From Chitose to Furano with stops at Furano Cheese Factory and Furano Marche

23 August 2023

This was the day when we started on our 8 days road trip to explore the North Eastern part of Hokkaido. Our plan for the day was to drive from Chitose to Asahikawa via Furano and Biei with a few stops and activities along the way at:

• Farm Tomita
• Lunch at Yuiga Doxon in Furano
• Furano Cheese Factory
• Furano Marche
• Drive down the Panorama Road near Biei
• Shirogane Blue Pond
• Shirahige Waterfall

Although Farm Tomita is located between Furano and Biei, my plan was to visit this place first as this popular attraction is known to get really busy and crowded later in the day once tour buses from Sapporo arrive.

We had to start early as it takes slightly more than 2 hours to drive from Chitose to Farm Tomita which opens at 9 AM. It was not difficult to wake up early as the bright morning sunlight was already streaming through the cracks in our hotel room’s curtain at 5 AM. Although Queen’s Hotel Chitose does offer breakfast with the room, I chose to have a simple breakfast of instant noodles (brought from home) and the room’s capsules coffee so we could depart early.  

We left Chitose as planned. The morning traffic was not heavy and we made pretty good progress. The Toyota Corolla Hybrid was quiet and spacious for our group of 3 adults.

Along the way, we made a change to our plan and decided to go to Furano Cheese Factory first instead of Farm Tomita to avoid backtracking back to Furano for lunch. We reckon it may be worthwhile to save 30 minutes of driving time and take a risk on the crowds in Farm Tomita in the afternoon.

Furano Cheese Factory

Furano Cheese Factory manufactures and sells dairy products such as cheese, butter, and Furano milk. We arrived at the Furano Cheese Factory shortly after 9 AM.  There were only a few cars before us in the large car park. 

Aside from a short self-guided tour course showing visitors how cheese are made from behind glass windows and cheese tasting at the shop, there is nothing much here. Visitors can sign up for cheese making workshop but that is not something we fancy doing.

We could watch cheese being made on the first floor of the building.

Browsing the cheese, butter, and milk products.

The second floor is where dairy products are sold and cheese could be sampled before buying. There is also an exhibition section that introduces the history and culture of dairy products.

There were 3 kinds of cheese for us to sample, including a black cheese colored by squid ink.

A life-size cow with rubber udders is available for those who want a picture of themselves milking a fake cow.

Cheese from around the world.

In other buildings next to the cheese factory, there is an ice cream parlor (called the "ice milk factory") and a pizzeria ("pizza factory").

We bought some gelato and cheese-flavoured soft-serve ice cream and spent some time relaxing in a shady spot under some trees, surrounded by greenery.

A antique red tractor.

We lazed around till it was time to go the Furano Marche which opens at 10 AM.

Furano Marche

Furano Marche is only a short drive away. Furano Marche is a small plaza that is home to twenty different shops, eateries and restaurants.

We went to check out some souvenir and local produce shops. There are lavender, Furano melon, wine, cheese and local vegetables products sold and these seems to be quite popular for visitors.

We also went to a Ralse Mart to buy some snacks and drinks. The alcohol products like whiskey and beer are definitely good stuff to buy compared to the prices back home.

The first of our many strong zero beer we consumed on this trip.

Although there are many restaurants and eateries in Furano Marche, we did not eat there. I had a better plan for our lunch in Furano.

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Lunch at Yuiga Doxon in Furano

23 August 2023

 

I had specifically chosen Yuiga Doxon in Furano for our lunch. The signature food of Furano is omukare (omelette, rice and curry) and this particular restaurant is reputed to use 29 spices to make their curry and also makes their own smoked sausages.

We walked to Yuiga Doxon from Furano Marche and arrived a few minutes before 11 AM, their opening time. This place is so popular that a short queue had already formed. It will get longer later.

Rustic cottage set amongst trees surrounded by more modern concrete low-rise buildings.

Once opened, we were seated immediately.  We sat upstairs, on the balcony of the wooden house with views of the surrounding greenery and the car park below. This was a great place to be seated as the restaurant does not seem to have air-conditioning and it was a hot summer day.

It was good that we parked our car at Furano Marche and walked to the restaurant. There were some parking spaces in front and behind the restaurant and they were almost all taken up.

View from the terrace. Small car park in front of the restaurant.

    

The menu offered curry rice with various combinations of the key elements such as omelette, stewed ox tongue, homemade sausages and bacon.

The gents ordered 2 plates of omukare with ox tongue and homemade sausages. My wife ordered the omukare with sausage and added the homemade bacon.

Omukare with ox tongue and homemade sausages

Omukare with sausage and homemade bacon.

Unlike the soup curry we had for dinner on arrival, the curry sauce on the curry rice is thick. The dark colour of the curry holds lots of flavour from the reputed 29 different spices used. The staff told us we could get free additional curry sauce if we go to the counter and say the magic phrase of the day.

The omelette was so fluffy and yet smooth on the outside. I wonder how the chef managed to cook the omelette this way.
The taste of the sausage was nicely balanced with sweet, sour and saltiness. The homemade bacon was thick cut and tasted more sweet than salty. The ox tongue was our favourite element in the dish. It was “melt in your mouth” soft and full of beef flavour.

Drinks menu at Yuiga Doxon.

The restaurant also served craft beer but we give the alcoholic drinks a miss since we were on a road trip.

Overall, our meal at Yuiga Doxon was a hit. If you're in Furano or Hokkaido you absolutely MUST come to this place for a meal.

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Farm Tomita

23 August 2023

Tomita Farm is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Furano, and is one of the top spots during the spring and summer. It is most famous for its lavender fields in June and July.

Since we visited in late August, there were no more blooming lavenders. Some fields were already harvested.

However, there were still some fields with other plants with stunning flowers. 

Map of the farm near the main entrance.

As expected, it was quite busy when we arrived just after noon time. By now, the temperature is hovering around 35 degrees Celsius, on a sunny day with scattered clouds.  On hindsight, we should have come in the morning as originally planned.

Despite the heat, it is a great place to take photographs of the colourful flowers fields with the Tokachi Mountains in the background.

Here are some of the photos we took:

Rows of Celosia Plumosa at the Hannabito Field, near the main entrance.

Lavender is the main crop. Even the tractor is painted in lavender colour.

Visitors taking shelter under the shade of trees. The afternoon sun was hot.

No more lavender at the Sakiwai Field but this is a nice place to see the Tokachi Mountain Range in the back.

 

Flower fields with the Tokachi mountain range in the background.

 

The most popular activity in Farm Tomita! Snaping photos …

,,,and admiring the flowers and scenery.

           

Rows of colourful begonias at the Autumn Field.

 

The Dried Flower house has a large exhibition space for dried flower arrangements and has air-conditioning!

Back to the Hannabito Field, near the main entrance.

These purple-coloured flowers are not lavenders. They are some variety of purple sage.

There are numerous shops selling many lavender based products, from soap and scent packs to lavender soft-serve ice cream! In addition to the ice cream, another must try at the farm is the honey melon that Furano is famous for.

Something sweet and juicy to eat on a hot day. Pretty expensive - 1 piece for 480 yen. 2 pieces for 900 yen.  

The over rated and over priced cut melons that we ate were also slightly over ripen and not well chilled.

After we left Farm Tomita, we went to a shop call Tomita Melon House, located next to the car park.

We had a second round of cut melon and a refreshing smoothie.

Second round of cut melon for 500 yen. Nicely chilled and perfectly ripen. Extremely sweet and juicy.

This melon smoothie was so delicious and refreshing on this hot day. 450 yen.

Overall, we spent about an hour at Farm Tomita. If we had visited in June or July during the lavender season we would have probably spent twice the amount of time.

From Farm Tomita, it would be a 25 minutes drive to our next destination – the famous Biei Blue Pond.

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Shirogane Blue Pond and Shirahige Waterfall in Biei

23 August 2023

Would you travel almost 3 hours by tour bus just to view a pond in Hokkaido?

Many visitors to Hokkaido do.

Located near the town of Biei, the Shirogane Blue Pond (Aoiike) is one of the most visited attractions for visitors to Hokkaido. The pond is created after a dam is built on the Biei River, after the 1988 eruption of Mount Tokachi, to protect the town of Biei from volcanic mudflows.

The Shirogane Blue Pond with its strange greenish blue colours.

The pond gets its name and popularity from the strange, unreal but beautiful blue colour. The water is actually colourless. The pond appears blue due to aluminum particles that are suspended in the water. These particles catch the sun's rays and reflect short wavelengths that correspond to blue range of the spectrum. Depending on the time of day and amount of light, the shade of blue seen may change from milky light blue to a deep green turquoise.

How did these aluminum particles get into the pond?

The answer lies a few kilometers away, at the Shirahige Fall.

Shirahige Falls with water that seems to come out from the cliff.

Shirahige Falls is located upstream from the blue pond and fed the Biei River. The water at the waterfall mixes with aluminum as it flows through the cliff and then settled into the Blue Pond after the dam was built.

 

Low dam on the Biei River, next to the Blue Pond.

We did not spent 3 hours on a tour bus to get to the Shirogane Blue Pond. Instead, we travelled by rental car from Farm Tomita to the Blue Pond.

After leaving the Farm Tomita, we took a small detour to drive down a straight road cutting across the rolling hills of Biei. This scenic road known as Panorama Road.

View of Panorama Road – a mini Roller Coaster Road.

Rice fields with golden padi could be seen on both sides of the road.  This was the typical scenery as we drove through the farmlands around Biei.

I have actually planned to drive down another road known as the Roller Coastal Road, located along Nishi 11 Sen Kita. The 2.5 km long “Roller Coaster Road” is straight and undulating. Because it passes over wavy hills, there is a maximum elevation difference of about 65 meters giving a roller coaster effect if you drive fast. Hence the name.

I mistook the Panorama Road as the Roller Coaster Road and missed going to it. I only discovered my mistake after we left Hokkaido!

We took about 25 minutes to drive from Farm Tomita to the Blue Pond. We arrived at a large car park next to the Blue Pond at around 3 PM.  Entry to the Blue Pond is free but some enterprising chap had built a large car park next to it and then charges a fee of 500 Yen per entry. Good business decision as the car park was quite full!  In addition, there are buses bearing loads of tourists. From the car park, a short well paved footpath led visitors to the pond.

As expected, this attraction was packed with visitors. Fortunately, the site is big enough for everyone to get a good view of the Blue Pond. A shaded path along the bank of the pond circles almost half of the pond providing visitors with different viewpoints.

Look at the number of visitors on the bank of the pond.

We took our time to walk along the shady bank and enjoy the stunning views. We were fortunate to visit on a bright day with sun and clouds, which adds to the beauty.

The pond also houses the trunks of dead Japanese larch and silver birch. These are the same type of trees that provided the shade on the path around the pond.

The trees in the pond became partly submerged when the area flooded as a result of the dam. As the roots drown, the trees shed the leaves leaving the eerie looking white trunks exposed.

Close up views of the dead trees and their reflection on the calm water.

 

There are a few small shops on the path from the car park to the pond selling soft serve ice cream with a light blue colour. Visitors were buying this ice cream to take photos by the pond. To post on Instagram perhaps.

Interesting Observation: Soft-serve ice cream with colours and flavours matching the tourist destinations are popular in Hokkaido. For example, we ate cheese flavoured soft-serve ice cream at Furano Cheese Factory. There are lavender soft-serve ice cream sold at Farm Tomita (a lavender farm) and now there are light blue soft-serve ice cream sold at the Blue Pond. I never find out what the blue coloured ice cream taste like.

A visit to the Blue Pond is not complete without a visit to the source of the blue colour. Shirahige Falls is located a few minutes drive from Shirogane Blue Pond and can be seen from the top of a well-maintained bridge.

There is no “official” car park near the bridge. We parked our car along a small side road nearby and took a short walk to the bridge.

 Walking to the bridge over River Biei.  

The pedestrian only bridge offers nice view of the Shirahige Fall as well as the gorge through which Biei River flows.

The Shirahige Falls is not the usual waterfall as the water gushes out from the boundary of two rock layers in the middle of the cliff. The lower rock body is a layer of gravel and sand accumulated from ancient (300,000 years ago) mud flows. The upper layers are rock left behind by more recent (170,000 years ago) lava flow from the Tokaichidake mountains.

Signage explaining the formation of the falls.

After viewing the Shirogane Blue Pond and Shirahige Falls, we took a scenic drive through the Biei countryside to Asahikawa (Hokkaido’s second largest city after Sapporo) where we stayed the next two nights.

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