Asahikawa sits at the geographic center of Hokkaido, 30 kilometers north of Biei's undulating farmland and 60 kilometers from Furano's terraced lavender slopes. The region's volcanic soil, deposited by Mount Tokachi over millennia, drains rapidly and warms quickly under summer sun — conditions that transformed subsistence potato plots into Japan's largest concentration of ornamental flower farms by the 1980s. Furano's lavender cultivation began in 1958 when a single farmer planted French stock for essential oil extraction; within two decades, the purple rows appeared on Japanese Rail calendars, and domestic tourism shifted the crop from industrial feedstock to景観 agriculture. Biei's patchwork fields — geometric blocks of wheat, potato, beet, and sunflower — emerged not from deliberate design but from Meiji-era land allotments, each family plot rotating crops on a three-year schedule that coincidentally produces the striped hillsides visible from Route 237. The Blue Pond formed in 1988 after Mount Tokachi erupted and engineers built aluminum hydroxide retention dams downstream. The mineral suspends in meltwater, scattering short-wavelength light and rendering the pond cobalt under clear skies. Apple engineers selected a Biei Blue Pond photograph for the macOS wallpaper in 2012, and visitor numbers doubled within eight months. Most Biei Furano tour from Asahikawa itineraries now allocate 40 minutes at the pond, though the color appears only between May and October when snowmelt supplies sufficient mineral load. The standing larch trunks — drowned when the retention basin filled — bleach gray under UV exposure, and winter ice cover turns the scene monochrome. Farm Tomita in Furano operates 15 hectares of lavender, divided into early, mid, and late-blooming French and English varieties that extend the purple window from late June through early August. The farm remains free to enter, sustained by essential oil sales and a processing facility that produces 8,000 liters annually. Shikisai-no-oka in Biei spans 14 hectares and plants 30 flower species in parallel rows; the site charges no entrance fee but requests a ¥500 tractor-cart donation during peak season. Asahikawa to Biei Furano day trips typically depart at 08:30 to reach the flower farms before tour buses from Sapporo arrive after 10:30. Summer temperatures in the basin average 24°C, and the hills offer no shade — sun protection is structural, not optional.