Perhaps, but since when do you bug someone on a bike for directions...?

acregal's anecdote above reminds me of another bike-related story. My house is near a major arterial road where they recently added bicycle lanes to the sidewalks. There is also a supermarket on this road where they bring in new produce every morning around rush hour. I was headed to the metro station one morning and the pedestrian side of the sidewalk was cluttered with carts and boxes for the supermarket, as well as some old people doddering along, so I ducked around a lamppost through the bike lane for a moment, for lack of any room to pass on the pedestrian side. One of the old farts on the sidewalk immediately tugged on the sleeve of my coat and impatiently pointed at the bike lane sign. I sighed "bakayaro" and went on with my day. (FWIW, cyclists seem to observe the presence of the bike lane only when it suits them...)

That said -- again, I think a lot of the reason foreigners label Japanese people as weird/crazy is that there are simply so many people in such a tight space here that you can't avoid interactions with weird/crazy people from time to time. No different than, say, New York or London, where many people go through culture shock even if they are from the same country. Where I come from, you generally deal with weird/crazy people from the isolated safety of your car on the freeway.