On the second day of our self-drive trip in Hokkaido, in addition to visiting Farm Tomita and the colorful flower fields of Shikisai no Oka, we headed next to the Biei Shirogane Blue Pond, which is at its brightest and clearest in summer. This is a Biei landmark that became famous throughout Hokkaido more than ten years ago, so of course we had to come and see it for ourselves.

After driving into the paid parking lot, we got out of the car and started walking. There is a short uphill path, and there are quite a lot of visitors here. By simply following the flow of people, you’ll know exactly where to go—there’s no need to look at a map at all.

In less than five minutes, we were able to see the emerald-green lake water. It feels a bit like the Wangyou Forest in Nantou, Taiwan, but the trees standing in the water here are thinner and shorter, and the site is much easier to access.

The color of the lake also resembles Myojin Pond in Kamikochi during summer—vivid, bright green, almost like a natural emerald.

We walked toward the Biei Shirogane Blue Pond observation deck. It’s a very short path, with a slightly elevated viewpoint where you can look down and enjoy the scenery from above.

This short forest trail was extremely crowded, so our family decided to head back and went to the Blue Pond shop that sells ice cream. We bought soft-serve ice cream in blue soda and milk flavors. As expected, Biei milk ice cream tastes amazing no matter the flavor.