riding my bike in japan.

september 7th

before i left for japan i started to ride my bike--after five years of it collecting dust in my parent's garage. i wanted to get used to riding in the city since i knew it was the thing to do in my future home. i had wonderful trips cruising around portland and actually going to the east side. i learned the rules of the road and built up some stamina. now i'm in japan. bike riding is stereotypically the way to get around. the reality? bike riding is popular, but i still get shocked and confused looks as i trek my way into school. okay this is mildly reasonable for a couple reasons. firstly, i'm white. i'm the kind of foreigner that sticks out like swollen red thumb. secondly, apparently bike riding is for young people or for short trips. now my ride to school is like a mini-zoo bomb everyday. i say mini because, well there's not 50 bikes speeding down the hill with me, and the slope is a scoshe smaller. so, my bike ride to work 15 min or so on relatively flat ground, then i get to the bottom of bishomondai station and the hill begins. optimistically, one day i will be able to ride up part of this hill. yeah, only part. the fifteen to twenty min walk up my very large hill is only possible because of the dialogue in my head, 'this is good for you', 'you need the exercise' and 'think of what good shape you'll be in in just a couple months'. this is also assisted by the amazing ride DOWN the hill at the end of the day. now damn does that feel good.

beyond the large hills, that every school seems to be on, bike riding here is very convenient. all the public transportation stations have lots of bike parking (of course it's not as cool as pdx where you can take your bike ON the public transportation). every bike has a kick-stand. and because it's so acceptable, and japanese people are a little woozy, you are SUPPOSED to ride on the sidewalks. of course this gets a little tricky and involves much complicated pedestrian dodging. now every sidewalk has, in the middle, a trail of yellow paint over bumps that are (we gaijin presume) to guide the blind. so, my original assumption was that one side was for pedestrians and the other for bikes. now i'm not so sure. they just aren't consistent about it and i don't know if it's because they are adjusting for me--the weird looking girl who's skirt keeps flipping up, or there is no rule. the other difficulty is that they drive on the left side of the road here. i'm trying to adjust my instincts from swerving to the right to avoid a crash, to swerving to the left, but of course it's not that simple. so the other day i did swerve to the right and i almost crashed into this guy in a suit on his bike. he was very kind about it and said 'excuse me' in english. but earlier that day i tried swerving to the left and almost ran over a very small very frightened little girl. i thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head. i probably scared her for life. now, reasonably i could ask someone if there are any rules about bike riding and what side of the road i should be on, but i have a feeling that there aren't. this is another place where japan is an oxymoron. you think it should be orderly and clean and controlled, then you discover that there is no soap in the bathrooms at school, that everyone complains about the buses being 20 min late and that there is no discipline in the classrooms.