Hokkaido Autumn Guide: Koyo-chasing (fall foliage) in Furano, Biei, Blue Pond and Sounkyo Onsen!

This is one post of a multi-part series covering our Two weeks Tokyo & Hokkaido Travel Guide:
    ▫ Singapore Airlines Suites Class from Singapore to Tokyo
    ▫ Three Days in Tokyo: Off the Beaten Path
    ▫ Sapporo, Otaru and Cape Kamui: Scenic Self-Drive Guide
    ▫ Furano, Biei, Sounkyou and Asahikawa: Amazing Autumn Colours
    ▫ Jozankei, Noboribetsu and Hakodate: Unparalleled Beauty
    ▫ Scoot's ScootBiz Class from Tokyo to Singapore

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In our view, Hokkaido is best visited either during Winter (for skiing/snowboarding and the Sapporo Snow Festival), or during Fall/Autumn, when gorgeous hues of yellow and red lend character to the monotony of an otherwise all-green foliage. We'd heard that the mountain range & hills of the Daisetsuzan National Park are the best place to chase the autumn colours in early October, so we plot a course to one of the popular entry points: Sounkyo Onsen, with pit stops along the way at Furano and Biei.


From our starting point of Otaru, the expressway to Sapporo is a dull, boring drive. A little further into the mountains, though, and the straight road starts winding and curving around the hills. The backdrop also improves noticeably, with progressively increasing hues and tints of yellow and red; compensating somewhat for the annoying 40-50km/h speed limits.



Two-and-a-half hours later we take a first pit stop at Furano. The town, and the various surrounding farms, are hugely popular for visitors in the summertime for lavender flower fields. October is quite a bit past the peak lavender season, but there are still quite a few nice autumn flower fields around.


Before visiting the most famous of all the touristy farms around the area, Farm Tomita, we pay a visit to Tomita Melon House: A small collection of charming buildings serving up slices of juicy and impossibly sweet Hokkaido Melon, and other snacks & tid-bits like Melon Pan (with actual melon cream) and creamy, fatty Furano Milk.




We then head over to the adjoining Farm Tomita proper! Interestingly enough, access to the farm and its various flower fields is totally free. The biggest of the lavender fields are, unfortunately, out of season, but the smaller ones are full of multi-coloured autumn flowers and are beautiful in their own way.



There are a few rows of lavender flowers - purple and majestic; with a terrific backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Daisatsuzan Mountains.


The farm's primary source of income is extracting essence of lavender (and other flowers) to make perfume, which it sells in the various gift shops littered around the property. If that's not quite your cup of tea, the cafe serves up some surprisingly fragrant lavender soft serve ice cream, cream croquettes and Buttered Corn & Potato (じゃがコーンバター).


After stocking up on a few bottles of lavender perfume as gifts for family back home, we get into our car and head to Biei; stopping briefly only for a quick photo of this cheerful little sunflower field ...


... before reaching the Blue Pond. This pond shot to fame when a photo was featured as part of OSX Mountain Lion's desktop wallpaper. It normally has a very milky light blue colour, but strangely enough in our visit it was more a murky dark green.



As there's some sunlight time remaining, we head over to Biei; to explore the area north-west of town known as the Patchwork Road (パッチワークの路).


Why Biei? Well, thanks to the farms and contours of the hills, the entire area is simply amazing.


We also engaged in some Japanese-style sightseeing: Hunting down various groups of trees that are famous for various reasons. Pictured below: the Mild Seven Tree (famous for being in a cigarette commercial a long time ago), and the Parent Child Tree (famous for some other unknown reason).



Since tree-chasing after sunset is probably a bit of a waste of effort, we drive to our accommodation for the next two nights at Sounkyo Onsen: Choyo Resort Hotel.


Our Japanese-style room comes in at ¥30,350/night, and is inclusive of buffet breakfast and dinner. In the evenings, a crew goes from room to room setting up the futons - thin, Japanese-style mattresses that are great for cultural immersion but not so great for actual comfort to older backs.


The dinner can only be described as adequate; other than the free-flow ズワイガニ (snow crab) legs, the remainder of the buffet items aren't particularly delicious.

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With a full day of sightseeing done and dusted, we retire for the night. Tomorrow, we visit the rest of Sounkyo Onsen, the Kurodake Mountains, and the Asahiyama Zoo on the way back to Sapporo. Do check it out!