Bicycles

Things Japanese People Can Do On Bikes Which Apparently No-One Else Can

1) Hold umbrellas

This is technically illegal, but everyone does it. You cycle on the pavement so you don't need to signal, leaving one hand free to hold the umbrella and the other to steer. Usually safe enough, except when holding the umbrella right in front of your head against the wind, which blocks your view. Yes, I saw a guy doing that.

2) Text

This is quite an incredible skill. I've been able to hold a phone to my ear while cycling, since you still have eyes on the road, but to text you need to be able to watch two things at once. To be fair, I have seen mostly girls doing this (it is multi-tasking, after all), but I would definitely crash into the nearest lamppost/wall/pedestrian/small child if I tried it.

3) Smoke

Okay, so maybe anyone could do this, but wouldn't the cigarette just blow out?

4) Ride up ridiculously long hills without gears

Japanese bikes are available very cheaply, because everyone has them, so they come without gears. The hill on the way back to our dorms is hell, but the guys seem to cycle up it with absolutely no problems. Maybe it's a proof of manliness thing and actually they're dying inside.

Bikes

This is the place where you leave your bike when going somewhere from Higashi-Hiroshima Train Station. It may not look particularly significant, but if you think that there's 3 rooms of this and most of them are just day trippers, you realise why. Everyone in Japan rides bikes.

As soon as we got there they encouraged us to buy a bike, because it is the main mode of transport. Bikes here don't have gears, but it's completely normal to have a basket on the front, which is useful for transporting stuff while not looking like an old lady, which you would with a basket in England.

I'm just about to hop on my bike for the 10-minute cycle to Saijo Town and the massive department store there (as well as the Muji I noticed last time).