Jani Journey Journal

One of the main reason I came to Hokkaido in Japan was their beautiful flower field, to be more specific their lavender field. And one of the famous lavender field on Hokkaido is Tomita Farm. Located at Furano area, these gorgeous bed of lavender spread across amazing 230 ha farm. The majority of lavender usually starts blooming in late June and reaches its peak from around mid July to early August. Yes, we almost missed the lavender.

My friends and I board on train from Sapporo to Asahikawa and then continue our journey to the Lavender Farm. Actually our JR Pass didn’t cover this trip so we had to buy another ticket. The ticket cost 2490 yen and we add reserved seat pass for 1800 yen. This is something that we missed and cost us a lot of money. But since we are already there, we keep our schedule and just bought the ticket anyway.

We went there with a special train that decorated with lavender. It was so cute and beautiful, sadly I didn’t took any picture since the train was full of people. The train stop at Lavender Farm station and then we walk our way to the farm. It was just a small walk around 5-10 minutes. We arrived there around 10AM in the morning but the farm are already full of people. There were no entrance fee to get into the farm, so yaaay!

First thing first, we go straight to the ice cream cart once we were there. I bought their Cantaloupe Soft Serve Ice Cream Cone for about 300 yen. While my friend bought the Lavender & Cantaloupe soft Serve Ice Cream Cup for 250 yen. I love how smooth and refreshing the soft serve was. You really can taste the cantaloupe and I believe it was made by a fresh cantaloupe, not only a cantaloupe flavoring. It didn’t leave any strange aftertaste on my palate. As for the lavender, I love how unique the taste was. It felt like you were eating a soap (LOL) but it taste so nice and blends so well in your mouth. In conclusion, one is definitely not enough.

The farm was divided into a couple of flowers area. I saw their Hanabito field, Sakiwai field, Autumn field and Traditional Lavender field. I didn’t go to all of the area since I was already tired of hiking through the Traditional Lavender Field area. Despite I was struggling to get to the top of the hills, the final view was amazing!

From the farm’s pictures all across the internet, I really regret that I didn’t explore more of the farm. I’m planning to go there once again and maybe next time I’ll take my mom. For more information about the flower fields on the farm, please go to their website.

Image source: here

Other than flower fields, they also sell some souvenir at the Hanabito House. The souvenirs vary from a dried flower to beautiful wreath and even soaps and keychains. They also have this flower gallery on the second story of their Hanabito House. It tells the history of Tomita Farm from the beginning to now and they also have the full list of flowers on the farm.




For lunch, we ate at Café Rene that located near the main entrance. It was a glass wall and roof café (like a greenhouse) with a beautiful natural light coming through. No need to worry about the heat, because they have air conditioner inside. We ordered their Crispy Croquette for 400 yen each. It is a croquette burger made with their best Hokkaido Danshaku Potato. The croquette was topped with a special sauce and some veggies. I love how fluffy and soft the croquette was. The outer part of the croquette was very crispy which made the eating experience more delightful. I also love the bun that I thought has a hint of sweetness.

Our lunch finished around 1PM and we went straight back to the train station to go home. Funny story though, we took the wrong train and we end up to the wrong station! Wait for almost an hour inside the platform (because we didn’t have any ticket to get out of the station) for our train back to Sapporo. Thankfully there were no police or train officer to arrest us. A journey to remember though.

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Top tips for Tomita Farm:

1. Bring an umbrella or wear a hat. Since the flower blooms around summer, the weather can be very hot. I really suggest you to bring umbrella or wear a hat while wandering around the farm.
2. Keep hydrated all the time. Again, the summer in Japan can be very extreme. Drink water regularly to avoid dehydration or even heat stroke. Luckily, you can find free water at every café inside the farm.
3. Prepare cash. As far as I remember, I didn’t really see any debit/credit card machine at the cashier. So I assume they only accept cash for payment through all of their store/café.
4. Wear a comfortable shoes. The farm is quite big, even I didn’t have the energy to explore all of the area. So I suggest you to wear your most comfortable shoes since you’re going to do a lot of walking.

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Tomita Farm

Kisen Kita 15-go

Nakafurano-cho, Sorachi-gun

Hokkaido 071-0704

Phone: +81 167 39 3939

Opening hours: 8.30 AM – 6 PM (Everyday)

Website: http://www.farm-tomita.co.jp/en/

I always have a thing for seafood based meals, especially lobster. I think lobster has this unique texture and flavor compared to prawn or crab. They are more thick and chewy but also has this smooth buttery texture when eaten. I’ve ate lobster a couple of times before and I fell in love of how sweet their meat was just by itself. So when I heard about this lobster joint has a long queue almost every day, I need to prove the glory by myself.

Luke’s Lobster is a food chain that already has tons of stores all across the globe. This brand was found by Luke Holden and his father in New York back in 2009 because of their love for lobsters. They decided to sell their own rolls in the most simple yet beautiful way; pure without toppings and fresh. Luke’s Lobster opened their store in Tokyo back in 2015, in the Omotesando area. They have this food stall concept with a lot of seat boxes in front of their stall.

I came near their closing time so there was queue at all. I tried their Reguler Lobster Roll that cost around 980 yen each. The rolls comes in a split bun, melted lemon butter, a bit of mayo and a huge scoop of lobster chunks. Looks so simple? It was, but believe me it taste so freakin’ good.

I love how the simplicity brings out the best feature of this meal which is the lobster itself. The lobster was chunky, thick, buttery, fresh and has this sweet taste like what a lobster should be. The mayo made the lobster blend well all together and the lemon butter lighten the whole taste. Just a little note for the bun, it was cold and a bit too greasy for me. Also I kinda wish the bun was a bit grilled slightly crispy so the whole meal has other texture when chewed.

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Luke’s Lobster

6 Chone-7-1 Jingumae

Shibuya 150-0001

Tokyo Prefecture

Phone : +81 357 783 747

Opening hours: 11AM – 8.30PM

Food: 4/5

Ambiance: 3.5/5

Price: 4/5

Serive: 3.5/5

One of the main reason for me to come to Japan was their food scene. I heard so many good things about their ever growing food scene, and one of it is the famous Gyukatsu Motomura. I’ve been eyeing for Gyukatsu Motomura ever since the first time I saw some food blogger post their scrumptious looking beef slices on instagram. So when I finally came to Japan, this place is definitely on the top of my must try list.

Gyukatsu is a deep fried beef cutlet that has this beautiful golden coating on the outside and gorgeous pink rare beef on the inside. They sell the gyukatsu in various set meal, the one that we order was sold around 1800 yen per portion with 200 gram of beef cutlet. The set meal comes with a handful slices of cabbage, potato salad, pickles, barley rice, miso soup and grated yam. Even though the beef slices served rare, they are good to eat. However the restaurant provide a small grill for each person and then you can grill it further to your preferred doneness.

The beef was tender, really juicy and already has this subtle taste. The katsu crumb coating also nicely cooked and added this slight crispy texture to the beef that made my meal more enjoyable. There are several condiments that go great with your gyukatsu such as soy sauce, horseradish-onion sauce, worchestershire sauce and even the simplest rock salt. I personally love their soy sauce, I quickly dip the beef cutlet to the soy sauce before I grill it for a couple of seconds on each sides.

Gyukatsu Motomura is arguably the most popular restaurant in Tokyo for gyukatsu at the moment. Because of its popularity, the queue is mostly crazy. Other than the hype of this food is still high, the restaurant itself is also very small. One quick tip from me, I recommend you to come past the lunch time, around 2PM, like we did to avoid the long queue. My friends and I arrived around 2PM in the afternoon, and we waited just about 15 minutes to get inside. Also, don’t over grill your beef cutlets otherwise the beef would be very dry and tough to eat.

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Gyukatsu Motomura

3-32-2 Shinjuku, B1F

Shinjuku 160-0022

Tokyo Prefecture

Phone : +81 333 540 171

Opening hours: 11AM – 10PM

Food: 5/5

Ambiance: 3.5/5

Price: 4/5

Service: 4/5

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