My ass is sore!
Today was my day off and I had to meet a friend in the downtown area. I started using my bike a couple of weeks ago but this was the first time for me to ride it into the downtown area. After many months of enduring Sapporo’s freezing cold winter, my ass has become... soft.
Just like almost every kid, I started off with a tricycle. I then moved onto a bike with training wheels. When I was ten, I got a “real” bike that was far too big for me. After that, I used my sister’s fancy mountain bike, which she hardly used. Now, I use a mama-chari or charinko.
I can’t imagine people in North America using a mama-chari. Like the shame of throwing a free-throw in basketball underhand, you wouldn’t be able to hold your head high riding one of these things around town in North America.
A mama-chari is a bike for everyday use in Japan (maybe China?). It weights a ton compared to current mountain bikes. It has a basket that’s above the front wheel (some people add another basket on the back). It has no gears (most of them) and the cross bar is low.
Luckily, in Japan, most people don’t have that much pride in what they use as a bicycle and I’m proud to say that I love my beat up mama-chari.
I bought the thing about six years ago and I can’t say I’ve had any major problems with it. It gets me from point A to point B just fine. It cost me about 9000 yen (probably about 100 bucks) which is, in my opinion, a steal.
The basket is great for putting in stuff, especially after going grocery shopping. The back of the bike has a carrier and it’s perfect for giving someone a lift. There’s only one gear which means a much better workout. Why wouldn’t anyone want a bike like this in North America?
Alas, I don’t think it’ll ever take off. Those North Americans have too much pride and riding a fancy mountain bike or racing bike seems to be the way to go for urbanites.
Slight change of topic.
One problem, it seems in Japan is bicycle theft. Everyday, someone’s bike seems to get stolen and who doesn’t know someone who’s had their bike nabbed?
I guess to catch those evil villains that steal or use stolen bicycles, the police in Japan, set up undercover cops, usually in plain clothes, to randomly stop people on their bicycles. They ask the usual boring questions of “where and when did you buy this bicycle,” and then proceed to phone headquarters to ensure that you’re not lying. I’ve gone through this procedure at least ten times in the past three years. The cops tend to stop quite a few people so I don’t think there’s any racial discrimination involved here but the whole process takes about three minutes. So, I’ve been stopped ten or so times over the years, which adds up to thirty minutes of my life being wasted, by going through this procedure!
Well, I guess I shouldn’t bitch and moan too much about this. The cops are just doing their job and who knows, they might actually catch some of those criminals out there. But, according to a blog on the Japan Times, there were 24,928 car thefts in Japan last year. Wouldn’t it be better for the cops to focus on this, instead of beat up mama-charis, which are usually pretty worthless?
