Bicycles and such

Ok, bonus post here.

While we were in Kyoto the numbers of bicycles being ridden around town was vastly increased in comparison to Tokyo. This appeared to translate to most of the cities except I don't recall seeing a lot of bicycles in Hiroshima. I wonder if the large masses of tourists that run through Hiroshima might overtake the sidewalks too much. Oddly, in Japan it is expected that the bicycles will ride on the sidewalks rather than the streets. The sidewalks in Kyoto were very wide along the main streets and those wider sidewalks all had marked off bicycle lanes. The lanes were much narrower than the pedestrian area and as a matter of course none of the cyclists even bothered to be in the designated bicycle lane. At any given moment you could be passed by a bicycle with just inches to spare from being hit. They generally didn't slow down for anyone or anything.

Coming back to Tokyo you notice the bicycles do the same thing, which is ride on the sidewalks and try to jam around people as fast as they can but the difference is there are much fewer per capita than in Kyoto. I am not sure how much of this is caused by the size difference in the cities and how available mass transit is in either city. Perhaps it is the costs of the mass transit and the varying salary levels between the cities. I am sure there were more automobiles owned per capita for the residents of Kyoto versus Tokyo as well. There appeared to be a lot of houses with cars parked out front. I assume this is from them being in a more remote part of the country with lesser housing costs than Tokyo.

There is no doubt that Tokyo feels like a newer fresher city than any we have visited in general. I am sure if we visited Kobe we would think it was new due to the fact it was basically taken down by an earthquake a few years back and had to be rebuilt. Still one thing to notice is most sidewalks and roads seem to be in very good repair no matter where you travel. Certainly the subway stations in Kyoto looked a lot older than what you find in Tokyo as well, but they were still clean and very functional if not the picture of modern wonder. All the same Tokyo has its little corners that are less brand new than other parts of the city.