Here it is. My Be.Bike 16STREET black. 16″ wheels, 7 speeds, aluminum frame 11kgs. This is the bike Batman would ride if he were 10 years old. It arrived last night in a big box and today I took it out to do the traditional narashi unten. I didn’t intend on buying another bicycle but I was wanting something small for going to the combini or supermarket, video store etc. Something under ¥5,000 was what I wanted but after looking around I just couldn’t bring myself to spend even ¥5,000 on crap. I’d rather spend more and get something of quality. I found some really nice collapsible ones but they were all over ¥100,000. The Be.Bike one looked like a good deal for the price and I liked the shape and size. It only collapses in height but that didn’t really matter to me because even the ones that fold small are an awkward shape and wouldn’t fit in my car trunk. I’ve never heard of Be.Bike (been out of the bicycle scene for a while) but it seems that others have. Are they popular cause I have never seen this particular bicycle on the street? The 16″ wheels are really small and I was skeptical about whether I could get to any decent speed but surprisely it’s pretty fast. One rotation of the top gear moves the bike 5.7 metres. It feels about the same gear I use for city riding on my Cannondale MB.

Anyway, today I decided to ride the Yamanote Line Loop to break in the bike. Yah I know, it’s not original or anything, if you google “cycling yamanote line” you’ll see that dozens of people blog this and post routes and everything. However, this is by far the longest post I’ve done or at least with the most pictures. Although all the pictures are of my bike in front of a boring station building, if that’s of any interest to anyone, I don’t know. But to make this post I got completely sunburned, endured a dozen excruciatingly painful muscle spasms, have a really sore butt and incredibly bad helmet hair. So I hope you find it even a little interesting.

The original plan was to leave at 05:00 and get back before noon but I couldn’t get myself out of bed so I ended up leaving the house at 07:30. Got all the necessary gear together and heading for Shinjuku. I wanted to do the crowded places in the early morning, Shibuya, Harajuku etc. but I didn’t want to ride to Shibuya. So I decided to start from Shinjuku and head north. For about half of the loop there are roads along the tracks. When there aren’t any you end up riding into a deadend or getting completely lost. I didn’t bring a map so decided to just follow the tracks. I realized real quick that this won’t always work. At one point, I thought I was following the Yamanote Line but in fact I was following the Saikyo Line and would have ended up in Saitama if I hadn’t realized it. I know most of the roads on the bottom half of the loop but was not as familiar with the top half. When I got to Ueno I was alright. There are 29 stations on the Yamanote Line however I keep feeling like I missed one.

The times below are when I arrived at each station. If you were around any of these stations at the same time I was there maybe you saw me. I spent alot of time goofing around and getting lost so the actually riding time would be shorter. I waited for the crowds to clear to take the photos. It may look like Tokyo was empty but in fact there were tons of people out today. And lots of beautiful ladies too. I almost crashed a few times!

(1) Shinjuku 08:32 I rode out to Shinjuku via Koshukaido and grabbed breakfast on the way. I saw 3 new Roadsters and felt that I should be roadstering today and not cycling. I almost turned back. Shinjuku was surprisely crowded at 8:30 in the morning. Nothing is open yet, why are all these people here? (2) Shinokubo 08:52 That chick just walked into my shot! Actually all day long people would stand right in front of me even though they saw I was trying to take a photo. Did they want to be on my blog? (3) Takadanobaba 08:59 I was getting hot..why did I choose today? The hottest day of the summer?! (4) Mejiro 09:10 No comment here. It’s a boring station.

(5) Ikebukuro 09:19 is a confusing station like Shinjuku. I always get mixed-up and lose all sense of direction when underground (6) Otsuka 09:48 This is where I got lost and almost rode to Saitama (7) Sugamo 09:57 is the senior citizen’s playland. I wanted to check out some of the shops but didn’t want to waste time (8) Komagome 10:02 I would’ve walked right by this station if I wasn’t looking for it. It’s so small insignificant. I imagine that one day these areas at the top of the loop might get developed like Ebisu and Meguro. Ebisu was like this years ago.

(9) Tabata 10:12 Another station I’ve never gotten off at. Nothing around here whatsoever (10) Nishi-Nippori 10:25 I missed this station completely and had to turn back for the photo (11) Nippori 10:32 There’s huge development going on on the west side. As a result there was no interesting station building. I had to climb a whole bunch of stairs to get this lousy picture (12) Uguisudani 10:41 Have you ever seen all those Love Hotels right by the tracks? I rode around in that area and found some interesting ones. In the evenings, there are many limousines at this exit waiting to pick up clients going to Yoshiwara. Uguisudani is this kind of town.

(13) Ueno 10:52 is just up the hill from Uguisudani, I rode around the National Museum a bit before heading to the main entrance (14) Okachimachi 10:59 And just a few blocks south of Ueno is Okachimachi. People come here to buy jewelry. There are lots of pawn shops. I stopped by Art Sports Annex to visit their bike shop. My gloves fell apart on me around Ikebukuro so I bought some new ones. Also bought a pair of lighter/cooler bicycle pants, the shorts I was wearing were completely soaked from sweat (15) Akihabara 11:45 This is where it started to happen. Suddenly, my inner thighs began to freeze. Like the muscles stopped doing what I wanted and were getting tied into knots. I could hardly bend my knees let alone pedal so I stopped and tried to stretch. It was very very painful but went away as quickly as it came. This was the first time I got a muscle spasm in my legs. Riding in Tokyo is not particularly hard since it’s mostly flat. I was surprised I’d get muscle pains from riding up such a slight slope. I thought maybe my saddle was too low so I raised it a bit but that didn’t work. Maybe it’s age? Or the first time in years I’m working out those cycling muscles? Anyone know? (16) Kanda 11:59 It was fairly empty around here today. Not much reason to come here on a Saturday I guess. The legs were feeling better.

(17) Tokyo 12:19 My favorite photo of the bunch. It looks like there’s a grassy knoll in the middle of downtown Tokyo. Initially I wanted to get the shot from the Marunouchi side but couldn’t find “Tokyo Station” written anywhere on that side of the station. Strange. I ended up riding all the way around the station to the Yaesu side for the photo. A homeless guy yelled at me. Something about this bit of grass being his land and get the f**k off. But then he saw how cool my bike was and let me take the picture (18) Yurakucho 12:23 Ahh..memories. I don’t come by here anymore (19) Shinbashi 12:30 Our favorite station!! Here we are in ekimae (20) Hamamatsucho 12:47 is actually a pretty big station if you include the monorail but you wouldn’t think so by the size of the entrance. I got another muscle spasm attack before reaching Hamamatsucho.

(21) Tamachi 13:02 Another station where I had to climb a ton of stairs to get to (22) Shinagawa 13:20 Tons of people here. I couldn’t believe it. This was the best I could do (23) Osaki 13:40 I stopped for lunch at Natural Lawson (see below). It’s strange how you don’t get hungry at all when it’s hot. I realized I hadn’t eaten for 5 hours. At least I was getting lots of liquids (24) Gotanda 14:14 Two spasm attacks before reaching Gotanda. I contemplated taking a taxi home but the pain goes away just like that and then I’m good to go. While taking this photo, I saw the hottest girl! 3 different guys hit on her as she walked from the bus stop to the station. One of the guys had 2 bags of groceries! Unbelievable.

(25) Meguro 14:25 I know a fast route to Meguro from Gotanda. I learned about it when I was part of this Japanese religious cult in 1988 but that’s another story I’ll share someday (26) Ebisu 14:27 I don’t remember taking this photo because I was dreading Shibuya next. All those people!! (27) Shibuya 14:50 but it wasn’t so bad. A typical weekend crowd I guess. I had to cross the intersection via the overhead walkways and got another spasm attack up there. It was not pretty and people were wondering why I looked like I was about to cry. Some tourist from Mexico took a few photos of my bike (28) Harajuku 15:15 I had the worst spasm attack on the way to Harajuku right near the fire station. It was the most painful and lasted the longest. It felt like someone had grabbed by muscles and were stretching them as tight as they could so I could not bend my legs at all. I was suffering so much that some girls asked if I was alright. I don’t remember what I said to them. Then it was gone and I proceeded to Harajuku where it was crowded with the usually Harajuku species. Hardly any space for me to set the bike so I had to settle for putting it by the curb like this.

(29) Yoyogi 15:30 Finished!! I walked most of the way to Yoyogi and was so happy that the tour was done. To properly close the loop I should have ridden back to Shinjuku but I decided it was time to head home. I rode at a leisurely pace and got back at 16:30 with only one more spasm attack. A fun day all in all except for the brief moments of severe pain. The bicycle performed well all day. The right grip became slightly loose and the gears were a bit crunchy for the first few kilometres but by the end they were nicely wore in. I forgot to wear sunscreen and when I went to buy some the damage had already been done so I didn’t bother.

Some more photos taken en route:

(1) A painted wall near Okubo station (2) Love Hotels near Ikebukuro. Found a cheap one ¥3000 for 4 hours! (3) Otsuka station must be preparing for some festival

(1) The Yamanote Line seen in back near Tabata station (2) Be.Bike and the Kanda River (3) Under the expressway near Tokyo station

(1) Everyone loves Biccamera! Even my Be.Bike. Can you tell he wants to go inside? (2) Here is my bike in ekimae@Shinbashi station. I waited and watched but no one tried to steal it (3) One of those JRA spots where you can bet on the horses. There were cops everywhere!

(1) My lunch at Natural Lawson. I sit where I can see my bike at all times (2) In front of Meiji Shrine. The security guard runs over and tells me not to park my bike there in the open. I said I wanted to take a picture and pointed at the Torii. To which he says first park your bike over there. This goes back and forth a few times. He’s getting mad. Then he says, for me to park my bike over there and come back to take the photo. Oh I get it. Most people don’t think about taking a photo of their bicycles (or cars) in front of landmarks. Duh. So I explain that I want to take a photo of my bike AND the gate. Together. He looks at me like I’m a loser or something and yells over at the other security guard that I want to take a photo of the bike AND the gate. Together! Everyone around hears that and some stop to watch me take the photo. Am I strange? (3) Here we are in Hachiko. Behind me that Mexican tourist I mentioned above is taking a photo of my bike too and saying something in spanish to his friend. I think he said I should have gotten yellow instead.

(1) With someone’s nice blue NB (2) And finally this is the piece of paper where I wrote down the times. It got really wet from my sweat.