Japan: A land I love but just don’t understand

Friday, November 20th, 2009

osaka-17-11-09 29

Sorry for the lack of new material this month. I’ve been away, enjoying life in Japan rather than burning the midnight oil in my quest for world bicycle domination. Situation permitting Kyoko and I spend about a month in Japan each year to visit family and friends, see new places and do a little business. This time is Pascal’s first trip to one of his two lands of nationality. I really enjoy my time in Japan, probably because even though it’s all quite familiar now, I still don’t understand much of it. Of course that’s largely a function of my poor grasp of the Japanese language; I follow a fair bit but speak barely enough for greetings and simple needs. But even if I were fluent in Japanese it’s unlikely I’d be able to understand this strange culture. Actually it seems the natives themselves often don’t have much insight into what makes things tick here. Below are a few examples. Have a look also through my Flickr photostream where I’ve posted hundreds of Japan photos already.

tokyo 3-11-09 22
Obsession with cleanliness:
Japan is very, very clean and that’s obviously a good thing. Sometimes it seems a bit over the top though such as when I see men polishing the fire hydrants or shop salespeople on their hands and knees scrubbing the last scuff mark off the brilliantly shining tile floor. A couple times I’ve spotted teams of schoolchildren on class cleaning trips, all wearing matching, brightly colored hats as they collect what little trash there is to be found on the sidewalks.

(more…)

Even Japanese dogs ride bikes

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Had to post something and what better than a bike riding dalmation?

Dekochari: Japanese Art Bikes

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Keeping with the international spirit today here’s a beautiful video featuring “Dekochari”, Japanese bikes decorated with enormous amounts of lights and effects, and beautiful music by Bunta Sugawara and Kinya Aikawa. I’m guessing that “deko” stands for “decorated” and “chari” for “chariot” like for “mamachari” which are the women’s bikes with built in baby seats for one or two kids. Kyoko could provide more info here but she’s sleeping.

These bikes have lots in common with the Queens, NY “boom box bikes” I wrote about in 2007.

And there’s also more than a little in common with the crazy, dressed-up Japanese kids bikes of the 70’s, also from about a year ago here.

Thanks to customer Wendy Monroe for the tip!

Bicycle Bell Power!

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

I’ll bet you never realized the immense power of the bicycle bell. This Japanese video shows how… accompanied by snide comments (assures my wife).

So put a bell on your bike and politely glide through the world.

Intergalactic Patrol Bikes

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

japanese robot star patrol bicycle headlamp

WorkCycles is finally ready to open the kimono on these long-awaited, top secret Intergalactic Patrol Bikes. The Intergalactic Patrol is a cooperative project incorporating the WorkCycles (Holland) experience in practical workbikes with the latest technological innovations from Matsushita (aka National/Panasonic) in Japan.

These bicycles will be used both during travel such as on the Enterprise and Death Star and also on many habitable planets and moons including Alfdebaran, Naboo, Tatooine and throughout the Twelve Colonies. The Interglactic Patrol has been designed to fulfill a wide range of common applications including internal spaceship transport, planetary exploration, imperial patrol, maintenance of enchambered giant atomic animals, and fitness conditioning in low-gravity environments. A broad variety of accessories are being developed to enhance safety, convenience and enemy vaporizing firepower.

Catalog page intergalactic workbikes

The Matsushita/WorkCycles Intergalactic Patrol is the first bicycle suitable for the unusual environments and tasks of intergalactic lifestyles. It was a task with many challenges and required navigating much uncharted territory in the field of industrial bicycles. Here are some examples:

  • Varying gravity conditions can make cycling very difficult. On the moon Endor with only one fifth the gravity of Earth even the smallest bump will send the cyclist flying. But on Alderaan with about twice earth’s gravity simply remaining upright is difficult on a standard bicycle. To make cycling possible in these situations the Intergalactic Patrol bike features computer controlled dual gyroscopic balancers that spin at 50,000rpm on a vertical axis with an adaptive learning, cantilevered yaw system to nonetheless enable rapid changes of direction… such as while in pursuit of imperial storm troopers. An added bonus is that the bicycle needs no kickstand because it remains vertical on its own.
  • Though the Intergalactic Patrol will primarily be ridden by humans, the uniforms and equipment of the various republics vary widely. Extensive ergonomic research was performed to enable safe cycling and operation of the gear, brake, navigation and indicator systems whether the rider is wearing flowing robes, plastic armor or jeans. There is also ample space on the baggage carriers for the requisite light sabers, lasers, phasers, tasers, masers, razors and perhaps a rain cape.
  • Not only is much of the Universe dark, light speed travel tends to diminish the effectiveness of headlamps. The Intergalactic Patrol solves these problems with advanced twin solid state hypermagnetically photon accelerated semicoherent ruby halide lamps. In fact this bicycle’s headlamps are so powerful that care must be taken in their use; In their highest setting (11) they will burn through almost any non-reflective surface not protected by a class B3 force field.
  • handlebar speedometer gearshift japanese transport bike speedometer frame pump and light saber

    The images above show the Intergalactic Patrol cockpit including:

  • Lighting/phaser control on right handlebar grip
  • Speedometer/odometer at center of handlebar
  • Five-speed gearshift on top tube
  • Convenient pump or light saber storage
  • taillamp array intergalactic patrol bike taillamp and rear rocket bicycle wheel lock and lateral rockets

    These images show some features from the rear end of the Intergalactic Patrol bicycle:

  • Taillamp array utilizing the same advanced lighting technology as the headlamps
  • Defensive high-power ruby phasers with self targeting
  • Rear wheel lock to keep troglodytes and other lowlifes at bay
  • WorkCycles, the workbike, cargo bicycle, industrial bike specialist is seeking Intergalactic Patrol bicycle dealers and interested republics throughout the Milky Way and other galaxies. Please contact us for more details.