TacoCat’s Travels #172 (Japan 9.0 - Hokkaido): Journeying Up the Greenest Hills🌄

Hey Hive!

So if you missed the last couple of posts, we started recounting our final journey to Japan back in July 2019 when we decided to explore a new region and see Hokkaido in summer (since everywhere else in Japan is really hot during that period)!

Sorry for missing last week's post but we were actually on vacation (for once)! We took a short trip to Penang and It's been 3 years since I last flew so I just wanted to enjoy it. But we're back to usual posting schedule for now!

Anyway last time, we spent the day exploring more of Sapporo, checked out the huge mall at the station and went up the tallest building there - the JR Tower Observation Deck called T38, where we enjoyed the view of Sapporo and some pretty mediocre cake.

6 July 2019. Saturday.

We had something very special planned for today and we needed to be up really early for it so we were actually up and about at 7am for once!

We actually got to see what the early morning was like in Sapporo and it was actually pretty cold out since the sun was just rising still. So anywhere in the shade was pretty cool.

I tried to catch a pic of the sun peeking behind the Sapporo TV Tower but this was the best shot I could get since I couldn't really see myself.

I still think the tower kinda resembles the Eiffel Tower a little bit. Maybe they took the inspiration from the Eiffel Tower in designing this one?

Since Hokkaido boasts their local specialty melon, we wanted to go and try their melon and found out there's actually a farm you can visit that includes a melon buffet! And the farm also has a ton of flowers! I'm a huge fan of seeing flower gardens and farms so we booked a group tour of this place called Shikisai-no-oka!

Source: Live Japan

So that's where we were heading today and why we had to get up so early! We boarded this private charter bus that is included in the tour and set off at 8am!

It was going to be quite a drive so we settled in and got comfortable. Here's how far we had to travel according to Google Maps.

Thankfully the bus was comfortable and we got to enjoy some really nice natural scenery on the way too!

It was really bright out too since the morning sun was fully out by now, and we it made the green fields even more vibrant. You know when they say "green is good for your eyes"? I could feel that just looking at all these luscious fields.

By 9am, we arrived at our destination! We arrived at this little plaza of shops.

The main building had this food court that we thought was the place we were going to have lunch in.

They also had a huge souvenir shop with lots of snacks and goodies. We didn't buy anything of course since these shops tend to be really overpriced.

After we took a quick look around the store we went back out and took a nice stroll in the garden they had at the back.

There was actually a nice park just beside the shops with these benches and sheep sculptures.

There were lots of flowers and trees there too. Already we could feel the air was fresher here than in the city.

There was this lone red tree that was really pretty we had to take a picture with it!

After that we were shepherded back onto the bus yet again. I guess that was just a pit stop for those who needed to use the restroom or whom wanted to buy souvenirs.

We passed by so many huge fields it reminded me of my farm in Stardew Valley. xD

We also passed by this nice natural river in the middle of this dense forest.

But it wasn't all fields and nature because there was also a town here! I'm not sure what town this was but it didn't look like a city since the buildings were all pretty short.

This was the first instance of flowers we saw! They already looked so colourful and I was excited to see whole fields of them!

Having lived in a city my whole life just seeing all these wide expanses of fields and blue skies was just so pleasant. It looked just like a wallpaper.

There was just fields as far as the eye could see!

I felt like I could just sit here and paint the scenery; it looked so peaceful.

It would probably be very warm if we had gotten out of the bus though, not like we could actually do that since we were on a tour.

After almost 2 hours, we arrived at another little market place with a line of shops!

On the other side of the shops was this pyramid structure! I'm not sure what it's called or its significance unfortunately but it seemed like an observatory of sorts.

There was already flower plots around us along this path with flowers very neatly planted in them.

We were actually on a hill already which gave us this nice view of the growing flowers.

We headed to the upper level of the pyramid after some people cleared out.

And got to see this amazing view! Look at all the hills of fields in the background!

This was on the other side of the pyramid

There was also an information board about how this hill, called Hokusei-no-Oka Hill was created. It basically says that this hill was created from soft stones, volcanic ash and gravel that were carried from massive volcanic eruptions over a million years ago! Amazing!

The view was really spectacular! Even though the fields look really manicured and man-made, the mountains in the background were really nice too.

It wasn't a very tall pyramid, but since it was on the peak of the hill it did give us some height to see the whole valley.

There was also this beautiful cottage of sorts behind the pyramid that looked straight out of a fairy tale or something!

There was this huge field of small yellow flowers that together, looked so lovely!

They were planted so close together they looked like an actual sea of flowers!

There were also a couple of plots of lavender flowers that were growing! We could smell the light scent of lavender as we walked past them.

Here's a short video of the area! We were not too far away from the pyramid still.

Thankfully it wasn't too warm since it was around 11am and not past noon yet so the sun was still tolerable. The wind up there was also cool and fresh which was nice.

There was this rock bench that was a nice photo spot with the lavender growing in the back but I think it would've looked even nicer when they were in full bloom.

After taking a walk around the place, we headed back to the shops to check out what snacks they had and they had quite a selection of pastries and even lavender ice cream!

We didn't buy any yet since lunch was coming up soon and we wanted to save room for the buffet. But we did see this little cafe that probably had some of the freshest fruits and vegetables since it was right on the farm!

There were some other tourists there not apart of our group who went to check out the cafe.

We didn't have much time before we were asked to go back to the bus so after using the restroom real quick it was time to get back to the bus!

But I think that's going to be it for this post! There's still a lot more photos to share so stay tuned for more next week! I think this was one of the most interesting experiences we've ever had in Hokkaido so I'm really excited to share more!

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #171 (Japan 9.0 - Hokkaido): A Cloudy Panoramic View of Sapporo! 🗼

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