When I was in Japan, I enjoyed riding a bike. My bike was a typical Japanese bike, which has a low seat, upright seating, and a front basket (of course). There is a slang expression for this type of bike. It is called a, “mama-chari”. “Mama” means, “mom”. “Chari” is the short form of “charinko”, which is slang for “bike”. I haven’t owned a bike for a long time. Since I was so used to riding a “mama-chari”, I feel a little uncomfortable about trying a mountain bike. However, I see more cruiser bikes lately in North America and would like to try one of them. A recent survey says that there is a one bike for every 1.5 people in Japan. Japan placed sixth in the world in the survey following Holland, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. I was a little surprised that bike ownership per person in Japan is higher than that of China or France.
Japanese translation