For Day 3, we had to plan our itinerary to end the day in Sapporo, where we would be staying for the remaining three days of the trip. Originally we intended to spend only half a day in Biei, then stopping by Asahikawa before moving to Sapporo. Eventually, we decided not to rush, but rather to just spend a leisurely day in Biei and its surroundings, leaving Asahikawa to a future trip.
After a cereal breakfast in our room, we first cheked out of the
Furano hotel. The first place that we visited was the Blue Pond. The appearance of the Pond, particularly its colour, can be quite different whether there is a clear blue sky or whether it is overcast, giving a totally different impression to the visitor. We were fortunate to visit on a bright day, and the Blue Pond very much lived up to its name.
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| Blue Pond, Biei 美瑛青池 |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
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| Blue Pond, Biei |
The Shirahige Falls is a short distance from the Blue Pond.
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| Shirahige Falls, Biei |
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| Bridge by the Shirahige Falls, Biei |
We were not very well prepared for this part of the trip (as originally we just planned to spend the morning in Biei). Biei is well known for its rolling hills and farmlands, and we just drove around, stopping by the road whenever we got to a place where we wanted to take a photo. More prepared visitors would have with them a map with Mapcodes of the various tourist attractions for entering into their GPS navigation system.
Along the way, Farm Restaurant Chiyoda was a nice place to stop for lunch.
After the lunch, we tried out the famous Hokkaido melon. Definitely a must try.
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| Takushinkan 拓真館, photo gallery of the works of local landscape photographer Shinzo Maeda 前田真三 |
Biei is also famous for the many lone or small clusters of trees scattered across its countryside. Many of these tree clusters are given peculiar names, either inspired by their unique shape (such as parents and child), or rather strangely, based on some commercials in which they had featured (such as Mild Seven or Seven Star).
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| Mild Seven Hill, Biei (Mild Seven 之丘) |
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| Parents and Child 親子之木 |
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| An un-named tree? |
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| Country road, Biei |
We then made our way to Sapporo, taking the toll highway. Our hotel was just across the road from the Sapporo JR station, making it a very convenient location. It also meant we could return the rental car at the end of Day 4, as we could tour the city by the subway in the following two days, and take the train to the airport on the last day.
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| JR Station, Sapporo |
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| JR Station, Sapporo |
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| Department store by the Sapporo Station |
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