2 posts tagged “furano biei hokkaido”

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Got up reasonably early for a full day of Furano/Biei exploration.
The air's fresh and crisp, trees and grass're covered with a fine dust of first snow.
It was beautiful!! (albeit very very cold lol)
We drove towards the direction of Biei, which is the next town from Furano.
Again, stopped at various hills/garden viewing point to admire the great scenery.

Snow still remained at the shaded area, and found a snowman sitting on the bench heheh.
That sunflower was the last one on the field, the rest of them're already preparing for winter.

And then we went to another flowers and potato farm for a stop, and met a random Hokkaido cat in the carpark lol.
Oh, that place has THE BEST korokke I've ever had *_* Chooo-delicious!
They used the fresh farm potato, the taste's so pure, so good and not oily at all!
Cold cold weather + hot delicious korroke = arashiawase~!

On the way to our next destination, I spotted this NIJI 虹 sign from the car!
It's random but I was so happy <- arasick xD
Then we arrived at Takushinkan 拓真館 - a photo gallery of famous landscape photographer Maeda Shinzo 前田真三
The location's beautiful too, a little european style small building surrounded by the birch trees garden with yellow and red leaves. So so so beautiful! <- running out of vocabs.
Also, this never happenned to me before, I stepped into the gallery, took a first look at the photographs displayed there and went T_T it's so breathtakingly beautiful that I just went T_T lol.
Check out his photobooks if you're interested, the following is the one I bought, which includes photos of Biei in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
Here're just a small portion of the photos I took, including the birch garden.
We also ran up to a hill behind the garden, the view's spectacular *_*
It's like in the middle of some beautiful illustration books, or a Miyazaki anime.
It's ashame that I couldn't capture the whole "widescreen" view of the scene and the beautiful hills.
Go to Biei, my friends, go to Furano and Biei!

And, like any good Arashi fan, conciously or subconciously I tend to take photo with 5 objects in it... like the follow trees... one tree for each member of Arashi lol.
Then we resume our explorations to different places, nonetheless beautiful :)
Yup, had to have the lavender ice-cream again. It was chooo-delicious! (albeit sooo cold xD)

Next, Kaikuugama pottery皆空窯!
The place where Nino's Takuro stayed and learned his pottery skill in the dorama series :)

And the Takuro-cup is used as a plant pot at the display outside ^o^
There're "Yasashii Jikan" theme displays inside the gallery too, such as the Takuro chawan, photos of Nino making the pottery, articles etc but we're not allow to photograph those. The other ceramic pottery at the place was also very very nice! Although the price can be expensive as they're artistically handmade.

And well....... I bought the Nino Takuro-cup from here.
'cause I came all the way from Australia for this, 6300yen? A very meaningful souvenir for myself heheh.

Next, we're on our way back to Furano, and then visited another dorama-pilgrim spot: Rokugo no mori 麓郷の森 of "kita no kuni kara" 北の国から. I've never watched this series (also by Kuramoto Soh 倉本聰) but my friend liked that series so we went. It's a beautiful woods, it has a very nice and calm atmosphere. On the way out, it was sunset, spectacular!

Yes, chasing Nino-chan all the way up to Hokkaido lol.
This time is the dorama location of "Yasashii Jikan", in Furano and Biei of Hokkaido.

Continue from previous entry, woke up  to the sunrise of Hokkaido in the train and soon arrived to Sapporo.
From there, took an express train to Asahikawa and changed to a local train bound for Furano.
Takuro here I come xD
Furano is a quiet and charming little town (again, so clean!) mainly trades on tourists during ski season, tourists visiting the breathtaking scenery of flowers and hills (close to Biei too), and of course the J-move/dorama pilgrims (the classic "Kita no kuni kara" was filmed here, as well as "Yasashii Jikan").

Once we reached Furano station, we could feel the cold and fresh air. Yes, it's very cold, my jacket was definitely not thick/warm enough but nevermind; the cold temperature somehow enhanced the excitement too for some unknown reason hahah.
And then we went to a car rental place next to the station, rent a car and drove to Farm Tomita (lavender and all sorts of beautiful flowers and plants). The scenery on the way was just amazing, so beautiful, so calm, so wide, so green, roads so straight. I love this town!

A short while later, we reached Farm Tomita. Most of the summer flowers were no longer, but the scene of late autumn greens and leaves were nevertheless beautiful. Plus, there would be more crowds/tourists during summer time, so perhaps it's nice being here during this colder season.
Still, there're beautiful flowers remained.

We also walked up the hill to admire the trees and scenery.
The sky was a little overcast, with huge clouds overhanging the mountains/hills; sometimes the sunlight shined through which created a lovely scenes of shadow plays on this great landscape.
Then, it rained/drizzled a little, under rays of sunshine.
So. Need I say more?
Nino's Niji appeared! Arashi Rainbow ^o^

After spending time with Nino Niji aka Arashi Rainbow for awhile, we walked back to the Farm Tomita shops area and tried the lavender softcream (icecream), it's sooo freezing cold yet the icecream tasted sooo delicious!! I so miss it!
Then, we continued to drive around Furano, stopping at various gardens/hills to admire the beautiful scenery.
Then late afternoon approached (look at the dark clouds! The temperature also became colder and colder) we decided to head to hotel to check in and then visit Mori no Tokei 森の時計　^o^

It's convenient that we're staying at New Furano Prince Hotel as Mori no Tokei is in the vicinity of the hotel (in the woods of course). Also, Ningle Terrace and Soh's Bar (both designed by "Yasashii Jikan", "Haikei Chichiuesama"'s Kuramoto Soh) are also at the same area. And since Furano is kind of a J-drama pilgrims place, there are many exhibitions and displays of Kuramoto Soh's earlier classic "Kita no kuni kara" 北の国から(from the 80s, 90s?).
Also note that, the lobby and souvenir shops were playing Yasashii Jikan soundtrack non-stopped, really added in the
"atmosphere" xD
Here're some displays at the hotel -

Then we exit the hotel on the side door and followed this pathway to the woods leading to Cafe Mori no Tokei ^o^
(btw, at this time the temperature was freezing cold! Real Hokkaido temperature! I could feel how Nino's Takuro felt already, temperature wise xD)

But once we entered the cafe it's warm though :)
It's as exactly as Yasashii Jikan's! (with the soundtrack playing too of course)
I ordered a coffee and the snow-melting cake, it was delicious!
After relaxing at the cafe for awhile, we headed back. On the way we went to Ninguru Terrace and looked at the craftworks... then it started to rain.. wait, it was SNOWING! FIRST WINTER SNOW in Furano of this season!! The wind became stronger too so we quickly walked back to the hotel (it's so freezing cold but so excited!!)
Then just had dinner at the hotel restaurant, looking at the amazing snow from outside the window while we ate *o*

But did pick up the photobook of Yasashii Jikan at Ningle Terrace.
Saw the Nino's Takuro cup too, 6300yen *_*

So so so cute T_T