Checking made-up Japanese place names for a desert region

In the alternative world of my trilogy, Romanitas, North America is divided between the Roman Empire and the Japanese (Nionians.)

I’m editing the third book and I need to check some of my made up place names for plausibility/ludicrousness. These are for places in Nevada and Southern California, so we're looking at deserts and salt flats as geographical features.

I used language websites and sites on the etymology of actual Japanese place names to construct these, but clearly “do these sound okay” isn’t something you can really Google.

I once came perilously close to naming a place “The Lake of Respiratory Infections” when I was going for “Cold Lake”. So I won’t say  ‘don’t laugh’!

Arenoshi . A  city in a desert, near a gorge, not that far from where Las Vegas actually is. I seem to have intended, rather boringly, the meaning “desert city.” But I have grave doubts about this one!

Hekisei.  A  district of the above

Kankomura.  A village

Akase Mountains The Sierra Nevada and  I cannot work out for the life of me what I intended this to mean.

Yokusawa. A small town

Tamocho.  A city somewhere in California --  I think I meant it to be around where Fresno is.

Posted at both  linguaphiles and little_details.