Local residents and businesses in Shimanto City, Kochi Prefecture, planted flowers along a national highway to decorate the entrance and welcome tourists.

The Furutsuka district of Shimanto City, where National Route 56 runs, is the “eastern gateway” to the center of Nakamura. For this reason, to make the journey pleasant for tourists and pilgrims, local people continue to decorate the road with flowers twice a year. On the 26th, members of the “Furutsuka National Highway Flower Association” and the “Furutsuka Second Housing Estate Flower Association,” which are made up of local residents, as well as businesses along the road, the road management office, and third-year students from Hata Agricultural High School who grew the flowers, planted seedlings in the flower beds. They planted about 3,000 pots of Madagascar periwinkle, a heat-resistant flower with vibrant pink, red, and white blossoms.

(participant)
“I want customers to feel comfortable when they visit. (Flowers) make people feel good.”

(Hata Agricultural High School student)
“I want people to see the beautiful flowers.”
“My heart has become purer, and everyone seems happy, so I’m happy too.”

Over one kilometer of the sidewalks on both sides of the national highway will be decorated with flowers, welcoming visitors to Hata into the autumn with a floral landscape.