Tuesday, June 27, 2006
So, we reached Biei after nearly an hour but unfortunately the two girls did not alight (they were probably headed to Furano). There goes our chance of getting to know more people. :P Heh... I wonder whether they will chance upon this blog and then go "Hey... it's us!". Lol...
Alighted at Biei and since I had no idea where our car rental is located, we had to ask at the local tourist center just around the corner from the station. Shit... it was like a 10 mins walk away. Believe me, at this point our luggage was accumulating and my notebook + tripod didn't help matters. Found the car rental at last. It was called Atomu (atom in english) and we got this Mr Bean car. A Daihatsu 600cc lamb. Later we would find that this thing was severely underpowered and a lorry can actually overtake us while I was flooring the accelerator to the maximum! The top speed is like 100km/h and it cant go any faster than that anymore!
And it was like more expensive than the 1.3L we had in Abashiri. Oh well, no choice. Maybe next time should rent car at Furano instead. Got more choices there. Anyway, we headed towards our accomodation for the night first. A pension (haha...) called Tomte Rum. Surprisingly it was much nearer to Biei town area than the map suggests. Pretty good. Wow... really impressed when we reach the place. We couldn't check in yet, since it was just around 3pm. So we just obtained the dinner time (6.30pm) and started our journey to Furano since it was really late by now.
View of Biei.
The ride to Furano took about 40 mins. Along the way we passed through melon farms, flower gardens and lots of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Basically the whole Biei-Furano region is located on the plains with mountains in the near distance.
Reached Furano eventually, and decided to go to the wine factory first. Boy, we realized that the roads in Furano were much more complicated than I first imagined. Our map wasn't too useful as there were really too many roads to navigate. It didn't help too that our car did not have a GPS map console which our earlier car had! Somehow by a stroke of luck, I managed to get on the correct road after a while.
The wine factory was pretty deserted, only 1-2 cars in the parking area. This is definitely the non-peak season. There was nothing much inside though, just a cellar and some machines. We did see some bottles of wine labelled to be matured on 2050 or something though, which was kinda interesting. Went up to the top floor which was the tasting/gift shop. Tried some of the wines by ourselves and the lavender fragrance in the wines was indeed refreshing. Couldn't drink much though coz I was driving. :P
Furano Wine Factory. Did you realize they like to add "factory" and "museum" to everything?
We bought a coupla bottles each and tasted their red grape juice as well. Yum... indeed very rich and full-bodied. Surprisingly we spent only like 30 mins at the place? And it was here that we first see the famous lavender of Furano. Unfortunately, this being spring, we only saw bald lavenders, i.e. lavender bushes without the flowers. So, we can only imagine the beautiful violet colors in our mind.
Next stop, grape juice factory! This is pretty much like the wine factory that I believe they are from the same company. Oh we saw a vineyard too. But no grapes though. Inside we got to taste the white grape juice! I must say I like the white one better (though the red one was already very nice) because it was lighter and more refreshing. I bought a mini bottle and KS bought a big one.
After the short stop, we headed towards the cheese factory. This was really very very hard to get to, despite us stopping to ask a bypasser. Its location was very far from the town center and the lack of distinct signboards didn't help. Ultimately we reached there right before it closed. We hurried to the cream factory right beside it which was really an ice-cream parlour. I got the cheese and milk double scoop while KS got the cheese single. Seriously, to visit the attractions in Biei-Furano you really need a car. The attractions are all so far from each other!
Cheese and milk double scoop, without much cheesie taste.
Then we went to the cheese factory which was already in the midst of closing shop for the day. Had a brief look-around and bought a mini bottle of milk and a mini cheesecake each (Y210 for each item). We tried their cheese too but seemed rather tasteless to me. :P
Metal birdies outside the Cheese Factory.
A postcardy shot outside the Cheese Factory.
The surroundings of the cheese factory is really pleasant. The nice cooling weather plus the tranquil surroundings really made me wanna nuah there. But unfortunately, we had a schedule to keep. Must return to Furano by 6pm.
To be continued...
