Japan is a very bike based community. I feel like most everyone has a bike and in some cases they have them in multiple. Since when you live in a town everything is relatively close together and easy to get to, owning a bike makes things really convenient. It saves you the quick yen you would spend on a bus or subway and often will get you places a bit faster. However with the surplus of bicycles, is the frequency they get stolen. The whole scenario has a very university campus feel to it; the closeness of everything; the necessity of having a bike; and of course the thievery of them. Though I think Japan is a bit better on the thieving part. But occasionally if you find that you did not properly lock your bike it might be missing or if left there for days it might be a tire lighter. Luckily there are many security people and cameras to prevent just that. In addition every bike is registered with the police so that if they do find it, it can be returned to you.
Whenever I ride my bike I feel like a troll in comparison. Simply they can carry umbrellas; ride with no hands, text and manouver their bike through a crowd; and one of the more spectacular things to me is the mommy mobile, or the mama-chari. On these special mounts there is less dexterity but higher endurance. There are either one or two seats mounted to the front or back of the bike, or both in some cases, where children ride. Not only can there be up to three passengers, two of them are often asleep; which might be the more amazing feat with the jostling of the bike and the amount of foot traffic they must encounter. If you were to ride your bike with someone who is not child sized, say a friend or boy/girl friend, it would not be considered legal and you can get fined for that. That isn't to say that this doesn't happen anyways. There is often a bar just above the back wheel, usually a basket can be mounted there to make shopping more convenient, however when the basket is remove it leaves an excellent back seat just the right size for a friend. Additionally there are spokes that you can buy that stick out of your tires that allow someone to stand on them and hold on to the rider.
And just a caution that the above mentions of the umbrella carrying and texting while riding are also fine-able; though personally I think they are impressive. I have yet to see anyone get fined from this but I have heard of cases where it has happened.
:D I like when people write about bikes. /high five Redpath!
ReplyDelete-Tyler Sawyer