Tottori-sakyu is a nationally designated Natural Monument in the eastern part of Tottori Prefecture.It is one of the largest coastal dunes in Japan, stretching 16 kilometers long from east to west and 2.4 kilometers wide from north to south. For over 100,000 years, the dunes have been created by sand deposits carried by wind and ocean currents from the Sea of Japan. The 40-meter-deep basin named Suribachi or “Mortar,” along with the wind patterns formed on the dunes is the prodigious art of Nature.
(鳥取砂丘は、国の天然記念物に指定されている東西16km、南北24kmにわたる日本最大の海岸砂丘の一つであり、砂丘は10万年にも及ぶ年月をかけて、日本海から風や海流によ って運ばれた砂の堆積物により作られてきた。「すり鉢」と呼ばれる深さ40mの窪地や砂の上に形成される「風紋」はまさに自然の芸術である)