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Take Your Bike

Topics: Bicycles, Transportation

If walking in Japanese towns and cities is good, cycling is even better. Cycling is an extremely popular way of getting about in Japan. And it is about as frugal as you can get, after walking.

There are generally two distinct types of cycling (although there is some overlap): cycling for commuting to school and work; and touring cycling (there is also racing, of course).

Commuting cycling is generally done on the humble shopping bicycle.

The other form of cycling, touring, is different mainly because it requires a different form of bicycle. Although many young Japanese have been known to ride their shopping bicycles from Tokyo through the mountains to their home towns many hundreds of kilometres away during summer holidays, you will usually want something with more than one gear, preferably several gears - more than twenty even. This is of course, because of the mountains, and there are quite a few of them. Touring in the cities of course, can be done very frugally on any old recycled shopping bicycle.

There are many resources about cycle touring in Japan, and lots of wonderful little tips that could be added here.

• include rules of the road for cycling in Japan
• including information on bicycle insurance in Japan, including injury and 3rd party damage

(Author unknown)

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