The New Bicycle Parking Lot

This is the new bicycle parking lot in our neighborhood. The train station is around the corner and down the street. As you can see motorcycles can be parked here, too. They have their own place along the fence. See the post "Bicycle Racks" (below) for a close-up of how bicycles are parked.

This is the entrance.
You can either pay daily or use a pre-paid monthly pass.

This is the exit (when you leave without your bicycle.)

Click here to see the old parking lot. Click on the labels below to see more parking areas.

Bicycle Racks

The new parking lot has racks for the bicycles. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

There are instructions posted.

Another Field Lost?

This field is around the corner from our train station. I was shocked to see it like this. It was covered with plywood.

I walked further and saw bicycles parked on it. Another field lost to bicycle parking, I thought. I walked even further and saw that they were remodeling the old bicycle parking lot closer to the station. So this is temporary. I'll post pictures of the new parking lot.

A Portable No Parking Sign

 

Parking Lot

This parking lot was down the street from a shopping area. This is the machine where you pay for your parking space.

There is a number and a guard on each space.

After you park your car, this guard rises preventing you from leaving without paying. After you pay, the guard lowers.

Note: The triangular sign is a stop sign. It says tomare in Japanese. The first symbol is written in kanji. Then "ma" and "re" are in hiragana. Some words are a combination of both kanji and hiragana.

Bicycle Parking Lots

This is a parking lot for bicycles near a small train station.

This parking lot is several blocks from a bigger station and a big shopping area. You just lock your bicycle and remember where you parked it.

Parking Tickets

This picture was taken in a shopping area near the station. It is prohibited to park bicycles along this sidewalk next to the street. There is a parking lot for bicycles along the sides of the buildings on the left.


All of the bicycles on the right in the picture were illegally parked. All of them had tickets stapled on the handlebars. Until recently, a plastic and metal device was fastened onto bicycles and cars that were parked in the wrong place. The owner had to go to the police station to have it removed. This probably kept Tokyo policemen very busy. The system has changed. Now the tickets are paper. People can go to the post office to pay the fines.

Stopping for Lunch in the City

Here is the parking lot in the Maruzen building across from Tokyo Station. If more parking spaces are needed, an attendant pushes a button to raise the platform that these cars are parked on.


After we parked, we got a card here. Shops would validate the parking for us if we spent a certain amount of money. We had to spend 6000 yen here to get free parking. That was expensive! Can you figure how much that is in your currency? Where would you look to find the exchange rate?


Here is a close-up of the parking machine. If our card was not validated by a store, then we would pay money here.


This is the inside of the elevator. There were control panels beside the inside of the doors. There were also panels on the walls. They were low for people in wheelchairs.


We were on B3. That means we parked on the third basement floor. We were two floors below the basement. We had to go to B1 and switch to another elevator.



These floor decorations were in the lobby of the building. There were many of them. I'm not sure if they were actually manhole covers.



This plastic food was outside the restaurant. We ate tonkatsu, fried pork cutlet here. The green stuff is finely shredded cabbage. Sometimes, restaurants exhibit real food outside on a table.


We saw this sculpture on our way out of the city. It was outside an office building. There was a Japanese flag, too. The building's address is on the pillar. Click to enlarge. It's in Japanese, though.



This was outside an insurance building in an area called Shinjuku. Look familiar?

On the City Street

When we went into the city the other day, we parked the car on the street. Here are some of the things I saw while I waited for Papa. He ran an arrand. Above is a sign on the street. It asks us not to feed the pigeons. It goes on to warn us about the dangers of pigeons; salmonella, mites, allergies, etc.

(The crowd in the background is waiting to cross the street.)


I turned around and saw this sign on the sidewalk. It was near the pigeon sign. This sign asks us not to walk and smoke. It is against the law. I had seen commercials on TV advising us not to smoke on the street. I had never seen signs like these.

On the way home from our little train station yesterday, I saw a big sign like this one had recently been painted on our sidewalk. There was a stream of people going down the narrow sidewalk, so I couldn't stop to take a picture.


This is the parking meter. For 300 yen, we could park for 30 minutes. We didn't stay that long.


This is one of the manhole covers for this area. The design is a sakura or cherry blossom.

Parking Carousel, Etc in the City

This is a parking carousel. It was slowly moving round and round. When we passed by the construction "curtain", I saw the attendant operating it. We turned a corner. It was too fast for me to take a picture of him. Too bad!


A street garden in front of a shop. The shop was a combination tobacco and hardware shop. The owners probably live upstairs so this is their only chance to garden. It faces west. That's the afternoon sun.



I've included this picture to show the reflection of the sun. See the reflection on the left? The sun is actually behind this building. It's amazing how the sun makes its way through the city.


I didn't have the zoom lens on the camera, so it is difficult to see. Click to enlarge. On the right is a fire station. The truck is gone. Next door on the left, is a store you may see in the United States. FedEx is probably all over the world.


Here is another shop you may see in the United States.


Amid all the glass and concrete, there are old Japanese things as well. This is a temple.


This is a small shrine, a place to pray.


This is the main gate for Tokyo University, one of the oldest and best universities in Japan.


I took this picture because of the futon hanging out the window on this busy urban street.

Yoshinoya is a chain of restaurants that serve "beef bowl", cooked beef on rice. I guess you could call it a Japanese fast food. I'll try to get pictures from inside sometime.

See the old man on the bicycle? He's got a lot of newspapers in his back basket, so I think he's delivering them. He has some in the front basket, too. At first, I thought he was riding along and reading at the same time. I had a taxi driver once in Malaysia who drove as he read his novel. That was scary!

Summer Days: Lavender

I have waited all year to see this! Last year, I noticed that the parking lot of a garden nursery had lavender planted all around it. It is pretty far from our house, but I can get there easily by train. I went back several times to take a picture this spring but it hadn't bloomed. I finally went at the right time.

When I went to Tasmania many, many years ago, a friend and I stumbled onto a lavender farm that was in full bloom. We were there at the right time. It has always been a great memory. Seeing a field of flowers is awesome. I'm glad I got to see this.




As I got closer to take a picture, the parking lot attendant warned me about the bees. Maybe you can see them. They don't sting, do they?




He's got a nice spot to work despite the bees and the humid weather. The humid (wet) weather we have in Japan makes it all even more precious and incredible; lavender prefers dry conditions.

P.S. The children aren't as eager anymore to make long treks by train and on foot in these hot, humid days so I went alone. Hopefully, we'll get to go by car to see the lavender at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Hope there aren't many bees. My son doesn't appreciate them as much as he does other bugs.

Cars: Parking

This is an example of a parking lot at an apartment building. Assistance from an attendant is required. Cars are parked on a platform that is raised. This doubles the number of parking spaces in a small lot.

Bicycles: No Parking Sign

This is a sign telling people not to park their bicycles here. It is located in front of the library. What is more interesting is the yellow plastic water tank on it. There is a white cap on top where the water can be added or drained. Do you know why it's there? The additional weight of the water keeps the sign from blowing in the wind. In the past, I have seen signs blow down the street.

Bicycles: Parking at Home

This is parking for bicycles outside an apartment building. This apparatus saves space and it is convenient. Not every apartment building has one, though. The handle is pulled and the bicycle is lowered. I think I would prefer to park on the lower level.