Big plan, little plans

It seems to be getting warmer bit by bit around here. I have started doing rides that are slightly longer than just riding around town. Nothing heavy duty, but still I can feel my body is quite out of shape. I don't have any pictures though as these rides have been around already familiar places. I think weather permitting, I will start doing more substantial rides within a week or two.

Normally on this blog, we usually write about things we experience first hand, but today I thought I'd write about couple of things I noticed online.



The first is the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030. I think that's the official name. I don't know how much coverage this has been getting outside of Portland, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it's a plan for the city of Portland to build some 680 miles of bikeways in the next 20 years that they are trying to pass. It was initially to be voted on this past week, but the vote has been postponed until next week. Mayor Adams who is supportive of the plan is confident that it will pass. I haven't followed it that closely myself other than reading articles over at Bike Portland, but while it seems a lot of people who are supportive of the plan, there's also people who are against it. To me, it's a no brainer. I have no problems with a plan that calls for building more and better infrastructure for bikes in Portland. I can only think of good things that could result from this. I think the issue for people who are against it is mainly the cost which will be some $613 million over the 20 years. That is a lot of money, but I think it's very low sum when you compare it with budgets for other modes of transportation. Anyway, I think while Portland may seem like a bicycle haven from the outside, the reality is that people who ride bikes are still a minority. One thing though that I don't quite understand is the scope of the plan. Why 20 years? Why not 10 or 5? 20 years seems like an awfully long time. I think they must have a good reason, but I don't get it. Anyway, I hope that it will pass next week. I think other Portlanders might have been more actively involved with this like going to a rally at the city hall, but my time here in Portland is limited and I will probably not be here to see the plan actually taking effect. My interest in the plan is more that it will set a precedence and maybe start a new trend for other cities to follow. Cities all over US desperately need a plan like this.



The other thing that sparked my interest this past week was this nice post over at Lovely Bicycle. It's about being able to afford things you love (bicycles!) by prioritizing what you really need in life. I'm quite similar in a way that I don't own a TV or a car and I rarely go out to eat at restaurants, etc. I spent years from when I was in high school to college being quite obsessed with sport cycling, but when I got into art school and moved to the other side of the country, I decided to give it up and concentrate on my studies. It wasn't long before I started missing the road bike I sold, but it wasn't until last year that I finally decided to get myself a road bike again. It was really the theft of my mountain bike that prompted me to buy the road bike, but until then I couldn't seem to justify the spending. I got a used bike and not a new bike. It's not my ultimate dream bike, but I'm glad to have it and glad that I didn't go all out on a dream bike then. After having had this bike, I think I know better what my dream bike would be. I had been thinking of having a road bike for so many years while living in NYC where I had my mountain bike and I often went for a ride in the city (riding around Central Park and stuff) and it took a move to Portland and losing the mountain bike to get it, but I think it would've happened sooner or later. I think what I'm getting at is that you can have what you want. Sometimes it takes circumstances for it to happen or you can manage your life and make it happen. I think people who say that they wish they could afford a nice bike in casual conversation probably don't really want one badly enough.

I was thinking before I started writing that these 2 things: the Portland bike plan and planning life to get what you want, sort of related to each other. Maybe they do, maybe not so much. Well, I think in both cases, careful thinking and planning can lead to good things whether it's a more healthy & pleasant environment or having something you truly wanted.

Pictures by Kao

Me and Kao both have accounts at flickr. Mine is quite a mess with everything from daily snaps to artworks. Though I have taken classes in photography, I must admit that I am a poor photographer. Kao on the other hand is a much better photographer and so, I have often thought this blog can benefit more with her photography than mine. I've used her pictures in the past in my posts, but it was a bit of a hassle as I had to ask her to give me the html code each time. We noticed recently that now flickr has a "share this" feature for each picture, and with that I can grab the code myself without having to bother Kao about it.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a post with some of her recent pictures.


This is me on my Dahon riding along Tsurumi river.


Me again riding a mamachari on the path around Kitaura lake near Kao's parents house in Ibaraki prefecture.


A tin bike toy Kao found in a window in Nezu (old Tokyo neighborhood).


Me sitting and flipping through a bike magazine at the old Cycle Square Kitasando.


We stopped by F.I.G Bike after our visit to the Cycle Square. It not only has road bikes and fixies like so many other biks shops, but more utilitarian bikes and a whole section of causal bike clothing by brands like the Rin Project. The staff was very vocal about the merits of regular looking clothing that you can bike in.


Nice card on the wall!


Close-up of the entrance. The two bikes on the right, I think are a Globe and maybe a Velorbis. Not sure.

Also some of you readers who are fellow bloggers are also welcome to use our photos from our flickr pages; Mine and Kao's. You don't need to tell us beforehand, but drop us a line afterward if you can. I doubt that any of you will do so, but please don't use it in a negative way like being negative about bikes.

We may not have a lot of exciting things to write about in the near future as we have to deal with real life things and also it's not warm enough yet to really ride a lot, but we'll try and update regularly anyway.

Since the last entry (in Japan)

Wow, as I started to write this, I checked to see when the last update was and it was like 3 weeks ago before the new year, in fact.

I am back in Portland now. Our house hunting in Japan so far hasn't met success. So now Kao will have to continue on that task without me and that might take a while, so I might still be in Portland for a bit longer.

We had a great new year's at Kao's parents' in Ibaraki.



We rode the mamachari to the nearby Kitaura Lake.



With a thermos full of hot tea!



On new year's day, we didn't ride the bikes, but we went to watch the first sunrise come up over the Pacific Ocean. It was super cold, but there were lots of people who had the same idea.



Kao at the same beach during the day.



Back in Kawaski, I saw these two bikes and hula hoops. So colorful and pretty!



We also visited the Cycle Square Kitasando which Kao wrote about here and Gary Fisher raved about on his visit. It was a temporary project by the Bicycling Popularization Association of Japan as a space which aimed to "popularize" bicycling. I had read and heard about it, but I wanted to check it out before it closed. (it closed on January 17th) They often had events like panel discussions and rides, but for the most part it's a cafe with expensive road bikes on display and all the latest bike magazines. There is corner where you can bring your bike in and use tools there and there is a "concierge" who you can go talk to about anything that is bicycle related. This is also the place where they held seminars about the Bicycle Citizenship Manifest. I still don't quite agree with that and also I found that the way Cycle Square Kitasando could have done things differently to appeal to a wider portion of the public.



When you first enter, there are these vintage bikes on display. (I think that's a vintage Pashley on the front) But the rest of the bikes on display in the space are all road bikes. I like looking at road bikes as much as anyone, but I think if they were aiming to get non-enthusiasts to become interested in riding bikes, they should really have had more variety of bikes. They had video monitors throughout the space and they were all showing videos of road racing too. I think road bikes and racing is definitely appealing, but there is so much more different kind of bicycling which they simply ignored. One thing that this space achieved though is that they got tons of media exposure. I think the Bicycling Popularization Association of Japan is mostly funded by Keirin and so this whole thing seemed very official, well organized, but a bit boring. That's a totally different approach from the grassroots stuff that happen here in Portland.



The food was pretty good although the portions were too small and over priced!



Lastly, this photo of a poster has been getting some attention on my flickr. It's a poster which tells you how (or how not) to bring your bike on the train.



You are supposed to disassemble your bike and put it in a bag or case so as not to get in the way of fellow train passengers. I think there are some trains in rural areas that allow bikes on board without disassembly, but for the most part these rules apply throughout Japan. It may be a while before multi-modal communting with bikes on trains become regular normal activity.

More kids bikes

I did a post about kids bikes a while ago. There was a Miffy bike in that post and recently, I saw another Miffy bike, so I thought I 'd do another post with that and some other kids bikes I've seen since.



This one is even smaller than the previous one and it looks like it's been ridden much longer.



In the same parking space, there was a bike with a basket with some acorns. I think I remember collecting acorns when I was little too.



We spotted this Panasonic bike outside our building.



It's got very detailed graphics as you can see.



This one was parked in front of the local supermarket.



Its name is "Hard Candy". Design is coordinated throughout even with the original basket that says "Hard Candy".

Revisiting Tsurumi River

The last 4 posts about the Tokyo Cycle Mode have focused on the product side of the bicycle quite a bit. I do like looking at bikes and accessories, but I think that's just one part of the experience of riding a bike. Other things like the environment you ride in and the weather might actually contribute more to the overall experience. Of course, how the bike feels is very important, but it doesn't matter so much if that bike is a high tech race bike or a mamachari. Any bike that's in decent working condition can be a joy to ride depending on the occasion. I guess what I'm trying to say is that at Cycle Mumbreeze, we are not that obsessive about the gear. For us, just enjoying riding the bicycle is more important. Even riding a mamachari barely faster than walking along the river is an enjoyable experience.



Last weekend, we rode to the nearby Tsurumi River. Tsurumi river runs parallel on the West side of the more famous Tama River. Beyond Tsurumi River is Tsurumi, the Eastern ward of Yokohama, where I grew up as a child before my family moved to the US when I was 13. So, Tsurumi River is the first river I probably came in contact with. The name Tsurumi translates as something like "Crane watching". I've always wondered if there was a time when you could go to the river and see cranes there. But, Tsurumi River as far as I can recall had never been known for its beauty or cleanliness. I think especially when I was growing up, it was in poor shape from industrial sewage. It has been a while since I'd been there because from where we reside now, it's much easier to get to the Tama River. To go directly to the Tsurumi River seemed complicated, so we decided to first go to the Yagami River which is a small river that runs into Tsurumi River.


View Larger Map

The above map sort of shows the route that we took although I couldn't get the route to be exactly the way we went. We rode mostly directly along the river.

The top photo is where the Yagami River meets Tsurumi River.


Kao looking at Tsurumi River.

It was a nice Sunny day and there were plenty of people out walking, running and riding bikes.



We ran into this family in the above photo. They were going rather quickly. Kao wanted to get a photo, but couldn't catch up with them, so I followed them instead and took this picture. You may not be able to tell, but there is a man running in front of the woman on the bike. The woman is carrying her child on her back which is quite unusual to see with so many options for carrying a child on a bike being available in Japan. It seemed the man who was probably the husband of the woman was training and the mother and child was following him closely behind.





There were many parts of the river front that were under construction.




"Tsurumi river basin area is in the shape of a baku(tapir)" this post says.



We crossed and went underneath a few railroads. This one might be right under the Shinkansen (bullet train).



We went to the Otsunabashi near the Tsunashima station and then headed back. Overall, the Tsurumi river didn't seem to be quite as well maintained or fashionable as the Tama river, but it seemed cleaner than I remembered from my childhood days and the local people there seemed to be enjoying the area.

Anyway, it was nice to revisit a place from my childhood and not be disappointed.

CYCLE MODE 2009 [ more pictures ]

Here are some more pictures Kao took at Cycle Mode.




Armstrong / Contador display




Colorful Fuji Bikes




Rapha display with an Independent Fabrication bike


I will probably never ever ride the Cervelo P4


Fumiyuki Beppu display






This Specialized bike weighs less than 6kg!

CYCLE MODE 2009 [ colorful and cute ]

After test riding the two bikes, I was mostly looking at colorful bikes and goods.



cute colors!



Puma bike, how does it ride? It looks a bit like an animal.



Covers both nose and neck. Colorful mask?



Cute, but a car for a bike lock? strange!



Very triangle. foldable.