30 Days of Biking - Cycling in Old Japan

Several years ago I spent a week in Japan and somehow the opportunity came up to rent a bike. We were in Kyoto, a city packed with old temples, gardens, and palaces. You could spend months seeing everything. I am into that kind of stuff and we were running out of time so using a bike to get around seemed like a great solution.

It turns out that it was. Many of the old parts of Kyoto are great for biking. The narrow streets lend themselves to slow cruising without fear of traffic. And you get attention as the gangly American cruising around on this little Japanese bike. My wife,  7-months pregnant, was riding behind and took this picture. We got a few friendly waves and probably a couple of chuckles.