Friday, July 12, 2013
Japan July 2013 - Day 5 (Furano)
Today, we make our way to the highlight of this entire trip. Travelling to Furano to view lavendar!
First off, yes, it is a pain in the arse to get around in the Furano - Biei area if you do not have you own transport and are replying on the train. However, do be assured that it can be done and you just need a little planning.
I had purchased a Furano Biei Round Tour ticket which gives us a ticket from Sapporo to the Furano - Biei area (includes Asahikawa) for 5400 yen. This is an extremely good value ticket if you intend to stay in the Furano - Biei Area for up to 4 days as it gives you unlimited rides in the free area, but please note that once you leave the free aea, your ticket expires. This means that you cannot make daily trips from Sapporo on the same ticket, you have to stay in the free area. It is recommended to stay for a few days in the area as there are many places to visit and the transit times can be quite long.
We had breakfast in the hotel. It's a simple offering but I loved the bread on offer as it was soft and delicious when toasted with butter.... simply heavenly! Was also great that I was seated right next to the toaster, lol. After breakfast we walked over to JR Sapporo station to catch the Limited Express Furano Lavendar Express that leaves at 0755. Although, I did read a model course that recommends catching the 0906 train which allows you to reach Furano at 1103 in order to catch the 1152 Furano - Biei Norokko train (or the 1145 Furano - Asahikawa train), I didn't notice that was cos.. there really is no train if you arrive in Furano at 0955 on the 0755 train.
So, nothing much for it but to go for a walk (which isn't too good an idea for my mum though). JR Furano is a very small station so all you can do is sit and stare if you stay there. Most other places in Furano require transport.... so we walked to Furano Marche, which is basically an air conditioned Farmer's Market/ Cafe / Souvenir shop.
My mum decided to buy a ramen croquette and I must say that it was rather nice!
After spending some time there, we walked back to catch the train to the JR Lavendar Batake Station (JR Lavender Farm). This is a seasonal station in that it is only in use for about 2 months a year, and only some trains stop here. This is a reason why it's a bit of a pain in the arse to get here from Furano or Asahikawa via train. It's a fun little platform though and the JR staff there was so nice in that they offered to take a photo of my mum and I in front of the station sign :D That's probably our only shot together cos I don't bother asking people to help take photos .. heck I don't even take many photos with our faces in them in the first place. My policy is, if I wasn't there I couldn't have taken the photos.
It's actually quite a short distance (around 10 mins) walk to Farm Tomita. Once you get there, you get to try the melons at 250 yen a slice. Reminds me of papayas and I tell you, I do not eat honeydews in Singapore.
Next up, we walk over to the flower fields. The lavender did not look like they were fully bloomed (almost there!) but I later on I would notice harvesting going on so I suppose the blooming is almost complete. We didn't really smell any scent and wondered about it, until I reached the staff harvesting... wow was there a scent or what! Lovely purple blooms with such a lovely scent, no wonder lavender is such a lovd plant!
There are rows upon rows of flowers, but not all are lavender. I would say that the farm itself is not very big, and given the trouble taken to come here, it might be considered small. However, it's worth a vist (unless you want to go to Provence instead) and there are interesting stuff like lavender softserve and lavender lemonade for you to quench your thirst in the summer heat. Did I forgot to mention that Japan is experiencing a heat wave? Central and South Japan are listed as having dangerous temperatures with the highest temperature today being 39.1 in a particular city (for the name). Highest yesterday was 39.5. Furano was around 33 today I think. The soft serve and lemonade was a roaring business.
This is really someplace where you can just squeeze off your shutter and anyone with a camera can take beautiful photos. So we spent sometime here, taking photos, baking in the sun, enjoying the soft serve and lemonade before going off to catch the 1421 Furano - Biei Norokko train which is a scenic train for passengers to enjoy the views along the way and take photos. The plan was to get to Biei, buy tickets for the Twinkle Bus (Takushinkan course) and get on the Twinkle Bus tour. Unfortunately by the time we got to Biei, the tickets were sold out... so I couldn't go to Takushinkan :(
Since we cannot go on the Twinkle Bus, there is pretty much nothing else to do in Biei unless one has pwn transport or takes a taxi. We hightailed it out of Biei on the next train cos if not, we will have to wait another hour. Noooooo. No way. We decided to have our dinner in Asahikawa! My Asahikawa ramen dinner is happening!
We got to Asahikawa and I was excited to find a ramen place... however that was not to be. After looking around near the station, the ramen places that I could find were closed..... finally I gave up and my mum suggested that we eat Mac's (I think she also wanted her hot tea lol) and so we ended up eating the ebi burger before going back to Sapporo via the Limited Express Super Kamui 41 from Asahikawa to Sapporo.
Tomorrow, Otaru.
0 Adorations
First off, yes, it is a pain in the arse to get around in the Furano - Biei area if you do not have you own transport and are replying on the train. However, do be assured that it can be done and you just need a little planning.
I had purchased a Furano Biei Round Tour ticket which gives us a ticket from Sapporo to the Furano - Biei area (includes Asahikawa) for 5400 yen. This is an extremely good value ticket if you intend to stay in the Furano - Biei Area for up to 4 days as it gives you unlimited rides in the free area, but please note that once you leave the free aea, your ticket expires. This means that you cannot make daily trips from Sapporo on the same ticket, you have to stay in the free area. It is recommended to stay for a few days in the area as there are many places to visit and the transit times can be quite long.
We had breakfast in the hotel. It's a simple offering but I loved the bread on offer as it was soft and delicious when toasted with butter.... simply heavenly! Was also great that I was seated right next to the toaster, lol. After breakfast we walked over to JR Sapporo station to catch the Limited Express Furano Lavendar Express that leaves at 0755. Although, I did read a model course that recommends catching the 0906 train which allows you to reach Furano at 1103 in order to catch the 1152 Furano - Biei Norokko train (or the 1145 Furano - Asahikawa train), I didn't notice that was cos.. there really is no train if you arrive in Furano at 0955 on the 0755 train.
So, nothing much for it but to go for a walk (which isn't too good an idea for my mum though). JR Furano is a very small station so all you can do is sit and stare if you stay there. Most other places in Furano require transport.... so we walked to Furano Marche, which is basically an air conditioned Farmer's Market/ Cafe / Souvenir shop.
Next up, we walk over to the flower fields. The lavender did not look like they were fully bloomed (almost there!) but I later on I would notice harvesting going on so I suppose the blooming is almost complete. We didn't really smell any scent and wondered about it, until I reached the staff harvesting... wow was there a scent or what! Lovely purple blooms with such a lovely scent, no wonder lavender is such a lovd plant!
This is really someplace where you can just squeeze off your shutter and anyone with a camera can take beautiful photos. So we spent sometime here, taking photos, baking in the sun, enjoying the soft serve and lemonade before going off to catch the 1421 Furano - Biei Norokko train which is a scenic train for passengers to enjoy the views along the way and take photos. The plan was to get to Biei, buy tickets for the Twinkle Bus (Takushinkan course) and get on the Twinkle Bus tour. Unfortunately by the time we got to Biei, the tickets were sold out... so I couldn't go to Takushinkan :(
Since we cannot go on the Twinkle Bus, there is pretty much nothing else to do in Biei unless one has pwn transport or takes a taxi. We hightailed it out of Biei on the next train cos if not, we will have to wait another hour. Noooooo. No way. We decided to have our dinner in Asahikawa! My Asahikawa ramen dinner is happening!
We got to Asahikawa and I was excited to find a ramen place... however that was not to be. After looking around near the station, the ramen places that I could find were closed..... finally I gave up and my mum suggested that we eat Mac's (I think she also wanted her hot tea lol) and so we ended up eating the ebi burger before going back to Sapporo via the Limited Express Super Kamui 41 from Asahikawa to Sapporo.
Tomorrow, Otaru.
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