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yo ! getting on a plane tomorrow for osaka and then on to kyoto for a couple of days with mums family ! japanese food all the way........ at least i do not look like a gai-jin !
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Continuing that tokyo is "oh-so-uber" reply in this thread, check this single speed I found outside a Shinjuku fixie store (for those who missed the link)-
it made me think, is this the future?
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sorry guys, but i have to confess, most i what i have been saying was a wind-up. i would never call any one anything other than their given names, i love japan, its people and its culture. i have, over the years, spent a great deal of time in japan and always learnt with wonder and amazement about their integrity, skills and warmth of friendship, i have worked with many japanese and have learnt, and am still learning, much, their integrity and endeavor is humbling.
still it was fun to get the reactions from forum members, and to them i apologise.
the photos on this thread are superb and a real inspiration, thank you pipwish ,! -
coincidentally, i was in tokyo last week for a lecture in the former vivalo factory above the carnival shop. I learnt about the intriguing 'missing link' between japanese, italian and us frame manufacturers... And, bizarrely, a connection with the star wars trilogy.
Apparently, late one night in 1974 yoshi kono, then head of 3rensho predecessor cyclone ltd, was knocking back the saki in a downtown bar with mentor and legendary italian counterpart gino cinelli to whom he was apprenticed, when they bumped into a young george lucas who was in japan with actor friend burt reynolds and burt's brother jim, researching samurai lore for a certain sci-fi film he was thinking of making. To cut a long story short, the group ended up having a drinking session in a backroom at the cyclone factory. While discussing lucas's film project and keirin racing, kono learnt that jim also made bikes back in the us and drunkenly suggested a collaboration between himself, cinelli and jim. To symbolise the triple alliance he proposed calling the company 3rensho (japanese translation: 'threesome'). This led to an argument between him and cinelli about whose tubing was the best. In an attempt to prove his was best kono grabbed a section of a frame that was lying about in his workshop and mimed attacking cinelli. Entering into the knockabout spirit of the moment, cinelli grabbed a similar length of tube and the pair had a playful sword fight, with the tubes clashing noisily. Nothing came of the proposed collaboration, but interestingly the new friends all stayed in touch, and the 3rensho name was later adopted by kono, and, of course, the lightsaber fight in star wars bears a striking resemblance to the mock sword duel an inebritated lucas witnessed that night. Kono later accused reynolds of stealing a section of his tubing that evening and using it as the basis for his own line of strong leightweight tubing. He may have a point. Reynolds 531 tubing came out the very next year. And mysteriously, kono was crippled in an apparent drink-drive car smash just weeks before a copyright case against reynolds was due to be heard in court. Cinelli gave up making frames soon after and passed ownership of his factory to his brother guissepi before changing his surname to ginelli, in order to avoid confusion with his new ice cream-manufacturing business. Gino ginelli, as many of you perhaps know, invented the tri-colour neapolitan ice cream. Less well-known is that fact that this was a playful tribute to his old friend yoshi kono's idea of a 'threesome' frame manufacturing enterprise. Each of the three colours symbolised a different maker: Cinelli, reynolds and 3rensho. Kono repaid the compliment by designing a pursuit frame with a matching tri-colour 'neapolitan' paintjob and 'melty ice cream' style geometry. Incredibly, that bike frame is currently for sale at tokyofixedgear.com!
A fascinating footnote: The lecturer also told us that the name vivalo does not, as is commonly believed, derive from a conflation of the words 'viva' and 'velo', but from an english football team and a swedish car both much admired by the frame builder for their respective creative flair and sturdiness - volvo and aston villa no less! Fascinating stuff.qft!!!
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It appears you spotted Kashi Da Handsome's machine from Pedal Mafia.
I doubt if it is the future of anything. It must feel like riding a washing machine.It was outside a local fixie hangout called 'Beans', just down from Higashi-koenji.
I somestimes pop in.
There are sometimes a few interesting bikes outside. -
very pretty indeed.
Seen any Moultons? :)
Thanks. I saw zero Moultons. However - this appeared on PedalMafia Bike Check a while ago:
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lovely pics, cheers. (shit post, feel i should say more, but just genuinely enjoyed those pics, feel you should know, god i'm so english)
Heres another- Outside Undefeated,Harajuku,TOkyo.Looks like a staff bike. As you can see bike theft
is not as bigger a thing here as it is for you guys in London! I am glad I live here if for the simple reason I feel kinda safe leaving my bike out of my line of sight for a short amount of time.
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The Japanese racism is countered by their kindness to strangers... which sounds like an oxymoron i know, but, they are still very friendly, even if they dont like you :D
There's a lesson for the BNP to learn - BE FUCKING KIND TO STRANGERS!
Good thread, brought some joy. It's nice to see that bit of fun element incorporated into such a boring routine as commuting.
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This thread makes me want to take my camera out with me. I've been here six years now and am perhaps taking for granted the super bikes and (ace mamacharis for the lady).
One thing I don't get though is foreigners getting all hot under the collar about the term gaijin. Literally, it means outside person and is a short version of the more correct gaikokujin (outside country person). It doesn't mean dirty at all, although it can be used negatively in the same way , I suppose, as "bloody foreigner". However, it doesn't necessarily mean it is offensive at all.
Ditto the Japan racism thing. Foreigners here, often who speak not a word of Japanese, love to bang on about how racist the locals are while moaning incessantly about the Japanese and how they won't let you enter their culture. It would be more weird if there wasn't any racism, surely?
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Great pics Pips. Thanks.
I always find it inspiring looking at what riders over there do to their bikes. No two bikes look the same and i really like it, and respect the effort made by the owners.
It's likely the cultural divide will result in some of the bikes getting slated on here for being 'pointless', 'impractical' and 'mismatched'.
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Today, on my way home from work through Shinjuku, I spotted this silver surfer.....
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Hello.
I don't think I posted this panasonic before. I went through Shinjuku in the morning around 7.30am, went home after work, caught the train into shinjuku, had a minute, finished at 10.30pm and it was still locked up in the eaxct same frackin' place....
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About
Spotted in Tokyo...
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@pipwish
The answer from our erstwhile cultural correspondent slowstephen.