Day 5 PM : Sounkyo Onsen

Fifth and final stop of the day – Sounkyo Onsen
Sounkyo Onsen is a hot spring resort nestled in the Soun Gorge (meaning Cloudy Gorge) of the Daisetsuzan National Park and is an excellent base for starting / ending treks through the national park. Here, you can feel the cool mountain air and see steam rising from the vents in the streets.

You can catch a glimpse of Ishikari River meandering across the mountain.

Looking out on the steep, green cliff walls of the mountain.

And it's time for dinner! The restaurant of our onsen offers fresh local food in Japanese, Western and Chinese style and it's buffet. Gotta have tons of sashimi, crabs, teppanyaki, etc!

Our dinner.

Salmon sashimi boat. Fresh and delicious! Another boat for takeaway please?

View of our room before we went down for dinner...

...and the beds were ready when we returned to room after dinner. Wow, super efficient.

Fireworks in Japanese means “Flowery Fire” and is a typical summer scene in Japan. We were lucky to encounter a fireworks festival that night... Yeah! We wore our yukata and gathered at a very good vantage point with unobstructed view of fireworks exploding before us and raining down on our heads. What a spectacular display of fireworks!

Fireworks raining down on us! Love this willow branch-like effect.

Day 5 PM : Ice Pavilion

Fourth stop of the day - Ice Pavilion
This is the first museum in the world to provide the chilling experience of Hokkaido through a whole year! Even when it's the height of summer and 30 degrees out there, you can go inside and experience a world of -41 degrees... and be surrounded by blocks and pillars of ice and marvelled at the beauty and wonders of ice.

Right: Entrance of Ice Pavilion. Lotsa cute snowmen welcome you.
Bottom Left: AG hibernating with a bear.
Top Left: AH posing with a gigantic snowman.

Before we entered the museum, the tour guide instructed us to prepare for an experiment that we should do when we were inside the -20 degrees room. First, paint cartoon character on special paper; next, fold the paper into half; and after that, place one half against a heater and viola, the colors on that half disappeared.

Apparently, this special paper reacts to temperature. If it's hot, colors will disappear and if it's cold, colors will reappear. We were told that once we were inside the -20C room, the colors will reappear. So exciting.

Special papers for our experiment.

You definitely need to wear a winter coat! Gloves are provided as well.

Ready to experience -20 degrees? Here we go!

Ice Pavilion is kept at a constant temperature of -20 degrees.
Here, you can walk through the ice tunnel...

... and marvel at the jagged rings of icicles hanging down from its frozen roof.
We were told that many of them took over ten years to form; wow!

Cute snowmen joined in the fun.
We should be given a chance to make a snowman; that would be very fun.. hahaha..
But then again, it's freezing cold and we shouldn't linger for too long!! Brrrr!

A hot air blower is available to warm your glasses which will definitely fog up once you come out from the room.

For the brave ones, you can challenge yourself by entering the coldest room (-40 degrees) naked! hahaha... Just check out the challengers. Amazing!

Day 5 PM : Sunflowers

Bonus stop of the day - Sunflowers
We boarded the tour bus for our next destination and 2 mins into our journey, the tour guide spotted a sunflower field and asked if we would like to 'visit' it to do some photo taking. Yesh, yesh, yesh!! Sunflowers are only available in middle of August and we were lucky to find them so early in August (re: today = 30 Jul 2011).

PS: Only the young people were excited; there were this weird family who preferred to stay in tour bus to sleep and do minimal photo taking, shopping, sightseeing, etc *roll my eyes* Expensive 'lodging'!... tour package wasn't exactly cheap lor.

Field filled with metre-high sunflowers. So beautiful!

Ken and Mary Tree in the background. This sunflower field was really close by.

The sunflowers were as big or bigger than our faces, hahaha...

Day 5 PM : Ken and Mary Tree

It's lunch time... We had a very average buffet lunch at a 'tour bus stopover' restaurant.
Food was really really average =(

Interior view of restaurant.
There were fried pumpkin fries, spaghetti, grilled chicken, baked beans, corns, etc...

Cute Hello Kitty dolls at the entrance of the restaurant.

More Hello Kitty souvenir for sale!

Third stop of the day - Ken and Mary Tree
This giant 80-year old poplar tree stands in the middle of a mustard field. Selected as the location for an automobile maker's commercial, the "Ken and Mary" tree came to be known as such from the names of the characters in the commercial. The sight of this tree valiantly rising towards the sky has made it a regular stop popular to visitors touring the hills.

Ken and Mary Tree - the most famous poplar tree in Biei town.

There is hotel called Pension Ken and Mary nearby too.

Day 5 AM : Farm Tomita

Second stop of the day – Farm Tomita
Furano is famous for the spectacular lavender fields that transform the surrounding countryside into vibrant hues of purple. Lavender is not indigenous to Hokkaido, but due to the cool continental climate, it has found its home here.

Lavender was originally a cash crop, grown for its oil which has many therapeutic and cosmetic uses. In the late 1960s, the demand for lavender oil dried up and many of the lavender farms went out of business. In the face of great economic difficulty, Tomita persevered and tended his fields as the other farms slowly disappeared. By 1973, Farm Tomita was the only lavender farm to remain in the Furano area.

Tomita’s perseverance would be rewarded when a freelance photographer submitted a photo of the breathtaking lavender fields to the Japan Rail Calendar in 1976. This created a sudden boom of tourists from mainland Japan, revitalized the local economy and sparked central Hokkaido’s tourist industry. Today, Farm Tomita has expanded to a year-round flower park featuring hundreds of varieties of live and dry flowers in indoor and outdoor gardens.

Map of Farm Tomita. Farm is really huge!!

Hanibito field with its California poppies, Clovenlip toadflax, marigolds and other flowers welcomes visitors.

Panoramic view of Hanibito field.

Hanibito house in the background and this is where you can take a break or grab a light snack at the cafe or buy souvenirs at the gift shop.

Farm Tomita is free to enter and you can wander around at your own pace.

Irodori field (aka Rainbow field) is the most popular site of the farm.

Starting with the purple of lavender, seven colors of different flowers paint a rainbow on this gentle hill.

AG even managed to capture a dragonfly resting on a stalk of lavender using my DSLR camera.
I'm really impressed!

Freshly cut lavender stalks are available for you to buy home too.

In Autumn field, you can enjoy the many colors of Sage, Cosmos and the bright pink of the Cleome.

Sea of lavender. Soooo beautiful!

In Sakiwai field, you can see four different types of lavender here: Okamurasaki, Yotei, Hanamoiwa, and the dark purple Noushihayazaki.

Lavender flavoured soft-serve ice cream bought from the cafe. 200 Yen. Pretty yummy.