yae-zakura, double-flowered cherry blossoms
I almost forgot to post some pictures that I took on our ride with the Maebashi cycling club. We went for our first ride with the Maebashi cycling club on the last weekend in April. We rode along the Tone River cycling road from Maebashi to Shibukawa. I really enjoyed riding along the cycling road. Aside from the cycling club, there weren’t too many other people and the road takes a gradual ascent to Shibukawa along the river. It was a really pleasant ride, and I was surprised to learn how close Shibukawa really is (perhaps it takes only slightly longer to ride there than it would to take the train). There are sakura planted along the path and river, and although they had already finished blooming, I could imagine how beautiful riding along there would be in early April.
The yae-zakura (double flowered cherry blossoms) were in full bloom in Shibukawa. We also found that there was a local festival and parade that day. There were lots of booths with festival foods, along with people selling crafts, sake, and local fresh vegetables such as takenoko, imo, fuki, and negi.
koi-nobori, carp streamers for Children’s Day (May 5th) | children marching in the parade, the theme was the warrior Benkei
