Day 3: Furano & Everything Lavender

Lavender soft serve ice cream

On day 3 in Japan, we got to eat what we came to Hokkaido for: Lavender soft ice cream. Yuppers, you read that right. L.A.V.E.N.D.E.R. taste soft serve ice cream. Oh, allright... we came here for the lavender fields that Hokkaido is so famous for, but upon investigation I found out that Tomita Farm in Furano not only have fields of lavenders and make lavender perfumes, potpourri and what not, they have all kinds of lavender taste food too!

Where we got the ice cream from, they also have Melon soft serve ice cream. I passed tho...

Farm Tomita: Tomita sama, thank you for inventing Lavender soft serve ice cream!

Fields of poppies, lavender and other flowers I have no idea what their names are. Idyllic scene nonetheless.

Rows of poplar trees separating the flower fields

Lavender on Lavender

Sure enough it was purple in color. I had mine in cone cause it just taste better. It was a hot summer day, granted it was almost raining, but nothing and I repeat, NOTHING, can stop me from having that soft serve ice cream. It was lavender scented and made with Hokkaido milk. Two birds killed with one stone in that one there. Lavender ice cream and Hokkaido milk ice cream all in ONE cone! The lavender taste was soft and very subtle, you'd miss it entirely if you're not careful. The milk was just perfection: fresh and light. I can't really describe it with words, but trust me on this, there is just nothing like Hokkaido milk. It is so rich and soft all at the same time.

The Lunch. In total we didn't spend more than JPY 1,000 for these. Cheap and tasty. What a combo

Croquette Burger

Croquette Curry rice with fried brocolli

Where you place your order

Since it was raining soon after, or pouring rather, we decided to have lunch and waiting for the sky to clear up. I had the croquette and curry while Ginko chan opted for croquette burger. I don't know what it was, but it was simply the best curry I have ever had. It was spicy but balanced at the same time. It came with few fried broccoli too! At first I was really skeptical on how that would taste, but that old adage that 'anything fried is good' (taste wise even if it's not healthy) is so true! Combined with the curry, best thing ever! The croquette was crispy on the outside and soft as fluff on the inside and combined with the curry, all my worries about the dent that my travel was going to put on my bank account was all gone. Actually it was gone the moment I had the lavender ice cream. But if there was any doubt after that, this erased it.

The dynamic duo: Strawberry juice with Hokkaido milk and Lavender Calpis

Up close and personal with strawberry juice and Hokkaido milk. Can you see the milk? Yummilicious!

After seeing so many people getting the Lavender calpis drink and the strawberry juice with Hokkaido milk, we caved and ordered one of each. I have to say I hogged the strawberry juice with Hokkaido milk. I'm obsessed with Hokkaido milk if you haven't figured that out yet by reading this post so far. The calpis smelled of Lavender as the name tells you. It was refreshing too, but I think the fresh strawberry juice and Hokkaido milk won all the way. It's an interesting combination, sour and milk, yet it really worked.

Rastafarian little guy ;)

More lavender field

Unfortunately, the rained continued on till late afternoon and we couldn't see much of the fields. So we head out to Asahikawa for the remainder of the afternoon and to get dinner. I will post what's on dinner and pictures of Bibaushi, where we stayed on the next post.

Tomita Farm

Hokusei, Naka-Furano

Click here for website

25 mins walking distance from Naka Furano station

7 mins walking distance from Lavender Batake station (during lavender season only)