Stage 9. Cherry Blossom City, Old and New Places

Yuki Tsugehara | 3. April 2025

Today marks the end of our world tour in Japan. Before shipping the bike from the factory in Tochigi, we decided to visit some nearby places of interest. This is the Sakura Zutsumi park in Utsunomiya City.

In Japan, from the end of March to the end of April, cherry blossoms bloom in many places. The Japanese have traditionally loved the beauty of cherry blossoms, which bloom all at once on the branches before the leaves come out, and have organised hanami (花見, “flower viewing”) parties as a spring event.

But… the cherry blossom season had not yet arrived in Utsunomiya unfortunately. Global warming has led to wildly fluctuating temperatures in spring in Japan, and the Yoshino cherry (‘Somei-yoshino’) trees had not yet blossomed because of the cold weather over the past week.

Today’s rider, Takei-san had to look only at the cherry trees, but even so, the different types of cherry trees were in full bloom for our viewing pleasure. Feeling the spring, we decided to head to our next destination.

From Utsunomiya City, passing the Kinugawa River through the Northern Kanto region, you will reach Sakura City, named after the cherry blossom tree. About 5km from the park mentioned earlier, there is a place of great significance for us. It is the planned site of igus Japan’s new factory. Construction work is currently underway and is scheduled to be completed in spring 2026.

Assembly plants of igus Japan are dispersed across four locations, but the consolidation of these into one plant will improve the efficiency of operations and increase customer service, such as shipping times. After watching the work from near the planned site with Takei-san, we continued on our way to the current factory.

Takei-san is greeted by the factory staff as he arrives at the factory through the forest, bringing the two-week tour of igus:bike in Japan to a close. Without any major breakdowns, the plastic bike left Tokyo and toured various cities as far away as 700km.

Sometimes they descended downhill at near-car speeds, other times they pedalled uphill at sweaty speeds, but they drove through Japan’s beautiful landscapes and varied climates and terrains. The orange pops of the formations made an impact on passers-by everywhere we went.

In Shimanami Kaido, we even had people saying, ‘What a kawaii bike!’. Today, too, a driver involved in construction work asked us, ‘What on earth is this?’. We are amazed at the appeal of igus:bike. It was impressive to see many journalists riding and smiling at the press event. We were strongly impressed by the fact that the igus message has taken shape in this product.

The igus:bike was packed up and headed to the next country, China. China is another country with diverse nature. We hope it will bring smiles to the faces of many people in different regions.

Thank you, igus:bike.　またね！ (tchuess!)

Our rider: Ryuto Takei

Hi, I am Takei from the Tochigi factory. I am in charge of exhibitions and other events. This time, we drove through a park with beautiful cherry blossoms and along a river, so it’s a pity that we could have presented you with better scenery if we had been a few days later. Nevertheless, I hope to show you the natural beauty of Tochigi, such as the Kinugawa River and the haze.

Map of the tour