Beautiful Biei - Breath-taking Brilliance

10th of August, 2010 - After a stop at the Hill of Zerubu, we came to the place that T-chan's parents had been looking for. A wonderful part of paradise known as Shikisainooka - the Colours of Four Seasons Hill. This is about 6-7 km south (as the crow flies) of the actual town of Biei and is definitely one of the must see places in the area. The map below shows you how to get there from Biei itself (you may need to zoom in). The farm is free - however they do request a 200 yen donation for the up-keep. The following link also shows the calender of flower blooms throughout the year across Biei.

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Shikisainooka is a cross between a working flower farm and a tourist attraction, and shows just how well such multi-purpose industry can work. The farm sits on about 7 hectares , and is open all throughout the year. It also happens to be home to the obligatory hay bale giants. At night they come alive and devour any stray tourist that mistakenly finds their way onto the farm... it's tragic, but what a great place to be eaten by a straw monster.

The garden - earlier in the year - has a lot of lavender, but like most such places the season for lavender had already passed us by.  Still, whilst there wasn't much in the way of lavender available, the farm more than made up for it in terms of sheer colour. And I won't even pretend to know what all the flowers are.... but instead, I will let the photos do the talking. I most probably should try culling down the number of similar photos - but for the life of me I just don't know which I can take off.

The one thing I will say however is - this was one of those moments as you come over the rise that you just can't believe how beautiful the flowers are....

There's just so much variety... even in the uniformity!

This is not the only such farm in the area - in fact Biei and Furano are famous throughout Japan for such beautiful vistas.

And another feature of the area - other than the hills of flowers - are the trees (though I didn't shoot any good examples). They have a fetish here for the unusual single tree (or clump of trees) set against the hillside.  An example is the famous Ken and Mary Tree.

And once again, the landscape of Hokkaido is a fantastic supporting star in this production... looking more like the sweeping tree-covered European plains than a Japanese countryside. Unfortunately we arrived quite late in the afternoon... hence the long shadows of our family in the foreground. On the downside we only had about 30 mins to look around before it was due to close - but on the upside, the lower sun had started to cast a wonderful light over the fields. Another highlight that really didn't come out in the photos was the giant of a mountain, Daisetsuzan that loomed amazingly over the landscape... unfortunately there was too much cloud around to get a good pic of it - but it made me want to pencil in a driving trip through Daisetsuzan National Park on one of our up-coming trips back to Japan.

Here's one last one for luck. Beautiful... and that has nothing to do with the photos either.

Of course - L-kun was having fun, but there's only so many flowers to examine. A tractor however is a source of endless joy and curious fun. Of course, I'm not entire sure that this was meant to be part of a play gym (and thinking back on it, we were perhaps lucky the he didn't find the key and start it up and go for a late afternoon drive through the flowers - one way to get on the news).

And I mentioned that the farm also has a strong lavender connection. Well, that extends to the favourite tourist item in Japan - the seasonally flavoured ice-cream. In this case, lavender soft-serve. Whilst the flavour is not designed to knock your socks off, it was most definitely lavender.

And just to show that I don't let my wife do all the stunt work, here I am getting stuck into my own.... but hold on... what's that moving in the background. Oh no! The boy hay monster has come to have it's own just-woke-up-and-have-a-horrible-gnawing-hunger-pain satisfying snack. 

Will I escape?... you'll just have to stay tuned for the next post.

Meanwhile... at least someone with a camera drove back to Sapporo that night (it's about 2+ hours). The driver was Otousan, who had done a brilliant job throughout the day - despite repeated requests to share the driving. It was definitely a long, long day... and yet it was beautiful to watch the passing scenery as the sun set - the hot humid summer mist rising from the fields.

Then again... maybe I never left that field of flowers...

Peace Waterfall - Revisited

6th May, 2008 - We went for a drive today up to the Peace Waterfall (heiwa no taki)... actually, we had been here before in 2003... but now it was Spring not Autumn... And the waters were flowing even more strongly than before with the winter's snow being all but melted now. I tried my hand at a slow shutter speed to get the flow of water... with only some effect given that I was working without a tripod.

It was much easier to ramp up the shutter speed. Two very different takes on the same scene. 

And of course - here's one for the family... with T-chan behind the camera.

Actually there's some bushwalking areas around here, going up into the hills. The native forests, even close to the city, are quite wild. And that also means they have bears, so you have to always ensure you're making lots of noise. People will wear bells or they now have little electronic alert sirens that go off intermittantly. Thankfully I've never come across a bear in Japan.... but they are a serious concern when walking in Hokkaido.

There's something about the hills (mountains) around Sapporo... they're both wild and yet also carved and shaped by human endeavour. Just down from the Peace Waterfall can be found this typical hillside... which always reminds me of a scene is Akira Kurosawa's Dreams movie from 1990...  

There's a scene where a boy finds himself watching a living hina matsuri (doll or girls festival) on the terraced slopes of a plum orchard.... don't ask me why, but like that boy, I wonder what would happen if the trees were suddenly transformed into the living Imperial Court resplendent with Emperor and Empress, nobles and entertainers alike... Sometimes I have flights of fancy...

 Actually, we had been intending to go to hanami once more ... this time up at Toda Kinen Bochi Kouen which is to the north of Sapporo. However, given that it was Golden Week, it had seemed everyone and their dog had the same idea. The traffic was bad... but got progressively worse until we were almost gridlocked - and it was still about 20-30 km to go. We gave up and that's when we had gone instead to the Peace Waterfall (kinda in the opposite direction). This is the great irony of Golden Week. It's such a perfect opportunity for the Japanese to get away that they do... They all do. At the same time. Resulting in a human+car congo line that can go for many 10's (if not 100's) of kms when it's at it's peak. My advice is, by and large, avoid coming to Japan during Golden Week. And if you do - book accomodation early, and expect there to be lots (and I mean LOTS) of Japanese tourists competing for tourism space with you.

At the end of the day's driving, L-kun was very tired, and went off for a nap straight away. Actually I have to say, we were worried about his sleeping arrangements initially, as he had gone from sleeping in his own cot to sleeping using a futon in his own room (either Mummy or Daddy or both of us would often lay with him to get him to sleep, but other than that it he would sleep through). One thing is that he's a hog when it comes to sleeping (he rolls all over the place). So often time he would have rolled himself off the futon altogether.

Romance Trains, Plains and Tanuki-mobiles

21st October, 2006 - The Sagano Romance Train (also known as the Torokko Romantic Train Ride) is a wonderful little tourist railway that operates from Kameoka to Sagano along the valley through which the Hozugawa flows. To get to Torokko Kameoka Station, you catch the Sagano Line (JR山陰本線・園部行) from Kyōto Station which will take about 40 mins and cost 400 yen. Get off at JR Umahori station and walk about 400m back down to the Torokko Station (zoom in on B in the map below).



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Whilst you're waiting you can always talk to one (or many) of the locals. These strange fellows are found everywhere across Japan, and are called Tanuki. Tanuki (Racoon Dog) are a strange Japanese beast - real, yet just as much legend. They're often portrayed like this  -  mischievous and not altogether innocent. They also are almost always... well... sporting a very heavy package (if you know what I mean). In legend they are also known for their shape-shifting abilities (much like foxes).


The romance train ticket can be purchased from Torokko Kameoka Station, and costs about 600yen. The train departs pretty well every hour, and takes about 23 minutes to make the entire journey down to Sagano. It's definitely a tourist train, with open-walled carriages (when the weather's good), and lots of opportunities to get a great view of the valley and the river. Actually - take the time to enjoy Kameoka first - as it's a semi-rural experience that you may not often get when visiting a large Japanese city.

The train starts off - and if you're lucky or unlucky you can miss out on a chair (it's always busy). In my case it was intentional as I liked to move from side to side to get good views of the river.

It's not uncommon to catch the JR line to Sagano, then take the Romance Train up to Kameoka so that you can come down the river by boat on the Hozu Boat Ride. This takes a while (about two hours to transit the 16 km river) and costs 3,900 yen - so only do this if you really have an entire afternoon to spend. If you do have the time, I think that this would make an excellent trip. There are apparently some rapids along the way, just to spice things up.

The air is nice and refreshing here.... and the mountains make for a scenic locale... I can't imagine the commute though. It's certainly nice to get off the Kyōto plains and into the mountains that surround the city. 

There's a haze that makes for very scenic feel... back in Australia it's said that the Eucalyptus gum trees emit a faint oil aerosol that gives the Australia mountains their bluish tinge. I'm not sure about that, but it seemed to me that the light here had the same sort of quality.

The afternoon light is beautiful - at one moment in shadow, the next in sunshine. The tall valley walls, the river snaking this way and that, bridges and tunnels all making for quite a bit of variety along the way.

Apparently there's a Tanuki Holiday Club somewhere around here... hats mandatory. Omoshiroii!

The romance train trip is well worth it, and whilst we took the trip at the beginning of our stay in Kyōto, it'd make a good break if you were planning to spend a longer period in Kyōto and are getting templed-out. Of course - leave plenty of time for walking around Sagano/Arashiyama...  these are must do things if you're in the area. 

Going To Buy Latest Apple Products in Mashike

16th October. 2006 - After a day and night out on the town, T-chan's family had organised to go on a bit of a tour... for a great new Apple product that had not even hit the stores yet. However, this wasn't the sort of product you'd find in downtown Yodobashi or BIC Camera howerver... We had to go a little further afield. In fact up the western coast of Hokkaido to a small little town called Mashike (population around 5,000). It's about 115km away, and most of that is on windy coastal road. By the way, here's an interesting link for some helpful hints of driving holidays in Hokkaido.


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The trip is primarily along the coastline, and there's a few vantage points on the way to look back. The coastline towards Sapporo is not that interesting however (see above). The further away from Sapporo the more attractive the scenery. One of the nice little breaks is at Shiragane-no-taki.

The sun is low at this time of the morning. It may be a small waterfall, but it's faint cool mist and beautiful sound is still good for the refreshing the senses. That rock looks old - yet much of this land is actually geologically quite young.

The one thing that you definitely see a lot of on the drive to Mashike is tunnels. From memory we drove through over 20 tunnels along the coast. Most of them are small, but some take upwards of a minute to drive through.

It's at times like these that I think about all the seismic activity in this neck of the wood (long tunnels would not the best place to be, I imagine, when an earthquake hits). Man am I paranoid about tunnels! T-chan just reminded me that a few years before this trip one of these tunnels had collapsed (due to an engineering fault) killing quite a few people. Perhaps I wasn't so paranoid after all...

Still, it's not all coastline and tunnels. The countryside around here feels (despite the netting of electrical and fibre optic) very raw and untouched. This is quite different to the countryside around Jozankei for example (where you know that it's on a well-traveled route to a tourist town). I'm not sure how many people get out into these hills. 

And here we are - eventually... in Mashike... to buy one of the best Apple products around. No that's not Apple with a (TM). It's the real thing. (Not an IPad in sight). That's right, we've driven for about two hours to buy apples!

 Ok - we're not actually in Mashike, but rather an apple orchard just out of town. And yes - the apples are delicious! T-chan's parents have come here before and this has become a sort of annual pilgrimage for them. The apples are so good that not only will T-chan's parents bring a whole heap back home for themselves, but they'll use them as a sort of omiyage for many of their friends (these are presents for thanking and consideration). And these are always well received as Mashike apples are quite famous in Hokkaido. Not sure what type of apples are grown but they are amazingly crisp and juicy. Here's another link I found to some very funky looking docos on apple-growing in Hokkaido.

It's certainly a beautiful and bounty land to grow produce in. This area grows a lot of different fruit and vegetables. Yumm-o... but T-chan couldn't taste any of it. And she was also starting to suffer from morning-sickness.

After buying apples we headed back to Mashike where we popped into the Kunimare Sake Brewery... which was established in 1882 and is reasonably well known around Hokkaido at least. Don't ask me why the people in Hokkaido love their stuffed bears, but you will find them every where. It's a little degrading... but apparently not enough that I would refuse to have myself photographed with it.

As for the brewery itself - I'm not much of a sake drinker, but it seemed quite reasonable... The brewery looked very much like that. Very business-like (and by that I mean it's all brewery, and only a very small back room for tasting). Don't expect a totally awesome tour, but it's not everyday that you can have a look around a working sake brewery. Sorry - can't recall the prices.

On the way back to Sapporo, we stopped off at one of the many river outlets along the coast. It's spawning time for the Salmon here now, and sure enough we see quite a few salmon heading up-stream... trying to jump up the regulators along the way.

It's a somewhat sad sight... and a little confronting if you've not seen it before. There's a raw desperation and energy about the salmon struggling against current, barrier and ultimately fatigue to reach their goal in order to spawn. This however, is nature at it's most raw...

And I have to say... seeing all that salmon makes me hungry. I just love to eat'em. T-chan's mother makes the best salmon dishes.  ?;^)

To Teine and Back Again

14th Jan, 2005 - We're off to see the wizard... the snow wizard who lives atop Teine-yama. Sapporo people are pretty spoilt when it comes to skiing options. Most Australians would be familiar with Niseko resort, however there's a very good mountain just 20-30 mins from T-chan's house (and that's to the ski-lifts... depending on the weather)... Teine-yama... home of the slalom and bob-sleigh during the 1972 Winter Olympics.



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There are two courses - Olympia (the lower of the two) and Highland.  In summer time, there's also a theme park, and you can try your hand at grass skiing. Personally the though of falling over on the snow is more appealing. Access and parking to the ski runs is free, and ski chair passes start around 3,500yen (4 hours) 3,900 yen (6hours), 4,800 yen (full day). A night ticket costs 1800 yen (4-9pm). The runs cater for all skill levels, but the die-hards will most likely head off to Niseko anyhow.


One of the attractions of Teine ski runs is the view (and the proximity to Sapporo). You get brilliant views across the city plains, out across the bay and to the mountains to the north-east. The view changes subtly throughout the day and into the evening.

We stayed there all day, until the sun had started to well and truly set.

There's plenty of lights around the mountain slopes to keep going well into the night.

Night draws closer - and the last light begins slowly to fade below the distant mountain range across the bay.

You may be wondering - where did I learn to ski? Well... there's a very exclusive teacher in Sapporo (though I've heard that she spends much of her time abroad these days) that can provide personalised lessons... down her street. I was borrowing T-chan's ski's to get a hang of proper ski's (as compared to X-country skis) the day before. Hazukashii! (that's sooo embarrassing).

Actually, whilst we have snow in Australia - there's none around Adelaide. So I'm a complete newbie when it comes to real skiing. My experience was that it's most probably best to spend a few days there - but Teine doesn't tend to cater well for lessons for foreigners. It was exhausting skiing all day (and I admit a little frustrating initially). Actually the skiing is fine, what wore me out was the walking back up the slope to try again.

I can't wait to go back and try and again - and learn how to ski properly.