything about how it looks like, but if you’re in Kurayoshi and have time to spare, this might be an atypical option for you.