Tokyo Cyclist

 I was planning to leave this Thursday morning, however I came to realize that I already accepted an invitation to a Christmas party this Friday without considering the date.  As such, I will leave Saturday afternoon instead.   My current plan is to travel a little under 50km per day, as I want to make good time without overdoing it. I had planned 50km last time, but this time I will be able to travel for at least 4 hours per day, so it should not be too much of a challenge to stick to the plan.   I plan to arrive as follows: 12/17: Tamachi 12/18: Fujisawa 12/19: Kodawara 12/20: Mishima I'll stay a night or so at Mishima before heading back to Tokyo.  

 Last year I rode over 200km from Tokyo to Nagano in October.  Since then I have also ridden to Kamakura (in a blizzard)and Enoshima (in a typhoon!).  The snow was fun on a mountain bike, the typhoon, less so.  Kamakura and Enoshima are close together, so besides the rain it was much the same experience.   Nagano was fun, but at over 200km and only able to  move for 2-3 hours per day (as I was working during the day at the time),  it took about 6 days to make my way there.  I decided to grit my teeth and make it back to Tokyo in one very long day - but that is not an experience I would like to repeat.   I started looking for my next target over the last few months.  The main criteria was: Not too close, not too far.  Ideally somewhere around 150km away that I haven't been to before.  I have tentatively selected Mishima.  It looks like an interesting place to visit, with lots of historical landmarks.    ...

 The first thing to clarify is the difference between these two types of devices. Bluetooth Trackers By "Bluetooth Tracker", I refer to devices like Apple's AirTag, and Tile Tracker devices.  These are often referred to as GPS trackers, but they are in fact nothing of the sort.   A real "GPS Tracker" has electronics in it that enable it to receive signals from GPS satellites and determine the location of the device without needing any ground based communication from bluetooth, WiFi, cellular, etc.  This does require a clear view of the sky, however.  There are other satellite based networks, which are technically different than (or extensions to) GPS, such as Michibiki, but I will group them here as GPS to simplify things slightly.   A bluetooth tracker on the other hand, has no GPS chip or antenna, and thus has no idea where it is located.   The next major difference is that GPS trackers will generally either store a log of the location...

 It has been reported in the news over the past year that bicycle battery thefts are at an all time high in Tokyo.   You might say "Japanese committing crimes?! Say it isn't so!" - but Japan has never been a magical lant completely free of crime.  Sure, crime is relatively low, and violent crime is lower still - but people go overboard when they say the country is crime free.  In fact, various forms of fraud are common, and theft is not completely unheard of.   Electric assist bikes are popular in Japan, and much of the value of such bikes is in their batteries.  Typically, the batteries lock into place, but like many locks, the battery locks are more or less meant to keep the honest, well, honest. Batteries can go for several hundred dollars, and stealing a battery may seem less risky than stealing the bike itself or entering someone's house to steal items inside.   In recent years, the number of such thefts has skyrocketed according to...

 It's been noted from various sources that the police have started cracking down on cycling violations in Tokyo due to an increase in the number of accidents.   Mentions of this in Japanese media are largely met with the response of "good, it's about time", or similar, but in the English speaking social media sites the reaction is for some reason a bit more mixed.   Primer:  If you want to know more about cycling rules in Japan, a good place to start is here .   The basics are as follows: 1. Children need helmets, and if in child seats, seatbelts. 2. You are legally required to register your bike - though no license is needed. 3. You must ride on the left side of the road in most cases, and obey all stop signs, traffic lights, and other rules.  This means that "Rolling stops" are 100% illegal in Japan. 4. Brakes and lights must be fitted and lights must be used at night. 5. Most bikes are allowed to traverse most one way roads the "Wrong wa...

Conventional wisdon holds that Japanese houses are famously small - but "Small" is a matter of opinion, and a matter of degree.  I would disagree that the houses are small relative to human needs since most people are perfectly comfortable - but there is no denying that the average size of a house or apartment is smaller than in say, the United States.  For that and other reasons, the vast majority of people leave their bicycles outside, just as with their cars and motorcycles. The typical Japanese bike has hard plastic handle grips, and so even if you leave the bike outside for 5 or 10 years, there is no problem.  A good example of a typical handle is shown below: The vast majority of bikes you will find used by adults in Japan are also utility bikes.  Typically electric assist utility bikes.   Fancier bikes, however, tend to have softer, more comfortable grips.  There is a downside to this, however: Softer grips age faster when exposed to the weather...

 Why do you make these videos? I started making videos for safety purposes.  Everyone uses the word "safety", but recording your ride doesn't actually make you any safer, in the same way that "Disaster prevention" goods don't actually stop natural disasters like earthquakes from happening.  They do, however, help you deal with natural disasters that are going to happen anyway.    Having a recording in case of an accident or near miss won't turn back time, but it could help catch the perpetrater or prove your innocence.   Drivers in Japan are generally respectful and safe, but it never hurts to be prepared.   Besides the one-off effect of having evidence for yourself in case of an incident, the more people taking video, the more others will think twice about their actions.   After a while, I had a lot of footage, which I generallly erased and overwrote each time.   At some point, I decided to play around with iMovie and mak...