14 October, 2016

Photos of our city #2

Here is where the two main rivers of our city join, less than 1km from
our house.
Continuing my posts about our city and trying not to get carried away with detail (I can drown in stuff like this). Today I'm writing just a little on the geography.

Higashi kurume city is mostly flat, which makes cycling a very easy way to get around. I discovered today that it's located on a large tableland called the Musashino Plateau. I knew it was part of the larger area that Tokyo's situated on, the Kanto Plain, but the existence of this Plateau is news to me. 

Apparently the Plateau "consists of an alluvial fan formed by the ancient River Tama with a layer of volcanic ash, many metres deep" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musashino_Terrace) which would explain why is it such a fertile place for growing. You'll see I've included another photo of urban and primary industry side-by-side down below.

We also have two main rivers, the Kurome and the Ochiai rivers. Their banks are both well reinforced on the sides and have walk/run/cycle paths on one or two sides. I love riding along these and often use them even if it is the longer way to my destination. They're a definite joy to living here. The Ochiai river is less than 200m from our house.
Can you see the two rivers? The top one is Kurome and the bottom one Ochiai, they're both flowing towards the Arakawa, a very large river that flows into Tokyo Bay.
The city has a rather odd shape. It is bordered by several other cities and a prefecture (Saitama). The other cities are Kodaira, Higashimurayama, Kiyose, and Nishitokyo.
I ride past this local fire station and field at least twice a week doing my grocery run.
I love the lush green carrot crop at present.
Looking down into one of the rivers in our city from the bike path.


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