This was a trip that we had been dreaming about since 2006, after viewing photos of Farm Tomita, known world-wide for its lavender farm. It became a reality only in July 2012 when we joined a Japan Travel Bureau tour, led by the very capable and caring professional, Ms. Toshie, a Japanese-Singaporean. We were eight in the group, which made it a very manageable group. Our JTB tour began with a late night flight on Saturday, 14 July and ended on Wednesday, 20 July. However, we extended it on our own for another three days to visit Shikotsu-Toya-Mt Usu, Hakodate and a second trip to Farm Tomita. We enjoyed our group and individual tours thoroughly. Our hotels and meals exceeded our expectations.

For this trip, I brought 3 cameras, as I did not want to change lenses in the middle of a shoot. I brought my Nikon D300 with a 28-300 mm digital lens. A second Nikon, D70, was fitted with a manual lens, 24 mm at f2.8, with a polarizer filter, to be used primarily for landscape shots. I had my Gitzo tripod for night shots and a Sony point-and-shoot, primarily for recording HD video and for quick reflex candid shots. I also brought along a laptop, so that I could back-up copy images from my cameras everyday. However, I brought enough memory cards so that I didn't have to erase the originals.