Bicycle parking

Since Japan is renowned for its auto-moto industry, when I first visited the country I was expecting to see a lot of very modern bicycles...

Japan is one of the countries with the largest number of bicycles per capita, with a cyclists population of about 57%, but from the more than 70 million bicycles, only a small percentage are modern. Over 80% of them are the so called mama-chari, "mommy's bike", rugged and cheap, used for short distances (e.g. from home to the train-station), equipped with grocery baskets and children seats. Since they cost somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 yen, they are considered almost consumables...