I had never been to either Furano or Biei and was curious to see if the reality would live up to the hype. In contrast to Furano, which exceeded my expectations, I was quite underwhelmed by Biei. The guidebooks talk about a town “nestled against the mountains”... but the reality is that Biei is quite far from any real elevations; after coming down from Shirobone I had to go through flatlands for quite awhile before I got there. Biei struck me as a rather ordinary mountain town - pleasant but nothing special at all. Its fame apparently comes from the artsy cafes and other places that have sprung up in the city center. Personally, I was more impressed by this establishment: surely Japan’s only combination bicycle shop and yakitori restaurant.

Nevertheless, the area around Biei is quite nice. This photo was taken next morning, on one of the longer legs of the route: around 130 km due north to Nayoro.