It was a bit of a detour to get to the Blue Pond, but it had been recommended so we headed that way. The queue for the carpark was slow moving, and the route around the pond was full of visitors. So, we joined the hoards and took far too many photos. This is a totally man-made pond, constructed during the building of a dam on the Biei River, and gets its blue colour from the sediments washed down in the river.
We had spotted a large pharmacy store on the way to the Blue Pond, so stopped there to get a support bandage for my hand which was swelling up nicely by now. And just across the main road was a small ramen shop where we all enjoyed a huge bowl of ramen with very generous portions of pork. It is clear in Japan that one cannot judge the quality of food in a restaurant by looking at the outside of the building.
Our next stop was to be Farm Tomita, famous for its lavender fields. But as we approached the area, the traffic increased and came to a standstill. A flustered official told us where to find the overflow carpark, but we would still have had to join the queue coming back in the other direction. So, I took the opportunity to take some photos of rice paddies from the stationary car and we opted to continue driving and find another flower garden, the one at Shikisai Hill.
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