This year, Marine Day landed on July 15th, which meant a three day weekend in July! I was determined to go see the lavender fields in Furano this year, and their peak bloom season is end of June to July. Since I live so far away, the three day weekend was the perfect opportunity to go make the trek out there. I live on the Northwestern coast, and this would be my first time adventuring any further east of Sapporo!
July 13th: I got on my normal bus, and arrived in Sapporo around 10:20. The bus to Furano was leavingat 10:40, which made it the perfect opportunity to grab some boba at Gong Cha and take a bathroom break. I opted to take the bus as opposed to the train because the bus was quite a bit cheaper (round trip ticket for 5100 yen), and only takes a bit longer. Plus, the timing worked out anyway, as I wanted to get there as soon as I could. Read about my boba here!
The bus ride overall was pretty smooth, and I liked seeing the change of scenery. Hokkaido really does just have a bunch of farmland and open countryside. The schedule predicted we’d get there at 1:15, but for whatever reason, as busses usually do, it was 10 minutes behind schedule. This normally would not pose a problem, but I was on a time crunch schedule…
I got off the bus, and with only boba in my stomach that morning for breakfast, I needed a proper lunch. I stopped by this cute hand-made gyoza place that had signatures from a bunch of international tourists on the walls, and luckily got a seat since I was 1 person. I got the 6 pieace “black” gyoza set (their “white” is original base, and the “black” has garlic and chives). Supposedly rice and miso soup are free refills at lunch.
I placed my order as soon as I could at 1:30, thinking if they’d get the order and cook it right away fresh gyoza shouldn’t take too long, and I could catch my train at 2:07 (the next one wouldn’t be for 2 hours, and this train specifically was the most efficient for my plan). However, it took 20 minutes for it to come out (I think they were trying to batch cook gyoza and cook all the orders at once, which is smart business-wise, but my wait time ended up taking a hit. I got my gyoza at 1:50, which meant it was time to speed-run this fresh gyoza.
My first impression of the gyoza was that it was clearly fresh and homemade, because of how shiny and plump the skin was. The inside was juicy, and just the right amount of flavorful, but I didn’t have the time to let it cool so I might have gotten a few mouthfuls of hot dumpling juice…Pickles were good, miso soup was miso soup, and I have to say, for Japanese rice, this rice wasn’t too good…no time to get refills anyway.
Just as I had lost hope for this train, I finished my meal, ran to the station, bought a ticket, and ran all the way to the farthest platform with my train with exactly 1 minute to spare. This train was specifically a summer/lavender season specific train from Furano to Biei, making a special Lavender Field stop closer to Farm Tomita, where I was heading. The windows were open and big, and there were benches specifically facing the outside so you can enjoy the view as you ride the train. Everyone on it also got a free postcard specifically for the train to commemorate the occasion.
There’s a ton of lavender fields and farms in the Furano area all spread out, but as I do not have a car, the easiest one for me to get to was also the most famous, Farm Tomita. I spent a good couple hours walking around the farm, popping into all the souvenir shops, taking pictures, and eating all the lavender things. Farm Tomita also has a few shops selling melon goods, including fresh melon (which looked pretty juicy), but I’m personally more of a green/honeydew person than a orange/cantaloupe person, so I saved some money there, I guess…I ended up getting a lavender soft serve (one of my must-dos!), a lavender calpis, and a lavender honey pudding. All the souvenir shops are scattered throughout the premises, but they all sold the same things. Pro-tip: the lavender ice cream is also sold is multiple places, but I found that the one with the least crowd was Poppy House near the entrance.
I would honestly kill for that lavender soft serve again. That was by far the most lavender of the lavender foods I bought. The flavor was strong, the ice cream was thick, and was very refreshing for a hot and sunny day. The calpis was a bit dissappointing, though I should have known that the strong calpis yogurt-ness would overpower the lavender, though it was there, just very subtle. The pudding was a bit better, mostly pudding tasting, but with a slight lavender aftertaste. The lavender milk pudding that was also on sale probably would have had a stronger lavender taste.
I basically started at the center, and circled the entire perimeter of the farm, but I actually did see all of the flower fields! It was a bit too peak sunny though, so taking pictures and selfies was a bit difficult. There were lots of tourists, which should be obvious for a tourist destination, but can the foreigners please avoid coming on my precious long weekend…
I ended up bussing to my hostel after I was done at Tomita around 4, and checked-in to my hostel to put my stuff down and recharge. Then it was time for dinner!
There was a bit of a line for Kumagera, the dinner place I had in mind when I went around 6, but surprisingly, the line moved pretty quickly. Apparently, it made the Michelin Hokkaido list in 2017! I ordered the Wagyu Beef Sashimi bowl, but weirdly enough, in Japanese it’s just roast beef. When it came out, I think it’s closer to its English name of sashimi…
I think this is probably the first time I’ve had beef this raw, but hey, if people can consume more raw beef in dishes like yukhoe, then this is definitely doable. The beef itself had a bit of a seared flavor, which for the most part, was the only flavor aside from the super tender and sashimi-like texture. It was kind of weird at first, but I liked the slight char. I don’t like wasabi, so I didn’t use it, and just layered some soy sauce on top of the meat. Rice was definitely high quality rice. My only complaint is that this really shouldn’t be called roast beef in any form.
I took a bit of a walk around the area, thinking about dessert, but not getting anything since really, nothing desserty was open.
July 14th: I woke up pretty early, because I had another schedule to follow! my plan for the day was to go to Biei and see the Blue Pond/Aoiike, and then end the day at Ningle Terrace in Furano. Originally, I wanted to go check out Furano Cheese Factory too, since it’s relatively close to Ningle Terrace, but due to a few reasons, mostly because I’m public transportation-only, I cut it out of my schedule. A bit sad, but when I rationally thought about it, I was just going to go eat fresh pizza and potentially ice cream there, and you can technically do those at other places…
For some reason, there aren’t any bakeries or cafes in Furano that are open before 10am (cafes not being open before 10 is standard in Japan, but not even bakeries?), and thus no breakfast options, so I opted to reserve a breakfast set from the cafe on the first floor of the hostel. It comes with Furano bread, a salad, and I chose yogurt and sausages as my 2 sides (the other options were Furano blueberry jam, Hokkaido butter, egg salad, cheese, and pickled vegetables). There’s a free drink bar, with coffee, black tea, orange juice, vegetable juice, detox water, and water.
Bread was thick and fluffy, salad was light and refreshing, sausages were juicy, and surprisingly, the yogurt was unsweetened and might even have been low-fat? Usually I would think they would opt for a sweetened yogurt, but I appreciated this one.
I took a bus from Furano station to Biei station for about an hour, waited about 10 minutes, and the bussed from Biei station to the Blue Pond for about 30 minutes. There were a good number of tourists, but for a small area, not as crowded as I thought it would be. Of couse, I had to get a ice cream limited to the pond. I went for the mix because Biei milk, even among Hokkaido milk, seems to be a thing. It even comes with a polar bear cookie!
The ice cream was slightly on the thick side, holding its shape, but not super creamy. The milk part tasted like you were licking solidified creamy milky, and the blue side was ramune flavored, a bit less creamy. The cookie was a good butter cookie.
The timing works out pretty well, because I arrived at 9:50, and the next bus would come at 10:30, with plenty of time to spend there. I took my pictures, ate my ice cream, and hopped back onto the bus. For people interested in going to Biei, the Shirahige waterfall is also a common attraction (more so in winter I think?), but bus times didn’t look like it’d work out, and I prioritized the pond anyway.
I had about an hour in Biei before my bus to Ningle Terrace, and it fit nicely into lunch time. I didn’t really know what I wanted to eat in Biei, even though I did some research on potential lunch places. For the time being, I was walking on my way to a restaurant, when I passed by a place on Google Maps (I had been constantly checking pictures on my walk, ha!) that specialized in roast deer, beef, and pork bowls. It looked really good, so I ended up there. It was such a cute and cozy cafe, and all three looked good, so I asked the chef if there was any way I could sample multiple. He said it wasn’t on the menu, but he could do 2 or 3 on one plate. I instantly said yes to all 3! It came with a fresh salad with soy dressing, and a Biei milk and potato soup. The beef of the day was Furano wagyu sirloin, deer of the day was Biei Ezo deer, and the pork of the day was Kami Furano pork loin.
Everything was super yummy! The salad was fresh, and the dressing was light. The soup was milky but not thick, like I was drinking warm, seasoned milk. As for the main dish, my gosh it was so pretty, and the plate came with a rhubarb mustard(?), local white wasabi marinated in soy sauce, 2 other sauces I sadly cannot remember, herbs, and edible flowers. There was a balsamic vinegar dressing on the side for the pork, and a Japanese style sauce for the deer and beef. The pork was super tender and thin, the deer was the most meaty but not gamey, and the beef was super melt-in-your-mouth tender. I was surprised by how much I liked the rhubard mustard, and the dark sauce and the garlic one(?) was also really good. I usualy don’t do well with wasabi, but the white wasabi was mild and went pleasantly well with everything. There seems to be a a trend here with calling basically raw beef roast beef… I really liked that it was a shop that really carefully used local ingredients, and you could really taste the quality of all the tiems.
By the way, Biei station is literally just for buying train tickets and getting on and off the train. There wasn’t even a bathroom…
I bussed from Biei station at 12:30 and rode all the way to New Furano Prince Hotel. Yes, a hotel, because that’s actually where Ningle Terrace is. The lore behind Ningle Terrace is that fairies live there, and once you enter it realy gives you the feel that you’ve been transported to a fantasy world. It’s a small forresty area with various log houses with small cute shops and independent artists selling their work. Super cute, but if you don’t buy anything, you won’t need to spend much time there. After I was done, I had some time to kill before my bus, so I a walk along the premises, and came across this umbrella sky thing.
Finished in the area, I got on a bus at 3, and rode back to central Furano. Now I had time to just chill and explore the local sweets scene, and I headed over to Furano Bijou, a bakery and pastry shop. My gosh did everything look so good, but with all the ice cream I had been consuming, if I was only going to be there for one more day getting a fancy cake or pastry seemed a bit much, especially because it wouldn’t be able to keep for long. Instead, I got one of their prepackaged baked donuts because I could take that home, and I saw they had boba! Obviously I got one. I was tempted by the gelato, but I was actually going to a proper gelato place after, and I figured they’d have better options. Read about my boba here!
After unexpectedly getting my boba at Bijou, I headed over to Pappa Gelato to check out their selection. Bijou advertised themselves as a bakery and a gelateria, but Pappa was a gelato specialty place, and plus, the hostel was advertising their business cards (along with Shriona gyoza). I’m glad I went, because their selection was a lot more interesting and varied compared to Bijou’s kind of basic selection, and the gelato looked legit. The pistachio wasn’t a bright green, the ice cream wasn’t fluffed up, and interestingly enough, there was a zucchini gelato. I went with a double because I wanted to try multiple, and I got apricot sourced from Nagano Prefecture, and lavender tea sourced from Naka Furano’s Nanaka Farm because we’re in Furano.
I’m so glad I went, because both of the gelatos were amazing. The lavender tea was super strong in lavender flavor, and it was milky and creamy. The apricot was silky, thick, and the right balance between sweet and tart. The shop also offers free water and hot tea!
For dinner, I went to Teppanyaki Masaya, which seemed to be a popular destination. There were bills of a whole bunch of different currencies on the walls, and all of the waitresses were Taiwanese. I really wanted to try a bunch of different things, but alas, it is rough as a solo traveler. I read a Google Review that takeout was possible, so maybe I could get something for breakfast, but it seems they weren’t doing takeout at the moment. Bunmer. I ended up getting a squid and pork from Kami Furano okonomiyaki, and the spareribs also locally sourced (Furano pork seems to be a thing).
The okonomiyaki was fluffy, soft, and had a decent amount of small, tender squid pieces mixed in with pork belly slices on top (the shop also had an original Furano okonomiyaki that’s fluffed up with egg whites and shaped like a souffle pancake). I guess I was the only one to order the spareribs, because it comes with a show of the chef flambeeing it with brandy, and the waitress specifically told me the spare ribs show was starting and I should record it. That was cool, but it made me stand out as the girl who ordered it…The spare ribs were good, very flavorful and garlic-y.
My only complaint was that the shop itself was incredibly hot and stuffy, and eating hot meals did not entirely help…the family next to me was suffering.
July 15th: It was time to head home from my short trip, which meant bussing to Sapporo and then bussing home. Originally, I wanted to go to this place called Grandma’s House (it’s literally run by a grandma in her house serving whatever she feels like) for breakfast since they open at 8, but when I went to go check it out, seems like she was taking a break for the long weekend. I respect that, but I really wanted to try it…
I decided to take the 8:30 bus to Sapporo, since I didn’t have much to do in Furano anymore, and there was nothing to do that early anyway. I headed to Furano station, and there is this anime girl mascot that’s literally only in the station.
Do not worry, I did eat, as I had some bread I brought with me from home in case I ever got hungry. The bus arrived in Sapporo at 11, and it was the perfect time for lunch. Most of my business in Sapporo was mostly at Daimaru, so I heade over to see what I could get for lunch.
I ended up at Yutori, which is cafe founded by the Japanese Martha Stewart apparently. The meals looked decently healthy with vegetables (something I could use more of), so I decided on the lunch set, with white rice, and black vinegar white fish with summer vegetables as my main. The set also comes with pickles, a mini dessert, miso soup, and 3 sides, pumpki spiced stir fry, tofu and edamame jelly, and Kurihara’s sesame marinated okra.
Overall, it was surprisingly yummy, and I really liked all the sides. My complaint is that for the main to be fish, there was not very much fish, and instead it was mostly fried batter outside with barely any meat inside.
Daimaru’s current 7th floor exhibition was featuring Mofusand (the cat with a shark head), and though I think it’s cute, I would not pay the entrance fee to see it.
I headed downstairs to go do some casual window shopping and pick something up from Jupiter, and then I bought some seasonal LeTao cakes, the Okayama Prefecture Peach Milky shortcake (880 yen) and the Strawberry Blanc Shortcake (540 yen).
The peach cake was pretty good, with peaches throughout the whole thing: on top, soaked into the whip cream, and soaked into the cake itself. The strawberry cake was refreshing, with the jelly top and a similar soaked cake bottom.
Last to-do of the day is always boba! This time, I’m trying out the boba from Tsutsumiya in the Kiyokocho corner of the 3rd floor. Read about my boba here!
I headed over to the bus stop, and it seemed like there was a new festival happening at Akarenga Terrace. There was an area where if you take a picture you can get a free Sprite, and obviously I’m going for the free Sprite.
And then I got on the bus at 2 to go home!
This time I stayed at Hostel Tomar in Furano. It was a very big and spacious hostel, and also the biggest women’s only dorm I’ve been in. There’s a cafe space on the first floor, and sharekitchen on the second, plenty of bathrooms on the dorm floor, and even a rooftop terrace with live music and food open in the late afternoon. Definitely worth the money, and it was super comfortable, and very conveniently located!
Leave a Reply