This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Japan is a country full of bikes. I’m sure most of you are well aware of this, but do you know why this is? I can't say that I know the answer for sure, in fact, I think there are many reasons for why this is, but three main reasons that come to my mind are the heavy use of public transportation in Japan, the driving age here, and the distance students must sometimes travel to get to their high school.
Having a very reliable and heavily used public transportation system means having masses of people who must commute to transportation hubs. If you use public transportation and you happen to live a little too far away from the nearest train station or bus stop to walk there, it only makes sense that you would travel there by bike.
Another reason I think so many people in Japan ride bikes is the driving age here, which is eighteen. For Japanese nationals, once they have turned eighteen, they can begin taking driver’s education lessons. These lessons are not compulsory, but they are thought of as being necessary if you want to pass the driving test in Japan, which is very particular and has many points that a regular driver would not consider paying attention to (For example, looking under your car before getting into it, being sure to drive within thirty centimeters of the white line on the shoulder of the road, and pumping your brakes to the point where the break light in the car you will use during the driving exam flashes.).
Upon completing a driver’s education course, Japanese nationals can attempt to pass the driver’s test. However, taking these driver’s education lessons takes time and money (usually over a thousand dollars), which means that many Japanese nationals aren’t able to acquire their driver’s license until they are nineteen, twenty, or sometimes even older. This makes having a bike a cheap and convenient alternative for traveling distances that are too far to walk.
Lastly, students in Japan take rigorous high school entrance exams and then, based on the options they have available to them, choose the high school they will attend. This means students often have to travel over an hour to get to the high school they have been accepted into. This commute can involve a bike ride to the station nearest their house to catch a 6:15 AM train, a train ride to another station where another bike may be parked, and possibly another bike ride to their school. Of course, there are other ways to commute, but the point is that there are a lot of people in Japan who have a lot of reasons for owning one or more bikes, which makes for a country with a lot of bikes, and which creates the need for what you see here—bicycle parking lots.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
I think some guy on youtube said the government was charging about US$2,000 for the classes that they force you to take in order to get the license. Not just that, but you have to pay big money yearly for the vehicule to get inspected and a couple of other things.
I low-balled the price of the classes just because I didn't know the exact cost. I have been told that it generally costs upwards of $2,000 or more to complete these classes, but when I looked at a Japanese website, the prices of the various lessons were listed separately, and it seemed to me like it would be possible to pass the test with the bare minimum of lessons. That being around $1,000.
Also, they do have something called shaken, which is a yearly car inspection. The price of this inspection depends on a lot of things, the biggest being the age of your car. As a general rule of thumb, the older your car, the more expensive your inspection will be. Also, the bigger the engine in your car, the more expensive the inspection will be. This inspection can cost from $500 to over a $1,000. When you buy a new car, your first two years of ownership will be inspection free. After that, it's time to start saving.
@boxcarblue, wow!
I didn't know that it's a bike country like the Netherlands, too.
I wonder if you guys have bike paths and traffic rules for bikes like we do here, too?
PS you could use the 1st pic for the Steemit Photo Challenge Theme.
Bike paths are beginning to be more common here, but I suspect they are different from what you have in the Netherlands. Having never been to the Netherlands, though, I can't say for sure. Recently, a lot of roads where I live have been repainted and repaved with bike lanes on them. As for the traffic rules, those have been changing as well, but I don't think they are being enforced for strictly. Everyone used to ride their bikes on the sidewalks, but now that is supposed to be illegal. I still see many people riding on sidewalks though because the bike lanes and paths aren't yet adequate for the various kinds of traffic in Japan.
I have a picture that I was going to post this evening. Exactly of bikes in Japan. I am really happy I checked beforehand. I will wait a few weeks so you get paid first. Thank you for all the great info.
Thanks for your consideration. And sorry about posting first:)
@runrudy as long as its your pic you could post. This is not posted for the photo challenge as you can see on the tag unless @boxcarblue posts it there. I wonder if he even knows about that photo challenge.
I take it you would want to be original of course. Try, food or the city center?
Anyway, if @boxcarblue decides to join that, too good luck to you both.
Thanks @englishtchrivy. My message to @boxcarblue was out of friendly respect. @boxcarblue and I talk about kids and Japan frequently. I just thought it was funny because I literally have the exact same image of a row of bicycles in Japan that I was to post within 5 minutes of his. It's like if someone just sang a song at a karaoke house and then someone comes up right after them trying to sing the exact same song to one up them. I have actually seen that happen before, awkward to say the least. I don't want to be that guy. Plus, the content of his post is way better than mine will ever be. Now I know why I was compelled to take that picture in Japan. This was a great post. Cheers
Thank you for posting this, @boxcarblue. It was recommended by @daveks, and was so good that we decided to feature it in our latest newspaper. Click this link to learn more: https://steemit.com/steemplus/@steemplus/steemplus-saturday-october-8-the-daily-newspaper-that-pays-you-to-find-high-quality-content
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