Leisure
Biei's Blossoms
A Sign of Spring - Cherry Blossoms "Oh no! I can't go to see cherry blossoms in March or April..." Cherry blossoms are Japan's national flower and are loved within the country. They appear in ancient poems and literature and…
Family Fun in Biei
Enjoy your family vacation in Biei, all year round Biei is a great place for many kinds of people to visit, but it's even more fun when you can come with your brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents, kids and…
Twinkling Lights Above and Around
Biei's winter nights often see temperatures dropping well below -10oC and sometimes even as low as -20oC. You might be thinking that in temperatures that low, the best thing to do is to stay indoors where it's warm, letting the…
A Town Shared With Wildlife
Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed Biei town is actually spread over an area of around 6772km and has a population of around 10,000 people, giving it a population density of around fifteen people per square kilometre. To put that into perspective, Tokyo…
[Experience Report] A refreshing walk – Biei Patchwork Hills Walking (Takushinkan Course)
Exploring the hills of Biei by car is all well and good, but how about exploring on foot while slowly taking in the hilly scenery? Our Biei Patchwork Hills Walking course accepts bookings for a long period of time between…
[Experience Report] – Farm Footpath Walking in Biei's Patchwork Hills
Go walking with a guide atop the hills of Biei, which are normally out of bounds. But on this tour, we have special permission from a farmer to enter their land. The scenery that you can see only as part…
Mame-Nio (Bean Mounds)
There are so many adorable tiny houses on the hills! This is classic Biei autumn scenery and they are called “mame-nio” in Japanese. In Japan, there is a traditional means of harvesting beans known as “niotsumi”, which means “to pile…
Grass Bales
In Biei's summer, take a moment to relax with a rich ice cream In this post we talked about hay bales, round shapes that appear in Biei's summer, but there are in fact two kinds of bales—hay bales and grass…
Hay Bales
“In summer, what are those round shapes that appear?” Countless round bales in the huge fields is scenery often used in imagery for Hokkaido, but roughly when do you think they appear? Answer: this is a sight that you can…
Spring Wheat and Autumn Wheat
Fields of wheat and the clouds slipping by When you think of scenery that is characteristic of Biei in July, what springs to mind? “Lavender!” Well… I suppose… Yes, “lavender” is an acceptable answer, I guess, but if we're…