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It was a rainy ride from Mount Fuji to Tokyo. But to be honest, we didn’t really care. When we set out in April, Tokyo seemed incredibly far away. And now, its skyline appeared before our eyes…
We did it!
Traffic was unreal in Tokyo. So many cars, lanes, layers, signs. But we made it our hostel in Shinjuku and explored the city from there. First impression: wow. It’s so dense. Blinking lights everywhere. And people! All very well dressed, heading from work to bar, bar to home, home to wherever.
The next morning we moved to Shibuya, where we had managed to book a small private apartment.
Much like Shinjuku, Shibuya is a shopping and party district. We enjoyed responsibly (not pictured).
Another part of the city we explored was Akira.
Akira is Tokyo’s gaming district. It’s all about entertainment. We walked into one of the numerous gaming halls. Lots of retro gaming here, people playing Xenon 3, Street Fighter II and the likes, but modern stuff as well. And then there’s the bookstores. Manga, lots of Manga. Pretty weird stuff actually, judging the books by their covers.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the bikes. It took us half an hour to figure out how to pay for coin parking, but then we were good to go.
The last ride of the trip led us from Shibuya to KTM Japan’s headquarters in Ariake, a ride of 45 minutes through spectacular urban landscapes. When we got there, everything was orange. It almost felt like being in Mattighofen, Austria, where the bikes are built and we did our maintenance and repair training in April.
The passion for KTM bikes it at the same level. Here we met Miwa and Nobuya, Kobe’s KTM Dealer, who makes bikes Japan-ready – which basically means to lower the bikes.
Miwa not only coordinated the handover of the bikes, she’s also master of selfies.
And she took one last photo of us with the bikes.
Then we were bikeless. Without motorcycles. Pedestrians. Strolling through Ariake.
The first thing we saw this:
While we there, Tokyo was hosting one of six yearly big Sumo tournaments. We wanted to see fights live but unfortunately, the event was sold out. Instead, we found out about a part of the city we had to visit: Corin Town aka Bike Town in Ueno – a district completely dedicated to motorcycles.
But when we got there it turned out, that Bike Town was no more. The name-giving Corin company went bankrupt years ago and with them lots of other businesses. Today only a few shops and workshops remain. Still, it was nice to see some Suzuki Katanas in perfect shape. And this beauty:
On our way back from Ueno we got to know Rie on the subway. When we told her about the Sumo she quickly checked her phone and discovered that there were still some tickets left on the black market. She went out of her way to get these tickets for us. Two days later, we met her again at her husband’s restaurant where she handed over the tickets. Thanks, Rie!
And we even got a free origami course by her very cute and smart daughter.
The next day it was Sumo time.
It’s incredible to see how fast guys weighing more than 400 lbs. can move.
Watching Sumo was pretty much the last thing we did in Tokyo. It was a great place to finish this trip, because it’s very different from everything else we had seen on the trip so far. Japan was a late highlight of this trip and we’d like to come back one day and maybe understand a bit more of what’s going over here.
Still trying to adapt to other means of transport, we boarded a plane at Tokyo’s international Airport Narita.
So, this is the end.
31.013 kilometers. 173 days. 22 countries. 2 motorcycles.
One hell of a ride.
Thanks to everyone who helped us out on our way.
Who followed us along.
To everyone who made this trip what it was.
<3
