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After ticking off the Tottori Sand Dunes, we headed over to
AEON
Mall Tottori Kita (イオンモール鳥取北) for a quick
look around. Quite a few of my friends enjoy visiting AEON Malls in
Japan, and to be honest, I quite like them too. AEON Mall is a shopping
mall operated by AEON, which sits somewhere in the mid-range department
store category. Besides AEON's own shops, there are plenty of chain
stores and mid-to-large retailers inside. In one reasonably sized place,
you can find most of what you want to shop or browse, which makes it
very convenient. We hadn't planned to visit an AEON Mall on this trip,
but since we had some time after the sand dunes and were passing by
anyway, we decided to drop in. |
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After that, we headed to Tottori Port Karoichi Fish Market (鳥取港海鮮市場かろいち),
a fish market attached to Tottori Port. The port is located near Tottori
Airport and the estuary of the River Sendai, about 10-15 minute drive
from central Tottori or the sand dunes, and less than 5 minutes from
AEON Mall Tottori Kita. The waters around the port site where the warm
Tsushima current meets colder currents, so the variety of seafood is
excellent. Local specialities include snow crab, white squid, and rock
oysters. |
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Tottori Karo Minato Oasis |
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Tottori Port was historically known as Karo Port. In 1653, IKEDA
Mitsunaka (池田 光仲), the first lord of the Tottori
Domain, established an official maritime office here. During the Sengoku
period, the Môri clan (毛利氏) also made use of Karo
Port when expanding into Inaba (now Tottori). Later, when TOYOTOMI
Hideyoshi (豊臣 秀吉), under the orders of ODA
Nobunaga (織田 信長), lauched campaigns against MÔRI
Terumoto (毛利 輝元), the port
again served as an important base. |
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Thanks to its natural geographical advantages, the area had already
become a key fishing village during the Edo period, mainly focused on
coastal fishing and supplying seafood for the Tottori region. After
WWII, as Japan's fishing industry modernised, Karo evolved from a
'fishing village' into a proper 'fishing port', which cold storage,
auctions, and logistics facilities introduced. |
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| Today, Tottori Port serves both as a commercial port and a
fishing port. The commercial side, known as Sendai area, handles
freight such as construction materials and fuel, with facilities
like freight terminals, warehouses, and cranes. It also
accommodates cruise ships. Although there are no regular cruise
routes and none use Tottori as a home port, some seasonal or
occasional cruise ships do call here. While not particularly
large, it remains an important gateway in Tottori Prefecture's
supply chain. |
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The fishing port side is known as the Karo area. In 2003, Karoichi
Market was established, transforming the port from a wholesale-focused
operation into a direct-sales market where visitors can experience
fishing port culture. In 2004, it was registered as a 'Minato Oasis' (みなとオアシス)
– Tottori Karo Minato Oasis (鳥取・賀露みなとオアシス).
This is a designation by Japan's Minstry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism to integrate tourism, culture, commerce, and
regional revitalisation around ports. Besides seafood, you can also find
local produce, souvenirs, and crafts. It's basically the port version of
a Michinoeki (道の駅, roadside station). |
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As a 'Minato Oasis', it's meant not only to attract visitors but also to
serve as a leisure space for locals, so there is a large open plaza and
pedestrian walkways outside. The fish market itself is not very big,
with just four seafood stalls, one souvenir shop, one shop selling tofu
and fish products, three dining restaurants, and one light-meal
restaurant (noodle soup). Compared with places like Wakayama's Kuroshio
Market (黒潮市場), Shimonoseki's Karato Market (唐戸市場),
or Kanazawa's Ômichô Market (近江町市場), it is much
smaller. The advantage, however, is that the seafood is extremely fresh
– all landed at Tottori Port on the same day. |
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Sunaba Coffee – a local Tottori coffee chain. 'Sunaba'
means 'sandpit' in Japanese, and also sounds a bit like
'Starbucks' in Japanese! |
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Inside the fish market (JF Tottori Fisheries
Cooperative stall) |
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Besides seafood, there are also local souvenirs –
JF Umi no Omiyage |
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The scale of Toyosu Market in Tokyo is, of course, far larger. However,
Tokyo itself produces very little seafood, with most of it coming from
Hokkaidô, followed by the San'in region. In terms of size, there's no
comparison, but in terms of freshness, Karoichi probably has the edge. |
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| The market offers seasonal seafood all year round. In winter
now (December to February), snow crab is in season, along with
mosa ebi (a type of prawn) and hirame (a type of flatfish).
Other seasonal highlights include hatahata (sandfish),
horse mackerel, and turban shells in spring (March to May);
white squid, rock oysters, and tuna in summer (June to August);
and babachan (a type of eelpout), scomber (mackerel), and
blackthroat seaperch in autumn (September to November). |
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We chose Nakamura store |
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Seating available inside the stall |
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Snow crab and prawns mosa ebi |
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In the end, we picked Nakamura store. We bought one snow crab and a
portion of prawn mosa ebi, costing JP¥15,100 in total. Each of the four
stalls in the market has its own seating area, so you can eat straight
away after buying. Since Todd isn't that keen on crab, we chose a
smaller one. Even so, the meat was nicely filled. The best part was the
brown meat inside the shell – rich, creamy, and full of umami. It's
honestly hard to describe in words. |
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That said, the mosa ebi was even more worth trying. It's not something
you hear about often. That's because it turns black and deteriorates
very quickly once out of the water, making it difficult to transport
over long distances or store frozen. As a result, you can basically only
eat in the San'in region. The name 'mosa' (猛者) implies toughness,
referring to its hard shell with sharp edges. It's a deep-sea prawn,
living at depths of around 200-500 metres in the Sea of Japan. The
texture is firm and springy, with a strong, rich flavour. Although it
look like a prawn, the taste is easily on par with spiny lobster. |
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Special seafood rice bowl |
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White squid tentacle tempura |
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One crab and a few prawns obviously weren't enough, so Todd suggested
going to one of the market restaurants for a seafood rice bowl. Besides
the three eateries inside the market hall, there are also two outside –
Kaiyôtei (海陽亭) and Kaisenmatsuri Hôenya (海鮮祭ホーエンヤ,
the name 'Hôenya' likely comes from a festival at Karo Jinja). In
general, the menus are quite similar, mainly centred around seafood rice
bowls. The only difference was that Kaiyôtei focuses on white squid
sashimi, so we chose it, but... |
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The seating at Kaiyôtei is arranged around a squid tank, and ordering is
done via a tablet computer. Perhaps we arrived a bit too late – when we
openeded the menu on the tablet, all the squid sashimi had already sold
out! It felt a bit like we'd been lured in for nothing (╥﹏╥). In the
end, Todd and I both ordered the Special Seafood Rice Bowl (JP¥2,860),
plus one portion of white squid tentacle tempura (白イカ下足天).
It tasted good, but wasn't particularly memorable. |
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I bought some huge dried shittake mushrooms! |
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Tottori Karo Crab Aquarium |
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After lunch, we visited the nearby farmers' market – Wattaina
Shokunomiyako Tottori (わったいな 食のみやこ 鳥取). (The name
roughly means 'Great! The Capital of Dining Tottori' in local dialect.)
It's operated by the JA Group Tottori (Agricultural Cooperatives) and
specialises in local produce. The main items are fruit and vegetables,
and of course the famous Tottori Nijisseiki (green pears). We weren't
going to buy vegetables, and fruit was already provided daily at our
accommodation, so we ended up browsing the dried goods section> I bought
some dried shiitake mushrooms and kombu. The mushrooms were huge – even
in Hong Kong they're hard to find at that size. |
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As part of the 'Minato Oasis', there is also a small museum nearby – the
Tottori Karo Crab Aquarium (とっとり賀露かにっこ館),
which is more aimed at children and focuses on crabs. |
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After that, we officially left Tottori City and set off for our next
stop – Kurayoshi (倉吉). |
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Click here for English Version 正一非常喜歡自駕遊。要合法在外國駕駛，首先需要「國際駕駛許可證...