newbie_commuter

Hi all. I've been biking to work in Iwakuni, Japan for about seven months now, and I would like some advice.

Where I live, pretty much everyone bikes on the sidewalk. The roads have no bike lanes, and there are scooters all over the place, weaving in and out of traffic and on the shoulder.

Riding with the cars and scooters scares me, but I worry about the alleys that I pass on the sidewalk. Cars come out of them rarely, but when they do, they often pull out to the sidewalk area, THEN look. I try to avoid the major roads, but so far I still need to be on them some of the time.

My bike is a three-speed beater that can't come anywhere near keeping up with traffic if I decided to go on-road. I am currently looking for a new bike, but that is probably a couple months off.

Any advice for keeping safe when on my daily commute?

Thanks!

AEO

I would just stick with what everyone else is doing if you're in Japan.
It's pretty much accepted practice that the 3sp beater bikes in japan are on the sidewalk.
In fact some sidewalks have bike lanes, especially in extra wide station areas, albeit poorly indicated.

NomadVW 

Wow.. I just moved from Iwakuni in January back to the states. I put in close to 40,000 km in Iwakuni and all over Yamaguchi in just around 2 1/2 years. Riding in Japan is SO much safer than riding here in the states. The drivers expect to see you there, AND they expect that you have right of way.

That's not to say it doesn't take getting used to, but that's about it. Ride with the flow of traffic on whatever shoulder there is and avoid Rte 188 between You-Me Town and the Monzen Bridge. It tends to be the busiest section of Rte 188 with the least amount of shoulder. There are loads of side roads to get you where you need to go if you need to get between those points (the Lotus flower fields will do the trick if you're going North/South)

I envy you to be riding there. I've only been gone ~3 months but miss the riding there tremendously. I had a web site running while I was there but haven't updated it since just before I left. https://www.cycleiwakuni.com

Get up to Ueki's bike shop in Otake and he will help you out loads, and his English is great. Tell him "Tom" sent you and be sure to let me know how things work out. Feel free to PM me/reply here with any other questions you have about the area and I'll be sure to help you out.

CommuterRun

I used to live in Uruma (formerly Ishikawa) and bike commuted almost 20 km to Camp Hansen, around the perimeter of Kin Bay on Hwy 329.

A beautiful, beautiful, ride. Even with the hill climb on both ends of the commute. Used to stop on the way home and buy fruit from the Oba (old woman) selling out of her truck on the side of 329.

I set my personal top speed on the hill coming from Hansen through Kin on the way home one afternoon. 68 km/h (42 mph). (Yeah, that's way above the speed limit on that stretch.)

I just rode vehicularly, particularly at intersections.

I also rode to Camps Foster or Courtney when I had business over that way.

Two things I learned was to be very careful riding faster than traffic, and take the middle of the lane on the narrow, residential, single lane roads.

Another thing I learned was to just ride around and explore. Sometimes I would find residential routes that would allow me to bypass the major arteries.

hanshananigan

Just look out for the Obachans on bikes, holding a parasol in one hand, grocery bags on the handlebars, and a cell phone in the other hand!

I was actually on the other end of things once when I lived in Gifu-ken 1996-8. I primarily biked, but did get a car. One day I was pulling out of my apartment complex, just creeping out into the road because visibility was nil, and an old lady with, yup, parasol, grocery bags, and a cigarette ran right into me. It was a weird slow-motion thing- she was going grandma-slow, parasol blocking her vision, and she actually made 2 complete pedal revolutions before noticing I was there and failing to hit the brakes with her cigarette hand. Bam! into my front quarterpanel. My Japanese wasn't good enough to understand the curses that came out of her mouth, but after lots of low bowing and "sumimasen" "gomen nasai" on my part, she eventually rode off, with her parasol, grocery bags, and now crookedly-broken cigarette. Not one of my finer hours!

So, no, I have no good advice - only to be careful, and just ride in the pack!

iflylow

I live in Okinawa now and used to ride between Courtney and Futenma. I work on Foster now and live nearby so the long rides are for fun instead of commuting now!

LittleBigMan

I stand amazed at the global relevance of the Commuting forum on this website.

OkiMike

I live in Okinawa as well and bike between Chatan (Lester front gate) to Yomitan (Torii beach gate). 10km each way. Not a great distance, but effective.

Hey, iflylow, I drove by your place the other day and saw your bike crumpled in the street like it had been thrown off the balcony. What was up with that?

iflylow

Must be too much time on the road! Well, I bought a bike travel case on this trip. Guess I'll have to fix the bike and take it with me next time!

mike

We are starting to see more road bikes on the roads/streets in Japan. I can't help but think there is a reason that more people don't venture into the streets.

In Tokyo, I take to the crowded streets because I can keep up with or beat traffic. Thus, I am not a hinderance to traffic flow.

I generally stay off the roads where traffic is going faster than I can keep up. This doesn't take a lot of reasoning. You can almost taste the danger when you bicycle in fast moving traffic in Japan. There is zero margin of error. If someone isn't paying attention when they come upon you, "CRUNCH". Cars just have nowhere else to go other than on top of you. I remember riding in fast-flow traffic on a tour in Japan. I was so wet with fatigue and stress at the end of the day. The traffic is so relentless and pounding and stressful. Japanese drivers are polite and they are cognicent of bicycles, but they are not flawless drivers.