Oct. 28, 2023
Atsugi is just a regular city in the Kanagawa Prefecture, but there is a big Sagami river running through it, also a city park called Sagamisansen Park there, so on a sunny weekend we decided to take our gravel bikes for a little off-road ride.
We rode along the riverbank. Some part of it was full of weed so tall and dense that it was hard to find a road. However, some part was nice paved or unpaved roads for walking or cycling routes.
We saw quite some people relaxing there. Also, there were actually quite some fishing people. They just stood in the water to fish. There were also some wild birds in the river, and many bird-watchers with their huge cameras.
The roads were generally quite flat. We even found a very nice Italian restaurant with super nice view and great stone pizzas for our lunch.
On the way back, we tried to ride on the other side of the river, but it became busy roads with heavy traffic, so we crossed the bridge back to the same route.
Although the roadside were full of tall weed and unknown plants, it looked amazingly beautiful under the warm afternoon sun. We were so surprised to find such nature and great gravel roads at the middle of a city. It was a joyful ride.
The manhole covers in the Atsugi city are designs of leaves. They looked so cute and matched the nature around. Also, we saw the adorable image character of Atsugi city, a pig with fish on his head, called Ayukoro-chan. He shows every local specialty of Atsugi such as a pig, a sweet fish, hot springs and fireworks.
