gaijin kuma desu: Weekend Bike Ride (Yamazakigawa)

On March 12, I went for a bike ride to checkout a river (Yamazakigawa - 山崎川) that is supposed to be a nice sakura viewing spot. This was a day after the large earthquake so I was a bit worried about the tsunami but the river looked pretty ok. Here is the map (interactive form):

The trip started near lunch time and I was hungry so for the first time, I went to BENTOMAN which is a chain of bento making take out restaurants. I saw it a few times biking by it - it is a few streets from my apartment. I selected something totally random from the menu and then waiting a few minutes while they were making it. While I waited, one guy picked up about 20 bentos!

I took the box and biked a little bit until I found a nice park with a large fountain:

So I parked my bike and sat on this bench and ate my lunch:

Which turned out to be this (plus a box of rice about half of the size of this box). The fried things turned out to be clams but they were tasty:

The start of the river wasn't very far away (start since before it goes underground) and on the way I found a nice temple with a torii and a nice island:

The river was tiny but in a huge and deep canal:

So no worries about tsunami.

This type of canal continued for a while...

After which it became a bit bigger and more of a river:

I finally started to notice the trees (which are supposed to be sakura) all along the canal:

Of course none of them had flowers yet (maybe in 2 weeks):

Some of the trees were quite old:

Whenever there was deeper water in the river, there were large carp (koi):

A nice ume tree in front of a house:

Found a large deeper part of the river with lots of the fish:

And turtles:

There was an observation kinda of area above with a bench so I think people feed them.

I think the water in the river must change from time to time (maybe even due to tides):

Turtles sun bathing:

A closeup:

All along the river are sakura trees - will look awesome when they bloom:

and the other side:

At some point was a nice path along the river with sakura trees above:

Lots of trees (supposed to be around 700):

Found a golden koi in the river:

Map showing the river and recreational park:

By the park was this sign on a rock:

Finally made it all the way to Aratamabashi - seen here:

The river did increase in size around that area:

I found a large AEON mall near the river so I went in.

After a bunch of walking around in the mall, I bought a tasty bean paste on mochi:

I didn't go any further along the river and went back towards home following a large highway:

This is how highways merge:

At one street, from the distance, I noticed large white flowers on a tree so I went closer to investigate:

Turned out to be Magnolia flowering:

Then, I went home, biking around 22km in total. On the way home, I stopped at a supermarket and bought some fish for dinner. I didn't know what kind of fish it was but it was a bit cheap and looked good: