Biei 2

Breakfast was almost European. We got scrambled eggs, cocktail sausages, salad, potato, bread roll, quarter of a grapefruit, orange juice and coffee. For spreads we had butter and honey, probably local. There was additional toast. A nice change from rice and pickles in the mornings.  But the Japanese have a strange habit of putting mayonaise on things, in this case the potato.

Yuke was heading out to Obihiro and we said goodbye. I took a short walk in the vicinity of the hostel. 

Then I rented a bike from the hostel for 4 hours, taking the scenic route recommended by the hostel last night starting from the northeast. Some of the spots are recognisable from TV commercials and Japanese seek them out to take pictures at. They have names like Parents and Child Trees, Ken and Mary Tree, and so forth.

The bicycle chain slipped off due to my inexpert handling of the gears and I got my fingers greasy fixing it. I tired easily because I had not cycled for a long time.  It didn't help that I had a mama bike, meant for grocery shopping in the city. 

I went through the centre of Biei and headed out southwest to more scenic spots. But I got attracted by a bike path along the river and forgot about the scenic spots. The gradient is sure to be gentle next to a river or canal.  I had a great time freewheeling downhill. Whee!  It reminded me of days of cycling after work in Amsterdam.

I had a bowl of udon at an outdoor stall near the station, with lots of scallions. Lunch was finished off with a chocolate soft icecream.  Unfortunately the last stretch was uphill and I was exhausted when I handed the bike in.

Femke arrived with another hosteller from Asahidake, Koichi, who had lived outside of Japan since 15. Later that evening, he expounded his theory of the Parents and Child Trees photo spot phenomenon. Japanese workers' lives are so regimented and the real world is filtered through TV so it is their fantasy to visit where the commercial was filmed to escape their working lives. Thus for the sake of the collective psyche, it is very important that those trees exist.

Biei 1

The first bus out of Asahidake was at 1110. I was the only one left, the others had come by car or had obtained lifts. So I occupied myself writing on the netbook. If only I had an Internet connection, the time would fly.

The bus back to Asahikawa was nearly empty. During the journey I felt an ineffable feeling of sadness. I tried to plumb the reason. I had no major concerns on my mind. Then it came to me. The warm, overcast day and still air reminded me of times of tedium when I was young.  Perhaps it was a visit by my family to relatives and I would be sitting in their stuffy living room, wanly answering their questions; perhaps it was a warm day in the classroom and I had finished my exercises and was idly gazing out the window. I resented my life being leached away by the slow heat. I wanted to be elsewhere, anywhere, doing anything else: reading, walking in the city, designing circuits, or even just sleeping. Life had ground to a halt and I wanted it to restart. All those futile hours coalesced into a melancholy burden of memory.

At Asahikawa station I had a good shoyō (soy sauce) ramen in the station eatery. Shoyō is the local style.  With 30 minutes before the train to Furano I did a round of the city mall. Asahikawa seemed to be in a better shape than Hakodate. On impulse I popped into the Terminal Hotel to check if they had my reservation as I had not read email since sending it off. They couldn't find my communcation and eventually said I could make a reservation on the spot, which I did.

The train to Furano had only two carriages. At Biei, one carriage was disconnected and all the passengers continuing were moved into the remaining carriage. The summer rush was over. The line is single track most of the way with duplication at stations and for certain stretches.  We passed the Norikko tourist service at Biei heading back.


At Furano I peeked into the tourist office and found an Internet terminal there. A couple of hostels had replied in the affirmative. Then a reply from the Terminal Hotel which predated my visit in person, saying they had no room. What was the story? Did a room become available after that reply?  Did someone at the service centre take the easy way out and wrote back saying no room?  Who knows? I was lucky that I checked in person.

On the other side of the street I had a nice lavender soft icecream.  But I had visions of eating hair cream since lavender scent is commonly used for those.

Then I took the Norikko back to Biei. The seats on the eastern side of the train faced the windows. But no fields of flowers now, that was a couple of months back. The landscape looks like continental Europe or even US and is exotic to Japanese who are not used to seeing a wide horizon without mountains. At Biei I and another hosteller were picked up by an assistant from the hostel.


Dinner was the best meal I had so far in Hokkaido. The owner had been a chef.  He tries to use local ingredients. The coffee was not so strong as to keep us awake.