北海道自転車旅行：Jul 7 美瑛へ

(A sorry to all my readers and friend for my laziness. As I just finished my Grad school application submissions, I guess I'll get back to writing.)

This day, we parted ways again. The girls haven't had enough with Asahikawa (旭川), yet we boys almost had enough of it. Thus we boys leave for the next stop Biei (美瑛) during noon to secure a place to stay for the night, while the girls meet us there in the evening.

毅軍 and I went to a crafts shop where the girls said there was nice wood carvings and post cards. It was very nice, yet too expensive for me. We had cold udon (fat noodles) for lunch, which really didn't taste good; well at least the price was right.

And then we leave for Biei. With the two of us only, we rode at our own pace.

It was really sunny. We rode along route 237, a rural road in a wide plain of grass and farms. R237 runs from Asahikawa (旭川) through Biei(美瑛) to the whole Furano (富良野) area, thought all the flower filled hills and plains, thus it is also called "Flower-men's street" (花人街道).

What was especially interesting is the occasional train that runs by. The train actually only consists of a single car, which makes it look more like a little bus on a railway track. Feels like what you see in those cute cartoons, a shame it want by too fast for me to catch it on photo.

Slowly, the grass and farm plains give way to colorful hills of flowers, hinting us that we are entering the famous quilt-like hills of Biei (美瑛).

Upon a sign pointing to the town, after two turns away from R237, we found our selves in the beautiful and cute little town of Biei. The design of all houses seemed to be unified in a European design. Cute as it is, the whole town feels artificially geared to appeal to tourists, just like the feel of Disneyland.


We found the tourist info center next to the train station.

And started asking about rider houses, bed&breakfasts, and camping sites.
I have read in many blogs that bed&breakfasts in Biei are very beautiful, and would like to try them. Also, as we never had experience in rider houses (500yen/night), it would also be nice to try. Yet the bed&breakfasts were all filled up, and the info desk clark told us that all rider houses near by have gone out of business...

Well, we set out to find them our selves. Sure enough, bed&breakfasts are all filled up. And the rider houses which is a huge icon the size of 4 blocks on our large scale map was no where to be found. Well, at least we didn't know what they looked like and have no idea what to find in that huge "4 block" area covered by the icon.

Riding around town, we saw this cute little kid's parade that seemed to be organized by the local elementary school.


We were frustrated and just rode along the "quilt road" (拼布の路), which the main attraction of Biei: a scenic road in the hills. We asked each bed&breakfast in sight, and even the most beautiful and expensive ones are filled out. Seems like there is no place to stay unless you made reservations months ago. After a 40 minute ride from the town, we reserved a camping spot at Farms Chiyoda (ファーム　千代田)


Then it was another ride back to the town to meet the girls. Taking a smaller route lower in the hill back, the view is not as wide, yet feels more natural.

Back at the tourist info center, there was free internet access. Not believing that the rider houses have all closed down, I did a google search and found the actual spot and a photo of it. A quick ride over, I found it:

Well, a steel sheet constructed shack with a sweaty motorcycle guy half naked watching TV inside. Not bad for me, but I would not recommend it to girls.

There was another guy from Canada in the info center when we met the girls again over there. Candy, the only one of us who didn't study Japanese, joined in with the Canadian in a English inquary for a bed&breakfast vacancy. Well turns out she got a room, because she was willing to accept a higher price. Thus, she was on her own again, and the rest of us decided to camp at Farms Chiyoda.

We had dinner together at a Soba (cold wheat noodles) place (そば処) before parting with Candy. Will I don't know what the place was called, the sign just wrote, well duh, "Soba place". But it was very good. The noodles were chewy to the right degree and the sauce slightly sweet, slightly salty. Bet of all, the amount of noodles was quite enough for our hungry tummies, and the 1000 yen price tag was justified by the superb quality. It's not hard to find, near the station on the main street, the largest wooden & cloth Japanese style restaurant that said "そば処".

After good byes to Candy and plans to see her next afternoon (she insisted that she would like to see Biei in her own pace), the three of us went to a very clean family style public bath. How's it "family" style? The desk clerk looks like your common "mom" from any anime series, and the entrance cloths had cartoon characters on them. Also, the place was filled with local families instead of tourists. The bath water even had herbs that make it green and feels soothing on the skin.

While parking our bikes next to the bath place, the evening sky was a very nice blue gradient. Yet my photo didn't do it justice.


Then it was a night's ride all the way back to Farms Chiyoda. Although no street lights, and no scenery in the dark. The air was fresh and cool, the moon and stars were quite bright.

Camping at Farms Chiyoda was also in pitch darkness, good thing we have bright bike lights. I've heard from 美聿 that alone in her tent without Candy, it was a little cold...

Jul 6th 旭川 << | >> Jul 8th 富良野