Go out and find something you connect with here! Photo: Scott Kouchi Living in Japan doesn’t mean we have to stop focusing on our own personal growth as humans and try to fit some mold of how others perceive us. This is the Arakawa River cycling road on a bit of a cloudy day. This is not a criticism of being an immigrant or expat, just an observation from a semi-long-term foreign resident in Japan. One of the things about choosing to live in another country as an adult is that it can be harder to gauge our self-growth when our peers do not share the same cultural background as ourselves. It’s weird to say that a bicycle has “opened up” a new perspective on how I view Tokyo since I still would be able to get to my destinations using public transportation just fine. In doing so, I feel like I’ve reconnected with the city in a new way. Since I decided to avoid public transportation during the state of emergency, I ended up using my bicycle a lot more over the past few months than I anticipated. But, when the state of emergency was declared in Tokyo there were a lot of worries about taking the train or subway – especially for non-essential purposes. I only planned on using my bicycle for the occasional ride to work or for running errands around my neighborhood. So much so that perhaps it’s one of those instances where I’ll look back at what happened and call it fate or destiny. I purchased a bicycle in February, unrelated to the spread of COVID-19, but the timing was oddly coincidental. The COVID-19 pandemic forced me to rethink my transportation habits for the better. (And this was in west Tokyo where there is more space for stuff like this and fewer cars!) I still decided against using one because of excuses like “then I’d have to park it and everything” or “the sidewalks are so narrow I don’t think it’s a good idea for me.” And I’ll write a bit more about how I feel about these aspects of riding a bike in Tokyo, but I just want to point out that early on I was not on board with riding a bicycle in Tokyo. When I was living in a share house in Kodaira, the manager of the house lent me a bicycle since the house was about 15 minutes away from the nearest station. I’m not writing this article to try to convince people to go out and buy a bicycle right away this is a look at a long-term expat’s reflection on getting the most out of your time in Tokyo (whatever that means to you and your specific circumstance). It never occurred to me that I could be completely ignoring an aspect of living in Tokyo by simply choosing not to use a bicycle. The public transportation system in Tokyo is so extensive that since I arrived as a wide-eyed youngster with a pocket full of dreams, I was very satisfied with going about my day-to-day life just walking and taking trains in Tokyo. I always thought that if I needed to go anywhere I can just walk to the nearest station and take a train/subway. For five years in Tokyo I never thought I needed a bicycle.
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