Lavender

Rows of colour

Today we were up early for a long train trip.  We were off to Furano right in the centre of Hokkaido (not all that far from Ashaikawa).  We were going there for two reasons: you get to ride on two interesting trains (keeps the boys happy) and where we ended up is famous for lavender and flowers.

The peak viewing season for the lavender was mid July but after some research we discovered that there would still be some fields in bloom for us to see, so we went along.  The first train was the Furana Lavender Express which had seating high up in its carriages and big windows to the side and overhead so you could take in the scenery.  I wouldn't exactly call it an express though - it trundled through the scenery at a snail's pace, but the scenery was nice so it didn't matter.

More rows of colour

Now as we were going through rural Hokkaido, I sort of expected to see little villages scattered along the line.  Not the case, there seemed to be an endless stream of buildings from Sapporo nearly all the way to Furano, only breaking up towards the end of the journey.  I guess Hokkaido is big and empty compared to the rest of Japan, but there are 5.4 million people on the island and when you consider New Zealand has 4.6 million people in three times the space, then you realise they are still somewhat crammed in, especially given that as usual most of the terrain is inhospitable sheer mountains.

Tom's Farm

Anyway it was a nice, easy, relaxed journey.  We were in Furano for just under an hour and found that there was a Farmer's marché a couple of blocks away, so we walked down to see what it was.  Basically a big souvenir shop (lavender goodies) and a couple of restaurants so we mooched around and then headed back to the station to catch our next train, the very kawaii Furano-Biei Norokko train.  The carriages had been stripped down to the metal, wooden seating installed (tables on one side and benches facing the window on the other side) windows were all open using a pulley system.  There was a coal burner in the carriage (to keep passengers warm in the spring and autumn) and lavender string up in the roof.  All very quaint and lovely.

Lavender ice cream

It was only a 12 minute journey to the temporary Lavender Farm stop, but very nice it was, feeling the wind in your hair and it was sunny - hurray!  So we arrived in Farm Tomita at lunchtime.  It was teaming with tourists (mainly Chinese) - dozens of tour buses were in the car park, I'm guessing that if you 'do' a Hokkaido tour you go there.  Oh well, to be fair to them, it was amazingly well set up - a huge number of food outlets and shop outlets meant there weren't any bottle necks and that there was space for everyone.  We had lunch to start with at Café René - we were expecting saucy waitresses and rubbish singing but it didn't happen!  Matt and Tom had hot dogs each and I had a rather lovely baked potato with butter and corn chowder.  We were all happy.  Oh and Tom and I shared a lavender Calpis (all food colouring and not much flavour (thankfully) and Matt had lavender coffee (he said he couldn't taste it).

Lots of lavender

We then went for a walk around the fields.  Yes, most of the lavender had ended - there were fields and fields of bare lavender shrubs all being tended to by farm staff wearing lavender work overalls. However, there were also a good number of fields full of flowers in bloom.  There was some lavender but mainly there were stripes of brightly coloured flowers in colour blocks: marigolds, cockscombs (spiky plants that are really quite striking), snap dragons and others that I didn't know.  It was a feast for the eyes.  Unfortunately as soon as we finished eating lunch the sun went in and didn't really come out for the rest of the day, so we didn't see it at its best, but it was still very impressive.  The flowers attracted a wide range of wildlife too so we saw dragonflies, moths, butterflies, bees etc.  It was all rather lovely and very colourful.  Even Tom was impressed and took photos.

Us three

Lavender Tractor

We wandered into the distilling area where Tom watched people embossing soaps and making lotions and potions, whilst Matt waited a long time for the sun to come out so he could take some sunny shots from high up - don't think the sun happened for him here. and then we went for a walk and ended up in the melon area where you could get lots of cakes and confections made from melon.  Matt bought a soft whippy style melon ice cream which was very orange, but surprisingly nice (I'm not a fan of whippy ice-cream) we shared it between the three of us and then then headed back down to the flowers for another look around.  We did a spot of shopping (think of something that might have lavender in it - they sold it here!) and then sat down to have the 'famous' Tomita Farm lavender ice cream.  Hummmmmm, can't say I enjoyed this one.  It was bright lilac, but it did taste of something and 'it' wasn't nice.  Luckily Tom liked it and ate the majority of it - but Matt and I reluctantly had to help him - oh hum, when in Rome...  To take away the taste of the lavender ice-cream, I bought Matt a melon cream bun.  Now these are in sale in most convi stores and bakeries, but Matt said he had never had one before but was curious.  Of all the places to try them, this would be the best.  They were fresh out of the oven and I managed to do the order all in Japanese  "Are kudasai"..."ichi"..."arigato gozaimasu" so came back proudly holding his warm melon bun.  He bit into it and declared it delicious.  I had a bite, it was nice: crusty sweetness on the top and a mild melon soft and creamy filling all in a lovely big fluffy bun. It successfully took the lavender ice cream taste away.

The Furano Biei Norokko train

Oh, I loved their attention to detail at the farm: everyone was dressed in lavender coloured uniforms, they had lavender coloured scooters to get about the farm and even their tractors were lavender in colour.

Believe it or not we were at Tomita Farm for 3 hours, before heading back home.  So, back on the cute wooden train, then the Furano Lavender Express, arriving in Sapporo at 6.45.  For tea, Tom had requested sidings sushi.  On our two previous trips to Japan we have had train sushi, in Sapporo we found a restaurant where your sushi is delivered into sidings by your table.  Tom thought this even better than train sushi and as the reviews for this sushi restaurant were really good, we thought we should give it a try.

On the Lavender Express

Oh yes, first of all the sushi being delivered to your own personal sidings was fab, but also the quality of the sushi was far far far above that in the train sushi restaurants, so we were all happy.  I had 2 lots of scallop sushi which was spectacular, the salmon was out of this world, Matt ordered a grilled saury sushi which he was really pleased with and we even had raw prawn.  Get this, the salmon was £1 for 2 pieces and way and above any quality you get in the UK, scallops were £1.60 for 2 pieces.  We ended up having 20 plates and it came to £33.  If we were to go to Yo Sushi we would need a second mortgage to pay for what we ate, and the quality and selection would be nothing on what we got.  We are hoping to have time to revisit.

We then came straight home and Tom went straight to bed without a shower.  He has red eyes which is a sign of tiredness and also he has been a little annoying all day, being silly, talking silly etc etc.  All, I'm sure to do with tiredness.  We have prescribed a quiet day tomorrow so we are staying in Sapporo to do some more exploring down town as we haven't actually been downtown yet.