Cycle Tokyo ! Weblog

From the introduction page...
The bicycle is the ideal transportation method to move around central Tokyo, do sightseeing at your own pace, and stroll around the city without worrying about train times, traffic jams, and all the fuss about driving etc. The riding pace of the bicycle will let you discover details of Tokyo scenery, experience many things and meet people that you would not if you were moving around on train or by car. You'll get to stop by interesting shops, traditional confectionaries, and many points of interest at your own leisure, instead of passing by on a sightseeing bus or the train. You can even spend a few hours just lying on the grass in one of the many beautiful parks. All that can be done riding the bike around Tokyo!

The large super-city of Tokyo suddenly becomes fairly small, once you get on your bicycle, and you'll immediately recognize how easy and fun it is to pedal around. Go and find out for yourself!

* About This Site (How this site can help you)
This site is intended to assist overseas visitors to Tokyo, especially those interested in cycling around Tokyo. This site (and our support) will not only provide tips on cycling around the Tokyo, but introduce you with a list of various half to one day rides, to assist you in making your cycling in Tokyo an enjoyable and worthwhile one. The site will also be useful to local cyclists that reside in Tokyo. Lastly, it is our hope that we, the staff, can establish a good relationship with cyclists around the world though this activity.

Here's the message:
Welcome to Tokyo, and have a good time cycling here!
We're here to help!

Cycle Tokyo Team

2006 was special for the Cycle Tokyo Project being it's startup year, with the website going online in July.
Surprizingly, we started getting constant contact (various inquiries, ride requests, etc.) the moment we made ourselves known, and we realiazed the power of the internet. (or Google, should I say ? Look up "cycling" and "Tokyo" on Google, and we're on the top 3 now ! :-))

Website

We've continued to grow the site with more information since the start.
We currently have a list of ride course recommendations, 3 of them with detailed explanations and route maps. We plan to expand on that. We have a good list of bike shops around Tokyo, some riding tips, and a list of good references.
Feedback is welcome, please tell us what kind of information you need in your bike life in Tokyo.Your advice helps to make a good useful site and source of information.

Online Interaction
We started getting email inquiries (cycle-tokyo"at"cycling.jp -change "at" with @)soon after our site opening, and they continue to come constantly after 6 months. We're verry happy about that, because it just feels good helping out fellow cyclists visiting us, and that what we're here for. It also helps us to find out what kind of information people need when cycling in Tokyo
Inquiries range from rental bike information to from people overseas planning a visit, as well as resident cyclists of Tokyo.
Of course, we get requests for guided rides, which is mentioned below.

Guided Tours
We offer volunteer bike rides as part of our activity. Though we honestly didn't expect much of this to happen in '2006, we were again surprized to recieve multiple requests right from the beginning. Since we all have daytime jobs, it was sad that we had to decline some of them with regret. We hope they had a good time riding in Tokyo anyway.

In July (yes, right after our website opening !), we had our first guided tour.
The Bike Friday Hokkaido Tour group, had requested for a guided tour of Tokyo on their bikes, on their stop-by in Tokyo. We took the group of 11 around lower (traditional) Tokyo covering the old and new of Tokyo, stopping by places such as Tsukishima, Tokyo Tower, Zoujouji, and Ginza. The guide tour ended near the imperial palace where we set up a Bike Friday gathering with local enthusiasts.

In the end of September, we had a chance to meet 2 couples from Hong Kong visiting Tokyo.
We planned a short ride based on the "Japanese fast-food" bike tour, which they requested. Cycling around Tokyo must have been a very interesting experience, as we learned cycling around town in Hong Kong was not a typical thing to do. During the ride, we challenged their appetite and curiosity with traditional fast food such as Taiyaki, Nikuman, and Takoyaki.
Thanks Angel and the gang !

Wrap Up
Considering it was our first 6 months, we had alot of activity going on, much more than we expected. We had thought that the momentum build up after the website opening would be much slower, so this was a happy surprise for us.
For 2007, we plan to continue the effort (and fun !) we put in this year, continue providing interesting information both online and offline. and keep building our status as the one-stop reference for Tokyo cycling !

Again, feedback and comments are welcome, as they will help to make the website and our service better.

2007 was the second year for Cycle Tokyo!, and we are glad to report that we had continued biking inquiries and requests for guides all throughout the year.
We're on the top now on Google English, looking up "cycling" and "Tokyo" !

Website

Though we haven't changed alot this year, we've kept the information fresh.
We added one detailed ride course with route maps, and we added a page explaining the general distances between areas within central Tokyo.

Online Interaction
Email inquiries (cycle-tokyo"at"cycling.jp -change "at" with @) continue to come, and we welcome them. They range from requests for guided rides, bike shop information, advice on riding the Tokyo streets, to route information.
We setup the forum this year, so please don't hesitate to post any comments or questions you may have about biking in Tokyo.

Guided Tours
We managed to host 5 guided bike tours this year. (1 was postponed due to rain.)
We did have to decline more than few requests because our schedules did not meet, and we are very sorry about that. We plan to do something about this.

Wrap Up
The second year for Cycle Tokyo! was a solid one, with lots of access to the site from all over the world, and constant contacts from many cyclists. Though we can never be too satisfied, we think we responded to a majority of people's requests, and answered their questions.
Thanks to our staffs for the cooperation and effort.

For 2008, we plan to keep solid, and at the same time consider expanding our resources a little bit to handle the many requests we get for guided tours. Let's see how it goes. We'll continue to be the one-stop reference for Tokyo cycling !

As always, feedback and comments about this site and our activity is welcome.

Happy holidays !

TokyoTopia is a very organized website for getting information about Tokyo and Tokyo life.
Run by a UK Tokyoite who's lived in Tokyo since 2001, it has useful and everyday information to navigate the city and make your stay/life in Tokyo interesting and trouble free. Contents include traffic and geographical information, facts about Tokyo and Tokyo culture, shopping and eating, and everyday life. The are very comprehensive and give you a clear understanding about life and culture, and how things "go" in Tokyo.
As the logo of TokyoTopia says, this website is your search for information on Tokyo Made Simple.

• TokyoTopia : http://www.tokyotopia.com/index.html
• Cycle Tokyo! - Bookmarks Page : http://cycle-tokyo.cycling.jp/usefullinks.html

We're up and running on our new web server, which we switched to on Jan 30th.
There shouldn't be any issues, but feel free to contact us if you find any pages unreadable or broken.

We switched web servers for this site yesterday, and all should be going well.
Please contact us if you are not able to access pages here and there.
THX.

A very chilly day in Tokyo today, which makes you want to stay indoors instead of going out cycling. A perfect day to sit in front of the PC and do some website maintenance.

Our Bike Shops page has been a bit out of date lately, and needed some update. Work is under way to update the list.
In addition to bike shops, we hope we can give you a better listing of bike rental shops so you can find one easily.