bike with resturant advertisement.
parcel delivery bike.
Showing posts with label tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tokyo. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, December 21, 2009
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
