Today we're going to tell you about bike culture in Japan and
I know you might think this is not interesting
But honestly
this really is interesting
stick with us
you're gonna learn lots of cool stuff.
First, let us show you 'bout our bikes.
[funky music]
Dope shit here, son.
My ride is sweet!
It's got razzle tassels on it.
What!
Check this out.
Look at your-yeah, man
[S] They spinnin'!
Hey, Ducky!
[ring ring]
What?
You can even do tricks on this bike.
Show them, Ducky.
I've been working on this bike stunt. Check this out.
[crowd cheering, music]
[M] Oh my god, I can't belive you landed that!
[S] Whaaat?
[M] Oh my god!
[M] So cool.
[S] I know this kinda sounds not cool so far, but
this is cool, just wait!
Honestly!
[drum effects, mellow music]
What's up?
Checkin' out my sweet ride?
[ring,ring]
Can't say I blame you.
This puppy here
It's called a mamachari.
Literally, that means...mom chariot.
She may not look like much at first.
You might think this is just a regular bike,
but you would be wrong.
The mamachari gives me robot legs.
This is an electric assist bike, and that means when I pedal,
it actually helps me pedal.
They're not like a moped, you don't require like an extra license to get this.
It's literally battery powered into the pedal.
The first time we saw these was in Kobe.
We saw this little, tiny Japanese mom
biking up a gigantic hill.
She was a mom with two kids
one kid in the front, one kid in the back
and she did not have gigantic, buff legs.
She was just a thin, little mom!
And she was going up this hill
without breaking a sweat.
Without standing up.
You know when you have to like stand up to make it up a hill?
We thought Japanese women are apparently extremely buff and very thin.
We just didn't know that this bike actually existed.
It's for moms in Japan to go to their groceries,
to pick up their kids,
and it is basically their vehicle.
And now that we have these,
I understand why they're amazing.
We don't need a car.
We use our bikes to do all the grocery shopping, to carry our heavy gear,
to put our dog in to take him to the vet.
It's amazing.
Now, having bionic robot legs is not cheap.
These bikes go for around a thousand bucks and the price goes, of course, higher
depending on the kind you got.
However, you can't just walk into the store and just buy one that day and walk out with it.
There is a process.
Bike fact:
You are not allowed to ride your bike drunk.
Don't think about it. It's against the law.
And if a police officer catches you, you get in trouble.
So don't do it.
[funky music is back]
So, when we bought our bikes it was a bit of a weird process.
Because we went to Yodobashi, which is this big electronics store
and when we bought our bikes, we gave them a thousand dollars for each bike.
And then they wound up saying, "Ok, we'll give you your bike in four days,"
and I was thought, hold on a second this is really weird.
Usually, I give you money, you give me the thing, and then our relationship is over.
But it didn't work that way.
We had to fill out a form with our names and with our addresses and our identification
because they had to register our bike first with the local authorities.
So, all of our bikes have stickers on them with ID numbers,
and like even QR codes.
And we're not gonna show you all that specific information because I'm not sure if you can hack into us that way
so I'm just gonna keep that all blurred out.
Now, there are a couple of reasons to register your bikes with the local authorities.
And one of those reasons is if you lose your bike or if it gets stolen.
Because then the police can find your bike a lot easier if it's registered to your name and address.
So be careful if you wind up buying a secondhand bike from somebody.
You can't just give them money and get your bike.
There has to be this whole transfer process
or it might look like you've stolen someone's bike.
Now, even though there are tons of bikes in Japan
bike theft here isn't really as big of an issue as it was for me back in say, Toronto.
From what we've read, most of the theft that happens is kind of accidental.
So like if someone's really really drunk, they'll grab the bike that they think is their's
and it winds up being yours by accident.
So, that kind of is what's more common when it comes to theft.
Which is why you should lock your bike up.
And it's really easy, you don't actually have to buy a true lock
a lot of bikes come with built-in locks, you see, at the back tires.
So you have your little key that pops in and out.
Super cool!
See, I told you this was a cool video!
You're learning lots of interesting stuff!
Oh man, there's a puppy.
Look at the puppy.
[S] What a nice dog.
[M] You wanna park your bike and say hi to him?
Can I say hi to the doggy? (x2)
Oh! Hello!
Hello, beautiful dog!
Hello! (x2)
Oh yes.
What's the name?
Momo-chan.
Suzu-chan.
[S] Oh, hello! [M] Hi!
[S] Oh, you're beautiful. [M] Hi! Oh, you're not supposed to jump.
[M] Look at you.
[S] How old?
[S] Five years!
[M] Our dog is very old.
[S, M] Our dog is thirteen.
[M] Oh yes. [S] Yeah, small dog.
[S, M] Pekingese.
[S] Yes. Oh, you're beautiful.
[S,M] Yes. [S] Oh, yes. Ok. Hug.
[M] Kisses and hugs.
[S] Ok, sorry. Ok. You wanna dance?
[S] No, ok. Sorry.
[M] Go on your walk.
[M] Thank you! [S] Thank you so much.
[S] Bye, bye beautiful dog!
[M] That was an important interruption.
[S] How do I let all the doggies of the world know that I love each and every one of them?
[M] There's uh, a little bit left over here.
Of Momo-chan.
[S] I love all the doggies.
Random bike fact: You can ride your bike and say hi to doggies!
Bike fact:
It is illegal to bike with an umbrella in one hand in Japan in the middle of a rainstorm.
But you know what?
Everyone does it anyways and the cops don't stop anyone,
'cause it rains pretty hard in Japan
and people use their bikes like a normal vehicle.
Or you can get a full body gigantic condom like we have. It's pretty hilarious.
Bike fact:
If you are riding your bike at night you have to have a light on your bike.
We've seen lots of police officers stop bikes that don't have lights on them
so make sure you head on over to Daiso, put on a $1 light at least
and don't break the law.
[funky music playing
[M] Let's talk bike parking in Japan.
If you don't want to have your bike either towed away
or ticketed, you need to park in a legal bike parking spot.
If you try to park in just any ol' location in the streets of Tokyo, you're gonna get a ticket
and when they put the ticket on your bike,
you could take it and you could tear it up and throw it in the wind and say
"I'm not gonna pay for this!"
but guess what? Your bike is registered to your home address so
they're just gonna mail you that bike ticket and you're gonna have to pay for it anyway.
Now this kind of parking lot is the most basic kind of bike parking.
It's open. It's usually near like a park or behind like a major building like Yodobashi
or Don Quijote.
And it's open to the elements so if you leave your bike here all day and it gets rained upon...
that's gonna kind of suck.
So here's how it works:
Every single parking spot has a number.
You come up with your bike and you put your bike into the area and you push it hard enough until
you see this kind of like, lock mechanism go over your bike tire.
Go out and do your business.
And then when you come back, take a look to see what your number is
in this case, my number is 197.
You head over to the pay machine, you type in 197, enter, and it will tell you how much you owe.
So a lot of places are free for the first two hours
and then after that they'll charge you sometimes $1 an hour, sometimes $2 an hour.
It really depends on the place. You can take a look at the sign.
The most that we have ever paid for bike parking in Japan was $7 and
that's because we left our bikes there overnight and got them the next afternoon.
'Cause we drank too much so we missed the subway home
So we couldn't actually...[mumbles]
Anyways, so 7 bucks isn't that bad.
Most of the time it's either free if we go for groceries or it costs us like a buck or two.
Bike fact:
Bikes in Japan can bike on the sidewalk and also on the road
but you're not supposed to treat your bike like a car in the sense that,
if you come to an intersection, and you wanna turn with all the cars because there's no one coming,
you're actually supposed to cross the crosswalk with everybody else.
So yeah, that kinda sucks.
But you know what, no one's coming [whispers]...just go for it.
I didn't say that.
I did.
[S] Are you advising that people break the law?
[M] No.
I'd never advise something like that.
[blows raspberry sound] Huge pile of flies! [laughter]
So that's it for our video on bike culture in Japan.
We're gonna talk a little bit more about it on our blog post you can click on the link in our info box
and let me know what bike culture is like in your country.
Do your bikes get stolen all the time?
Are you allowed to bike with an umbrella in one hand?
Please let us known in the comments section
and if you live in Japan, let us know if your bike's ever been stolen
or if you have an amazing mamachari like this.
[ringing bike bell]
ring ring [hip hop play in the background]
Every time I go into the room,
ring ring. That's a song, isn't it?
[S] Huh? [M] That's a rap song, isn't it?
[S] Yeah, you're a rapper now.
[M] Ok, what song am I doing? Ready-
[M] >hums intro to Snoop Dogg's Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang and rings the bell on the bike<
[S] Well, you're singing it, I don't know without the bell [M] Ok ok, I won't sing it
[ringing bell]
[S] Here comes Santa Claus?
[M] 1, 2, 3 into the . .