Tokyo – Where we lost a day, gained some friends and saw a sumo on a bicycle. This was a city break like no other.

Months and months ago, whilst enjoying a rare and treasured video call to catch up with some friends, plans were hatched to try and meet up with them in Japan. Meeting up in some far flung corner of the world is the kind of thing that we often casually drop into conversation with our loved ones but we know that time at home is busy, days fly by, life happens and trying to arrange a holiday to coincide with our vague plans and shifting timescales can be a real challenge, but somehow, Simon and Camilla actually pulled it off. They kindly timed their two week holiday to visit Japan so that they would be flying out of Tokyo a few days after we arrived, so that we could enjoy four nights in the city together. The fact that this was possible at all is entirely down to them, and we will be forever grateful that they made the effort to persevere with planning despite our long stints of radio silence with no signal and perpetual indecisiveness.

Now, it goes without saying that, Ted and I are not city people. We sit squarely in the ‘country mouse’ category. And the last 12 months of us, our bikes,  long open roads and back-country campsites has meant that we feel even more at home amongst nature and even more like fish-out-of-water in built up, busy environments. So to go from camping in the quiet woods of Vancouver Island, to the biggest city in the world (in terms of population density) within the space of a few days was a bit of a shock to the system. To top it off, we flew out of Vancouver on an early morning flight, so endured the usual getting-no-sleep-because-you-know-you-need-to-wake-up-at-4am-thing, we got lost in the space vortex of universal airport time where no-one knows if it’s day or night, we sat on the plane for 10 hours (ish), we listened to the pilot explain that the local time was 12.30pm on landing and shifted our watches the necessary couple of hours forward, but somewhere along the way we had lost a day. Whilst we watched many trashy films, ate plastic chemicals disguised as aeroplane food and tried to convince our bodies to sleep with our heads lilting at funny angles – a whole day disappeared, how on earth does that work!?! Try as I may, whilst standing in the immigration queue, I just couldn’t work it out. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get my head around it. How do you just loose a day!? And will I ever get it back!? If we had stayed on the plane would another day have vanished!? It felt even more surreal thinking this through in my foggy, jetlagged state. Turns out I might be able to cycle the world, but I’ll never be cut out for time travel.

So whilst feeling like my mind was being totally blown by our disappearing day, we collected our bikes and bags to excitedly join the hubbub of the arrivals hall and figure out how to get into downtown Tokyo. Yes, we know most people would have had this sorted before they got on the plane, let alone landed, but only hours before boarding our bargain flight, Simon gently pointed out to us that we weren’t flying into Tokyo airport, we were flying into an airport much further North – no wonder the flight had been such a bargain. So what we thought would be a short 25km ride from the airport to where we were staying, ended up being much much further than that, and undoable in the time we had. Our last minute, laptop based, attempts to determine whether we could take the bike boxes on buses or trains or the subway had just lead us down the internet minefield of rules, tables of measurements and internet forums of pure contradiction. All of which were very confusing, not to mention stress inducing, so we figured we’d just go to bed and work something out when we arrived.

It turns out an expensive taxi was our only option – we were too out of the ordinary to be accommodated by any other transport or shipping. We hoped to maybe find some other travellers to perhaps share the large taxi with us and split the cost, so we hung around a little while asking any other tourist who was milling about in a manner suggesting they also had nothing pre-booked. There weren’t many people who fell into this category so we were standing about for a while. During this time we somehow attracted the attention of a TV company doing some filming. They explained that they were a popular news channel in Japan and were interviewing tourists to  hear about their plans and experiences in the country. They were amazed by how long we had been cycling and wanted to ask us a few questions on camera to add to their show – so there we were, hot, sweaty, tired, jet lagged and our minds still reeling at having lost a day, being interviewed for a slot on the equivalent of the BBC’s One Show. We really couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried. Interview over, not really comprehending the reality that our garbled answers would be going out to the nation we would be spending the next month in, our tiredness took over. We decided to forgo waiting any longer and jumped in the taxi, swallowing down the cost that blew the budget.

Coming from North America where absolutely everything is so unnecessarily huge, we were immediately shocked by just how small everything is here in Japan. The tiny cars that look like toys, pickup trucks that look like they’ve been shrunk, narrow roads, small houses all neatly stacked side by side. We arrived at our lovely Airbnb, which Camilla had kindly sorted for us, and standing our two bike boxes outside end to end, they were about as wide as the house. Thankfully it was bigger than it looked from the outside and we soon had our bikes stashed in a cupboard and our bags spilling out all over the floor – it felt like home.

But the biggest feeling of homecoming was seeing Simon and Camilla again. It’s a sign of a true friendship that after a year apart, after only a few scant phonecalls throughout the year and after our lives have diverged, we can be reunited, pick up where we left off and have a great few days together.

To have friends to chat with, to laugh with, to see the sights with and to connect with was a true gift. For the last 12 months, with no friends or family around us we’ve had to try and be everything for one another. To be the other ones spouse, family, friend, work colleague, neighbour, training buddy, therapist and guy you occasionally speak to in the local shop – it’s hard to be absolutely everything for one other person. In fact, its probably the hardest thing about the trip. So to have a few days where we were not making all the decisions (which can feel exhausting) and where we also had friends to share things with, it was pretty great.

We wandered through the calm, organised streets, amazed by the contrast in atmosphere to most of the other cities we’ve visited on this trip. There were very few cars on the roads, the streets were mainly filled with people cycling or walking, so everything felt like it was at a much slower pace. It was pretty quiet for such a huge city, no sirens whaling, no car horns honking, no rumbling engines. We made our way through the artsy district stopping by stylish shops who had picked one item to sell, and do it well – chocolatiers, a ribbon shop, the button shop, the coffee roastery or my personal favourite, the stationary shop.

We enjoyed taking in all the cultural sights, the temples and the shrines, as well as a couple of museums. We jumped on and off the subway, Simon and Camilla showing us how it’s done. We got lost amongst the crowds of the crazy Shibuya Scramble Crossing, with the brightest lights and signs all adding to the lively atmosphere, the tourists and locals being equally matched in number.

We also had the absolute joy of meeting up with our old housemate from our University days. Elliot now lives in Shanghai in China and during the COVID years we had jokingly mentioned to him that when it was all over we would cycle to his house to see him – we are aware that Japan isn’t quite China, but in the scheme of a bike ride, it’s not far off! Again, our catch-up was testament to the fact that years apart does nothing to separate true friendship, and it was like we were back in our student house all over again, albeit with no alcohol, no fancy dress outfits and no Grand Theft Auto being played on a giant projector screen.

But before we knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes – we rebuilt the bikes to start our ride through Japan, Simon and Camilla packed their bags to head home to the UK, it was back to our respective realities.

Standing outside the Airbnb door, everything packed up, check out done, the route on our Garmins, there was nothing else for it – We looked at each other, both took a deep breath and got those wheels turning again. The second year had begun.