Hey Team …….. just back home in Oz after a great 3 weeks in Japan, a lot of which I spent riding my bicycle site-seeing or just going from A to B.
The difference in bike culture between my 2 country’s is like day and night. In Japan it is such a huge part of everyday life in which, on the same piece of road you can see public transport (buses etc), trucks, a guy out training and Mum and 2 kids on their electric commuter bike …… all peacefully sharing the same piece of real estate. Compare that to here in Oz where we are called cockroaches and considered a hassle and obstruction to most other road users.
For Comparison ……. In Japan , if I want to quickly go to the shops, I simply throw my leg over my “mamachari” and cruise down to the shop using whichever road and path is the easiest. My first ride back in Oz this morning and I am only 300mts from home when a guy comes blasting out of a side street and sees me at the last min and slams on the brakes but stops right in my path. Luckily I am so used to this sort of behavior and spotted him long before he saw me and was able to stop in time and cruise by his car, BUT not before he leans out his window and yells at me “to get a life and get off OUR roads. After I beg his pardon and explained to him that I was just simply riding down my street (legally) and minding my own business and that in fact he was the one in driving way too fast and in the wrong for not giving way to other traffic …. well you see where this is going. End result, he pulls out behind me and then gives me a “punishment pass” and yells out his passenger window for me to “F### Off” …. charming!!
But wait, the story is not over yet …….. about an hour and a half later as I am cruising back towards home using a series of bike paths and foot paths to stay away from cars etc …. a police car gives me a blip of his siren and motions for me to pull over. I was on a foot path which runs down the side of a local shopping mall and I would have seen maybe 2 to 3 pedestrians use it in over 3 years of me riding it. The young rozzer explains to me that it is “highly” illegal (don’t know what the difference is between illegal and highly illegal?) and very dangerous for pedestrians for me to be on the footpath. After he takes my details he sends me on my way …. him feeling pretty smug and me feeling like I want to take the next plane back to Sakura City Japan. 