The are unique sand dunes located near Tottori City

Tottori, Tottori

is the capital city of Tottori Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan.As of 2006, the city has an estimated population of 200,974 and a density of 262.48 persons per km². The total area is 765.66 km²....

 in Tottori Prefecture

Tottori Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region. The capital is the city of Tottori. It is the least populous prefecture in Japan.- History :Before the Meiji Restoration, Tottori encompassed the old provinces of Hōki and Inaba...

, Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. They are the only large dune system (over 30 km²) in Japan.

The dunes were created by sediment deposits carried from the Chūgoku Mountains

Chugoku Mountains

is a mountain range in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. It runs in an east-west direction and stretches approximately from Hyōgo Prefecture in the east to the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. It also reaches under the Pacific Ocean....

 by the Sendai River into the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

. Sea currents and wind help bring the sand from the bottom up onto the shore, where the wind constantly rearranges their shape. The dunes have existed for over 100,000 years, but the area of the dunes has been steadily decreasing due to a government reforestation

Reforestation

Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through deforestation....

 program following World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Additionally, concrete barriers erected to protect the coast (the part of Sanin Kaigan National Park

Sanin Kaigan National Park

is a national park on the island of Honshū in Japan. It runs along the coast of the Sea of Japan from Kyoto to Tottori. The park area encompasses a variety of landscapes, including the Tottori Sand Dunes, the only large dune system in Japan....

) from tsunamis have disrupted the currents responsible for bringing the sand to shore. In recent years authorities have adopted measures to stop the shrinkage of the dunes, partly because they attract a significant amount of tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 to the area. The Tottori prefectural government has attempted to dump sand off the shore near the dunes in the hopes that it will wash ashore, as well as employing the manual removal of encroaching grassy areas. The lasting ability for these efforts to protect the dunes is as of yet unknown. Each year, around two million visitors—mostly from within Japan and East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

—visit the dunes.

External links

• Tottori Prefecture Guidebook
• Photos of dunes
• "In the Shrinking Dunes, Stalking a Creeping Green Enemy", The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , August 23, 2006.