This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from a WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

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In the morning, we happily had another big meal of seafood rice and melon, then packed up and headed to Biei. Our first stop was Hokuseiyama. The weather finally cleared up that day, and it was not nearly as muggy anymore. On my third visit to Hokuseiyama, I finally got to ride the cable car. On the way up, my kid absolutely refused to take the cable car, so my husband had to hike all the way up with the child, while I took the cable car by myself.

I waved hello to the father and son from the cable car.

The father and son were hiking up at almost the same speed as the cable car, and we reached the summit nearly at the same time. The views from the top were wonderful, and the feeling was completely different from looking at the flowers from below.

At the top, there was a hay bale you could stand on for photos.

After we got to the top, my kid said they wanted to take the cable car down. I tried talking with the staff, and they said they had never run into a situation where someone hiked up instead of taking the cable car, but then wanted to ride it down. They also said the one-way and round-trip prices were the same. After I kept politely pressing the issue for a while, they finally agreed to give us a discount.

After coming down, my kid said they still had not had enough of the cable car and wanted to ride up again... We immediately said no.

Next, we drove to our next stop: Roller Coaster Road.

On the way, we came across a Guanyin statue (I think it was Guanyin?).

If we had not seen a group of people taking photos, it really would have been hard to tell this was a scenic spot. The movie If You Are the One filmed a scene here. I had almost completely forgotten about it, and only vaguely remembered that part after my dad reminded me.

Cars were driving on both sides of the road, and several groups of people were taking photos. We stopped briefly, took a couple of pictures, and left.

Although the day’s itinerary was packed, everything was along a convenient route, and the spots were not too far from each other, so this also ended up being the most photo-heavy day of the trip.

Our next stop was Shikisai-no-Oka.

At the entrance there was a farm shop selling Hokkaido specialty produce, and everything looked very fresh. The corn was even advertised as being good to eat raw.

This was also a farm, but here they had tractor-pulled wagons to take visitors around to see the flowers. Compared with Farm Tomita, it was much more friendly for people like us who do not love walking, and there were also far fewer people than at Farm Tomita.

The wagon made a few stops along the way so everyone could get off and take pictures.

There was also a very tiny alpaca farm inside that required a separate ticket, so we bought a combo ticket with the wagon ride. It was really very small—just one row of alpacas—and the smell was fairly strong. You could buy leafy greens at the entrance to feed them.

This alpaca farm is fine as a quick stop if you’re already passing by, but it’s also totally skippable. Alpacas feel pretty common in the U.S. anyway. I only bought one serving of leafy greens, and the staff showed us how to tear the leaves into small pieces, which ended up lasting quite a while.

On the way out, we passed another entrance to Shikisai no Oka. If you’re short on time, just pulling over to admire the roadside scenery for free is honestly not a bad option.

The view outside the window perfectly matched the phrase “Hokkaido summer.”

Our next stop was Chiyoda Farm, which has lots of activities for kids. The restaurant here is fairly serious by farm standards, with meals like wagyu steak. If you want to eat here, I’d recommend lining up as soon as you enter the farm. We foolishly assumed there wouldn’t be a wait, but after we finished everything and finally went to ask, we found out the wait was about an hour. We were stunned.

My husband took our kid to line up for milk while I went to ask about the activities. The farm itself isn’t big, but you do have to go to the little building in the middle to sign up. I registered our kid for three activities: bottle-feeding lambs, milking a cow, and making ice cream.

The milk here was really good, kind of similar to the milk in Xinjiang. The first time my husband lined up, it was already sold out. Then after we finished the milking activity and came back out, somehow it was available again not long later. Inventory at little Hokkaido shops always feels like a mystery.

Right after I signed up, a staff member immediately wanted to take me to feed the lambs. I had to explain that my child was still at the entrance waiting in line to buy something, so I rushed back to get them. As for this feeding activity... it oddly reminded me of those bottle-feeding goldfish activities at parks in China.

The milking activity started at 1 p.m. We arrived 10 minutes early and were first in line. The barn smelled pretty strong and there were lots of bugs, but our kid was extremely excited. When it was time, a staff member went into the barn and led out a dairy cow. Our kid got to go first. Watching that scene brought back memories of my breastfeeding days...

There were also a few other small animals around the farm that you could feed. You just put in your money and take the feed yourself, basically on the honor system.

Next, we went back to the little classroom near the entrance to make ice cream. The Japanese lady had already prepared all the ingredients, so our kid just had to do the stirring. Honestly, the process was pretty boring, and you had to stir hard for a long time, so I wouldn’t especially recommend this activity. The good news is that the finished ice cream tasted quite good.

While waiting, we bought an ice cream from the shop next door, but it still couldn’t beat the one from the cheese factory.

We were hungry and wanted to eat at the restaurant, only to be told the wait was 1 hour. So we went back to the shop and bought a few things to eat instead—grilled meat and some other items I don’t really remember. Everything tasted decent enough and definitely did the job. Since it was still fairly early, after talking it over with my husband, we made a last-minute decision to go to Blue Pond, which had originally been optional. It worked out well since our kid could nap in the car on the way.

From here on, it was all classic Biei scenery. If Furano is mainly about flowers, then Biei is mainly about fields. Even ordinary rural farmland looks extra photogenic with Japanese perfectionism at work.

My husband said that red building in the distance reminded him of an eye exam machine.

I absolutely loved those giant rolled hay bales!

So beautiful!

The clouds were gorgeous too!

It was such a long day, and we finally made it to Blue Pond. Even though everyone says Blue Pond is not as impressive in summer as it is in winter, we still thought it was well worth the trip—especially since the weather was pretty good. Apparently if it has just rained, don’t come, or it’ll just look like a muddy pit.

I’m not sure whether the compressed images will still show the reflection clearly, but the reflection was absolutely stunning.

But don’t be fooled by how empty my photos look—we really had to squeeze in to get these shots. Blue Pond is also a very popular attraction. Other than Farm Tomita, this was probably the place with the most tour buses. There was even a bit of traffic getting out of the parking lot.

Once you walk the loop inside, you come out without needing to retrace your steps. On the way out, we passed the gift shop, but it was absolutely packed, so we skipped joining the crowd. We only looked at the Blue Pond limited-edition snacks by the entrance. Give me some blue food coloring and I could make that too.

About 3 minutes farther in from Blue Pond is Shirahige Falls, so it’s easy to stop by on the way—definitely worth a look if you’re passing through.

The view is from this bridge, and you can park in the lot across the road.

Next we arrived at Zerubu Hill, which is known for its large sunflower fields. You can also ride a cart here, but we got there fairly late and the larger carts were already gone, so we rented a small one instead. The rental process also involved getting a ticket from a machine. We had already used up all our small bills and coins, so we had to go into the gift shop to make change.

The weather wasn’t great—the sky was gloomy, and it even started raining before we left.

Only the small carts are allowed on some sections, but this stretch was still well worth driving.

Besides the sunflowers, the flower fields were beautiful too.

After the ride, my kid said they didn’t want to browse the gift shop, so I went by myself. I wrapped things up with a fridge magnet and a melon slushie. The melon flavor in the slushie was very strong. Looking at the categories on the shop’s ticket machine, there were quite a few food options, but unfortunately many of them were already sold out.

A lot of people choose to explore Biei by bike. There are quite a few bicycle rental shops around town. Since we weren’t sure we had the stamina for that, we decided to sightsee by car instead. You can pick up a cycling map at Biei’s “Shiki Joho Station.” There are two famous local routes: Patchwork Road and Panorama Road (also called the Wide-Angle Road). Many of the places we had visited earlier were actually along Panorama Road. Patchwork Road itself doesn’t have many specific attractions; the main appeal is the farmland, along with the trees scattered across it. Some of the better-known ones include Parent and Child Tree, Seven Stars Tree, and Ken & Mary Tree. The trees themselves may not seem especially remarkable, but standing alone in the vast fields, they carry a kind of striking, solitary beauty that makes them feel special.

More hay bales. Since I’m especially fond of them, I ended up taking quite a few photos.

After making a big loop along the Patchwork Road, stopping here and there and snapping photos along the way, we finally returned to the town of Biei.

There aren’t many lodging options in Biei. The best one is probably Mori no Ryotei near Blue Pond. But when I started planning the trip a few months in advance, it was already fully booked. The other nearby hotels also looked rather basic, so I turned to guesthouses instead. I contacted several places, but they were either sold out, did not accept children, or only allowed 2 guests.

There was also a small episode here. One guesthouse called warakutei told me during booking that they could not accommodate children under 12, so we could not reserve it. I therefore did not reply to that email again. Then, the day before we arrived in Biei, that guesthouse suddenly sent a confirmation email saying that we had a reservation for the next day. I wrote back: didn’t you say earlier that we couldn’t book? They replied that now we could, and that we were welcome to bring our child, but they could only prepare meals for the adults, so we would need to bring food for the child ourselves.

Honestly, it was pretty ridiculous. Out of politeness, I still replied and said sorry, but we had already booked somewhere else.

In the end, we booked Biei Shiki. Reservations could be made by email, and they responded quickly. However, this place accepted cash only, not credit cards, so you need to prepare cash in advance. The property is near a park on the outskirts of Biei, and it’s a little wood cabin with a forest aesthetic.

There were several small cabins, and we stayed in one of them. The entrance was a bit confusing. We opened the door to the outermost unit and found that it was unlocked, with another guest sitting inside and staring at us in surprise…

After we knocked on another door, the male host brought us to our room.

The house was at the end of a dead-end road, so it was very quiet.

Inside, there were facilities like a microwave and a sink. Our room type was not especially ideal, but our kid liked it a lot. The bedroom was a small loft on the second floor, and the windows had no curtains, which basically meant early to bed and early to rise. You had to climb a ladder to get upstairs, which made things like going to the bathroom quite inconvenient. Also, only the second floor had air conditioning. Because of the loft design, both my teammate and I each bumped our heads once. On top of that, even though there were 3 of us, the room came with only 2 mattresses. The wooden floor was also rather slippery, so the two mattresses easily slid apart. By the middle of the night, my teammate, who slept in the middle, was basically surviving in the crack between them.

Dinner and breakfast were both served at fixed times, with no choice of schedule. Dinner and checkout both took place in the room farther inside on the right. Dinner appeared to be home-style cooking prepared by the hostess and her daughter. Even though it was home-style food, it was very thoughtfully made. There were only three guest units in total here, and the other party had booked two of them, so there were only two families dining in the restaurant that evening. It was so quiet you could practically hear a pin drop.

Dinner was not exactly a lavish feast, but for home-style cooking, it was pleasantly solid with no major misses. Every dish was pretty good; the only downsides were the small portions and the slow pacing of service.

After dinner, there really was not much to do in the silent countryside, so we washed up and went straight to bed. Sure enough, exactly what I had worried about happened in the middle of the night: when I had to get up to use the bathroom, I had to climb down the ladder in the dark, which instantly reminded me of those college dorm setups with the bed above and the desk below.

The house was right next to the woods, and in the morning you could even spot small animals. On the plus side, there were no mosquitoes or bugs in the room, which definitely deserves praise. We set an alarm to get up for breakfast. Breakfast was also a traditional Japanese breakfast, and like dinner, it was perfectly decent and straightforward.

Our child’s breakfast was pretty similar too.

The photos my teammate took really had that Japanese TV drama vibe.

Staying at a guesthouse is always a unique experience. Aside from the few complaints mentioned above, we were fairly satisfied with this place overall, and it offered pretty good value for the price. That said, the other two rooms seemed better suited for families. If there is a next time, I would probably still rather stay at Mori no Ryotei.

We had already covered all the sights we wanted to see in Biei, so after breakfast we packed up and headed back to Sapporo. See you in the next installment.

2023 Japan Trip Series

This series covers the author’s trip in Japan after returning to China for a visit and before flying back to the U.S.

  • Hokkaido Summer | Furano & Biei | Blue Pond, Shirahige Falls, Hokuseiyama, Shikisai no Oka, Chiyoda Farm, Zerubu Hill, Roller Coaster Road, Patchwork Road, Shiki Minshuku
  • Hokkaido Summer | Sapporo | Shiroi Koibito Park, Japanese Teppanyaki, Sapporo Hotel Letdown
  • Hokkaido Summer | Sapporo | Shopping Day, an Impressively Orderly Fireworks Festival, Hokkaido Local Cuisine
  • Hokkaido Summer | HND-SEA Award Ticket | Delta One Suite Business Class Lie-Flat Flight Experience and Rebooking Story

    • About the Author

    This article is reprinted from the WeChat public account “懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐,” run by a reader from our WeChat group. All articles are original and well worth reading. If you're interested, feel free to follow it.