Kyoto Bicycle Shop Takenaka Opens at New Location

自転車屋TAKENAKAが移転

The venerable bike shop TAKENAKA is moving to a new location on the first of September.

It will remain close to the Imperial Palace.

The new location is on Teramachi Street north of Imadegawa.

Takenaka-san is one of the few English-speaking bike shop owners in Kyoto and long popular among the foreign community.

He closed the original shop on August 10 and will open the new shop on September 1st.

Telephone: 075 256 4863

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Omotesando Hills Bianchi Bicycle Shop

自転車ビアンキ新店表参道ヒルズ

The Italian bicycle brand Bianchi opened a branch in the chic Omotesando Hills shopping complex in Tokyo.

This is not your neighborhood bike shop with an old guy up to his elbows in grease.

As befitting a 125 year old company - an Italian company - the shop is sleek and clean and chic.

It is one part museum, one part boutique.

Located in the basement, we are not sure how you would get your bike down there for repairs, but the young cool guys in the shop were working on bikes.


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Kitano Tenmangu Bicycle Shop

北野天満宮自転車屋

Across the street from the rear of the east side of Kitano Tenmangu Shrine is an old mom-and-pop bike shop.

It is a small and messy shop, and the owner rarely comes out.

The nearby shrine dominates the streetscape.

However, the shrine is not the only reason tourists visit.

Just down the block from the shop is one of Kyoto's four geisha districts.

The smallest and oldest of the four, Kamishichiken is basically one long block of tea houses, restaurants, and boutiques with traditional goods.

We like to imagine the owner is a regular (jorensan, in Kyoto dialect) - not, god forbid, unknown (ichigensan) to the establishment and therefore denied entry - at one or more of the tea houses, and spends his evenings carousing with the maiko and geisha until the wee hours.

Then, the next day, he dons his workman's smock and is back fixing flat tires.

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Old Bicycle Shop Kyoto University Hospital Area

古自転車屋京都

En route to Okazaki to visit the Hosomi Museum, we pedaled along a side street that abuts Kyoto University Hospital.

Along a quiet stretch, there was an old - no, a classic - bike shop.

The owner was seated in a chair under the locks and parts hanging on the back wall, and deep into his Kyoto Shinbun newspaper.

The building is a modified machiya, or townhouse, that used to be the standard home in Kyoto.

In spite of a recent reappraisal of their value - many are now rebuilt as homes, boutiques, restaurants - they continue to meet the wrecking ball.

Likewise, the neighborhood bike shop appears to be in decline.

Fancier shops catering to a younger crowd have diluted their business.


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