Osaka: Bicycle Heaven

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.