What happens when you park your bike in the wrong place

Although Kyoto used to be a city-wide bicycle free for all, in the past couple years they have begun cracking down on where you ride and park your bike. The city has signs all over noting if you can park or not. Mainly in Japanese, the signs tell you dates on which bicycles were be picked up and impounded. So if you go outside and your bike is gone, you will know it was taken by the city.

We have also recently seen people checking the registration on bicycles, so they may do the equivalent of a "chalk mark on your tire." We think, as long as you are careful, you can temporarily park wherever you want. Do heed the signs though; if you cannot read Japanese or have a rental bike, follow the rules and park elsewhere. It is a bit of a pain in the butt to get your bike back if it is impounded.

Having been here for a couple months now, and owning our own bikes, we agreed to risk it and park our bikes even in the "don't park" areas. As we have been doing work at Starbucks, thanks to the killer internet available (yes they do have "free" internet at Starbucks), we have been doing a lot of parking along major streets that are all no-park.

The other day we spent a solid 8 hours in Starbucks, and upon going to leave, found our bikes no where to be found. We high fived, thinking our overly heavy bikes had been stolen (giving us reason to buy better, light weight bikes), and then as we looked around, the joy on our faces slipped away. We realized there were suddenly no bikes parked anywhere. The city had impounded our bikes.

The signs have little maps telling you where to go get your bike, but there are multiple impound lots, so you will need to be able to read Japanese or have a good sense of the city.

Here are some shots of the impound lot. They do an impressive job of organizing the bikes by date and pickup location.