I had an opportunity to travel to Kobe city in Japan for a 13-day business trip in January 2011. Kobe is the largest city and also the capital of Hyogo Prefecture in the Kansai Region. It is mainly an industrial city and a home to many companies' high tech factories. Kobe is also famous for the extremely expensive, mouth-watering, melt-in-your-mouth Kobe beef.


Besides its famous beef and high tech prowess, I also had an interesting observation during my 2 weeks stay in Kobe: There are a lot of bicycles in the city! And they can be left anywhere unattended (literally). I've been to other cities in Japan, such as Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, but none of them have such a special "bicycle culture"! And it is this special culture that prompt me to make this photo series to showcase the life of the bicycles in this historical city.