“Ohasai Tsurui” (Good Morning Cycle Tsurui), a free Sunday morning tour around Tsurui Village on bicycles, is garnering praise. An Eastern Hokkaido Tsurui Village cycling tour guide leads participants on a course with great views of nature and dairy farming scenery in the Kushiro Marshland area. Free electric bicycle rental is available in the village for guests staying at a lodging facility.

The cycle station “Bicycle Square” that “Tsurui Northern Village Hotel Taito” launched in Tsurui in June of last year offers the tours on an irregular schedule. Hotel Taito Managing Director Wada, a Japan Cycle Tourism Association (Tokyo) certified cycling tour guide, leads tours along 10-50 kilometer courses.

Last year the tour was offered five times, and attracted approximately 170 participants from the elementary school age to senior citizens. This season, the tour has been held four times since May. In the July 4 tour, 13 participants sped along a 13 kilometer course through the dairy farming region and marshland area. A participant looked out over grassy plains filled with breeze-tossed pink bridewort flowers and laughed, saying, “It’s been 30 years since I have ridden a bike. Feeling the marshland breeze with my whole body feels great.” Some participants come and stay over the night before, and enjoy the hot springs and meals in the village, but many reportedly visit directly from the suburbs. Wada commented, “I hope this can serve as an opportunity to reassess our local tourism resources.”

NPO Tsurui Tourist Association operates a service for free rental of electric bicycles in four overnight lodging locations within the village (until the end of October), and also distributes cycling maps. The Association is exuberant about promotion, commenting, “On a bicycle, participants can sightsee without having to be in crowds of people. We want to become known as a fun village for cycling, and get over this COVID-19 pandemic.”