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The forecasted rain didn’t show up today but instead it was a sunny 31ºC Saturday in Tokyo. So, for the first time I was able to wheel my bike outside of my room and onto the road!

The first thing I did was find a cycle shop and register it. I read on the internet that it is the law that all bikes must be registered in Japan but there are no penalties if you don’t. So I thought I’d save the hassle and not bother. However, when I was walking home the other night, there were policemen checking people’s bikes for the registration. Since I couldn’t find much information about how to register on the internet, I thought I’d write a bit for fellow cyclists.

If you buy a bike from a shop, they’ll normally handle it all for you. However, since I bought it on the internet, it wasn’t registered. All you have to do is find a cycle shop (almost all will do it) and ask for “bohan toroku” which means something like bicycle theft prevention registration. I was asked if I had an inkan (name stamp) but I didn’t so instead he asked me for a photocopy of both sides of my alien registration card and to fill in a short form (name, address, phone number). I gave it back and he started filling in forms for about 5 minutes before coming out to check my bike, asked if it was new and I showed him my receipt (printed email) as proof I purchased it. Then, he give me a piece of paper, the registration document and then stuck the yellow registration sticker onto my bike. Cost is just ¥500 Easy.

The purpose of this process is so that in case your bike gets lost or stolen you have a slight chance of getting it back. In reality, I doubt that.

Anyway, I think my Japanese has improved as I could understand the store attendant and he could understand me! Hopefully in a few months time I can start having conversations! I enjoyed cycling for about 3 hours today, though it was pretty hot.