Hokkaido
Furano and Biei
Striped flower fields in summer, a pond the colour of antifreeze in autumn, and a drive between them that is most of the point. What is in bloom when, and why you need a car.
Two hours north-east of Sapporo, the land stops being forest and becomes farmland: long, low hills planted in stripes, with the Daisetsuzan range on the horizon. Furano and Biei are the two towns in the middle of it, and between June and September their fields are the most photographed agricultural land in Japan.
Come outside those months and it is quieter, emptier and in some ways better — the pond that everyone photographs is at its best when the flowers have gone.
At a glance
- Getting there
- About 2 hours by car from Sapporo, or train to Asahikawa then hire a car
- Lavender
- Early July to early August. The rest of the fields run June to September
- The blue pond
- All year. Best in late autumn and when frozen in winter
- Getting around
- A car. The sights are spread over 30km of farm roads
- Quietest hours
- Before nine. The coach tours arrive from about ten
The fields are a working farm, not a park
The famous striped fields belong to farms that sell flowers, melons and potatoes. Paths are marked, and the verges between them are crops. Standing in the flowers for a photograph is the one thing that will get you shouted at in an otherwise unfailingly polite part of the country.
Lavender is a two-week event
If lavender is the reason you are going, go in the second or third week of July and accept the crowds. A fortnight either side and the fields are green — still pleasant, not what you came for. The other flowers run far longer, which is why August works better for most people.
The blue pond
The pond is a flooded hollow created by a landslide barrier, and the colour is a mineral effect — paler and greener in flat light, deep blue in sun. It is twenty minutes from the fields, it is free, and it takes about half an hour to see properly.
Go early. By eleven the boardwalk is three deep, and the surface is rarely still after the wind gets up.
The drive is the point
This is the part of Japan where hiring a car makes the most sense. The roads are straight, empty and well signed, the parking is free, and the distances between the good things are exactly far enough to make buses painful.
If you do not drive, the day tours from Sapporo cover the three headline places and solve the problem — but they arrive when everyone else does.
When to come
| Month | What is happening |
|---|---|
| June | Fields planted and greening, few visitors |
| July | Lavender, at its peak mid-month. Busiest weeks of the year |
| August | The full colour of the striped fields, warm and dry |
| September | Last of the flowers, first of the autumn colour |
| Late October | Bare fields, best light, the pond at its best |
| Winter | Snow, frozen pond, lit at night. A different trip entirely |