Andrew + Japan = Awesome

Back in Sanda I used to walk everywhere, and if I couldn’t walk there I took the train, or a bus. A car was totally out of the question, and a bicycle would have been nice, but with everything so close I didn’t really need it. In Toyohashi however, I live quite a way from the nearest train station, walking there would take a good half hour or more, much longer than the five minutes I became so used to in Sanda. Everything is still pretty close, but not quite as close as Sanda, so when I got to Toyohashi I bought some new wheels.

That is my hot new bike. It’s a stunning silver, with a state of the art gear system (a whole single gear!), and a convenient carrying basket on the front. It also has a patented "anti-collision system", otherwise known as a bell on the handlebars.

The whole thing feels so ancient, but that’s the standard bike here in Japan. Everyone rides a single gear town bike, mountain bikes are ridiculously expensive. It gets me around, and does it’s job. It does have a few cool features though.

It came with a light on the front of it. The light isn’t battery powered, or solar powered. It has a little wheel that sites on the rim of my front wheel. As I pedal when I click it into place, it turns a tiny turbine and makes the light work. Amazing.

Also of interest is the way I can lock my bike up. I don’t need a separate chain, all the bikes here have a lock built onto the bike. When I get off I push a lever behind my seat, and a piece of metal locks in between the wheel spokes preventing it from moving, of course it doesn’t stop someone picking it up and walking off with it, but it’s a deterrent, and with crime as low as it is here, that’s all you need.

Thankfully my other set of wheels is slightly more advanced.

That is the car I’ve been speeding around Toyohashi in for the last few weeks. I said it was more advanced than my bike, but not by much. It’s got a cassette player, no central locking, manual windows, and doesn’t even have a cigarette lighter. It has a petrol tank that holds around $30 worth of petrol, and struggles to get past 100Km/hr. But, again it gets me around, and does the job using less petrol than my car in NZ did.