The Cycle Chic from Copenhagen blog has a post up featuring a few ladies riding their bicycles in Fukuoka, courtesy of photographer Stephen Crawford. It is indeed great living in a city/country where women are frequent cyclists. Via Ryan Ruel.
Felissimo in New York is hosting a Japan Brand pop-up shop during the holidays (until December 24), and it’s been getting some coverage on a bunch of NYC-based blogs, including JoshSpear.com and Spoon & Tamago.
Pictured above is a bicycle designed by Gelman, made of lacquer, silver plating, and gold leaf. It was created for his “Gelman’s Masterpieces” exhibition earlier this year at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro. I was actually given the chance the take it for a spin after the show was over, but I chickened out — was just too nervous that I might crash it or something.
Click through to see a very cool panorama photo of the JAN track bike shop in Tokyo by Kyoichi Ozaki — best viewed fullscreen. Via Gordon Kanki Knight.
Here’s a pretty interesting project in which Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment put together a navigation system that mounts an iPhone on a cycling helmet, with the display running into an eyepiece. Thanks to the device’s compass — if you have a 3GS that is — everything orients correctly as you move your head around. Via Core77.
In collaboration with this year’s traveling Bicycle Film Festival, Italian manufacturer San Marco has produced a series of limited edition saddles, one for each city that hosts the event. Tokyo is covered in red. Via Cool Hunting, which includes more photos and details.
“Aeolian Ride” — held so far in a few cities around the world — sees a bunch of riders get together, put on an inflatable suit and, well, ride around. It’s coming to Tokyo on May 16, and if interested you can sign up here. Visit the previous cities’ photo galleries to get a better idea of what the event looks like.
Very cool idea for cyclings pants/jeans from Momotaro Jeans: include reflective stripes on the back pocket. Added bonus: this entry would even work if this site was actually called “Jeans Now!” Via Luis.
Tramnesia’s terrific “Working” series of short video reports on independent businesses continues with yet another Tokyo-related company — previously Knee High Media and Postalco — this time the Depot Cycle & Recycle bike shop in Ichikawa.
Depot Cycle & Recycle is a bicycle shop in Ichikawa, an eastern suburb of Tokyo a little more than an hour’s bike ride from Shibuya. Established by Seiya Minato in 2001, Depot first began by offering bike parts and accessories to Tokyo’s far-flung messenger community. Seiya made his mark too by importing many foreign brands into Japan, introducing companies like ReLoad and Freitag to Tokyo’s cyclists while encouraging local producers to develop their own products. Seiya presaged Japan’s street trend of fixed-gear track bikes and for years was the only Tokyo-area bike shop selling used keirin frames, working with local frame builders to resell retired bikes. Now that the trend has exploded into a media-recognized phenomenon, spiking prices to unaffordable levels, Seiya has concentrated more on encouraging bike culture, the “things around the bike,” as he puts it. “I’m not so interested in the bike… I like riding bikes.”
One bright effect from the recession: cycling in Japan is on the rise. The Y’s Road shop mentioned in the article is my regular bike shop.
Photo taken while biking yesterday around the city, using the iPhone’s Toy Camera app. Pictured, a spot near Suidobashi station.