自転車 じてんしゃ jitensha bike
As you can see most people have bikes, bicycles or sometimes called push bikes. Bikes are very convenient, particularly for housewives around the suburbs in narrow streets, or for youngsters to get to and from school.
The latter could mean directly to school, or what is more common, to the nearest subway, or railway station.
Outside these public places one can often see huge bike sheds, or bike parking spaces.
Because so many people use bikes, City Councils are left with an accumulating problem: what to do when people abandon their bicycle?
It is hard to imagine, but as bikes do not cost a lot of money, it seems more convenient to just leave it and get another one in another place. Another big problem is of course that people genuinely forget where they have parked their bike.
City Councils have no option, but to get the “Bikes Department” to announce a “Bikes Collection Day” for a certain district and to tidy up a whole area. On such a day, trucks will come and any bike which looks neglected, or which has not been shifted for quite a while, is cut loose and put on the truck and moved to the Recycle (a pun!) Centre. At the Centre the bikes get sorted and anything that is in reasonable condition is sold on. Students often buy their cheaper bike at such places.
Not to worry, everyone gets plenty of notice about such a tidy up, so it is not a case of someone finding their trusted cycle napped overnight.
For the language students it is important to know that bicycles in Japanese are counted as だい. Example:
いちだいの じてんしゃ
ichidai no jitensha
Lami Japan 