Jitenshya (Bicycles)

I've been using my bike alot, and I think I've finally come to terms with cycling in Japan. First, you should know that bicycles are EVERYWHERE. There are rows of them parked outside stores, masses of them in bike-parking-lots, and several outside every house. Now, this implies a substantial number of bikes on the move. There are always several people riding down the street, either on the footpath, on the road, or weaving between the two to avoid pedestrians, parked cars, or other bikes. There don't seem to be any rules. You can ride in any direction on either side of the road or footpath. Bicycles can also pick and choose whether they want to obey traffic lights as pedestrians or vehicles. And alot of the time, they just go through as long as there's no traffic. In the centre of the city shopping district, there are no traffic lights. Cars and bikes just slow down enough at intersections to avoid each other. I'm stunned that I haven't seen an accident yet. Oh, nobody wears helmets either (illegal in Australia)! But I'm comfortable with it all now. Drivers are used to bikes, and must constantly monitor all the bikes around them on the road and footpath, driving very carefully if there's a possibility that a bike might duck onto the road to try to cross in front of them. And cyclists are very careful to avoid each other when approaching from opposite directions on the same side of the road, or when on a narrow footpath. The closest I've come to falling off my bike was when I was fooling around trying to do jumps in a carpark!