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Tachikawa to Mitaka

dryh2o

Warming-Up
Apr 5, 2008
12
0
Hi,

I'm going to Japan in a month for college and it looks like I'll be commuting almost daily from my dorm in Tachikawa to my college in Mitaka.
Could anyone give me any heads up on my commute?
Good roads/bike paths to take?
Hows the terrain? flat or hilly?
Any other pointers?

Thanks in advance!

Joey
 
Route 7.

"Itsukaichi-kaido" - 五日市街道。
This is probably your best way through.
To get there, you'll need to ride about 4km north of Tachikawa station & turn right. Unfortunately, the road is quite narrow and depending on what time of day you ride, there may be a lot of traffic.
Total distance is about 15km (8 miles), and is completely flat.

An alternative is Rte.20 to the south, but that road deviates away from the train-line, and will cost you an extra 5km (ie. 20km total) for the journey. The upside is that it's a lot wider, and easier to ride on.

Checking my map here, about 5km east of Tachikawa, there is another road (slightly to the south) in between the train-lines & Rte.20 - Rte.14 - that goes towards Mitaka, and may be wider and less crowded than R7 & R20.

We will leave it you to find out for us!
Hope this helps.
T
 
thanks YellowGiant!
okay 15-20km of flat terrain doesn't seem too bad.
In a month I'll be sure to report which ways I've found to be the best!

Joey
 
around ICU

I lived/worked at ICU a little over 20 years ago, and used to ride Rte 14 from there westwards. It's generally flat, but just west of ICU it dips down and then back up (nogawa ko-en area). Four lane, and a wide enough four lanes to feel safe on.

Of course that was then, and this is now, but it's probably about the same.
 
Well I'm here in Tokyo now! But sadly I wasn't able to bring my bike with me....
which leaves me with the problem of finding out where to buy another bike.
Is there a store that sells used 700c steel frame road bikes? Not something too fancy,
just maybe downtube shifters or something. Also, what should I expect to pay for a bike like that? or would it be better to go a different route and buy new?
The closer to shinjuku/ west of shinjuku the better, if possible, as I will be riding the bike home and don't really have a single clue about Tokyo streets yet.
Thanks in advance!
 
Grab someone who reads Japanese (if you can read it then grab yourself) and browse Yahoo auctions. Gadzillions of bikes that fit your description there (unless you are a LARGE person.)

Good hunting.
 
Hey Pucci, sorry for the late reply, but I have been looking through the actions a bit.
My Japanese isn't so good so I can't read the entire page, but does a place like yahoo auctions (or another online site) work kind of like craigslist were you can go to the place if its local and check it out then buy it without having to pay for shipping?
thanks.
 
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