Tokyo - Biking

It's a Way of Life Here
It may be a stretch to characterize cycling as part of the Japanese DNA but if you spend some time here in the outskirts you might draw the same conclusion.  The train is king, no denying that - each town or neighborhood is built around the train station.  All the businesses are close to the station; there is always a grocery store or two, the post office, the library, the butcher, the schools, etc.  The housing radiates outwards from the station creating a giant circle of life the edges of which are quiet and overlap with the adjacent towns, no further than half a mile away.  Everything in town is done on the bike.  You take your kids to school that way, you go shopping that way - bouncing from small shop to small shop, filling up your basket (or baskets) as you go.

It doesn't matter how old you are.  The old folks here are not sitting around looking out the window.  They're out on their bikes, riding around town, shopping, eating, hanging out.  In my town, the average age appears to be about 80, but who knows, it might ever be higher.

For the younger folks who have to get up and get on a train into Tokyo, no worries - there are plenty of bike parking lots everywhere.  This one is near the train station and costs about 1 dollar for 24 hours.  That is a bit pricey but I think it's because your bike is inside, out of the elements.

The outdoor lots are a lot cheaper.  This one is typical - full of many utilitarian bikes used primarily to ride to and from the station and home.

The cycling culture here revolves around the sidewalk, with cyclists and walkers mixing pleasantly.  The government is trying to encourage the cyclists onto the street - there are plenty of bike lanes in the street but old habits die hard.  I am more comfortable on the street than the sidewalk - that's whay I'm used to.

My landlady lent me a bike which her family no longer uses.  It's a bike I wouldn't be caught dead on in any other country.  Here I look like everyone else - an old dude on a grandpa bike. 

There are three gears which change when they feel like it, usually into a harder gear just as I start climbing a hill.  I cruise around on it, go to the store and visit the nearby towns.

As cycling standards go, we happen to be extremely lucky.  We live on the green belt, which is a long cycling trail that starts at our nearby lake, lake Tama and heads almost into downtown Tokyo.  I jumped onto it from our local park.

There were reminders in the park to not cycle like a jerk.

The trail goes under train tracks....

It also has bridges that cross the busy streets so you don't have to slow down if you don't want to.

At the smaller crossings, there are metal barriers you have to slow down and go through.  The signs say "bikers, please ride gently."

About a mile south of my home, the trail splinters into many, some of which follow a river though I don't know how far yet.  I will find out soon.

At times you have to wait for a passing train.  When I took this photo the bell was ringing, letting you know one was coming soon.

I passed through Musashi Yamato, the nearest town south of us, then Yasaka - a town we go to often, it's a classic old town with great shops.  I kept going, passing through Hagiyama and then into Kodaira, another classic town.  It has really beautiful parks filled with flowering trees.

These are all the same towns we pass through by train on our way to school each day.  However, on a bike it's much more interesting.  The trail passes by a lot of small farms, which you cannot see from the train.

Most have a small farm stand where they're selling off some of their produce.  I want to come back here on the weekend and buy some things.  I have already began practicing the Japanese for "Miss Landlady, can my wife borrow another one of your bikes?  We want to ride to Kodaira and buy vegetables."

We are happy we're living where we do.  It's such a different experience than we've had here before.  We're living much more like the locals do.  Speaking of which, we have to be the only two non-Japanese living in our town.  Maybe there are one of two others but i doubt they are spinning around between the towns on an old bike.