Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1866. Chikara was a studious disciple of Yukichi Fukuzawa who played the main roll in Meiji Restoration and led Chikara to work on the Hokkaido settlement.

Chikara, then 31 and his devoted wife, Kou, 20 moved to undeveloped Furano on 7th May, 1897 and started their life here in the heavily forested environment of Furano; it was said that sunlight would not enter the hut even during the daylight hours. From this period the Furano area began to be cultivated and logged.

Today, they are the characters that are the inspiration behind the "Hokkai Heso Matsuri", Belly Button Festival and are loved by Furano citizens.          

Born in Nakafurano in 1932 as the 3rd generation Hokkaido settler.

Tomita, a farmer in the area, was introduced to lavender by a neighboring farmer through these words, "This flower makes perfume". Tomita started his life as a lavender farmer at age 25 utilising the cool and dry climate of Hokkaido.

As Japan’s economy grew bigger in the 60’s, Tomita's lavender fields also grew, reaching up to 400ha.

This boom was short lived however, the once sort after fragrence was replaced by an artificial substitute and all the lavender farmers in the Furano area suffered. Tomita was the only one who didn’t loose his passion for the purple flower although struggling financially and emotionally.

One day in early Summer, a photographer visited his farm asking to take pictures of the flower fields. One of those pictures was later featured on the June page of the Japan Railway’s national calendar. After which, photographers began to flock to Tomita's farm.

Regardless of its growing popularity, Tomita was in severe financial hardship and was going to quit farming lavender. A lady who overheard the rumor that he was going to give up, begged him not to stating "You just can’t abandon these beautiful fields of lavender, instead you can utilize your lavender to make some products out of it". Since then Tadao Tomita has been true to her words, creating products using lavender from perfume to organic soap.

From late June to early August people from all over Japan and Asia flock to see the purple fields and enjoy the graceful scent of lavender.       

If you would like to find out more about Farm Tomita you can visit their web site: http://www.farm-tomita.co.jp/e/index.htm

Born in Hirosaki, Aomori in 1970. Kiminobu Kimura began skiing at 3.

The winner of the National Junior High School Championship at the age of 15. He then became a member of the Japan National Team for which he was to compete for 17 consecutive seasons as one of the top skiers. He won both the slalom and giant slalom on the National High School Championship at 18.

In 1989, he joined the World Cup series. In April 1993 he started to work for Rossignol Japan and competed in the World Cup series. He didn’t have a great beginning, though. In 1997 in Shiga Kogen, Nagano, Japan he finished 4th and in 1998 he finished 2nd as the 3rd Japanese skier to have ever stood on the podium. After a disappointing result in the Nagano Olympic's in 1998 he pulled himself together to win again. Shortly after this he injured himself. After recovering he made it back to the World Cup and won his 4th race in 2002. The same year he competed in the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. This was the first time a Japanese athlete had ever made 4 consecutive appearances in the Olympics. The next year he retired from professional athletic life after competing for the last time at Shiga Kogen where he had first begun his internation career.

Now he is the head coach at Furano Prince Hotel Ski School and has a dream to spread the excitement and fun of skiing to all the people.  

If you would like to find out more about Kiminobu Kimura you can visit his web site: http://www.kimukimi.com/

Hisayuki Kojima has been one of Japan’s top snowboard racers. He raced during the 1996 season in the FIS series.

During teaching Physical Education at Asahikawa’s Kamikawa High School he coached some of Japan’s top Parallel Slalom Snowboard racers. He was the first teacher to ever start a snowboard club at a high school in Japan. He encouraged many young snowboarders to take up the sport for the enjoyment and competition.

At the Turin Olympics in 2006 Hisayuki once again took his top rider from his academy all the way to the Olympics.

To ensure Japan has future Olympic Snowboarders, Hiasyuki Kojima has created Kojima Academy in Furano with camps in Austria and Canada to get the best out of Japan’s top snowboarders.

If you would like to find out more about Hisayuki Kojima you can visit his web site: http://www.kojimaacademy.com/

Established in 1949, the team was first managed by the students themselves. This team has now become one of the toughest teams in Hokkaido with the assist of the Old Boys. However the situation changed in 80’s as the team was forgotten a while.

In 1994 when Hikoyoshi Tanaka took up his post as a coach the team consisted of only 13 members. Old Boys and supporters together raised their passion to build up a strong team again.

In 2002 they won the Hokkaido final and made it to the “Hanazono, National High School Rugby Tournament”. Again in 2005 took their glory to the final games.

All the boys are just regular kids you see around the corner. You can see them practicing on the school yard covered with snow throughout winter or on the fields running and kicking the ball around whatever the colours of the leaves may be.

One of the treasures that Furano has to offer is top quality powder snow. It’s already proven by the fact that Furano has hosted the FIS World Cup 10 times since 1981.

Furano also has a supportive ski environment to train young racers from 6 to 18 to be a future ski champions. These efforts are all provided voluntarily. The fun and skills of skiing are passed down from generation to generation in Furano as a part of daily life.