Early rise, for today, Julie and I were going to be Toadette and Koopa Troopa, respectively. I wasn’t hugely into the idea of doing this when I first heard the idea; around £60 each, and it sounded gimmicky as hell. Well, I’m happy to report that it was both £60 each, and gimmicky as hell. BUT, reader, in the Best. Possible. Way.
We woke up a little late so had a bit of a rush getting to the meeting spot, dragging our travel suitcases behind us as we were travelling to Kyoto that evening. We met in a little building and watched the briefing video, before being shown to a large rack of fancy dress costumes. Sadly, due to licensing laws, there was no affiliation with Nintendo, so no Mario costume for us. We settled on a couple of superheroes. Julie = Spider-man, Ad = Batman. (Yes, I did double check I stylised those correctly, the last thing I want is Marvel or DC drips coming at me). We were to go out with our guide and another two couples, and we bagged the two karts behind the guide. The karts themselves were pretty decent. Though I’ve no idea what cc they were, they were pretty fast. Seatbelt was optional even though we were going on the open roads. It’s ok mum, we went with them.
mmmm, look at that tasteful HDR effect..
We drove around the streets of Tokyo for about 2.5 hours, including a quick stop off, and it was glorious. We were straight into the thick of the action, driving on dual-carriageways, speeding alongside cars, trucks, buses and everything in-between, at times even losing our guide for a few minutes a time. Not once did it feel unsafe, even when I was undercut by a Land Rover; I just gave them a little toot of my horn and shook my fist. We went straight over Rainbow bridge and, although I was disappointed that it wasn’t a multi-coloured road littered with thwomps and drop-offs into eternal darkness, it was nonetheless littered with incredible views and incredibler speeds. All the way round, people in the street were pointing, waving, and taking photos. Obviously I was loving this, giving it the big one – rock horns, peace signs, kissing my bicep. Well ok, I didn’t do the last one. Only because I don’t possess any 😦
We had a little stop off opposite Rainbow Bridge so we could take a few photos, realising that we’d have to leave the karts and actually walk amongst actual people. I felt mega self-conscious, though we shouldn’t have worried. Straight away, three Japanese ladies beckoned me over, massive beaming smiles, asking who I was and where I was from. Julie came over as well, for some reason, even though the girls made it very clear they wanted to chat to me only. Julie didn’t seem to take the hint here, and hung onto me. So clingy.
We had a little walk around and Julie even spoilt a lovely moment between mother and daughter who will now forever have a long, blonde-haired Spider-man lurking in their photos. We made our way back to our gang, but not before a Vietnamese lady dressed head-to-toe in Christian Dior grabbed us for a photo. Julie was in awe, and she did not hide it well.
We had the opportunity to stop at Shibuya crossing, which was very busy at this point of the day, and meant that we felt like celebrities as every single person stared at us, thinking “they are amazing people”, probably. We made our way back to the start of our journey, and just like that, it was over; we jumped off our karts, took off our superhero costumes, and in an instant we were normal people again. We tried waving at random people in the street and were just met with odd looks. I resented this life. I still do.
We grabbed some food and then it was time to visit teamLab Borderless; a mind-blowing digital-art museum which was impossible to photograph well. You know when people say “photos don’t do it justice”? Well, that. I can’t really go into much detail of what we found within, but it was beautiful and we spent hours there. Some of the art even transcended rooms, following you around corridors, projections even interacting with you as you passed by. It was very busy in there and we even had to queue for some of the exhibits, but none of that dampened our spirits; if anything, it built anticipation.
I really do recommend just going and seeing for yourself. Go tomorrow. No, go now. Get in a taxi and go now. What’s stopping you? The ocean? Oh, and all those other things, fair enough.
Upon leaving, it was time to travel to Kyoto which should have taken around 3 hours in total. In reality, it actually took 14 days, give or take. It basically took ages because the bullet train we chose did not resemble a bullet, far from it. It crawled at a snail pace, stopping at just about every station on the way. In hindsight, it explained why we had an entire carriage to ourselves. We moved onto another train, which also meant a couple of transfers. We were RATTY. We eventually got settled on the final train, and Julie double-checked our hostel details. Check-in closes at 9pm. It was now 8.30pm and we were two hours away. Oopsie. I mean – it probably just says that right? It’s a hostel; people come and go at all hours, right? I mean – the part of the email in big bold letters that says “YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO CHECK-IN AFTER 9PM AND WILL REQUIRE ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION” is probably just a scare tactic, right? Balls. Big, hairy, balls. We spent the next hour or so downloading apps that let you call international phone numbers, using our 300 free tokens (a.k.a 30 seconds) to find that no one was answering anyway. Julie emailed the hostel through Booking.com but we held out absolutely no hope and started asking ourselves questions such as “how comfortable is pavement?”. Cometh the hour cometh the man, we received a reply to the email from a chap named Ken. He let us know the code for the door and where he’d hidden the key; legend. We’d grown all those grey hairs grown, and for what?
We eventually arrived at the hostel about 11.30pm, tired and weary. We met a Portuguese chap in the reception who reminded me a lot of Jesse from Breaking Bad and hence he was Very Cool™. We chatted for 30 minutes, and I dragged Julie off to bed before she fell in love with him as we had a long day tomorrow.
15 days in Japan. 