How Do You Get to Biei, and How Do You Travel Around the Hills?

Published 2026-10-04 · Sources checked 2026-10-04 · Treasure Hunting Co., Ltd.

This guide is for visitors who want to reach Biei, the hill town in central Hokkaido, and then see the hills without a rental car or with one. It covers the road, the train, the airport and the buses that run inside the town.

We used the English pages of the Biei Tourism Association, which is the town's tourism organisation. All pages were read on 2026-10-04. Some of its pages are still in Japanese and carry dates from earlier years, and we say so where it matters. Bus times change by season, so check the operators' own pages.

Where Biei is

The tourism association says Biei is right in the centre of Hokkaido. It describes the town as easy to reach from the major airports and the JR lines.

By car

The association's access page gives these distances and times:

• From Asahikawa. About 26 km on Route 237, around 40 minutes.
• From Furano. About 34 km on Route 237, around 40 minutes.
• From Sapporo. From Sapporo IC, take the Hokkaido Expressway to Asahikawa-Takasu IC. Then drive National Road 48, National Road 12 and Route 237. The page gives about 166 km and about 2 hours 30 minutes.
• From New Chitose Airport. About 3 hours by rental car on the expressway.

The page was last revised on 1 October 2024, so treat the times as a guide.

By train

From Sapporo or Asahikawa Station, the page says an express train takes about 90 minutes, and a highway bus takes about 120 minutes, to reach Asahikawa. You then change to a regular train, which reaches Biei Station in about 32 minutes. From Furano Station, a regular train reaches Biei Station in about 36 minutes.

By plane

For flights from Tokyo's Haneda Airport, the page names Asahikawa Airport. It says Furano Bus runs from there to Biei. The same page says Furano Bus is the only bus between Biei and Asahikawa Airport. For New Chitose Airport, it says to take a JR train or highway bus from Sapporo Station to Asahikawa Station, and then on to Biei.

Buses inside Biei

The association's bus page lists three kinds of bus:

• View Bus. A half-day sightseeing tour run by the association. The association recommends it for visiting the popular spots efficiently.
• Day bus by Hikari Kotsu. A four-hour tour that the page says takes you past the Blue Pond, Shirahige Falls, the Ken and Mary Tree and the Seven Star Tree.
• Dohoku Bus city bus. It runs every day between Asahikawa, Biei, the Blue Pond and Biei Shirogane Hot Spring. The stop for the Shirogane area is in front of the Asahikawa Bank on the main street, not at the station.

The Blue Pond page adds that a Biei and Shirogane Area 1-Day Free Pass gives unlimited rides for a day. It is sold on the Dohoku Bus sales site.

The View Bus has its own booking rules for 2026. Online purchase is available from 90 days to 4 days before the tour, until 17:00 Japan time. Cancellation fees start 10 days before. You must check in at the Bus Tour Counter on the first floor of Shiki-no-Johokan at least 15 minutes before departure, and show a QR code. The page says tours may be cancelled when weather warnings are issued, with a full refund.

Other ways around

The association's page on ways to travel lists a taxi on a charter time system, one rental car shop in Biei, a car share service, and bicycle rental shops near Biei Station and Bibaushi Station. Guided cycling tours are also listed. For electric bicycles, it suggests allowing four to five minutes per kilometre.

What we could not verify, and therefore left out

• Current train and bus timetables, and fares for any of them.
• The travel time from Asahikawa Airport to Biei Station. The page gives a figure that looks too short for the distance, so we left it out.
• Price of the View Bus in 2026. The page says prices change with date and fuel costs.
• Road conditions in winter and where to park in each season.
• Whether the one rental car shop in Biei has cars available in peak season.

Related guides

• How do you visit the Biei hills and Blue Pond without harming the farms?
• How do you stay safe around Biei? Tokachidake, bears, cold and 110/119

Sources

All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.

1. Access (Biei Tourism Association) — (distances and times by car; JR times; airport and bus notes; revised 1 October 2024)
2. Travel by sightseeing bus (Biei Tourism Association) — (View Bus; Hikari Kotsu bus; Furano Bus; Dohoku Bus; Shirogane stop)
3. Biei Half Day Bus Tour 'Biei View Bus' 2026 (Biei Tourism Association) — (booking window; cancellation; check-in; weather cancellation)
4. Ways to travel (Biei Tourism Association) — (taxi, rental car, car share and bicycle options)
5. Biei Shirogane Blue Pond (Biei Tourism Association) — (route bus and the 1-Day Free Pass)