Hygiene products?!? Libraries!!?! Goodness, readers, you are turning my, ahem, “restful” vacation in Japan into a photo scavenger hunt. I will do what I can, but taking requests in turn, Carbonman is next up, as he has been waiting patiently for me to satisfy his bike fetish, requested on March 29.
This post is for both the Jeffs I know who are obsessed with bikes – Carbonman and Monk (Greenstuff, please pass this along, okay?). Hipster fixed-gear bike riders are a serious group here in Japan, but not so much in Tokyo as in Osaka. You have to look all ways before crossing the street in Osaka Minami, the “American Village” in Shinsaibashi, as you are likely to be hit by a cyclist coming from any and all directions. People ride on the road, the sidewalk – pretty much anywhere they please. They also talk or even text on their mobile phones while weaving crazily among pedestrians.
One of my favourite things about Osaka has been watching the active civic disobedience at work as cyclists blatantly disregard the thousands of “don’t park your bike here!” signs littering the sidewalks. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the official-looking little yellow tickets attached to almost every bike on the street must be parking tickets. I know you need a license to buy a bike in Japan, but I have to wonder how effectively such penalties can be enforced. This city has a totally different feel to Tokyo – less formal, more goofy. There’s a sense of fun, of not taking oneself too seriously. I like it.
I was impressed with bicycles in Japan also. I was more impressed by the social norms that prevent people from stealing from each other. There is no way people could leave their bikes around Toronto with only a wheel-lock, they would be loaded onto a van, never to be seen again!
If you have time while you’re in Osaka, check out the Human Rights Museum. It’s cool and weird at the same time. The approach to the human rights discourse is like 20 years behind Canada (or maybe it’s just the translation).
Also – check out Orange street while you’re in Osaka. It’s cool cool cool, and feels more like a smaller city, maybe like Soho in NYC or something.
Hey! That is one sweet collection of bike prn, thanks. I love the mass illegal parking activity. It seems so un-Japanese. If you can secure some small piece of Japanese hipster fixie d-bag paraphernalia to bring home I promise to dance at your wedding. Spoke cards? Cycling cap? Bike decal in kanji? Any would be nice. So you can cancel that order for the schoolgirl panties from the vending machine. I’m changing my order. 🙂
Put on your dancing shoes, Carbonman! I found you two sweet reflective decals with kanji and bizarre logos on them. I’ll ask my friend Stephen to translate when I get back to Tokyo. No idea what they’re saying but one appears to be about cycling under the influence of too much sake, and the other might be about dogs? Or women? Not sure.
Sweet! Can’t wait to see ’em. They’ll look oh so cool stuck to my new macbook 🙂 Arragato, M-san!