北海道自転車旅行：Jul 10 富良野から、新得まで

This day, we rode the last part of route 237, through Minami-Furano (south Furano, 南富良野), over a mountain into the Tokachi (十勝) area of southern Hokkaido, our last stop before ascending the great heights of Daisetsuzan (大雪山).

This day is all about hills, and there's already a climb between our camping site at Yamabe, Furano (山部 富良野) and Minami-Furano (南富良野). Although slightly cloudy, it was all lush and green. We climbed a little and speed down into a valley in the hills that seems to trap moisture within. There was a sign that said "樹海中" (in a sea of trees). I'm not sure if it's the name of the area or something else, but never the less, liked the sign.


And then another hill before entering Minami-Furano (南富良野).

And another downhill, Minami-Furano, here I come!

Upon entering the Minani-Furano valley, we saw a shaved out ski track on another hill facing us. This must be a lively place during ski season, but now it's covered in grass.


And here we are at the "Minamifurano Station of the road" road side resting place (南富良野道の駅). There was a huge gift shop inside with Hokkaido specific souvenirs. The Puma sports brand parody "Kuma" was there once again. Yet there's much more this time, including "Shika" (シカ, dear), and our favorite: "Buta" (豚, pig), which was drawn as a pink flying pig.

Our map suggested that a place near by called "にわとり牧場" (chicken farm) sells real tasty omelet rice (オムライス, 蛋包飯 as in Chinese). And I found a real cute ad at the "station of the road".

Ad's cute, price is right, and specially recommended by our map, so that would be our lunch. I actually really wanted to try recommendations of our map, "Touring Mapple (昭文社 ツーリングマップル 北海道)", as the info was all from staff traveling along all the routes on motorcycle, and specifically marking any reasonably priced hotel or restaurant that they enjoyed during their investigation. That hard work made me want to trust our map, and I guess that's also why nearly everyone touring Hokkaido on two wheels was using the same map.

En route to dinner, there were signs every where, pointing to a tiny old-styled wooden-built train station. What's so special about it to have that much signs? Turns out it was the main scene of an old award winning Japanese romance movie called "Rail Officer" (鉄道員). I was all excited because I remember seeing parts of it on a plane when I was a kid.


The station, interestingly still had the fiction station name from the movie on it, with the real station name so tiny, you could barely see it.

And turns out the whole movie scene was moved here in memory of the popular movie classic.

That the train car that was in the movie.

A poster in the car.

Even an railway and movie exhibition in the station it self, and a TV showing a segment of the movie in loops. It's actually a man-less station with no officers, yet there were a lot of tourists (yeah, again, a lot of them were also Taiwanese).

This is the platform where the most famous scene where the officer waves goodbye to the heroine who was on a leaving train.

Then, leaving the station, and off to lunch.

Here comes the little chicken sign.

And that cute little house at the end of the route is it.

Welcome to "にわとり牧場" (chicken farm)!
The restaurant was filled with creative carpenter wood work, with rounded edges everywhere.

Can you believe that's the menu?
As the name chicken farm, it's all about chicken and eggs. And you can see the menu is egg shaped. And everything on it is egg related: omelet rice, egg pizza, egg pudding, egg ice cream...

So here comes the egg pizza.

Omelet rice with tomato juice.

Egg pudding & egg ice cream.
What can I say? They are as delicious as they look. Just too bad we didn't have enough money and time for a second serving (most of it is oven baked, so takes some time to serve).

And of course, a chicken farm has a chicken coop.
I would really recommend anyone to go there, yet they are closing shop at the end of this year. At the country side where it is, there simple weren't enough customers. And the owner claimed in the posting near the door, that he loved carpentry more then cooking, as shown by all the work in the shop and devoting half of the shop to selling wooden made toys for babies. They will be only selling the wood work next year. What a shame. Yet if I had a chance to go there again when I have kids, I'd definitely go and pick up a toy.

Previously anticipating the food, I didn't realize it was this big of a slope to the chicken farm... Well, this time we're rolling downhill!

Back on the road, it was the most tiresome climb of the day, up to the peak that divides the Minami-Furano (南富良野) and Tokachi (十勝) areas. And it was blazing hot. Trying to cool down by riding faster to make wind (yes, it was hotter to sit in the sun then ride hard to produce wind). That made me slowly pull away from the other 3 friends. I actually had to stop and rest every time I find one of those scarce shades, in fear I'd loose them.

Will, after some tiresome paddling, here we were at the peak.

Someone built a huge gift shop & food place for travelers here.

And looking back at all the winding roads we climbed, all unseen behind the trees.

Well, there's even a name for the peak, but I don't know how to read it.

And looking down on the other side of the peak: southern Hokkaido. This didn't look right, seems like it's going to rain.

So, trying to get to our next stop before it rains, we speed down the hills fast. Good thing it didn't rain that day, yet it was already cool and moist. Still not a good sign for our climb to Daisetsuzan (大雪山) the next day. Yet, speeding downhill was fun non the less, it's one of the few times that riding a bike would feel more like motorcycle racing in computer games, and much better: the scenery, wind, and speed is all real. And in case there was an accident, we need to position our group so that the one in the back and the middle had all the bike repair gear and first-aid stuff. Good thing I never used my first-aid kit on the road on this trip.

And so down at the foot of the mountain, we found ourselves at the Shintoku train station (新得駅).


Hay, it's the center of gravity of Hokkaido, cool!

Finding a place to stay in this little town wasn't hard. The struggle here is to find the best balance of convenience and price in the choices of little hotels, rider houses and a youth hostel, all 3 marked on our map. And so we once again went to the tourist info desk in the station. Well surprise, the rider house was actually next to
the station, and a public bath on the other side of the station. The rider house was tiny, a truck cargo container outfitted with a wooden and carpet floor. with the size and painted white, it really blends into the background, and we needed to ask 3 different people with 3 different directions to find it (Someone told us to find a orange roof, another said find a black roof; well it was a black topped container next to a orange roofed house).

The rider house was set up by the town government, and it was free, only a sign book to track the usage and leave comments (like people writing "I love this place, thank you!"). There was even electricity to charge our cameras. No bathroom, yet there was a temporary plastic toilet next to it, and the near by train station has public toilets. There were already some guys from Tokyo in there when we got there, and right after we filled up all the space that was left, another group came and left disappointed. Good thing we didn't arrive too late.

Again, our map recommended a "soba place" (そば処) near by, and so, with the great experience at lunch, we happily went for dinner. Although it's a place for soba cold noodles, our map recommended the "couple meal". Too bad other then down right delicious and twice two bowls as a whole huge meal (thus the "couple"), I don't remember much about it.

The public bath near by, was the normal run-of-the-mill bath place: nice and clean, and does what it should. Yet, with free lodging, free electricity, and great food, toilet, bath all near by, Shintoku provided us with one of the most satisfying stays of the trip, and a great rest before climbing Daisetsuzan (大雪山).

July 9th 富良野/山部 << | >> July 11th 大雪山/然別湖