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Furano is a medium-sized city that seemed to center around agriculture; all around it is farmland, and Biei to the north of it is even smaller and more rural. It was a beautiful area; I came to Hokkaido hoping to see Japanese farmland, and in Furano and Biei I found it in all its glory. The mountains of Daisetsuzan National Park to the east make a beautiful backdrop to the rolling hills and valleys of the farm country, and there seem to be many photographers who make their living photographing the area, like Yosemite Valley in the U.S. This first photo is of a sign in an "ice cream factory" where one could get freshly made ice cream in various novel flavors; today's selections are milk, cheese, squash, corn, spinach, grape and asparagus. We tried the spinach and the squash, and were pleasantly surprised; the spinach was a lot like green tea ice cream (yummy), and the squash was a lot like pumpkin ice cream (one of my favorites). We were not brave enough to try the asparagus, however.  These next photos are from a hike we took in Daisetsuzan. The trail was just this side of non-existent, and we got confused about the route and ended up going much further than we meant to (on one bottle of water and one apple), and were rather lucky to escape unscathed, all in all. But there were beautiful sights along the way; as unpleasant as it was, it was also one of the most scenic hikes we took, I think. Partway through we met up with a fellow named Segawa who helped us get back out; we were rather lucky to meet him, and he's the only person we saw all day. He's in one of the photos below.           Now we're just wandering around outside Furano. The scene with the tractor was one of the prettiest sights we had the whole trip; the photo is a bit washed out, unfortunately.   Outside Furano, up in the hills, we stumbled at random upon this next thing: an anpanman museum! Anpanman, for those not in the know, is a Japanese superhero character whose head is made of dough filled with red bean paste. He battles evil bacteria that want to destroy the planet, and slices chunks off of his head to feed those who are hungry. All in all, very odd, very Japanese, and very marketable. The marketing momentum behind anpanman in Japan is second only to Hello Kitty; the shop behind Keewi is much larger than it appears to be, and is chock full of every imaginable anpanman accessory (except, of course, extra-large t-shirts; in all the tourist shops of Japan, we only found one place — one — that sold extra-large t-shirts).  More sightseeing around Furano. The street intersection pictured is hard to make out at the reduced size; what is interesting is that the red light is lit, a green arrow pointing ahead and a green arrow pointing left are both lit as well, and it is not possible to turn right as there is no street there to turn onto. The meaning of this configuration of lights never became clear. As for the strange Jim Crow-style black figure in the garden, we saw this sort of thing everywhere (even hanging from people's cell phones); the Japanese appear to have a fascination with blackface, minstrels, and so forth, without any racist intent as far as we could tell.                   Now we are in Asahikawa, in order to gain a different angle of attack for our day trips to Daisetsuzan. These two are taken in a sort of walk-through freezer at a "snow museum" in Asahikawa, where they grow icicles and all sorts of other odd shapes of natural ice formation.   Funny things in Asahikawa.   We took a cable car to near the summit of Asahidake, the tallest mountain in Daisetsuzan. The panoramic views were amazing, as were the steaming volcanic vents, lakes of snowmelt, and delicate alpine flowers. The last photos here are taken at the foot of the cable car, at a much lower elevation.             Seen on the way to Sounkyo.  Part 10: Sounkyo |
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