How to get bikes in Tokyo

When I go around Tokyo on weekends, I usually go biking (except during the hot and humid season).  So many courses introduced in this website are accessible by bikes.   Mine is a folding bike so I can get on a train with this bicycle and go cycling somewhere far from my house.  (But I usually don’t do this as it is not so light to carry my bike.)

But what if you do not have a bike?  There are many bike rental shops in Tokyo. So let’s see how to get bikes.

These days, the municipal government offer rental bikes.  For example, Bunkyo-ku provides red bikes.  There is a website which explains how to use it.  With a little bit of effort to register, you can use bikes whole day with ¥1,500.

Illustration of a rental bike in Bunkyo-ku

Bunkyo-ku collaborate with other wards such as Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Koto, Shinagawa, etc. so you can bring back your bike to the cycle ports different from the one you started.

If you would like to try stylish cool bikes, go to Tokyobike.  Their Yanaka shop is a bike shop as well as a bike rental shop and also a cafe.  One-day rental bike costs ¥3,000 but if you want to use several days, it costs ¥1,500 from the second day onward.

If you bike around the town, you will come across a townscape with atmosphere. You will see that bikes blend into the scene nicely.  Walking is good but if you have a bike, you can find different characters of the town.

Below are the streetscape in Kagurazaka.

With some reason, bikes go well with cafes.  Tokyobike I wrote about has a cafe inside the rental bike shop.  Another interesting shop is Cruise BC Store.  This is not a rental cycle spot but if you want to buy one, this is the place.

Cruise Bicycle + Cafe

Some places of Tokyo are hilly but if you go to the places near the bay area, there are not many slopes.  And if you use municipal rental bikes, they are loaded with electric power so it is easy to go up the hills.