🪻Plan a one-day trip to Asahikawa-biei-furano🪻

🚩We started the day early, taking the train from Sapporo to Asahikawa Station to pick up our rental car. Upon arrival, a staff member explained the rules of the road, such as driving over 60 km/h, tips on using your car's GPS, and filling up with gas. Once we understood, they handed us the keys, and we were ready to go.

✨We named this trip Hokkaido Lavender. Our destination was the beautiful lavender fields in Furano. We arrived in late July, right in peak season when the lavender was in bloom, attracting a huge crowd of tourists, comparable to the winter season. Unfortunately, it was drizzling all day, so we didn't get the beautiful photos we had hoped for. But now that we were here, we had to brace ourselves and get going.

🌳Our itinerary from Asahikawa to Furano included a stop at Biei, which also boasts several interesting spots. We started on the Patchwork Road.

🌲Patchwork Road is famous for its trees, nestled in the middle of a field, a popular photo spot for everyone who travels there. One of these trees is the Ken & Mary tree, a lone tree in the middle of a green rice field in Biei.
The name "Ken & Mary" comes from the tree featured in a Nissan Skyline commercial featuring characters "Ken" and "Mary."

🌲Another famous tree is the Seven Stars Tree, an oak tree in a farm in Biei.

This oak tree was named after the famous Japanese cigarette brand, Japan Tobacco, which used a photo of the tree in their "Seven Stars" campaign to convey nature, tranquility, and the Hokkaido countryside.

📸Mood for taking photos:
If you visit in the summer, you'll get vibrant photos of the surrounding green fields.
But in the winter, you'll get photos of snowy fields and a peaceful atmosphere amidst the snow.

💧💦Let's continue to another landmark in Biei: the Blue Pond. There's no entrance fee, but there's a 500 yen parking fee per car. When we arrived, it was packed with tourists, mostly Chinese. Is it as beautiful as it appears? Yes, it is, but the sheer number of tourists made it difficult to fully appreciate it.

🪻Let's head to Furano. We drove to Farm Tomita, famous for its lavender fields. And the flowers were arranged like a rainbow. Although the weather wasn't clear on the day we went, we still managed to get some great photos of the lavender fields! We also got to try the lavender ice cream and the luscious cantaloupe, which I'd never had anywhere else so sweet before. It's truly their specialty.

🐮 We tried the famous cheese ice cream at Furano Cheese Factory. We arrived just before closing time, and I only had one cup of ice cream left, but the deliciousness was 1000/10. If you love sweets, I highly recommend coming to Hokkaido. Everything about the desserts and ice cream is amazing, absolutely amazing.

✨ It was already evening, and there was still a little time left. I was curious about what pachinko is and why Japanese people love it so much, so I decided to check it out. At first, I was just going to watch, but I couldn't resist. Grandma and Grandpa were having so much fun, so I decided to give it a try. The staff helped us out, and we communicated through Google Translate, which was another fun experience.

It was time to return the car. We had to drive back to Asahikawa, but we were nervous again about making it back in time. We hadn't even filled up the gas tank yet, but we made it.

Even though the weather wasn't as expected, we had a lot of great experiences today. I promise we'll go back next winter to make up for it! ☃️❄️

📍Location: Asahikawa-Bei-Furano
💴Admission: Free
🚇How to get there: Take the train to rent a car, starting from Asahikawa Station
💡Caution: Check the weather forecast. Plan your time carefully for a one-day trip.

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