Hokkaido · FuranoNo.701★★★Open in map →
Farm Tomita
— Furano's lavender farm, free to enter
A lavender farm on the hills of Nakafurano, free to enter and open every day of the year. Lavender holds the few weeks of high summer, and the rest of the calendar belongs to the other beds.
- FromAsahikawa Station
- ~1 hr 30 minJR local + 20-25 min walk
- Get off atNaka-Furano Station (JR Furano Line)
- From there
- Farm Tomita
Where it is
102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Hanabito-no-Iethe welcome house at the entrance, with a shop and a corner on the farm's own history
- Hanabito Fieldbroad bands of mixed flowers planted to read as stripes of colour across the slope
- Traditional Lavender Fieldthe oldest of the farm's lavender beds, and the one the whole place grew out of
- The distillerythe working still where lavender is turned into essential oil during the bloom
- The perfume housethe room where the oil is blended, shown to visitors at close range
How to actually get there
- Asahikawa Station → Naka-Furano Station (JR Furano Line local, all trains stop, 47.3 rail km).
- Naka-Furano Station → Farm Tomita (walk 20-25 min northeast).
- Start at the welcome house and work up through the beds toward the distillery.
- In summer only, use the temporary Lavender Field station instead and cut the walk to 7-8 minutes.
- JR Furano Line from Asahikawa
- Take a Furano Line local from Asahikawa Station to Naka-Furano, 47.3 rail kilometres down the line; every train on the route stops there. The line carries local services only and they are not frequent, so read the timetable before you set out rather than turning up. From the station it is a 20-25 minute walk northeast.
- Back from Naka-Furano Station
- Walk back to Naka-Furano and take a Furano Line train toward Asahikawa. The station is unstaffed and the gaps between trains can be long, so settle on your return departure before you start walking back.
About the place
Farm Tomita spreads over low hills in the town of Nakafurano, in the Furano basin. Its beds are planted so that different flowers open in turn through the season, with lavender at the centre of the scheme. Entry costs nothing, and the farm keeps no closed days at all. Working buildings stand among the beds — a welcome house, a perfume house, a distillery, and shops selling lavender ice cream and dried flowers. A second planting called Lavender East lies a short drive further east. The ground rises gently, so from the upper paths the rows read as bands of colour.
How to enjoy it
The gates open in the morning and the farm keeps no rest days, so the choice is about season rather than hours. The Hokkaido official travel site puts lavender at its best from late June into early August and extends July's closing to 18:00. Distilling can be watched only while the crop is coming in, from July into mid-August; outside those weeks the draw is the other beds and the empty paths.
Background & history
The Tomita family cleared this land in 1903 and farmed it for decades before flowers entered the picture. Commercial lavender growing began here in 1958, when the crop was raised for its oil rather than for visitors. Demand for domestic lavender oil later fell away. The fields here survived that, and slowly became a place people travelled to see rather than a crop. The farm still distils its own essential oil on site, and a second planting, Lavender East, was added later.
Before you go
- Cash
- Entry to the farm is free and it has no closed days. The shops and the ice cream stand take payment on site. Naka-Furano is an unstaffed station, so handle your fare the way the train's own system asks and keep cash on hand.
- Good to know
- Snow covers the beds through the winter months. The farm itself stays open all year, but a visit then is a visit to a snowfield with a shop in it. The paths are open ground with almost no shade, so high summer means sun with nowhere to step out of it.
- Another way
- In the summer season a temporary station, Lavender Field, opens on the same line 45.8 rail kilometres from Asahikawa and puts you 7-8 minutes' walk from the farm. It is taken away outside that season, so it cannot be relied on for the rest of the year. From Furano Station the farm is two stops up the line.
- After you get off
- From Naka-Furano Station walk northeast for 20-25 minutes on town roads. The beds come into view on the rising ground before you reach the entrance.
Nearby notes
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Distances are straight lines on the map, not travel times.