Hokuren Flags

　　I got the 4th Hokuren flag before entering Furano Town, completing the full set of flags. The whole of Hokkaido was divided into 4 areas and each area had its color. The center part was red. Hokuren is the name of a comprehensive company in Hokkaido. The gas business is one of its wide variety of enterprises. The flag was sold at 110 yen at every Hokuren gas station. On my last visit to Hokkaido, the flags were free and it surprised me, but there was a reason.
　　The second picture shows a special sales promotion. Take pictures which contain the flags in riding scenes in Hokkaido wherever you like, and send them to the company. If they are acknowledged to be nice pictures, you could be awarded something nice. I'd like to try it, but the weather was terrible all the way. The price of the flags would be the source of the prizes. I admired the promotion.
　　The flags used to be freely distributed as I wrote above. The more flags you had, it meant the longer your stay in Hokkaido and the more kinds of flags you had meant you had been in a wider area. Anyway, it was a kind of decoration for riders.

(Vocabulary)
decoration [C] 勲章 [＋decoration for]

　富良野に入る手前で４つめのホクレンの旗を手に入れた。これで４種類をすべて手にした。だからどうというわけでもないのだが、ホクレンで給油するとき１１０円で購入した。有料には驚いたが、パンフレットにあるようなキャンペーンがあるらしい。北海道の気に入った土地で旗を含めて写真を撮り応募して欲しいという。もちろん商品があるが、我々の場合、ずっと天気が悪く、とても美しい写真を撮れるような状況ではなかった。本当に残念。
　前に来たときは無料でもらい、たくさん持っているほど北海道に長く滞在していることを示し、種類が多いほど広い範囲を走っていることを意味し、どちらもツーリングオタクの勲章だった。有料化されたことは残念だが、優秀写真の商品になるのならまあいいか。