That's what we are. Speed demons on our new bikes. We can reach 16kph in under 3 minutes...
What's that? I don't understand the term "speed demon"? Hm.
In any event, we have been riding around a bit lately, and it's pretty awesome. It's cheaper than the trains, pretty easy in this relatively flat terrain, and definitely a good counterbalance for the fairly sedentary lives of academics. We do have to contend with speed demons when we bike though. Even though biking on the sidewalk is illegal, it seems that 90% of bike riding in big cities happens there. We have been following suit partly because it seems to work out, partly because they do have bike lanes on some of the sidewalks, but also because riding in the street would be pretty damn dangerous here. But from time to time I wonder if we might be safer sharing space with speeding taxis and freight trucks when some of the other bikers speed by us through the narrowest of spaces. It's almost as if there is some sort of unending race with no set course, no clear winners and everyone is a contestant. It actually didn't feel this scary as a pedestrian, but now I'm playing chicken on my bike every two blocks and it's starting to get a little tense... but it's still awesome, so I'm not really complaining too much. Besides, I'll probably be just as bad in a few weeks.
Speaking of tense (I have no shame in my use of bad segues), tonight we saw Biohazard/Resident Evil 5. We had seen the theme park attraction/event for the movie at Universal Studios Japan a couple weeks ago when a couple of friends came into town. The theme park stuff was at least medium level awesome, which is pretty good for hokey stuff like that. The movie itself did not hold any great surprises and was no better or worse than the other Resident Evil movies, but like the others it was quite effective in giving you cheap thrills through exquisitely timed jump cuts and monster appearances. On a side note I think that despite all of the shock value, Rachel and I found ourselves laughing much more often than anyone around us.
Biking in Japan is quite dangerous. There are rules but are never enforced and everyone is off for themselves. Especially in the narrow alleys and streets close to train stations where there a ton of people crowding the streets. Please be careful. Also being tense is no good.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's pretty intense - we've already identified certain streets/paths that we avoid on our bikes because of space and crowding. We've found also that just taking it slow and yielding the right of way even if we should have it leaves things pretty safe (although there are those damn middle-schoolers who have no idea what's going on. but that's a different story...) Actually what I think is the most frustrating is that there are clearly marked bike lanes on most major roads but they end up being bicycle parking for most of the way.
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