To Biei
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 20 Oct 2017 22:57
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A Visit to the Small Town of Biei
  We boarded a little push-me-pull-you and rode for about forty minutes.
Bear loving it.
  The rail runs down the centre of
a fertile plain –
mountains each side. Bear pointing to where we
are.
  I loved one of the
posters in the station and found where we were on the map.
    We stood and watched a loop of the
photo gallery in the station – hard to picture this
sunny place being covered in snow. This whole area is famous for growing
lavender, expected uses include oil, pillows, scent but we haven’t tried it as
the main ingredient in the local ice cream, the colour alone is just plain
weird.
   First, the serious business of collecting a stamp in our book before heading out of the
station to admire the clock opposite. Many lamp posts
told us we were indeed in a pretty place.
Biei is a small town
(population 10,374 in 2016) located in Kamikawa
Subprefecture, Hokkaido.
The town is famous for its views of
wide fields and hills, and is used as a backdrop for many Japanese commercials
and TV programmes. The bright colours of its fields attract thousands of
visitors in July and August.
   Every Post Office we have seen so far
has the English below. A tree that had just lost it’s leaves made for a lovely golden carpet below.
  We saw some very
square houses, every single one with a snow shovel in the porch, then
our first acer.
   A shrine
complete with bell and traditionally shaped plantings.
 A water
feature next to the Town
Office.
 A lovely
garden.
  We bimble away from the town dressed in autumn colours and follow the river.
 A wooden
farmhouse.
 We get to the edge
of the lavender fields as the mist spoils our mountain
view.
 Snow covered Mount Tokachi, the next
mountain on the right is Mount Furano.
   We
head back into town and enjoy the last of summer
colours.
   We
have our first experience of getting a hot and a cold
drink from the same machine and settle to drink........
    ..........with
a delicious éclair each.
 We
pop into the 7-Eleven for pot noodle supper – not ready for
anything hot from the counter – especially the frilly
flip-flop.
 We
wend our way back to Furano finding Red Bear exactly
where we left him.
ALL IN ALL A BEAUTIFUL BACKDROP OF SCENERY INTERESTING AND A PRETTY LITTLE TOWN |