Furano

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Furano

The most Northern area of Japan, Hokkaido is considered to be untouched Japan, with beautiful nature, some of the best skiing in the world, the freshest and tastiest seafood you can buy, and very friendly people.

I arrived in the capital Sapporo eager with anticipation, as this area of Japan was the original inspiration for my travels to the land of the rising sun. More specifically the town of Hakodate, the southern most point of Hokkaido island. I had scheduled my visit to Hakodate to be the last destination on my Japan visit, and so first the nature of Central Hokkaido beckoned.

Originally I had intended to stay high up in the mountains in the Daisetzusan National Park, with a hope of maybe catching a glimpse of snow. However the day following my arrival in Hokkaido marked the start of a 5 day national holiday in Japan, and subsequently much accommodation was already fully booked.

During my research I came across a tourist info and assistance centre for the Furano area, who arrange bookings free of charge, and so it was I found myself on a local train chugging through the countryside towards Furano, 2 hours North East of Sapporo.

Furano is surrounded by mountains, formed by the frequent volcanic activity that occurred many thousands of years ago. It is probably most well known for its skiing, having what I'm told is probably the best snow quality anywhere in Japan. However outside of winter it is popular for its outdoor activities, many flowers (of which lavender is the most well known), and the local produce. It has a vaguely resembles Margaret River, being a quiet sleepy town with lots of little farms, wineries, and quaint little shops spaced out around the outskirts.

The hostel I stayed at is at the bottom of a ski run, and conveniently located directly across the road from the tourism information centre. It was there I headed after putting my bag in the room, to source some maps of the local area.

The following morning I made arrangements to hire a bicycle with which to facilitate my planned exploration for the day. At the bike shop I met Kei, a local who speaks extremely good English. He has lived in both Canada and Australia for a while, so he understand me and I understood him, a novelty experience for me over the last few weeks! We hit it off straight away and will most definitely keep in touch. Another one of the fantastic and genuine people I have met on this Japanese journey of mine.

Not only was it great to have a nice chat, but Kei also tipped me off to the best coffee in town, where I headed off as my first priority, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the coffee I had at Furano Cafe was hands down the best coffee I've had in Japan so far. So two thumbs up Kei, I owe you one.

After that I had grand plans to cycle to the Jam Factory. My intentions were not, however, to see how jam was made, but rather to visit the Anpanman shop. Anpanman is a Japanese anime (cartoon/comic) character I became acquainted with while in Matsumoto with Takao. Anpanman is the hero, and is head is made of bread. The anime centres around Anpanman's visits to sick children, whereupon he offers them a piece of his bread head to help them better. No, really, I'm serious! He rips out a chunk of his bread head to give to the child. Then he goes back to his headquarters, where his teacher/friend is a baker, who bakes him a new head in preparation for the next day's adventure. Now how can you not LOVE a cartoon like that? Naturally I immediately became a big fan, and so you can imagine my excitement upon discovering that Furano had its very own Anpanman shop!!!!

So, after imbibing my caffeine hit for the day, I embarked on my non-motorised two-wheeled quest to find Anpanman. After the now mandatory episode of getting lost for a couple of hours, I found a signboard informing me that I was still a rather steep uphill climb of 17 kilometres to reach my beloved Anpanman. And so, with much sadness and regret, I chucked a u-turn on my trusty steed and headed back to the main town of Furano. Anpanman will however always remain in my heart. Cheers to Anpanman.

My next destination was to be the Furano Cheese Factory, and surprisingly, I located this place without getting lost even a little bit. After patting myself on the back for a job well done, I ventured into the Cheese factory for a look around. The building houses a Pizza Factory and a Milk-Ice (ice cream? I think its the same thing) Factory, in addition to the cheese. Sadly the term “factory” may be a little misleading, as all 3 locations were basically just shops/eateries selling the local produce (pretty much like the Cheese Factory in Margaret River, West Australia, I hear some of you say).

I decided to visit the Pizza factory for lunch, where I was mildly alarmed to see a ticket machine ordering system with not a speck of English to be found. After observing the locals and identifying the most common buttons that were being pressed, I took a leap of faith and ended up with my ticket to lunch, the contents not quite clear at the time but it all looked and smelled pretty good all the same. With great relief I received and consumed my piece of Margarita pizza and a glass of fresh Furano grape juice, and migrated next door to the Milk-Ice factory, where I discovered such fascinating flavours as Cheese, Asparagus, and Corn ice-cream. After recovering from my disappointment over the Asparagus ice-cream being unavailable, I sampled the Grape and Cheese flavours. Both were very nice, and the cheese flavour did not taste like cheese, you'll all be relieved to know.

After lunch I took the scenic route back to the bike shop where I spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting to Kei and checking emails.

The next morning I hopped on my trusty steed of a bicycle, and headed straight back to my now most favourite distributor of hot coffee in whole wide world, Furano Cafe.

After feeling sufficiently awake to embrace the day, I followed my ears to the source of a rhythmic drumming sound, and had the good fortune to stumble across the Furano Autumn festival, displaying local produce, live music and all round good times. I positioned myself near the main stage and people watched for most of the afternoon.

Once things were winding down, before heading back to home base I stopped in the local “100 Yen shop” (pretty much like our 2 dollar shops) where I discovered such fabulous items as the banana lunch box, table and chair socks, and a t-shirt with such appalling English I just had to take a photo to share the horror.

It was starting to get a little nippy (seriously, it was so cold I thought it might even snow), so I headed back to return the bike.

And so my adventures in Furano were coming to a close, as the next day I was to journey to Sapporo in the early morning. I will absolutely be coming back to Furano, hopefully very soon, maybe for this coming ski season?!?

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