This is called 'locking your bicycle' in Japan...

I don't need to tell you that Japan is a very safe place, but I think few of us realize HOW safe it really is.  Not only is there almost no violent crime, but even petty crime is at such a low level that boggles the mind of any citizen of a major city anywhere else in today's world. 

Case in point: 

This is the packaging on a Japanese lock I bought at the HK equivalent of a Japanese 100 yen store (~US$0.99 store).

Let's take a closer look at that recommended usage for this heavy duty lock:

Yes, that's right,  just put it through the back tire... your bike is as safe as Fort Knox!!!! :-D

Actually when I first spent a summer in Japan in 2003,  one of the students in the lab lent me a bicycle (a ママチャリ).  When he gave it to me he also had a short chain lock.  He showed me how to unlock it and then put it on the back tire (as above) and said "you need to lock it like this, otherwise it will get stolen!"

I almost fell over laughing...  I was coming straight from Berkeley, which apparently is second only to New York City in terms of bicycle thefts per capita in the US.  Where you learn that locking your bike to itself is not enough, you need to lock the bike to a pole or railing or it will disappear as soon as you turn your back... and don't forget to lock the wheels and seat too, or those will be stripped too! :-P

...so compared to that.... this bicycle lock is a bit laughable! :-P

This lack of bicycle crime actually leads to an interesting cultural problem for Americans (or at least for me...)  -- in the US if someone leaves a bicycle out in a common area unlocked for an extended period of time (to the point where it has a layer of dust on it for example),  its safe to assume that its abandoned.... the former owner left it there expecting someone to take it (if they wanted to keep it, they'd lock it up). You would have no regrets in salvaging the abandoned bicycle to give it a new home.   

But in Japan,  there's no way of telling the difference between an abandoned bicycle and one that has just been parked outside unlocked for an extended period of time... as the 'if you don't want it to get stolen, you must lock it up' motivation is not really there.

I faced this dilemma when I moved permanently to Japan and was considering claiming an abandoned bicycle from outside the school's dormitory...  but then I realized I may actually be stealing something and decided to just play it safe and go and buy an (overly expensive) used bicycle instead....

Anyway, more on the subject of bicycles coming up soon....

update:  this is how I used to lock my bike up in Japan.. call me paranoid! :-P