Cycling Daitokuji Temple Kyoto

自転車で大徳寺へ

Daitokuji Temple is in north central Kyoto a bit west of the Kamo River.

It is a large open zen temple in which lie the remains of Sen no Rikyu, the founder of the way of tea.

Except for sunny fall days, it is easily - though bumpily - cycled.

It consists of many sub-temples and is usually blissful and quiet.

It can enjoyed as part of the Kitayama to Kamigamo Shrine route.

Information

Daitokuji Temple
Daitokuji Daitokuji-cho, Murasakino, Kita-ku, Kyoto
075 491 0019

Entrance Fee: Free (except for sub-temples)

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags Japan Touring Kyoto Cycle Japanese

Bicycle License Plates in Tokyo?

自転車にナンバープレート都検討

At some point in the not so distant future, cyclists in Tokyo may be required to have a license plate - for their bicycle(s).

Tokyo city council is now contemplating requiring all adult cyclists register and have a license affixed to their bicycle.

The rationale is that it would reduce accidents by preventing hit-and-run incidents. Moreover, it would make it easier to find owners of bicycles abandoned or stolen in the streets of the capital.

In 2009, Tokyo towed 734,000 bicycles. That is more than 10 times the number towed in Kyoto.

The current proposal would involve a deposit for the license. Those funds would be managed by the city.


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page Tags Japan Touring Kyoto Cycle Japanese

This Week in World Cycling News 22 July 2012

今週のサイクリング２０１２年０７月２２日

First Lady And Partnership For A Healthier America Embrace Play Streets Transportation Alternatives Promotes Play Streets Across New York City Transportation Alternatives Newsroom

COPENHAGEN JOURNAL Commuters Pedal to Work on Their Very Own Superhighway New York Times

What to do when you encounter behaviour like this on the road London Cyclist

Inmates In Brazilian Jail Cycle To Freedom NPR

Britain's top 10 toughest cycle climbs Guardian

Montréal, ville vélo! Vélo Québec

El ejemplo australiano El Pais

憂楽帳:自転車事故　Mainichi Shinbun

Tour de France Stage 18: Cav's Turn to Carry Sky Mantle Yahoo

Last Week's Cycling News


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
World Cycling News

Japanese Expression Jitensha Sogyo

自転車操業【じてんしゃそうぎょう】

"Jitensha Sogyo" is a Japanese expression that employs the word bicycle.

The word bicycle in Japanese

自転車

is pronounced "Jitensha," and is made up of three Chinese characters. The first, "ji," means self. The second, "ten," is to turn or revolve. Finally, "sha," means vehicle.

Thus: self turning vehicle.

The expression Jitensha Sogyo is literally "Bicycle Operation" (as in work or factory operation).

The expression means close to bankruptcy. It is an operation that, like a bicycle whose wheels are not moving, will fall over.

And, recently, many businesses are unfortunately like the proverbial bike whose wheels are not revolving.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags Japan Touring Kyoto Cycle Japanese

Parking Meter Maids on Their Bikes in Kyoto

駐車違反防止対策で京都をチャリで回る

In their dark green slacks, lime green button-down shirts, reflective vests, and dark green baseball caps, Kyoto's meter maids are instantly recognizable.

They patrol the city on bike, and travel in pairs.

They can be found all over the city.

These two are pedaling south on Kiyamachi, just below Oike Dori, on a slow Sunday afternoon, in search of oil-guzzling, exhaust-spewing scofflaws.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

KATAGAMI Style - Paper Stencils and Japonisme Exhibit Kyoto Museum of Modern Art

世界が愛した日本のデザインもうひとつのジャポニスム京都国立近代美術館

The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto will be holding a must-see exhibit for lovers of Japonisme.

"KATAGAMI Style - Paper Stencils and Japonisme" will be held from July 7 until August 19 at the Okazaki museum.

Katagami, or stencil paper, is a well known Japanese art form.

In this exhibit some 400 pieces will be on display.

From central Kyoto, the museum is an easy fifteen minute ride.


Information

Hours: 9:30 - 5 pm (last entry 4:30 pm); open until 8 pm on Fridays (last entry 7:30)

Okazaki Enshoji-cho Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8344
Tel: 075 761 4111

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Exhibit

Kyoto Bans Yakuza Mobsters from Taking Part in Gion Festival

祇園祭暴力団排除へ

Gion Matsuri (Festival), one of Japan's Big Three Festivals - the other two are Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri and Tokyo's Kanda Matsuri - has declared mobsters persona non grata.

As part of a yakuza eradication program, gangsters will not be allowed to pull the large floats and will be denied festival happi coats.

Every year known mobsters have taken part in the festival, usually twenty to thirty such men.

A year ago April, Kyoto city passed an anti-mafia ordinance. In keeping with that, known members of organized criminal organizations will be banned from participating in the festival.

The Festival was first held in 970 C.E., and has only in rare instances not been held.

The climax of Gion Matsuri is on the day of July 17, when the massive floats adorned with tapestries are pulled around the center of the city by teams of men.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

Kyoto Bus Bicycle Manners Campaign

京都バス交通ルールを守ろう

Out on Sunday errands, we rode up behind a Kyoto bus on Imadegawa Dori on its way to Ginkakuji Temple (the Silver Pavilion).

A small depiction of a woman cycling caught our eye as we waited in a warm bath of bus exhaust for the large vehicle to go.

自転車も車両です。

Bicycles are vehicles too.

交通ルールを守ろう

Let's follow traffic rules.

Fair enough, bicycles are vehicles and those riding them should indeed follow traffic law.

To which we add, ad nauseam, how about creating separate lanes for:

1. cars and buses and taxis
2. pedestrians
3. bicycles

Improving on the city's transportation infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists would reduce injuries and fatalities and make Kyoto a more pleasant place to live - and move around - in.


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Manners

Sleeping Beauty on a Kyoto Bike

自転車で寝ている京美人

At first this woman appeared to be sleeping.

She wasn't.

Seated on her mama chari (mama chariot) on a side street just north of Sanjo - Kawaramachi, she was deep into a conversation on her cell phone.

The image is testament to the type of kick stand her bicycle has.

It is a rear wheel drop out kickstand that is standard issue on most mami chari bikes.

Short of a large truck or typhoon grade winds, nothing can topple a bike supported by this type of kick stand.

Perfect for loading up on groceries, kids front and back - and even for a quick phone call.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

Kyoto Fixie Bicycle in front of Bibliotec Cafe

カフェビブリオテク前のフィクシー自転車

The fixie craze is slowly filtering its was down from Tokyo to the provinces.

In front of one of Kyoto's better machiya cafes, Cafe Bibliotec, there was a white fixed gear bicycle parked.

The cafe is a grand old building that was renovated and reborn as a cafe and restaurant.

In keeping with its name, it is full of books and magazines.

Based on the customers there at the time, we suspect the culprit - that is, the owner of the bike - was one of the chefs.

Bibliotec is located on Nijo Dori several blocks west of Teramachi.

Information

650 Seimei-cho, Yanaginobanba higashi iru, Nijo Nakagyo-ku

075 231 8625

Hours

11:30 am - midnight



© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Fixie

Mount Shigi Nara Traditiional Inn Sweets

奈良信貴山旅館のお茶と和菓子

Divine.

On a Golden Week trip to an inn atop Mount Shigi in rural Nara, we were served sweets and tea while waiting to check in.

The area of Shigi-san is east of Osaka City and in the southern part of Nara Prefecture.

The mountain is more than 400 meters (1200 feet) high and has many inns and a large temple complex.

The area is known for its hot springs, Shigisan Temple, and a great battle.

In 1577, the general Oda Nobunaga laid siege to Mount Shigi.

He defeated the castle there that was held by Matsunaga Hisahide. Following defeat, Matsunaga committed ritual suicide. His son, Kojiro, then jumped from the castle walls - his father's severed head in hand, and his own sword piercing his own throat.

With that in mind, we tucked into the exquisite sweets and then headed for the healing waters of the hot spring.

It would be a hell of a bike ride for even the very fit.


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese Sweets

Kyoto Homeless Shelter Under Kamo River Bridge

京都鴨川橋下のホムレス村自転車

Homelessness is not as obvious in Japan as in the United States.

Japanese homeless people do not beg, are not threatening, and tend to be very tidy.

Certain areas of large cities - Airin, in Osaka - have a high concentration of former day laborers who sleep in flop houses.

Still, though run down, these areas do not look or feel significantly different from other, more upscale, areas of urban Japan. (Compared to the US and Europe, Japan has no crime ridden slums.)

The make-shift shelter pictured at right is under a bridge along Kyoto's Kamo River.

Homeless people have stored various necessities - including a couple of old bicycles - under the bridge to keep them dry.

At night, they will return and sleep nearby.

Still, the river is safe and used twenty-four hours a day by the residents of the city.


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Homeless

Kyoto Bicycle Delivery Man

京都自転車配達

The delivery man makes his rounds in Kyoto on a souped up bicycle.

At least two of the major national delivery companies use bicycles in Kyoto: Sagawa and Yamato.

The city is compact, flat, and automobile parking is at a premium.

It is in short made for cycling.

On a near perfect late spring day, a Sagawa delivery man rode south from the Imperial Palace, down Teramachi, and then turned right onto an east-west street.

His tricycle is tricked out with a plexiglass rain cover, electric engine, and large carrying case.


© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags
 
Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Delivery

Traffic Fatalities Japan 2011 Bicycle

二輪車の死亡事故統計自転車

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has compiled traffic fatalities for 2011.

Two wheel vehicles include all type of motorcycles and scooters. Four wheel covers cars and trucks.

Bicycle fatalities totaled 658 last year, or 13.5% of the total of all traffic fatalities.

Data is for 2012　or（2011）
	Tokyo		Japan
	Fatalities	Percentage	Fatalities	Percentage
Two Wheel	72（58）	33.5%（28.3）	871（886）	17.9%（18.0）
Four Wheel	16（25）	7.4%（12.2）	1,602（1,600）	32.9%（32.6）
Bicycle	41（45）	19.1%（22.0）	658（695）	13.5%（14.1）
Pedestrian	85（77）	39.5%（37.6）	1,714（1,717）	35.2%（34.9）
Other	1（0）	0.5%（0.0）	18（16）	0.4%（0.3）
Total	215（205）	100%（100）	4,863（4,914）	100%（100）

© CycleKyoto.com

  CycleKyoto Home Page


Tags
Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Traffic Fatalities

Kyoto Tofu Seller with his Bicycle

自転車で回る京都豆腐やさん

Every once in a while one can spot a tofu seller on a bicycle in Kyoto.

They are a dying breed.

We have spotted, or rather heard, this older man in and around Nishijin.

The other day he was setting out along the pavement on Imadegawa Dori, west of Horikawa.

He usually rides or walks, slowly, on neighborhood streets bleeping his old horn.

People who hear the doleful wail of the horn, and are in need of tofu, come out and buy from him.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Tofu Seller

Young Mama Cyclist Kyoto

自転車で買い物中の若い母さん

At the northwest corner of Kawaramachi - Imadegawa, down the street from the Kamo River, a young woman checked her mail in front of the Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ bank branch.

She is standing next to an all-purpose mama-chari bike that is the most common form of transportation in Japan (fact checker: is this true? No doubt).

It was a Saturday, so it is doubtful that she has just dropped the little one at day care. But she appears to be out on errands on what was a glorious day.

The montage of her - white sporty sneakers, black tights, pink pantaloons (?), checked coat, surgeon's mask (she has pollen allergies or a cold), and her hair pulled back into a tight mini-pony-tail - framed by the silver bike on the tiled sidewalk is pure Kyoto.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Young Mama

Bicycle Fatalities USA National Parks

米国国立公園事故死２００７年−２０１１年

According to National Geographic, the leading cause of accidental death in US national parks is drowning. That accounted for 37% of all fatalities, in American national parks, between 2007 - 2011.

Every year some 275 million visitors head to US national parks.

Last summer, two of those were mauled to death in bear attacks in Yellowstone. While animal attacks generate big headlines, they account for just 0.6% of all deaths.

The other causes were:

23%: Motor Vehicle Accident
18%: Fall
4%: Exposure (to either heat or cold)
3%: Plane Crash
2%: Avalanche
1% Bicycle Accident
0.9%: Poisoning
0.6%: Animal Attack

Ride safe, be prepared.

The deadliest parks in terms of fatalities were:

65 fatalities: Lake Mead Recreation Area
42: Grand Canyon
42: Yosemite
31: Glen Canyon Recreations Area
29: Golden Gate Recreation Area
28: Denali

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

Kyoto Traffic Public Awareness Campaign

交通安全啓発活動実施中京都上京区

In front of Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, a battalion of middle aged men in bright yellow reflective vests were passing out public safety packets aimed at cyclists.

Of the fifty or so men working the street, the man who sidled up to me was polite and chatty and funny. He was a Lions Club member - as they all were - and explained the purpose of the campaign and then handed me not one but two packets.

The package included the de rigueur tissue pack, a reflective sticker, a pink and white pen, a pack of Q-tips, and the pamphlet pictured at right.

The pamphlet features the Kyoto Asto Dreams women's baseball team's star pitcher Kawabata Yuki riding a bike and making a pitch for the use of helmets.

The campaign is co-sponsored by the Lions Club, the Kamigyo Ward Kyoto Police, Kamigyo Ward Office, and the Juraku Center for the Severely Disabled.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

Kyoto Bicycle Storage Lot

京都三条乗千本保管所

The dreaded bike grave.

Near the intersection of Senbon - Sanjo, just south of JR Nijo Station (the rail line runs above the fence), is the storage area for towed bicycles.

Back in the day, we made three trips to the deep south of Kyoto to retrieve our beloved mountain beater bike after it had been towed.

We paid a fee, were told which section of the storage area the bike was parked in, and set out under the hot sun to find the bike.

It appears that the city now has a lot more centrally located.

Parking in Kyoto is still a problem - for pedestrians mainly, who have to navigate around bicycles piled up on sidewalks - but is much much improved compared to even five years ago.

Moreover, the city still posts advanced warning notices telling of the arrival of the tow truck, usually two or three days prior.

Still, there is nothing quite like returning to the place the bike was parked, find it gone, and then having to make a trip to the tow lot, tail between legs, and fork over 2300 yen to get back the bike.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Japanese

Book Review Tales From the Bike Shop

自転車の書評

Tales From the Bike Shop

Tales from the Bike Shop is a bike book for those wistful of time now past in cycling.

The book is a compendium of stories and anecdotes that took place in and around a legendary bike shop in northern California.

Many of stories first appeared in "VeloNews" and "Winning" magazines.

Back in the day - pre-Bike-Boom day - bike tourers and road racers were all one could find on the road. No mountain bikes, no spandex, not much road rage.

The book is available, but like the era it documents not easy to find.

A great trip down memory lane.


Buy on Amazon USA

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Bike Shop
Kyoto
Book Review