Furano Lavender Trip

[August 10, 09]

Today extremely hot. Hard to get used to this burning hot weather although I was born in tropical country. We took local train from Bibaushi to Nakafurano station. From there, actually we can reach Saika no Sato and Farm Tomita easily. Due to we have bought the 4-hours Furano Twinkle bus tour, we have to hop on the bus by 12pm at Furano bus terminal. Therefore we only have few hours before go to Furano station. We decided to go Saika no Sato first since it is near to NakaFurano station. We went to Farm Tomita after tour.

On the way to Saika no Sato, we have to climb up the hill. Over the hill, you will pass by a small jungle. After that you will get to see endless lavender farm from far. But during the time we visit the farm, the lavender are almost dried. T_T Anyway the scenery here is still as beautiful as what I expected.

Due to the hot weather, we felt exhausted easier. We stopped by the ice-cream shop. We got L-A-V-E-N-D-E-R ice-cream. It is sooooo delicious! Must try if you get to Furano because you will not find this flavour of ice-cream elsewhere.

12pm we hopped on the tour bus and start our trip at Furano. Tour guide speaks in Japanese. We just followed people and do what supposed to do... hehehe... First we visited Recycled House. Everything in the house are made of recycled materials. How simple is it. Sometimes would like to keep my life as simple as i could. No stress, no worries, no arguments. How nice!

Goro's Stone house is made for the drama "From the Northern country". Have to pay 200 Yen entrance fee. Therefore we save 200 Yen and see it from far. :P

You can find more than 30 flavours of hand-made jam at Furano Jam Garden. Lavender souvenirs can be get from here too. Just next to it, you can find ANPANMAN shop (popular Japanese animation).

Furano Cheese Factory. Black cheeses are available here. Looks unique. Another thing you can find here is Furano's rich milk. Must try! It is really fresh although it tastes weird for the first sip.

After tour, as plan, we went to Farm Tomita from Furano bus terminal. There are a lot of lavender souvenirs to be grab, from facial things to food all made of lavender. Sounds attractive right?

Just next to Farm Tomita, you can find honeydew shop. You can get your honeydew with cheaper price.

Rebun Island / Furano

[August 9, 09]

I feel cold while walking on the street at Wakkanai. Cold and windy. I don't know that it can be cold during summer in Wakkanai. Anyway today we went to Rebun Island that near to northern tip of Hokkaido. Actually there are 2 islands that we can visit, but somehow we prefer Rebun Island due to its attractive scenery. We took HeartLand ferry to there. Round trip from Wakkanai to Rebun Island cost us 5000Yen. You can check the time schedule for the trip here.

Must make sure the time of ferry, else will spend more time in the ferry like us. We bought the wrong time ferry and we thought the ferry will directly send us from Wakkanai to Rebun Island. Yes. We are wrong. At the end we spent 2 hrs+ in the ferry because the route of ferry is actually Wakkanai-Rishiri-Rebun. Rishiri Island is another island that quite near to Rebun Island.

We took lots of photos in the ferry. We captured sky. Captured people. Captured achitecture of ferry. We even captured B-I-R-D-S. :P

When we reached Rebun Island, it was actually quite late and we have to rush to Furano (Central part of Hokkaido which need to travel for 5 hrs again from Wakkanai -_-'''). To save time, we rented a cab for sightseeing. We choose 2 attractions throughout the trip. One is Nekoiwa (cat rock) and Jizo rock. Check the photos below. I'm sure you will like this place! :P

Had our late lunch at the ferry port before heading back to Wakkanai. Another long journey back. This time nothing for us to capture anymore, so we sleep all the way to Wakkanai. =)

Evening we travelled from Wakkanai to Furano. Another long long journey. Btw luckily we have reserved seat. Once you have JR day pass, you are eligible to reserve your seat for every station. Again we sleep in the train.. :P

Reached Bibaushi station around 1030pm. A deserted place. Got very strong smell of fertilizers. But don't worry, it only happened that night we reached. We stayed at 2 double-decker room although just 3 of us. We have to share public bathroom and toilet with other backpackers. The facilities here very clean and neat. And all these only managed by the owner of this hostel and his wife. Every morning 10am they will clean up every room. We stayed 2 nights here with the rate 4880 Yen per night. I strongly recommend Bibaushi Liberty Hostel to those who plan to have budget trip at Hokkaido. Some photos taken on the next day morning.