The island nation of Japan is divided into 47 provinces called prefectures. Tottori prefecture is located on the sea of Japan coast on the western side of the large island of Honshu. This area is known as the Chugoku region and includes Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi prefectures. This basically includes everything west of Osaska. Yonago City, where I live is on the western side of Tottori, bordering Shimane prefecture. My wife's hometown in Yasugi, just across the border in Shimane.
Tottori and Shimane prefectures are collectivelly known as the San'in area(山陰) and means 'the dark side of the mountain'. There is a rain shadow effect from the Chugoku mountain range which basically runs East and West. The area is famous for extremely changeable weather. It is often cloudy and rains. This is in contrast to the area to the south including Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures. This area is called San'yo (山陽) and means 'the sunny side of the mountain'. This area experiences much milder and sunny weather.
Yonago (米子) has a population of about 150.000 people and is roughly the same size as Kansas City, Ks. The chinese characters mean 'rice child'. It's an important commercial town and it's main sybmols are rice, and the tundra swan which migrates to this area. Yonago has a younger feel compared to other cities in the area and you meet a lot of people who came from somewere else. It's a comfortable place to live and has it's share of entertainment. The most popular place nearby is Mt. Daisen which is the picture at the top of this blog. It's not so big as mountains go, but it's the largest mountain in the Chugiku region. It's a favorite for skiers and has many other interesting places. It's sometimes refered to as 'Izumo Fuji'. Izumo was the name of the ancient kingdom of this area and Daisen superficially resembles Fuji, though it's only about half the size of Japan's most famous mountain.
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