10 Days of Tokyo: 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Going Home: 70K to Narita Airport

Pear stand. Crispy, ripe, lightly sweet pears.

There's an extra one in there, too. No words about it, just a smile.

Composite railroad crossing pole. Looked sorta like carbon/Kevlar to me.

Public recycling everywhere, with consumer-level sorting and awesome compliance. Hard to find a trash can, easy to find a recycle cluster. All over Japan.

Also all over Japan - deluxe and technologically-advanced toilets. This McDonalds toilet had a heated seat and a bidet. I had to get a shrip burger at McDonalds in rural Japan. I did. It was pretty good. The small shake was really small, not American small.

Awards Ceremony

Winners of the Main Race. Jo-Jo, from Sweden, and the Men's winner, from Japan giving Yoshi, the President of the Tokyo Bike Messenger Association some much-deserved love.

The fabulous Organizing Crew.

CMWC Events, Day #2: Cargo Race

One of the Bullits coming home. I finished 2nd.

Chie brings it home on an S.U.B.

Chie, post-race

The part between Day 1 and Day 2

Favorite snack: $1.25 at any convenience store. Nori, sticky sushi rice, various center components.

Exiting the party, morning of September 23rd. Christian and I met Tomity. Tomity is a Shimano Dura Ace cog-shaping, polishing, plating Keirin rider. 25 year Keirin career and counting.
Christian sat in gum. Tomity ices the gum, we scrape the hardened gum off.

Optimally re-shaped teeth, jewel polish, gold plating. Makes track bikes race faster. Champions seem to like them.

Tomity guided us to Messenger Camp. An amazing start to the day. An amazing moment in time.

CMWC Events, Day #1

Sarah Murder from S.F. - Main Race Qualifier.

My pal, Mason, from Portland. Making the finals in Backward Circles. I squeaked into finals and finished with a 5th.

Fite (sp?), from Stuttgart. Zen backwards circling.

Chicken-fight during group photo.

Women's Track Stand. I won the Men's

September 22, 2009

My beautifully-embroidered sponsor shirt got stuck in transit....

Expos and vendors at the Events site. Pedal-rocket.

Eric Zo, who successfully encouraged Larry vs Harry to ship & lend 5 Bullit Long John cargo bikes. 5 foreign Cargo Racers signed-up to race them.

Really good recycling at the CMWC Events.

September 21, 2009

Larry vs Harry sponsored the Cargo Race with the loan of 5 of their Bullit Long Johns.

Mitigating the sponsor shirt snafu.

Christian, from Berlin. Colided with motorcycle as well as other things.

Ibuprofen donation

Alex from Montreal and Christian, vertical.

Morning After

A little backwards circles practice around a sculpture.

Cold-setting after the bike-motorcycle collision.

Opening Party

Pre-party street-side lounging with Mason.

Eric Zo seemed to be in his element.

These little boxes were thrown out into the crowd and then filled with super-clean, super-good sake. The sake vat was big enough to satisfy everybody, it seemed. Tokyo has good DJs, as did this party. Dancing ensued. Sake was spilled. My hamstring was strained. Awesome night.