Wow, what gives? Second post in a week about the softer side of normally wacky international relations introvert/part-time sociopath, and bane to environmentalists, my beloved Japan. What's up, my Nihon?

Awww, it's gotta be the international community on you for your current archaic and unnecessary whale-hunt, huh? Well, even with suspiciously-timed PR aside, I still gotta give you props.

This refurbished bicycle program for countries in need is so very cool. Japan is a country where you can hop off your bike and leave it unattended for hours with no lock and it's still there when you get back, or leave a $1000 mountain bike in Tokyo with a lock made out of what is akin to a rubber band to a Bay Area bike thief and no one steals it. But so many bikes are abandoned or otherwise discarded every year. I remember visiting with my mom in the mid-nineties and witnessing a garbage truck dump a whole fleet of perfectly good, but illegally parked, bicycles into its gob. I am so glad to hear there's a program to give these bikes another life, and help someone in critical need.

Japanese bicycles are bomb-ass too. I have a 21-speed Bianchi hybrid that often makes me feel like I'm towing a bus, but the ubiquitous Japanese bicycle has no gears, and those little things haul. And it's true what the article says -- the baskets are magical. I have two metal "saddlebags" for carrying groceries and whatnot on my bike, and I can never seem to fit as much as I can into one little front loader on a Japanese bike. I'll bet it carries grandma 5 miles to the nearest clinic no problem, and still has enough room for a bag of goodies from the market and pharmacy to help make her feel better. Proper.