地元の新聞で偶々見たけど、今週の土曜日は千曲川沿いのサイクリングイベントが行う事が分かりました。戸倉上山田温泉から朝８時半に出発して川中島古戦場や松代を巡る５０ｋｍのコースだそうです。本来なら、こういう情報を早目にゲットしてお客様にご案内したかったけど、市の観光協会さえ今日で始めて分かったそうです。参加料は弁当無しのせいかたった200円です。申し込んだ時に「2000円を払うから弁当を出してや」と言ってみたが断りました。マイ弁当を５０ｋｍも持って走るか？不親切やな。まあ、私がこういうイベントが育ってこられたらいいなと思っております。せっかく千曲川沿いのサイクリングロードもあるし。「千曲Ｃｈａｒｌｉｅ（チャリー）」というツアー名はどうでしょうか？:)
Just by chance, I ran across this article in today's local paper about a bicycle ride for this upcoming Saturday 21-June. It's a 50km ride along the Chikuma River to Kawanakajima Samurai Battle Site and back through Matsushiro to end up back here at Togura Kamiyamada Onsen. I wish there were announcements earlier so I could've passed on the info to our guests, but our town's Tourist Information Office didn't even know about it until today. It only costs 200 yen to participate, but with no lunch included. When I called to register, I told them I'd pay 2000 yen if they threw in a lunch, but no go. I really hope events like this continue for the future, especially as we're so fortunate to have a cycling road along the Chikuma River right here in our town. I even thought of a fun name for such an event: 'Chikuma Charlie'. (The sound a bicycle bell makes in Japanese is 'charin-charin'.)
