Welcome to Part 3 of the EXO-L guide to the Tottori adventure! Check out the previous guides below
This blog post is based on my own adventure but wouldn’t be possible without this guide shared by @onlaymon. For faster reference during your trip download the guide in her tweet!
In this post, I will detail out how to get to the Kurayoshi White Wall Warehouse area where CBX had the millstone coffee and took some pretty pictures at the old town.
How to get to Kurayoshi White Wall Warehouse?
It’s a bit tricky to get to the location as pictured above, as this place is only directly accessible by bus. The nearest bus stop is the Akagawara Shirakabe Dozo bus stop (赤瓦・白壁土蔵) (click link for the google map location).
The bus schedule to and from can be checked via this website or just do the routing on googlemap, which will always show the updated schedule for both trains and buses.
The picture above depicts the route if you’re coming from:
- Yonago Station (from Sakaiminato Town as depicted in Part 2)
- Tottori Station (the sand dunes which will be covered in the next part of the guide)
Price and timewise, there are no significant difference so which way you’re using is really dependent on how you are structuring your trip. Also note that the JR passes covered under Part 1 of the guide will cover the cost of the train, but not the bus.
Things to note for Japan Buses :
🌟 Buses in Japan doesn’t stop at every stop in the route. You will need to push the Stop/Red button like most countries to make the driver stop at the next bus stop
🌟 To make it even more tricky, it doesn’t always have English announcement like train in Japan does. I can’t remember whether the Kurayoshi one here had English announcement
🌟 So how do you know when to push the “Stop” button? I recommend using google map app, while on the bus, route yourself to the destination and you can see which bus stop you are at while on the bus. This will save you from the mercy of “is this my stop?” cause you’ll know for sure
Millstone coffee shop (Kura Coffee)
The millstone coffee shop visited by CBX is called Kura Coffee (Link) and is located only 2 mins walk from the bus stop.
You need to make your orders at the cashier, and go up the stairs to the first floor to get to the seating area.
You can get your coffee in the same cup design as the one that was used by CBX during the show. They were even selling the cups for ¥2,500 each.
Just a side note that the stairs are a bit narrow and steep so don’t wear heels.
The first floor seating area is gorgeous, decorated in a traditional Japanese theme. The seating below seems to be the same place as the one CBX sat at during the recording, but they changed the seating to a 2 person seat instead.
All 3 CBX ordered the millstone coffee (¥650) and dango (rice dumpling ~¥500). There’s actually 3 flavour of dango available mitarashi (soy sauce), orange and green tea.
CBX seemed to just ordered a dango and grilled it themselves, which was not an experience that was offered at the shop. Similar to the millstone coffee, they don’t actually make you grind the coffee yourself and you also can’t grill your own dango. I didn’t try asking if they somehow will let us do it if we ask.
As they were only 2 of us, so we ordered the Chen and Baekhyun cup design (Sorry xiu xiu, I love you but drinking too much coffee while travelling gives me stomachache). It’s a pretty good cup of coffee, quite savory, not too bitter and what makes it extra special is that they don’t give sugar, but instead red beans as the sweetener.
We chose to go with the Green Tea dango, each order comes with two sticks each. It looked and tasted amazing! It was the first time I tasted dango. It has a mochi like texture with a taste slightly similar to korean rice cake. The matcha and red bean added a good amount of sweetness to the mix.
Also make sure to take a look at CBX signature displayed on the first floor!
Kurayoshi White Wall Warehouse photo locations
CBX spent a good amount of time taking photos in the town. The most memorable for me is the photo below:
🌟 CBX in front of wooden door warehouse (Location: 35.4319490, 133.8247900)
2. XiuChen sitting down at canal (Location: 35.4322200, 133.8249970)
Taiyaki (Japanese Fish-shaped cake)
End your visit exactly like CBX did with takeway Taiyaki! A japanese fish-shaped cake filled with some red bean goodness as shown in Episode 35.
The name of the shop is Yonezawa Taiyaki and their taiyaki is a bit special in which the outer skin is a bit more whitish than the usual ones.
The taiyaki are priced ¥100 each and you can choose to takeaway or dine-in. During the visit I ate my taiyaki inside the shop and they serve free green tea as well. It’s a pretty good taiyaki, soft with rich fillings, definitely recommended!
I ended my day at Kurayoshi here and made my way to the famed Tottori Sand Dunes afterwards.
My updates has been slow but I’ll update on the Tottori Sand Dunes on part 4!
