LAVENDER BUDS, Nakafurano (中富良野), Hokkaido (北海道), Japan, 2019.06.21

Day 7 (1/5).

Coming to Furano in summer without checking out its lavender farms is like going to Lisse in the Netherlands in spring without visiting Keukenhof Garden to see blooming tulips. Various types of lavender can be found in Furano, and each has its bloom time between late June to early August. The peak tourist season is mid July when popular lavender farms would be packed with visitors. Lavender was not our main purpose of the trip, so we didn’t plan our visit according to the peak bloom time. In fact, we came a few weeks too soon when the flower farms were much less crowded than their peak season. As expected, while most lavender plants were not yet in full bloom but the violet colour were beginning to show from the buds.

Tadao Tomita started cultivating lavender in 1958, but considering stopping in 1976 because they failed to make lavender profitable. Fortunately, a photographer came by his lavender farm, took a photo of his lavender field and published the photo in the calender of the national railway company (JR). That immediately led to a big surge of tourists flocking in to see Tomita’s lavender fields. Since then, lavender tourism had become part of Furano’s identity and never looked back. As lavender was picking up the steam, a local visitor suggested Tomita to start making potpourri and other lavender products. These lavender souvenirs and tourism itself have been able to sustain the lavender farms, while Tomita gradually expanded the farm with more tourist facilities. Since then, other lavender farms flourished in Furano after Tomita’s success. Before visiting Tomita Farm, we first checked out two smaller facilities in Nakafurano: Choei Lavender Farm and Saika no Sato Lavender Farm.

Run by the municipal government, the Choei Lavender Farm offers visitors in town the first glance of this year’s lavender.

The ski lift of Choei Lavender Farm would operate between late June to August.

Up on the slope at Choei Lavender Farm, we could see the lush-green lavender plants standing in front of the distant mountains.

A small area of Choei Lavender Farm, was dedicated to white lavender.

Too bad we couldn’t take the sky lift up the slope.

We came few weeks too earlier, as most lavender plants were far from full bloom while we were there.

Despite of that, we still enjoyed taking photos of the iconic lavender of Furano.

Choei Lavender Farm consists of rows after rows of lavender plants on the slope. During full bloom, the slope would turn violet in colour.

Just a few minutes of drive from Choei lies Saika no Sato Lavender Farm, another popular farm in Nakafurano famous for lavender fields.

At Saika no Sato Lavender Farm, we stopped by its cafe for a drink.

We ordered their signature purple heart drink: lavender ice in calpris, a Japanese soft drink that is somewhat milky and vanilla flavored.

Similar to Choei Lavender Farm, we were once again too early for the lavender fields in Saika no Sato.

Depending on the type, the lavender in Saika no Sato had a slightly deeper hue of purple than the ones we saw in Choei.

While lavender might not be at its best, we did appreciate seeing other beautiful spring flowers in Saika no Sato.

The spring flowers in Furano reminded us of springtime in Toronto, as both Hokkaido and Toronto share a similar latitude of 43 degree north, and thus we could easily draw their similarities in terms of tree and plant species.