Ride On in Tokyo

Although Osaka is the bike capital of Japan (including bike production), Tokyo is the style capital of Japan, so the bikes will follow suit. Lots of fixies, lots of colour and personal style......


Like N.America, the fixie guys stand out as different immediately. no tight spandex, no skin tight and techno-material tops.....pants rolled up, bag slung across back, sneakers, etc......


This bike brand gives you the Pantone colour they used, just in case you want matching business cards or website fonts..........


Fixies just look cool.... even when they're locked up.......


Weird framed single speed bike.........but very stylish and functional though. I like the bag under the seat, and how the handle bar grips match the seat as well. Extra points for the killer basket on the back.....


If you look carefully, every bike has a ticket on it, for illegally parking in a no-bike parking spot...


Dangerous.......and uncool at the same time........


It's not that the Japanese park their bikes well, but city workers will spend the morning lining them all up.........


A busy scene, but bikes are always in the picture......


These mini bikes with 20" wheels are very popular in Japan..... not so much here in N.America.......


Many stores park cool bikes outside their stores. This old Swiss Army bike was parked in front of the super cool Beams store in Harajuku....... very cool..... the store and the bike.......


Perfect example of a 2 child carrying mamachari-bike....... Japan's version of the soccer mom, but in great shape!! It's rare to see obesity in Japan, and you can see why........


Sweet fixie, but I don't get the whole card in the wheel thing.......love the bullhorns.....very popular in Japan.......


I love the colour contrast between the man's checkered red top and his bright green bike...... even the old guys are hipsters in Tokyo...... go grandpa!!!





I don't know about the pink on this bike.... a bit too much.......





Bikes locked up in Harajuku........


Another bike in Harajuku......


Again, in Harajuku..... I love seeing a group of sweet bikes together.......


Bike parking lot at Omotesando Hills shopping centre......this is a high end shopping mall, just outside Harajuku, catering to older, richer peeps.....


I think they stopped ticketing this bike because they ran out of room..... wouldn't it be easier to just pick up the bike and move it, if it's in the wrong spot?

Tour de Gastown 2008

I think this was the last year of the Tour de Gastown, before the whole world wide economic downturn brought about by the sub-prime mortgage fiasco in the States, and then sponsorship money disappeared overnight for events such as this..... the winner of the first Tour de Gastown? Lance Armstrong back in 1991..... I had a hard time getting a sharp picture, as they whipped past so quickly.... I had to shoot at iso 800 and then pan and shoot, pan and shoot.......

Fuji Track Bike

When I first heard of the existence of track bikes being ridden on the road, I was at first confused. No brakes, no gears, no coasting at all? How is this possible? Then I saw these insane guys in Tokyo, whipping in and out of traffic and pedestrians, and skid stopping with ease. They rode differently, they dressed differently (very cool), a totally different energy....I was hooked. I had to get one.... finally, I got one just over a month ago as a gift from my wife as an anniversary gift (thanks babe!!). She said for me to pick one out, so I picked a modified Fuji Classic track bike by Megadestroyer. I loved how it's all matte black and very low key. I don't like my bike too flashy, as it's only too easy to catch the eye of a bike thief.... I locked it up while I went for a haircut, so I did my usual double lock system as you can see (chain lock and u-lock).......

Ride On in Osaka

I love Osaka since it's the bike capital of Japan. I was in Osaka in 2008 for my youngest brother's wedding, and I really enjoyed seeing that cycling was just part of daily life. Me being a daily rider here in Vancouver, it was nice to see my Asian brothers and sisters were also my Asian cycling brothers and sisters......I have awesome bike pictures from Tokyo as well, but I'll post those some other day.......

Even cool guys ride bikes in Osaka.....
Although it's illegal, many double.... in fact, my brother and his wife and their friends even go drinking on bike, everyone doubling each other while they hop from restaurant to bar to bar.... it gets funny at the end of the night when everyone's had a few........
As I just mentioned, late night food and drink establishments are often filled with cyclists.... see, no cars in sight..... these are usually local watering holes that most either walk to or bike to....
It's nothing out of the ordinary to see police on bikes in Japan...... over here, bike cops look less cop-like, since they dress more like cyclists than police...... look, no shorts or helmets for Japanese bike police.....
This is early morning in the central Umeda area of Osaka, where there's a lot of bars and restaurants. As you can see, most places are still closed...... this guy is either coming home from late drinking, going to work early, or going straight from the bar directly to work..... no kidding....
This is also not an unusual sight........they do everything but eat while riding in Japan, as you'll soon see........
I think these guys were just riding around town as moving billboards, although I don't know what they were advertising.... it says children 110Yen, so maybe daycare? I feel for these guys though.... look at those hats!!
In North America, it's soccer moms in mini-vans. In Japan, it's mom's on two wheels towing a single child in the back, or sometimes 2 children, both front and rear...... for real!!
When you say you have a Hummer in Japan, it means something totally different than over here....
Phoning while riding is very common in Japan..........
Texting is also very popular.... funny, I've never seen a bike accident though........the Japanese are very skilled........
Japanese girls love to wear stockings.......I wonder why she doesn't use her basket in the front, instead of leaving flyers inside it.....who transports junk flyers?
I love this picture, and I left it for last. Notice that everyone bikes to 7-11.... only a single car to the far left.......

Tokyo Trip 2009.... Subject? Food!!

These pictures are from a single 10 day trip to Tokyo in the spring of 2009. I have more pictures, but these give you the overall, general idea of how awesome the food was...... I'll post pics from my most recent Tokyo trip as well...... food pics I mean...... I'm also thinking of starting up another 30 day project concerning food.... I just don't know when to start it...... maybe I'll do it when I'm in Tokyo again in the fall.....

Vasoline Filter

Old school trick. Take two clear UV filters. Mount one on lens and rub vasoline on it. Take the second filter and sandwich it on top of the first filter. Voila!! A poorman's hazy filter. If you don't like the haze pattern, un-sandwich, rub your fingers across the vasoline and create a different pattern, re-sandwich, and new pattern........ I took these shots a few years ago down by Jericho Beach with the wife......

Picture Postcard

I've done a few installs at 943 West Broadway, so I've got to know the building manager reasonably well. One day I was up in his office, and realized what an awesome view of downtown he has. I just happened to have my LX3 with me, so I asked if it was okay for me to take a few pics. What a most excellent day to take this picture. In fact, the manager was telling me that after the olympics, the USA Olympic hockey team took a team photo up here for some cereal box poster or something like that......