From 1st Dec, I officially relocated to Japan by terminated renting room in Singapore. Gradually resuming my daily some activities in tokyo. One of those is riding road bike in tokyo. Actually my ride life was started in singapore from July 2020. So no experience to ride in tokyo so far. Through last two weeks, I’m getting aware of some difference between tokyo ride and singapore ride. So let me share my impression.
1. Weather
Needless to write, the biggest difference is weather condition. In singapore, mostly keeps around 25-28°C at morning and after sunset throughout the year. Day time reaches to 32-35°C with strong sun light if no cloud/no raining. So conformable time to ride in singapore are between 6pm to 9am. Not recommended to ride in day time.
But in japan, it depends on season. As I just backed to Tokyo in winter, so in this month, mostly under 10°C, so I needed to buy winter jersey for 0-10°C and gloves, because Jersey I wear in Singapore were only for summer short sleeves and short pants. And I may need to buy more for other season… It’s costly…
2. Road condition
This may be only for Tokyo or urban city in Japan. Recently local administration is trying to make lane for bicycle on car road since side of road should be prioritied for pedestrian. This movement is definitely good for bicker, But issue on city is that there are so many parking car on the bicycle lane on the road and blocking bicycle. Also critical issue by parking car is driver suddenly opens door to get off from car without any check. So I faced those situations during first long ride in Tokyo. In Singapore no clear lane on the road, but no any parking car on the road, then I didn’t feel any risk to ride on road in last six months, it’s very safety for rider.
This is just first impression in two weeks. I will update if if find more.