Nothing beats seeing the lake hill farm at Lake Toya for real as the quaint little cottage sat in a relaxing surrounding with beds of blooming flowers right in front of it.
Let's talk about the cottage first which is divided into A and B; the former, as in above, housed a restaurant where you can dig into a plate of Japanese curry, pizza and wash them down with a cup of cappuccino.
Menu as above for your viewing pleasure and reference. As we had already eaten quite a bit at Road Station Akaigawa, we didn't think we should burst our tummy then as dinnertime was only about two hours away.
The connected B section was where we would be spending a bit more time in as it came strongly recommended, even from friends who had visited Hokkaido.
It's well known for its gelato even though you can also find fresh fruit juce on a separate counter. Prices of fruit juice ranged from 360 yen (kiwi yogurt etc) to 420 yen (orange banana etc). Note: please pay at the cashier first before you approach the counter for your order.
Gelato cost 350 yen for two scoops and there's an option for soft serve which we didn't take up since we had travelled all the way to Hokkaido; we might as well go with the popular product.
Depending on season, there are about 20 selections of gelato in store and in summer (when we went); i can count green tea, rock melon sorbet, blueberry milk, cookies and cream, pumpkin etc.
Joining the queue after payment.
The laminated sheet on top of the gelato fridge is actually very helpful to those who are sensitive to dairy / egg products as it clearly shows which gelato contains dairy and / or egg products.
Very pretty serving staff; i think she wasn't too pleased when i shot this picture. I should have been more daring and asked her for a pose... guess i am too late to say sorry. :(
Coming back to the gelato; i think we got vanilla and rock melon and they didn't impress us. Our friends' rum and raisin and sesame were much better; it's a pity we didn't have the stomach space to order another one!
Back of the cottage which strangely, wasn't mentioned much in many blog reviews although i personally feel that it's definitely way more memorable than the gelato.
There was a large field filled with the laughter of kids and adults.
Environment was unlike what you can experience in Singapore where many such places (and there ain't many) would likely be overcrowded with people and weather is too hot, too humid.
And i don't think we have such large sunflowers in Singapore; trust me, some of the sunflowers were actually bigger than my face!
Even without any lines, families were happily playing badminton and I initially thought that the families brought along their own shuttlecocks and badminton rackets.
I believe some would but there's a storage box where you can borrow for free! Contrast that with many Asian resorts where you might even need to rent for a fee despite paying a lot for accommodation.
Cottage from the field; the one with a green drape would be the gelato shop.
What's a goat doing on the field?! The thing i hate the most when i am playing on the field is stepping onto some unholy waste material and the worst case scenario is that i would have to throw away my shoes.
Yuki is the goat's name and it's actually chained to prevent it from roaming around. It's actually pretty cute and was well accustomed to humans surrounding it for selfies.
The goat wasn't the only animal on the field; nearer to the entrance was a pen that's a huge favourite among the children.
Rabbits!
With tall wire meshes, the rabbits were pretty much left alone and had the option of staying put in the right middle, away from humans' hands, or venturing to the wire meshes where humans await with hay and carrots.
There's more than just the rabbits and goat; the above came with a warning in Japanese which i didn't understand until i utilized our trust google translate app.
They were dwarf / pygmy horses with piles of ungodly material near their hooves. The warning by the way was that the horses bite and do not enter the fence.
Looking for fresh farm produce? Look no further as there were stalls right beside the cottage.
One stall didn't even have anyone manning it and it's totally based on trust; the price was listed and you are just required to deposit the money into the box on the side.
As indicated before, the gelato ice cream wasn't that memorable in my opinion but i would still recommend friends to drop by Lake Hill Farm for the delicious grilled sausage that's sold in the outdoor stall headed by a gentleman with a motto "no meat, no life"! Check here for my review.
From the same gentleman, you can also get carrots to feed the rabbits!
View of the flower beds from the stalls; as you can see, the carpark was just a short distance away and in case you would be travelling to Silo (Sairo) Observatory, Lake-Hill Farm is only 1.6 kilometers away.
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Location
Hanawa 127 Toyako cho,
Abuta-gun, Hokkaido,
Japan
Website
Pricing
Gelato Ice Cream - 350 Yen
For our 8 days, 7 nights Hokkaido itinerary in summer, click here.
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