Today is to visit the lavender farm, our main title of this trip. From the hotel it took about 1 and half hour to reach Furano 富良野~~Farm Tomita. Coincidently the Japanese are having some kind of celebration event and the traffic is real slow. Finally most of the members gave up sitting inside the bus and took a stroll to the Farm instead. Just a short distance of about 10-15 minutes walk to reach the entrance but the place is packed with tourists already.
Isn't it beautiful? Just like a painted picture. Visitors are allowed to walk on the walking path only.
This farm is famous with its lavender field that sprawls along the hill with other flowers in row.
Poppies
There are houses for you to visit like dried flower house, forest house, perfume and distillery workshop etc. Everywhere you could find gifts shops selling lavender made products. Anything you could think of that lavender can be made of. Japanese are very thoughtful; they will give extra packaging and stickers so you could pack it and give to friends as gifts. You don't even need to ask for it.
A shop selling lavender soft ice cream at the Forest house. See a lot of people just sitting there, savouring the soft ice cream…
Sorry I took a bite before taking this picture. Can't wait, I guess. Don’t miss this. It’s nice and only sold here. There are a number of shops inside the farm selling this. If you don’t want to get it here, just walk down back to the poppy house. It costs ¥250 per cone which is about RM8.
Lavender soda water. Can't find it anywhere except here too. Try it if you want to but I don’t really fancy it. Just taste like normal soda water. It needs some tact to open it and the small ball should be pushed inside. I get the shop assistant to open it for me. I think it costs ¥200 per bottle.
Ever heard of Lavender Coffee? It's sold here. It's so hard for me to resist the word coffee 
, so I bought a packet and my comment is.... 
. Too mild for me although it does have that lavender aroma. The other is Tokachi 十勝 adzuki bean bought at the gifts shop in Sahoro Resort Hotel. Adzuki bean is the main crops produced in Tokachi. So can't miss that one too, can I.
, so I bought a packet and my comment is.... 
. Too mild for me although it does have that lavender aroma. The other is Tokachi 十勝 adzuki bean bought at the gifts shop in Sahoro Resort Hotel. Adzuki bean is the main crops produced in Tokachi. So can't miss that one too, can I.Low-san did mention that lavender scrub for deep cleansing is a popular item here. Well, not interested so did not buy but they have tester for most of the products. We spent about 2 to 3 hours here and continue to visit the wine and cheese workshop not far from the farm.
I would not called it a wine factory as I couldn’t see any wine production at all except an underground storage place where they stored bottles of wine for years. A very short tour and then went up to the 1st floor for wine and fruit juice sampling. Thereafter, of course, the shop selling wine and fruit juice. We bought a bottle of grape juice here. If you need a box for your wine or juice, you need to pay for it. But later on, I saw the same brand of grape juice selling at Prince Hotel where we stop for our lunch, and you guess what 
much cheaper price!? Why outside is cheaper than the factory price....
much cheaper price!? Why outside is cheaper than the factory price....Next, a short drive to the cheese factory and at the entrance, we stopped for a short TV show about cheese making process and witness the production of the cheeses from behind some large windows if you are lucky. There are people packing the cheese during our visit. Outside is a large area for relaxing, eating and playing. You could see a number of local people having picnic under the tree.
Cheese factory entrance.
We have our buffet lunch at Prince Hotel. After lunch, we have a long journey ahead of us. From Furano to Noboribetsu, it needs about 3 to 4 hours drive. Before that, we will stop at Biei 美瑛, famous for its views of wide fields and hills. There is an observation house you could climb up for sight seeing and photo taking. We don’t find it interesting and stop at one of the shops for Hokkaido sweet corn. Major crops produced in Hokkaido, very nice, juicy and sweet. It costs about ¥200 each. Must try. You could get those precooked vacuum packed sweet corn at the Hakodate morning market to bring back to Malaysia. If you don't like sweet corn then try their locally produced fresh fruits like cherry, tomato, peach etc….big and juicy.
We reached Noboribetsu 登別市 at about 6 something and checked in into Yumoto Noboribetsu Hotel . Tonight we will change into yukata and have a Japanese style set dinner in the hotel.
Most of the hotel in Hokkaido will provide yukata to facilitate visitor for hot spring bath. Yukata (bath clothing) is a casual form of kimono that is frequently worn after bathing at Japanese onsen. The left side of the yukata is wrapped over the right side (only the dead at a funeral wears the right over the left).
Wearing yukata and sit in seiza (kneeling on a tatami floor around a low table). Hey, who can sit like that for long 
salute to the Japanese.
salute to the Japanese.
Our dinner set. In Japan, they always arrange the seating for you according to your group number but in even number la.
After dinner, we took a walk on the Onsen Street 登別温泉街 in yukata. Outside the hotel is the hot spring town. Basically is a street with shops along the side selling all kinds of souvenirs. Here you could find 2 convenience stores -- Seicomart (I think this is the name, can't recalled exactly) and 7-11. The street full of tourists wearing yukata and from the yukata you will be able to tell if they are from the same hotel. At the end of the street was this King of Hell 閻魔大王 shrine. At certain time, the King of Hell will change face. You wouldn’t miss the place as many tourists will gather in front of the shrine before the showtime. The King of Hell will change his face, move his hands and eyes turns into red and he speaks something in Japanese! Just a 5 to 10 minutes show. Children should find it interesting and scary, maybe.
The picture is a bit blur. We watched the 9pm show. In Japanese mythology this is the judge of the afterlife, Enma Daio. In Chinese, we call the King of Hell.
The shops closed around 8-9pm. Some earlier and some much later. Oh the hotel is Japanese style too and we slept on the tatami bed. They will arrange the bed for you during dinner time. So don't be surprised when you stepped into the room and see no bed.
20 July 2008
0 comments