Sunny weekends are always a great time to pedal a bike. Cyclists spend practically all weekend in the saddle and enjoy the sunshine, greenery and scenery. Cyclists in Tokyo are no exception. They usually wake up as early as 4 a.m., head for rural areas 50 or more miles away from where they start or pack their bike into a small bike bag and get on a train in order to avoid Tokyo’s dangerous roads.
Tokyo’s roads weren’t designed to be shared. Many of them weren’t even designed for motor vehicles. They usually remain the basic structures of centuries-old passageways, trails and ancient highways. Although most of these roads have been continuously widened, the overwhelmingly majority of Tokyo’s public streets are still narrow and contain unnecessary curves and turns, and to make matters worse, they are always full of illegally parked cars that push away urban bikers and bike commuters to the sidewalks. There’s virtually no bike lanes if not there is no space for bicycles at all. Osaka and other Japanese cities are not that bicycle-unfriendly. Some are even very nice. But Tokyo and its surrounding areas are the exception! Tokyo is definitely the worst place for cycling in this country.
Up until recently, I was one of those early bird hobby cyclists who spend every Saturday and Sunday biking mountain passes and summits. I still love going to the mountains. I just can’t stand Tokyo’s dangerous roads, traffic light waste time and too much vehicular and pedestrian traffic any more.
One day I was heading for Tominnomori, a nature preservation area literally translated as Tokyoites’ Forest park, I got caught in a traffic jam. Tominnomori is a popular cyclist destination in this area and located 3,280 feet above sea level. It attracts not only cyclists but also a lot of motorcyclists and auto enthusiasts. The only road to the area was crowded. And it was cold. Freezing cold. I had already spent more than 5 hours to get there, been stopped by dozens of traffic signals and of course totally exhausted. Then I got caught in a traffic jam. I remember that that was the moment when I decided that this is insane. This is absolutely unacceptable. Painful, even.
Tominnomori
Since then, I have gotten off my bike. I didn’t want to associate these feelings with my beloved bike. There are many spectacular places out there. Even in Japan, there are a plenty of cycling destinations that are much more attractive, breathtaking and do NOT have this problem. But they are usually hundreds miles away from Tokyo.
Niigata
Hiroshima
Miyagi
Yamaguchi
Although I have been doing everything to move out of this town, it’s not that easy to move from one place to another in a short period of time. People here rarely change their careers. Job opportunities are kinda limited. My girlfriend, who is European by the way, may not want to live outside Japan or the Schengen area, while I’d love to live and work in North America.
And in the mean time, I need a place for my daily workout. In the last winter, I ran very early in the morning. Before rush hour took place, the sidewalks were vacant and peaceful. As spring came and the temperature rose, however, they became gradually crowded. It was time to try something new. Something I hadn’t been doing in years.
I’ve started going to the swimming pool that is free from crowds, frustration and fear of dooring accidents. Well, admission fees for public swimming pools in Tokyo cost $ 3.5 – 5.5 (400 – 600 JPY). But they are no different from the train fares Tokyo’s cyclists have to pay, when they try to avoid the crowded streets by rail. And it doesn’t take hours to get there! I can go there 5 days a week and swim at least half a mile every time I go there. I am really happy with that.
Several weeks have passed, since I visited the swimming pool for the first time in more than a decade. On the very first day, I felt discomfort in my chest, back and upper arms. I also found it strange that I couldn’t breath when I needed the most. As I swam fast, I almost drowned in the water, because I too easily lost a chance to breath. When you cycle fast, or run fast, you never care about shortage of breath. I was too used to cycling and running and forgot about breathing intentionally. But it became OK in just a few days. I have gotten used to the water. Things have been going well so far.
