Reasons I Love Japan - Bicycles!

One of the things I love most about Japan is how people use bicycles so much! I love riding my bike everywhere! I'm so glad the program had a bike for me to use. It's cute and it's... vintage! :)

Me in front of my dorm building.

The basket is the best part! It's really quite handy.

A lot of people use bicycles to get around, but students especially. There are no bike racks on campus, just bike parking places, and they usually can't fit all the students' bikes! 

People usually lock their bikes so no one can walk off with them, but no one ever locks them to anything. Some don't even lock their bikes at all! When asked why people just leave their bikes out unlocked, our Japanese friends said it is because "it's not polite to steal." How cool is that! Japan is so great!!

Some places do have bike racks. There are quite a few around the train station, but that's the only place I remember seeing any. 

This one is the cheapest I've found, it gives you the first 3 hours for free and then it's 100 yen for every 24 hours.




You put your bike in one of the slots, and it will keep it there for you until you come back. When you do, you enter the slot number, put the money in, and then it will let you take your bike. You still have to lock your bike, but the bike rack keeps them all nice and neat so they don't look the bike parking places at the school! :) 

I really like the bike locks they have here! They are smart! They work like this:

Can you see my little key chain of the Rising Sun? :)





Kind of hard to take a picture of because it's right under the seat, but the lock is just a metal circle, about the size of a handcuff. The bottom opens up when it's unlocked. All it does is stop the back wheel from turning. Oh, and it's attached to the bike itself! I think it's really cool, I want get one here to use at home. 

I can't think of just one thing I like most about Japan, but bicycles would definitely make my top five! It is SO fun to ride my bike everywhere! 

Flowers at Hitachi Seaside Park

Today I got on a bus with a bunch of students from Thailand and we went to a place called Hitachi Seaside Park. It;s a big park by the ocean with some rides and carnival games, but most of it is b-e-a-utiful gardens full of flowers! There were so many flower gardens, it was wonderful!! 

First, I saw a big field of pink cosmos flowers. 

It was much bigger than this, there were flowers all around me in every direction!

There were orange flowers next to the pink ones...

... And yellow ones across from the pink ones!

Beautiful flowers as far as I could see!!

A lot of people brought their dogs. SO CUTE!

 

Next, we saw a big hill covered in little pinkish-red bushes and pink cosmos flowers.

They looked like something Dr. Seuss would draw! 

At the top of the hill, on the one side, you could see all the flowers on the hill.

On the other side, there was the ocean!!

It wasn't very much to look at, just a boat dock, but it was so big and blue and the sea breeze felt amazing! It was very relaxing and I probably could have sat there all day long. 

I saw these plants next to the walkway and I thought they were cool.

Next we saw a rose garden. Most of the roses were already gone, but there were a few left.

That was the last beautiful flower garden I saw that day! :) I really enjoyed looking at all the colorful flowers by the ocean! Japan is beautiful!