Hokkaido: Biei & Furano

Tuesday morning we left Sapporo bound for Biei. We took the Norokko train, a slow-moving sightseeing train with wooden benches and large open windows. Our first stop was Farm Tomita, one of the many flower farms in the area. It's most famous for its lavender fields, which are very beautiful and popular with tourists in the summer season. Unfortunately, we obviously missed the lavender but were still able to see some colorful autumn flowers. Despite the absence of the lavender plants, it was still ever present in the numerous gift shops dotting the farm. Lavender perfume, soaps, candies, neck pillows, makeup, cookies, pens, candles, incense, hot pads, T-shirts, decor, etc... even ice cream - which was quite good! We also saw a man whip out his toothbrush and start brushing amidst everyone, I guess he wanted to be ready for his picture!






Although this area of Hokkaido may not look spectacular to our fellow midwestern family and friends, it IS for Japanese people. The "flatness" of Hokkaido is ooed and awed over here just as much as Rocky Mountains and Grand Canyon are back home. We were there just in time for a good vegetable harvest, particularly onions. At times, we noticed fields full of them in the morning, and by afternoon they had all been picked up and stored in boxes ready for transport to the factories where they'd be inspected and sent to grocers. Even with the flat land, you can still always see mountains. We had perfect views of the volcanic Tokachi mountain range during every train ride.





In Biei, we took the hour-long Hill Course bus tour that took us by some famous sights used in commercials, such as the tree of Seven Stars, a cigarette brand. We were also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Calbee potato chip factory!


We stayed in a hotel in Asahikawa, Fitness 330, which we had hoped to go swimming at, but unfortunately, the ONLY day we could swim was Thursday, the one day in the week it happened to be closed, haha. We never had any days in Asahikawa, but we did get to explore some at night, mainly shopping and restaurants. This statue stood out in particular, though there were so many others like it...

The next day, we headed to Furano to experience the wine and grape factories there, and of course more ice cream (grape)! Perhaps, this part of the trip should have been called the ice cream tour. :-) We rented bicycles at the train station and rode the 4km to the grape juice factory and vineyards, then rode up a hill to the winery. We had a quick lunch nearby of Cheese Fondu, the most popular menu item. Yum!






We took the Furano bus tour in the afternoon, stopping at a few other TV locales as well as some more factories and shops: Jam farm/factory - where they had every kind of fruit and vegetable thinkable jarred, Anpanman shop - the largest in Japan, Cheese Factory (where we tried pumpkin AND cheese ice cream), and finally the outdoor shopping area of Ningle Terrace.