Day 5. Biei 美瑛

The rental car I reserved for the day was supposed to be picked up at Furano at 11 AM. Since I took my time to get up and enjoyed one more round of onsen before breakfast, when I arrived at Biei station it was already 11 AM. The next train to Furano wouldn't come for another 2 hours. Welcome to the countryside!

Fortunately, before I had to beg for forgiveness for my undisciplined behavior to the well trained people of this country with great order, (remember Sapporo?) the staff and her manager took the matter in their hands, called up Furano for me and got the pickup location changed to Biei.

Although Furano was more famous, the Hokkaido that most people have in their mind is actually in Biei. Well it is true that Biei has huge plots of land that are cultivated with different kinds of flowers and crops, but the same thing can be said about other places in Hokkaido. What is so special about Biei is, instead of plain open fields, the area is covered with small hills. This creates many viewing points from where the place looks like a colorful patch work created by the nature.

What is even more interesting is, along the horizon of this huge canvas, once a while you will see one or two trees standing out by it/themselves. This scene is widely used in Japanese TV commercials, and the trees even have names such as "Ken & Mary's Tree", "Mild Seven's tree", etc.

The story with "Ken & Mary's tree" goes like this: in the 70's where Japan was catching up with the Western industrial countries, Nissan's Skylines series of sports car was the first car so well designed that it was actually superior than its western counterparts. For this reason Nissan launched a very successful advertising campaign using a Caucasian couple, Ken and Mary, to create a modern and romantic image for the Skyliner. The unique looking tree and its surrounding area was used as the backdrop for the Ken and Mary drama.

I spent my whole day driving up and down the little hills, stopping here and there to take pictures of this beautiful place.

I guess because of its natural beauty, the Biei city itself is also very cute and tasteful. In the City Tourist Information center I found quite a few interesting pieces of ceramic and dry flowers.

The author of one of the ceramic pieces actually moved all the way from New York to live Biei. He built his own kiln "Enzo Kama 炎創窯", and a gallery housing a permanent collections of cups made by artist from various countries. Because of the kind of material that he uses, his style is Japanese-like, but yet it carries a distinctive characteristic that is not Japanese. Very interesting indeed.

I was very tempted to buy a set of 5 cups which only costs 10,000 yen. But I have a principle of not collecting anything, because I value the freedom to move, and believe spiritual abundance is more important than material possession. Anyway I am glad not everybody is like me, otherwise there will be no one to patronize the artists.

By the way, you can find out more about Enzo kama at http://www.eolas.co.jp/enzo/, browse their online catalog and even place orders.

Tokachidake 十勝嶽

I chose the Tokachidake onsen area for tonight's lodge. Compared to Shirogane onsen where I stayed the night before, Tokachidake has fewer hotels and access was quite difficult. Rather than a holiday resort, this area is more like a rest point for mountain hikers.

Among the several choices, I would highly recommend the state run Hakugin-sou 白銀荘, because for a mere 2,600 yen, you get a decent stay (most of the time in bunk beds with 24 other people but if you are lucky you can get one of the two private rooms for the same price), a huge and well facilitated kitchen (no meal provided, you have to buy from either Furano or Biei), and most important of all, 12 different open-air onsens (4 men only, 4 women only and 4 mixed)!

Right next to the lodge is a camping ground. Very clean and flat, with green grasses. Campers can pay a daily fee to use the onsens I mentioned above, but not the kitchen (why, what is the big deal????).

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