A fun story about my time in Japan, Tsunoda Bicycles and this C&V forum!
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 2,046
Mentioned: 26 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 838 Post(s)
Liked 1,082 Times
in
522 Posts
A fun story about my time in Japan, Tsunoda Bicycles and this C&V forum!
A few months ago I made a post here asking about two bicycles that my aunt had found in my uncles attic in the Bronx after he passed. She sent me some rough photos and one I could see was an Atala, the other I didn't recognize. The headbadge said T.U. and I hadn't seen this before. A quick post here of course turned up that it was a Tsunoda, a bike not so common to find here in the U.S. I guess they are still around to some capacity.
Anyways, that was a few months ago. Tomorrow my aunt will be here in Phoenix and will have both bicycles with her. So I'm in bed doing some searching and I look up the #tsunodabike hashtag on Instagram to see what I can find there. Only 12 photos turned up (although I haven't searched it in Japanese yet). I didn't expect many but I expected more than 12! Anyways, one of the photos immediately caught my eye. "I KNOW this building...", I thought. A few seconds later it dawned on me.
I lived in Japan in 2016 in a very small, more or less rural town outside of Nagoya. We had one subway stop for the town, and that makes it rural in Japan. This building was on the east side of the town and I'd walk by it often when I needed to go to the local department store. You just don't see a lot posted about this town on the internet. It's tiny and rather insignificant by Japanese standards (although a beautiful place to live). So to have this pop up was very striking. This is the photo found by the user on Instagram:
Now, my interest in vintage bicycles, and bicycles in general was just starting around this time, so I never would have thought much about the name, and I don't think I ever actually stopped in. However, upon further recollection I remembered having taken almost this exact same photo. Sure enough I had a look on my computer and found the photo I had taken.
Very uncanny and I had a good laugh at this and just had to post something about it!
Anyways, that was a few months ago. Tomorrow my aunt will be here in Phoenix and will have both bicycles with her. So I'm in bed doing some searching and I look up the #tsunodabike hashtag on Instagram to see what I can find there. Only 12 photos turned up (although I haven't searched it in Japanese yet). I didn't expect many but I expected more than 12! Anyways, one of the photos immediately caught my eye. "I KNOW this building...", I thought. A few seconds later it dawned on me.
I lived in Japan in 2016 in a very small, more or less rural town outside of Nagoya. We had one subway stop for the town, and that makes it rural in Japan. This building was on the east side of the town and I'd walk by it often when I needed to go to the local department store. You just don't see a lot posted about this town on the internet. It's tiny and rather insignificant by Japanese standards (although a beautiful place to live). So to have this pop up was very striking. This is the photo found by the user on Instagram:
Now, my interest in vintage bicycles, and bicycles in general was just starting around this time, so I never would have thought much about the name, and I don't think I ever actually stopped in. However, upon further recollection I remembered having taken almost this exact same photo. Sure enough I had a look on my computer and found the photo I had taken.
Very uncanny and I had a good laugh at this and just had to post something about it!
Last edited by polymorphself; 05-12-20 at 12:11 AM.
Likes For polymorphself:
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Port Angeles, WA
Posts: 7,922
Bikes: A green one, "Ragleigh," or something.
Mentioned: 194 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1627 Post(s)
Liked 630 Times
in
356 Posts
Small world, eh?
Now I'm wondering what's the story behind the blue tarps hanging down in the window (in your pic)? Hurricane? Earthquake? Payments in arrears to the Yakuza?
Now I'm wondering what's the story behind the blue tarps hanging down in the window (in your pic)? Hurricane? Earthquake? Payments in arrears to the Yakuza?
__________________
● 1971 Grandis SL ● 1972 Lambert Grand Prix frankenbike ● 1972 Raleigh Super Course fixie ● 1973 Nishiki Semi-Pro ● 1979 Motobecane Grand Jubile ●1980 Apollo "Legnano" ● 1984 Peugeot Vagabond ● 1985 Shogun Prairie Breaker ● 1986 Merckx Super Corsa ● 1987 Schwinn Tempo ● 1988 Schwinn Voyageur ● 1989 Bottechia Team ADR replica ● 1990 Cannondale ST600 ● 1993 Technium RT600 ● 1996 Kona Lava Dome ●
● 1971 Grandis SL ● 1972 Lambert Grand Prix frankenbike ● 1972 Raleigh Super Course fixie ● 1973 Nishiki Semi-Pro ● 1979 Motobecane Grand Jubile ●1980 Apollo "Legnano" ● 1984 Peugeot Vagabond ● 1985 Shogun Prairie Breaker ● 1986 Merckx Super Corsa ● 1987 Schwinn Tempo ● 1988 Schwinn Voyageur ● 1989 Bottechia Team ADR replica ● 1990 Cannondale ST600 ● 1993 Technium RT600 ● 1996 Kona Lava Dome ●
Last edited by Lascauxcaveman; 05-12-20 at 12:20 AM.
#3
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 2,046
Mentioned: 26 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 838 Post(s)
Liked 1,082 Times
in
522 Posts
You know that's a good question. If I recall they were always up when I was there, which may be why I never bothered to go in. The other persons photo was taken two years later.
Likes For alo: