Yumeminato Tower

 

Japan has a lot of observation towers, a few, like in Tokyo, are not on the coast, but the vast majority are.

Yumeminato Tower is located in Sakaiminato, the port town in Tottori, now famous for Yokai.

At 43 meters in height, it is one of the smaller towers.

On clear days there are great views of Mount Daisen, the highest mountain in the Chugoku Region. Unfortunately, on the day I took these pics, it was cloudy, and Daisen could not be seen.

However, there was a good view down on Yumeminato Park.

The park, tower, and adjacent exhibition building were all built for the Japan Expo Tottori 97, which ran over the summer of 1997.

While not huge, I did enjoy the interior structure of the tower with its steel interior and wooden exterior.

It was designed by Hirofumi Sugimoto.

There is a cafe at the observation deck level. Entry is 300 yen for adults....

This is the first post in a small series on the delights of Sakaiminato. Earlier posts of mine cover the huge number of yokai statues along the Mizuki Shigeru Road. Yokai 1, Yokai 2, and Yokai 3.

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Saga Arashiyama Museum of Arts & Culture

 

When I visited this place, when all these photos were taken, it was called the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Shigureden, and it had just opened.

Momen Kaido Hirata Cotton Road

 

Hirata lies close to the north shore of Lake Shinji, Japan's 8th biggest lake, and for a while it was a bustling trading port exporting Hirata Cotton up to Osaka and beyond.

A small secrtion of the old town along the navigable river that fed into Lake Shinji has now been renamed Momen Kaido, "Cotton Road".

There is a large merchant house and garden open to the public which I will cover in the next post in the series.

For me, the most interesting thing about Hirata is the unique folk art called Isshiki Kazari, which I need to do some more posts on.....

Hirata is served by the scenic Ichibata Railway that follows the lakeshore between Matsu and Izumo Taisha.

On a hillside overlooking the town is a really good folk-art museum as well as mansion and garden that is REALLY worth visiting.

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The previous post in this series on the sights of Matsue and Izumo was on the observation deck overlooking Matsue and Lake Shinji.

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Miscellaneous Namba Architecture

Namba Architecture Osaka

After leaving the Osaka Science Museum I headed to the station to head out for an appointment.

Along the way I took these snapshots of various architectural details, as for me, a long time resident of really rural Japan, they were exotic and interesting.....

I am still uncomfortable in the large parts of Osaka that are underground......

None of the photos are of particularly famous or interesting architecture, simply a record of what took my eye as I walked to the station.

The previous post was on the Osaka Science Museum.

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Osaka Science Museum

 Osaka

My final stop on my afternoon architectural exploration of Namba and nearby areas of Osaka was the Osaka Science Museum on Nakanoshima, adjacent to the National  Museum of Art.

The structure is primarily an oval. It opened in 1989.

It was designed by Environmental Development Institute, about whom I can find no info.

The two themes of the museum are Space, and Energy.

Kansai Electric was the primary funder of the museum, so the energy theme is not surprising.

The museum is home to one of the largest planetariums in the world.

From the aboce photo you would be forgiven for thinking you were in a shopping mall.

The museum seems to be aimed at younger visitors.

There are many interactive exhibits, and several times a day a Sciemce Show is performed.

I was in somewhat of a hurry to get to an appointment, so I did not look around.

In 2020, long after this visit of mine, the museum was completely renovated...

The previous post in this series was on the National Museum of Art by Cesar Pelli next door.

If you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.