After we traveled around in Furano and Asahikawa, we visited one of Hokkaido’s most popular tourist spots.
Biei
If you have never heard about Biei, it is famous for its Blue Pond.
Now, while it looks pretty nice in this picture, it was not really the right season to go see it. To get a really good look at how blue it is, the best time to visit this pond is in the winter, when the trees around it are covered in snow.
When there is no snow, the green color of the leaves are reflected in the water and thus affecting the blue color of the water.
On the other hand, visiting Hokkaido in the winter, after it has snowed can be really tricky, pretty dangerous and of course really ICE COLD so yeah the choice is up to you.
2 tips for visiting Biei:
1. Go to the restroom before you visit the pond, there are no toilets near the pond. The nearest restroom is at a cafe pretty far from the pond.
2. GO EARLY. Depending on the season there are many many tourists visiting the pond. Since the parking is very small there is a good chance you will be stuck in a small traffic jam. Luckily, everyone stays ONLY about 10 minutes and then leaves the pond as there is nothing else to see in the area so the waiting time shouldn’t be that long.
After the Blue Pond we visited
Biei Farm
in the gorgeous hills of Kamikawacho.
It’s a small farm surrounded by beautiful green hills.
Just like the Windows XP desktop wallpaper.
The farm has a small cafe that sells their own made FRESH products like milk, icecream, pudding and more. Their products taste absolutely fantastic and fresh. Heavily recommended.
Take some time to climb the hill in front of the cafe and enjoy the view upstairs.
Hokkaido’s countryside is really beautiful.
After touring around Biei we decided it was time for lunch. “Unfortunately” all the places we wanted to go to were fully booked.
Luckily enough we passed a tiny cafe in the middle of nowhere.
It’s a farmhouse style cafe run by a Japanese woman and her American husband. The interior is lovely but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures inside so you’ll have to take my word for it. The food was GREAT. So if you ever have the chance…GRAB IT!
That was Biei in a nutshell. Next we move to Shiretoko.
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