Late start after a big cooked breakfast in our wee studio apartment. Not only farewelling the pleasant city of Asahikawa, but Orlaith too – great touring buddy who found plenty of interesting things to see, and kept us on our toes with each morning’s “question of the day”. Back out of town the way we came in – cycle trail up the Chubetsu River. That only lasted five kilometres as we left the river to head through farmland on the slightest of climbs. Another rice area, difference in this one being a staggering amount of earthworks for new, larger rice fields.

Asahidake in cloud again.

Oh, there’s the airport – didn’t see Orlaith but.

Surprised, but pleased, to see a few Massey Fergusons in this lot.

Rice growing gave way to extensive onion and potato crops around the trendy little town of Biei. Seems bus loads of tourists come to see the flowers and gardens, before heading up to the Blue Pool – where we were also going, after lunch and getting supplies for overnight.

Gently climbing, cycle trail ran beside the Biei River pretty much all the way to the pool. The water was so clear, and unsurprisingly looked pretty blue – apparently from aluminium coming out of a volcanic area.

Many more of those flood control weirs up this way.

The Blue Pool wasn’t all that exciting. As indicated earlier, many bus loads of people – so decent people watching.

Seemed the pool was artificial.

Looked pretty green to me, the Biei River was bluer.

I still can’t work this map out, and I was there. Usually they make some sense.

A short distance up the valley from the pool is the Shirahige Falls, with some good viewpoints. It started to rain heavily enough to curtail our viewing. What we did see looked pretty.

Climbing a bit more to finish the day, it stayed wet enough that choosing a hostel bed over camping was the attractive option. The adjoining onsen was notably excellent too. Cooking in a proper kitchen also far better than over a gas stove in the rain. To our amusement, we were complimented on the meal we cooked by some of our Japanese hostel buddies.

Seems I also remembered to take a couple of photos to show what a typical Japanese hostel dormitory room is like. Not dissimilar to others, so long as proper slipper etiquette was observed.