北海道自転車旅行：Jul 9 富良野/山部

Since we were camping in the "Sunrise park auto camping site" (日の出公園オートキャンプ場) at Nakafurano (中富良野) which was famous for Lavenders, we climbed the hill the whole park was built on to the other side of the hill where the Lavenders are.

So that's the whole camping site seen from the top of the hill.

And that's the other side of the park. It's nice, managed quite well. Yet as we just left the beauty of Biei (美瑛), this dulls in comparison.

Okey, a park full of flowers alright.

So we then continued on route 237 to the king of all Lavender gardens: Farm Tomita (ファーム　富田). It was said that this is the must stop that most tour guides would take people to see Lavenders.

Given it's popularity, we were quite surprised that it's all admission free, with absolutely no gates. But then we realized that the revenue from all the Lavender related merchandise is abundant enough.

Here's how they dry the Lavender for farther treatment into products.

Here's how they distill the aromatic oil from Lavender.

And here's the gift shops, with a not too short waiting line in front of the cash register. So it's essentially a great big garden selling souvenirs.


Here's the great colorfull hills that goes on to a lot of Hokkaido postcards.


Lavender up close.

A photo of the three of us. (What weren't there four of us? Yeah, the other guy, 毅軍 was glued to the gift shops, picking gifts for his girl friend...)

A look back at the great plains of Furano (富良野), the land famous for Lavender. Interestingly, someone told us that Furano originally meant "land of bad smell" in the language of Hokkaido natives, because of the smell of the sulfur hot springs near by. Yet now, tourists are flocking into the "land of bad smell" for the aroma of Lavender.


I got a slice of melon (メロン) for ￥350, about a 1/8 slice of a melon. Still quite expensive, yet slightly better then a whole melon, which are more expensive then ￥350*8. As it might have a special flavor of Hokkaido, I decided to try one.

And sure was it the best honeydew I've ever had, the sweetness just right. I just can't afford a 2nd piece.


And that does it for Farm Tomita, a feast for your eyes, smell, and even tastes if you are willing to try.

We next continued along route 237 to the Furano train station, in search of lunch and supermarkets to prepare for the needed food supply for our future climb onto Daisetsuzan (大雪山), the highest mountains and national park in Hokkaido.

There was this very nice train called "North Rainbow" at the station that I could not help but take a picture.


We also met a Canadian couple who was just about to finish their own ride around Hokkaido. They had took the route by the southern shore and rode against heavy rain and strong wind. My respects to them. Interestingly, they were using the same "Touring Mapple (昭文社 ツーリングマップル 北海道)" Map booklet that we were using. Turns out almost every cycler and biker were using the same map.

After lunch, and getting all the food supplies for the next week (we were not sure if we will be seeing any more supermarkets before going into the national park, and the map suggests no more sizable cities that might have supermarkets), we almost doubled our luggage weight. 毅軍 even got a huge box and tied it to the back of his bike, which turned out to be filled with all the light yet space consuming stuff (bread, noodles... 我們稱之為「壯觀」XD). As my bike had the best condition of us all, and I was usually the one riding in front, I figured I was the one with surplus leg power, and so I took the heavy, liquid leaden cans and stuff. After distributing a good balance of cargo weight between the 4 of us, we continued on.

As the sun was quickly going down, we decided that me and 毅軍 would ride at faster speeds to the next camping site on the map, in case the campsite management called a day off too early.

The "Land of the Sun Camping site at Yamabe Natural Park" (山部自然公園太陽の里キャンプ場) was 5km from route 237. From the map, I figured that it was a brisk ride through farms and grasslands. Well, surprise surprise, after that right turn from route 237, it was a grueling no frills straight climb up hill. My speeds dropped from 30km/hr to just 10km/hr, yet paddled on since the next possible place to stay was a day's ride away. It was almost like the middle of no where, with a sign that said something like: "KFC 100km away" (I didn't remember the exact number on that laughable ad banner.) Well, we climbed on, constantly asking each other: "Are we there yet?"

We arrived at the park, which was so natural that the grasses were quite high and seemed to be seldom managed. There was a single stinkin' restroom (yup, stinkin' ), and a sign that said "no camping here". Uh, okey, so where's the camping site? Across a row of bushes, the camping site came into site. Not too few people, and the view was very nice. I was starting to like the place until we started unloading. As we were unloading under a lamp, there were like hundreds of tiny flies (the size of half an ant) flying around me, boy were they annoying. The good thing is that after I moved farther from the lamp, the number of flies around was cut in half. Simple insects, huh. I looked for the manager's office as checking-in is common in Japanese campsites. Well no office, just a little wooden box next to the entrance, with a sign-up book, a pen, and a sign "admission free" inside. I wrote my name, from Taipei, and 4 people. Then I flipped over, and saw "Mr. Chang, Hualian, 2 people" ("張先生，花蓮，2人", full names not provided).

We then rode back down hill for dinner. Downhills were always fun on bike. The only shop near by was a "Seicomart" convenient store back on R237. They had really good microwavable curry rice (which tastes more like fresh food then TV dinner). Notably, on the ride back up hill, this time without all the cargo, our speeds doubled to 18~20km/hr. I guess no longer hungry was also a factor, but that cargo really did made a difference.

The girls had got the the camping site during our dinner, and the first thing they told us was: "That toilet stinks!! And there's no flush!!" Oh, I thought, so it also stinks on this side... (smirking). I was happy to notice that all the flies were gone by now, and though the flies was less tolerable then the toilet, since the Seicomart downhill had a public, modern toilet.

Well, walking around the camp site, I found that the whole site was split in half by a river, and there were much more people across the bridge. The river was dazzling at night and had a very natural fell to it. Some guy across the bridge had a van and a great big tent with a generator, watching TV inside. And here's the big deal: right across the river, there is a large wooden constructed restroom, with flush and only stinks slightly.

And try as I did, I didn't find that Mr. Chang from Taiwan, Hualian.

Jul 8th 美瑛から、富良野まで << | >> Jul 10th 富良野から、新得まで

Work environments, different lives

May, 2007, 在實驗室作實驗

在學長的指導下，一切操縱在我的 pipette 之下

June, 2007, 當 BCT Teaching assistant 時

穿上實驗衣拿著課本在實驗室很歡樂的教人家作實驗

July, 2007, Hokkaido cycling trip

前面那顆碼表就是我的資訊平台，一切家當都在背後

Oct 2007, 整天窩電腦前寫statement of purpose

一個桌面開滿數位便條紙、開了不少word documents、還要注意時間跟期限。

這一年下來生活的變化還真大

北海道自転車旅行：Jul 8 美瑛から、富良野へ

It was a very great morning, as we woke up right in the scenic hills of the quilt roads.

Farms Chiyoda as it is, there is a lot of barn animals.

Following a tourist map, we continued along "quilt road" (拼布の路), to the next main attraction: Takushinkan (photo gallery, 拓真館), which seems to be a memorial hall of something we don't know yet. Well, we'll see. The scenary it self is the main point of being here, and so there goes my shutter happy finger...

We could even see our future destination: Daisetsuzan (大雪山) far away.

Grass, flowers, trees, hay, hills, bright blue sky, white clouds, no matter where you point your camera, any picture would look like a great postcard.



Half way, we meet this real cool Japanese dude who is also on his bike. He seems to have twice the luggage of any of us, with huge packs, many ropes, even an umbrella,
some Lavander sticking out of the back of the bike, a hat made of hay, a very large smile, and a wooden board saying "Around Japan!" (日本一周).

And more hay rolls.


This is the colorful quilt-like part.


Real fun to take photos through the flowers, anyone would seem romantic like that :)

I got a cone of lavender ice cream (ラバンーダ　ソフトクリーム) in a road side souvenir shop that is full of lavender related gifts. Interestingly, when paying for it, I dumped all of my coins out and found it about 10 yen short; as I was about to pull out a 1000 yen bill for this, the clark stopped me and kept saying that I don't have to. Confused, I continued pulling out my bill, and she said "サービスです！" (in Japanese, they say "service" to mean free, or discount), how kind, not wanting the few yen short of the price. A small act, yet lets tourists feel friendly and have a nice impression of Japan. I later saw posters promoting "smiles of everyone" as the best advertisement of Hokkaido's tourism, a very interesting and nice quirk of traveling in Japan.


And we got to Takushinkan (拓真館), just the same time as a whole bus of, what else? Taiwanese tourists. Cool. There were elder people asking us in Taiwanese: "卡打車都位來ㄟ？(where did your bike come from?)", "騎到這ㄍ真厲害咧... (what a feat to ride all the way here...)"

Takushinkan is a memorial photo gallery of a Japanese father & son photographer who loves to take photos of all seasons of Biei. On display includes their photos, and gear (the huge Hasselblad film camera themselves are very astonishing). Although admission free, they sale photo books of the displayed works and also post cards and calenders. As poor student travelers we didn't buy any, yet we witnessed the high buying power of Taiwanese elder tourists.

Outside Takushinkan, is a Lavender garden, sort of giving us a sample of what to expect tomorrow at Furano (富良野).




On the road back to Biei town, we took yet a 3rd scenic route through the hills.

Finally I caught one of the trains on photo, yet it's a 2 car one, not the interesting single car.



Despite the ups and downs in the hills, the scenery just makes you forget how tiring the hill climbing is.


Back at the train station, we had lunch at restaurant whose name I forgot. What I did remember is: 1)The funny menu had Chinese on it, yet seemed to be the translation work of Chinese mainlanders, thus chicken & egg rice bowls (親子丼) turns into "Bird rice bowls" （鳥飯）or something like that, people who understand Chinese would understand the difference between the Taiwanese Chinese language and Mainland Chinese; 2)It is overpriced, service very slow, and doesn't taste good.

Alright, ripped off at lunch. Yet, next I got a real great deal on suntan lotion. There was a newly opened "Tsuruha (ツルハ)" chain drug store in town, which is holding a grand opening sale. A heavily discounted bottle of suntan lotion got me a free box of tissue paper (which is so big that it would serve us through out the rest of our trip), and a whole tank of batteries for me to grab. So matter how much I could grab in a handful, it's mine; and the clark would add his own other handful to my bag, shouting out loud: "this is "service"!!" (サービスでーす！) There was so much tissue paper and batteries (which amounts to a battery change's amount of everyone's bike lights and a little more) that we needed a little time just to pack it.

Next we rode to the east side of Biei (the "quilt road" that we spent our morning wa the west side), with less hills, flatter plains, and a different feel.







Last we rode back to town to meet with Candy, and after a special birthday party for 美聿, we set off for Naka Furano (the middle of Furano, 中富良野).

And we are back on route 237, "Flower-men's street" (花人街道).
There are many road side stands selling melons (メロン, they call them web melons because of the outer texture, yet I'd say it's really a variant of the Honeydew that we all know). We know that melons are a major produce of the Furano area, yet the price was just too high (it's also the same with corn, which is also selling everywhere).


We encountered this real weird "trick art" art museum (トリックアート美術館). Do you believe all the "doors", "windows", "arcs", and even the "David statue" are all realistically painted on white walls?

We next arrived at the tiny Nakafurano train station. We originally planned to take the bus the next day on to an Onsen (hotsprings bath place, 温泉) on Daisetsuzan (大雪山) that our previous home stay host, Ryan, strongly recommended. Yet a look on the bus stop here reveled too scarce buses and bad times, forcing us to give up our first attempt onto Daisetsuzan. We went to this "Sunrise park auto camping site" (日の出公園オートキャンプ場) at Nakafurano, which was famous for it's very nice facilities and "camping among Lavender gardens". Okey, facilities weren't apparent, Lavender was on the other side of the hill (only the people who chose to camp on top of the hill gets close to Lavender), and worse of all, at 500 yen per person, and additional charge for bath, we were amazed that camping could be more expensive then rider houses.

Mad at the price, we went to find the nearest rider house. Well, it's a wooden shack with broken windows and flies flying around, in a yard that looks like a garbage dump, complete with fiercely barking dogs (oh well, it's free...). Again, with girls in the group, this rider house was out of the question. I suggest riding for another 5~10 km to a very nice rider house recommended on the web: "Fukuda Melon" (フクダメロン), which is said to have free melon eating contests.


Well, with the sun going downhill, no one else except me, this cycling freak, was enthusiastic to another 5~10 km. And one of us (毅軍) was slightly sick. So it was decided that I ride as fast as I could, back to the camping place to register (for fear of the counter closing), and the others to the near by supermarket for dinner.


Expensive as it seams, the "Sunrise park auto camping site" (日の出公園オートキャンプ場) facilities were real good, with a indoor conference room, a sells booth, hot water for instant noodles, free to use microwave, coin laundry, and even a coin shower (100 yen for 10 minutes of continuous shower water that you could pause when applying soap, much more then enough for a shower). Management is also very good, everything in good condition. Only down side to good management is having guards walking around checking everyone's tents for the "proof of paied fee". With all that, I think it justifies the price.

July 7th: 美瑛 << | >> July 9th: 富良野

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

Links back up!

Just reactivated the links part in the sidebar to the right on this blog.

Got links to blogs of friends and family, and sites I like.