Yonago-Matsue-Sakaiminato Cities around Nakaumi 米子-松江-大根島-境港 中海圏域の風景
Yonago (米子市 Yonago-shi?) is a city located in the northwest of Tottori, Japan, facing the Sea of Japan, and adjacent to Shimane. It is the prefecture's second largest city after Tottori and therefore a commercial center of the western part of this prefecture.
The current city was administratively founded on April 1, 1927, and merged with Yodoe Town in 2005. It has an art gallery.
The name Yonago means Rice Child, though since the city has begun to develop into a trade center of note, it has acquired the nickname Osaka in San-in.
The Amago family, the daimyo in the Sengoku period, constructed a castle in the area. In the Edo period, the castle was kept by a castellan who served the Ikeda of Tottori.
Yonago has always been an important crossing point of several routes in the area. Currently, it is the crosspoint of three railway lines and has a seaport to the Oki Islands. Miho-Yonago Airport, located in a neighboring city of Sakaiminato, serves the area.
Matsue (松江市 Matsue-shi?) is the capital city of Shimane Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. As of April 30, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 191,852, with household number is 78,965, and a population density of 361.84 persons per km².
Matsue sits between Lake Shinji and Nakaumi, along the banks of the Ohashi river connecting the two. Due to the prominence of the lakes, the river and canals in the city-scape and scenery it is sometimes called the water city. Nearby Izumo Taisha is recognized as one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan and is ranked second in importance only to Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture.
Sakaiminato (境港市 Sakaiminato-shi?) is a city in the northern Tottori Prefecture, Japan. At the northern end of Yumigahama Peninsula, it faces the Sea of Japan, another sea Nakaumi and Sakai channel.
As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 35,710 and the density of 1,240 persons per km². The total area is 28.79 km².
The seaport of Sakaiminato is one of the most famous fishery ports in Japan and is the major port of Tottori prefecture. Nearby Miho airbase is run by the Ministry of Defence but is also used for civilian national and international flights, being generally referred to as 'Yonago Airport'.
The city was officially founded on April 1, 1956. Recently a merger with Yonago and other neighboring municipalities was proposed but the majority of the citizenry voted against this, and Sakaiminato is set to remain an autonomous municipality.
Sakaiminato is the home of Shigeru Mizuki, the creator of GeGeGe no Kitaro, a character seen in many forms throughout Japan. The spirit of Kitaro can be found in Sakaiminato, on Kitaro Road, a street dedicated to all the characters that appear in Mizuki's stories. One hundred bronze statues of the story's characters line both sides of the road.
Sakaiminato was also where the photographer Shōji Ueda was born and ran a studio.
Nakaumi (中海?) is a brackish lake located between Tottori and Shimane prefectures in Japan. The lake is enclosed by the Shimane Peninsula to the north and Yumigahama Peninsula to the east. It is the fifth largest lake in surface area in Japan.
Nakaumi connects Lake Shinji (宍道湖 Shinji-ko) and the Sea of Japan, and is surrounded by the municipalities Matsue, Higashi Izumo, Yasugi, Yonago and Sakai Minato.
There are two large islands in the lake, Daikon Island (大根島 Daikonjima, lit. radish island) and Eshima Island (江島 Eshima, river island). There are bridges and roads that connect the east and west shores of the lake through the two islands.
Nakaumi is a brackish lake because it is connected to the Sea of Japan by a short channel, the Sakai Channel, and lies so low that the tides reverse the flow of the rivers all the way into Lake Shinji.
Nakaumi (中海) literally means middle sea. Even though Nakaumi is a lake, it was likely named a sea because of its saline water and proximity to the actual sea. In Japanese, the lake is usually referred to simply as Nakaumi, not as Nakaumi-ko (Lake Nakaumi).