An Ode to the Chatti

As the cost of a car in Japan began to seem more and more prohibitively expensive, I started contemplating getting a bike. I wanted to get something reliable and hardy like a road bike in the hopes that, with some practice, I might be able to get into Yoichi (the bigger town down the road) with it for grocery shopping and the like. However, once I had decided that I wanted to get a real bike, I realized that I would have to go into Sapporo to get it as it seemed the only bikes that they sold in Yoichi and Otaru were Mama Chatties.

When a friend first warned me about the Chatti culture in Japan, I didn’t believe him. I assumed that only Obachans would ride around on those things. Worst case scenario, maybe some elementary and junior high school girls could be seen riding around on them. However, there was no way in hell that any self-respecting Japanese man would be caught dead on one of the things.

Then, very soon after I had arrived in Furubira, I was stopped in the street by one of the younger guys from the town office. He looked like some smooth operator straight out of an anime, with his styled spiky hair and slick black suit. He even whipped out a space-aged Japanese keitai so chunky and uber-masculine that you’d think the thing doubled as a lethal weapon when he wasn’t making calls on it. He was the very image of a virile Japanese male…

…except he was riding a Chatti.

I mean, it wasn’t as bad as some of them. It didn’t have the front basket or the mudguards on both the wheels. But the frame was most definitely powder blue, and everything metal on the bike definitely gleamed like chrome.

Initially, I tried to rationalize all the Chatties I came across as very old hand-me-downs used by people too lazy or too frugal to upgrade to something more modern. Then I came across my first Chatti shop in Yoichi. As I stared at row upon row of befendered, bebasketted two wheelers, I realized that the Chatti might as well be the official bike of Japan.

I still don’t get it, though. Is this another bit of Japanese Modernization Hipocrisy—like how the Japanese bank machines have in-built money counters for deposits that will even accept coins, but you’re out of luck if you want to find one that has the technology to stay open past 6 pm. This is Japan: the land that fixed the automobile and is currently working on replacing us all with robots. However, as far as the Japanese are concerned, the Bicycle was perfected in the 1950’s.

Japan: WTF?!

In related news, I did wind up picking up a road bike in Sapporo. I likely won’t be riding it for very much longer this year before the snow flies (Thus does my love affair with seasonal forms of exercise continue), but it has treated me nicely thus far and allowed me to explore a little more of the area around my town.

Most interestingly, I've used it to get up the valley that runs away from Furubira, up into the mountains to the south. Since Amy asked me what there is to see up the valley, I figured I'd take my camera with me.