Day 6 - Asahiwaka, Biei, Furano - June 17

Today was another beautiful day. The scenery and weather were great. We first went to Asahiwaka to meet the missionaries there. We met 4 Elders, 2 of which were previously companions of Mike, including the companion the Mike trained, Elder Horne. We treated them to lunch and ice cream at the train station/mall. The restaurant we went to was called shabushabu. We got a plate of vegetables and noodles and then they brought us plates of sliced pork. On the table is a pot with one side a soy sauce mixture and the other side a soy milk. You put your noodles, vegetables and meats in the pot and cook it up yourself. There are some different dipping sauces and rice. And it’s a buffet so you can get more vegies and noodles and they will bring as much meat as you want. This is where the missionaries wanted to eat and wow, they can eat and eat a LOT! They kept going back for more food and requesting more meat. I was actually rather surprised, but happy that they seemed to enjoy it so much. I sat at a table with 2 elders and Mike & dad sat at a table with 2 elders. I’m still not good with chopsticks so I would get my food into the pot ok, but I was having a really ahrd time getting it out. Thankfully the elders at my table took really good care of me by getting more food that I wanted and getting it out of the pot and into my bowl. Mike really enjoyed spending time with his buddies. After we left eh missionaries we drove about an hour to a place in Biei called the Blue Pond. It was a beautiful place in the mountains next to a mountain stream. The chemicals in the water make it look like a chalky blue color. It was really pretty. We then drove another 45 minutes to Furano. We stopped at a place called Farm Tomita which is famous for its lavender fields. Unfortunately the lavender was only just beginning to bloom. We needed to come 2-3 weeks later to see it in full bloom. But there were lots of other flower fields and it was really pretty to walk through. We also tried some of their lavender ice cream. I was uncertain that lavender ice cream would taste good, but it was delightful! It made the whole trip worthwhile, even if we didn’t get to see the full lavenders in bloom. We went on to our hotel on the mountainside and watched How to Train Your Dragon 2.