Mount Daisen and Quiet Tottori

The Mountain No One Climbs

Mount Daisen is the highest peak in the Chugoku region at 1,729 meters, and from the north it presents a nearly perfect volcanic cone that has earned it the inevitable comparison to Fuji. The south face tells a different story, a collapsed caldera wall that drops in sheer cliffs, giving the mountain a split personality: smooth from one angle, savage from another. Despite its accessibility (two hours by bus from Yonago Station), Daisen receives a fraction of the visitors that crowd the more famous peaks of central Japan.

The mountain sits at the center of Daisen-Oki National Park, surrounded by one of the largest remaining beech forests in Japan. The forest floor in autumn is a carpet of gold and copper, and the spring canopy filters light into a green luminescence that makes the trails feel subaquatic. This is mountain walking at its most meditative, well-maintained paths through old-growth forest, with the peak appearing and disappearing above the canopy as the trail switchbacks upward.

Daisen-ji Temple and the Summit Trail

Daisen-ji, founded in 718, was once a vast temple complex housing 3,000 monks and 100 sub-temples. Today, the main hall and a few subsidiary buildings survive, set in a grove of enormous Japanese cedars at the base of the mountain. The Ogamiyama Shrine, sharing the grounds in the traditional Buddhist-Shinto fusion that predates the Meiji-era forced separation, adds a torii gate and a small worship hall to the temple precinct.

The summit trail begins behind the temple and climbs 900 meters over 3.5 kilometers through beech forest, then dwarf bamboo, then bare volcanic rock. The ascent takes about three hours at a moderate pace. The final section follows a narrow ridge with views in every direction, the Sea of Japan to the north, the Chugoku mountains to the south, and on exceptionally clear days, the Oki Islands floating on the horizon 60 kilometers offshore. The summit itself is a small platform with a weather station and a view that justifies every step.

Mitokusan Sanbutsu-ji: The Cliff Temple

Sanbutsu-ji temple on Mount Mitoku is home to Japan's most improbable building: the Nageire-do, a prayer hall that appears to have been thrown into a cliff face. The small wooden structure sits in a natural cavity 520 meters up a sheer rock wall, supported by slender wooden pillars wedged into cracks in the stone. No one is entirely certain how it was built. Legend says the monk Enno Gyoja threw (nageru) the entire structure into the cliff with supernatural strength, hence the name.

Reaching the Nageire-do viewing platform requires climbing the mountain via a trail that includes sections of bare rock face, iron chains bolted into cliff walls, and exposed tree roots used as natural ladders. The climb is officially classified as a form of ascetic practice (shugendo), and visitors are given straw sandals and instructed to treat the ascent as a spiritual exercise. The trail takes about 45 minutes of scrambling, and the reward, the Nageire-do floating in its cliff niche, silent and inexplicable, is one of the most extraordinary sights in Japanese architecture.

Misasa Onsen: Radium and Radon

Misasa Onsen, set in a valley between Daisen and Mitokusan, is one of the world's most concentrated sources of naturally occurring radon gas in hot spring water. The town has promoted the therapeutic benefits of low-dose radiation bathing since the 1950s, and Okayama University maintains a research institute here studying the health effects. Whether the claimed benefits (improved immunity, reduced inflammation, pain relief) are real or placebo, the baths themselves are excellent, hot, mineral-rich, and set along a river gorge.

The Misasa River runs through the center of town, and several open-air baths sit directly on the riverbank. The Kawara Baths (free, mixed-gender, swimsuits required) are stone pools right at water level, you soak while watching the river flow past at arm's length. The Kajonoyu public bathhouse (¥500) is the more conventional option, with indoor and outdoor baths, saunas, and a rest area. Ryokan along the river offer private rotenburo (outdoor baths) overlooking the gorge.

Pear Country and the Volcanic Soil

The volcanic soil on Daisen's lower slopes produces some of the best nashi (Japanese pears) in the country. Tottori Prefecture is Japan's leading pear producer, and the orchards around the base of Daisen, particularly in the Hoki and Kofu areas, have been cultivated since the Edo period. The Nijisseiki pear variety, developed in Tottori, is the standard against which all Japanese pears are judged: crisp, juicy, with a sweetness that is clean rather than cloying.

Pick-your-own pear orchards operate from August through October, charging ¥1,000-1,500 for all-you-can-eat sessions of about an hour. The Tottori Nijisseiki Pear Museum in Kurayoshi documents the history and science of pear cultivation, including a greenhouse with pears from around the world. Outside harvest season, pear-flavored products, pear wine, pear cider, pear sorbet, pear curry (surprisingly good), are available throughout the region.