End of April 2007
Once 'T' left for her trip to Australia we finally had some time to ourselves.
Rhiannon has been riding her bicycle up and down the cul-de-sac with stabilisers for some time now. It's very safe in this immediate area with little or no traffic, so - unlike in the UK - I'm happy for her to play outside on her own. She wants a new bike, which she does need as this one is getting too small for her now. But the prerequisite for this new bike is that she must learn to ride without stabilisers.
Good friends, and experts in this small but vital piece of education, recommended that the only and best way to do this is to remove the pedals as well as the stabilisers. Their son has been riding without stabilisers since he was about two, so they do know about it! Well, he never actually had a bike with stabilisers anyway, just two wheels and the handlebars.
Of course, Tim thought his method was better and just removed the training wheels. Over a period of 2 or 3 days, a panicky Rhiannon wobbled a lot, fell off and cried amid Tim railing against her. I had to put a quick stop to this before her nerve left her altogether and so I insisted the pedals should come off too.
Brave child got back on, with plasters on her scraped knees, wobbled a lot but this time she was able to put her feet down on the ground to prevent further crashes. It's all to do with balance, obviously.
Within half an hour she was ready for the pedals to go back on and we proudly cheered as she confidently rode her bike for the first time, without stabilisers!
I should add at this point that I cannot ride a bike. But Rhiannon has said I can have her old stabilisers if I want to get one! I do fancy a bike, just because I am acquisitive and I've seen some lovely ones around. I'm sure it can't be that hard to learn… even at my age.
Apparently there are over 86 million bicycles in Japan. I should think most of them are in Tokyo. It's most definitely the favoured form of transport.
There are so many different kinds from standard city bikes to peculiar 'lie-down and pedal' contraptions with a roof. We laugh to see a fully grown man in his business suit pedalling furiously on a kids' sized Raleigh Chopper style bike.
By far the most common sight is the mama-charis, literally "mother's bike". These very basic shopping bikes have a basket on the front and a child's seat on the back. Sometimes there will be a child's seat on the front as well! Actually, most bikes have a large metal basket on the front, even the toughest -looking mountain bike. Sometimes the basket contains a small dog, enjoying the ride with ears blown back in the wind. Occasionally the dog is a little bigger...
Mama-charis bomb along the pavements with the mother pedalling, sometimes with a baby strapped across her chest in a sling and a toddler sitting or sleeping on the back seat. There are special holders for umbrellas too. But when it's raining it's not uncommon for the cyclist to be holding the brolly over their head and cycling one-handed. It's terrifying. And nobody wears helmets either.
Other bikes that intrigue me are the electric powered ones. For ages I wondered how these women managed to cycle up hills with two kids and bags of shopping until someone pointed out to me that the pack near the pedals gave a little extra power to their efforts. There are also plenty of adult sized tricycles, some with two wheels on the rear, others with double wheels at the front.
But almost all cyclists ride on the pavements! And they don't cycle slowly, either.
With a small child in tow, it's frankly terrifying to see the speed they reach and they barely slow down to weave between the pedestrians. Although they don't' annoy me as much as mountain bikers in the UK, tearing up the countryside and feeling they are entitled to make up rules up as they go along, it's still tempting to carry a sturdy stick to shove in the wheel spokes.
Some politely ring their bell just before they are about to hit you. Which is nice. Unless you are deaf…
Apparently there ARE cycling rules, but they are rarely enforced. Unless you are a gaijin, when (allegedly) the police often take the opportunity to stop and fine you. Bikes have to be registered and display a little yellow sticker on the frame.
Official rules are (as far as I can tell):
- Ride on the road - unless you prefer to ride on the pavement
- If you ride on the pavement, do so slowly and with care
- Pedestrians have right of way on the pavement.
- Cyclists bear full responsibility for accidents with pedestrians
- All traffic signs and traffic lights apply to cyclists as well a motor vehicles
- Keep left
- Don't ride on the wrong side of the road - riding the wrong way is prohibited
- Drunk riding is illegal
- Lights are mandatory for night riding
- Park in designated areas. If you fail to do so your bike will be taken away by the Bike Police and you will incur a fine in order to retrieve it.
- Carrying passengers over the age of six is prohibited.
- Don't ride carrying an open umbrella or talking on your mobile phone
It's also very common to see "no bicycle parking areas" full of parked bikes.
So, if you want to be a true cycling Tokyoite, ignore all the above rules.
It seems the law turns a blind eye to all these rules until someone other than yourself gets hurt.
Perhaps I will stick to my trusty car instead.
