Cycle paths 

Cycle paths

Anything goes on Japanese bicycles. And Japanese bicycles go anywhere.

Pedestrians merely garnish the pavements because a bicycle could emerge from any direction, at any time, inspiring countless renditions of the time old pre-emptive direction guessing game. This familiar encounter is often the cause of much amusement between passing pedestrians, as the other instinctively presupposes the same exit route as his foe. Executed correctly it can look like some sort of chicken impersonating ritual, culminating in mutual acknowledgement of embarrassment and responsibility.

Put the other person on a bicycle and the game becomes less about impersonating chickens and more about avoiding catastrophe. A bicycle will approach you much quicker than the average human on foot, and before you know it there`ll be a tyre lodged into your groin and you`ll have to begin untangling your scrotum from the bicycle spokes.

Nothing halts the Japanese cyclist - especially not stop signs, which are frequently ignored. In Japan, the worldwide code of unwritten cycling conventions is quite clearly not worth the paper it`s not written on.