These days YouTube is absolutely awash with creators doing all kinds of random and pointless challenges, but they really weren’t so common 15 years ago when I embarked on what is still my longest ever themed cycling ride. For the record, I’m not suggesting that I am the pioneer of such challenges!

On the back of a couple of other themed bicycle tours of Tokyo (namely riding around the Yamanote Line and cycling the A-Z of stations), I came up with the idea of using my road bike to visit all the tourist attractions featured in Fodor’s Tokyo Best 25 guidebook. Not satisfied with 25 sights I added a few bonus ones too and all of this was done in one single day on November 5th. A date to be remembered!

As this was now 15 years ago it’s important to point out that I didn’t have a smartphone and so was unable to use Google Maps for helping me navigate the journey so had to rely on pre-existing knowledge, a paper map, road signs and my intuition! Neither could I track my route which is shame as I’d love to know exactly how many calories I burned! My guess is that it was over 5000!! The approximate distance covered is at the foot of this post.

The original posts in 2010 were split into three parts and told in the present simple which was perhaps my first (only??) time to write in that style rather than the traditional past simple. There’s too much content to repeat everything from the day so I’ll summarise it as best as I can whilst adding some new reflective opinion. Looking back now, the things which surprise me are that I did the whole trip wearing jeans and also set up a tripod for my shots at each place! Different times!

The journey started at 6:15 am and within about 45 minutes I had already ticked off Rikugien Gardens (1) in Komagome, and both Tokyo National Museum (2) and the National Museum of Western Art (3) in Ueno.

Major tourist attraction Asakusa Senso-ji (4) was pretty much deserted at that time of the morning. I actually had a quite major cycle crash here as a fairly young Japanese guy shot across in front of me at one of the junctions. I had the right of way but in true Japanese fashion he didn’t anticipate any danger, and I was unable to brake in time. We collided and both fell off. I was thankfully fine and so was my bike. I asked him if he was ok but he didn’t say a thing and just cycled on. How rude!

On the other side of the Sumida-gawa river I went to Edo-Tokyo Museum (5) which was a little difficult to locate despite having been there previously! Back in the heart of Tokyo after that was the Imperial Palace (6) which was impossible to get a shot of with my bicycle in the picture. A shame as I still felt I needed to prove that I was there!

Next up were National Diet Building (7) and Yasakuni Shrine (8) which were rather uneventful apart from catching the skin of my hand whilst folding away my tripod. Ouch!  Another minor war wound to remember the trip by!

The National Museum of Modern Art (9) was completely new to me and so it took me a while to find it even though it was nearby.

Hibiya Park (10) is also in the vicinity where I finally treated myself to a toilet stop, a bit of breakfast and a very short break. More in depth details here.

The Sony Building (11) was difficult to photograph as it’s a tall building with the only real visible sign on the roof. Ginza (12) itself was next, and a bit of a problem as how does one sum up a whole place in one photo?!! The answer was Chuo-Dori with Wako and Mitsukoshi department stores either side of it.

Very close to that was Kabuki-Za (13) which at that time was just a pile of rubble before eventually being restored to its former glory. Both Hama Rikyu Gardens (14) and Tsukiji Fish Market (15) are within touching distance of each other, so I decided to get them out of the way before embarking on the two most difficult places in the top 25 list.

Odaiba (16) is first and the main view of Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty are felt necessary for my photo of this area. It’s quite clear that my camera lens had something of a stain on it!

As midday struck, I was back on my bicycle after an early lunch at McDonalds. The main road to Chiba saw many massive trucks breezing past me that which was rather unnerving and made me wobble a bit. Tokyo Disneyland (17) is technically in Chiba (albeit just across the border) and could’ve been used as an excuse to exclude it from this adventure but I stubbornly wanted to do it all!

Having crossed a few steep bridges over rivers, I saw a sign which made my heart sink. It said 31 km to Chiba but in hindsight this must’ve been to Chiba city rather than the prefecture! At the time, I thought I had under-estimated that part of the journey and began to have reservations about continuing to Disneyland.

With energy draining out of me, I was thankfully rewarded only minutes later when I saw the Tokyo Disney Resort Hotel over the road in the distance. My lost hope changed to delight although I still had to get across there which was not easy. Ultimately, I couldn’t quite get the shots I wanted and had to settle for some lesser ones. More in depth details here. 

35 minutes from Odaiba to Disneyland wasn’t too bad I guess and just before 1:00 pm the most pointless trips that anyone’s ever had to that part of the world was over as I returned to Tokyo and eventually arrived in Toyosu before cutting back through Tsukiji Fish Market again. Tokyo Tower (18) and Roppongi Hills (19) were ticked off with relative ease but it was a struggle to get down to Sengakuji Temple (20) as my instincts began to fade and I lost my way as well as my enthusiasm! Again, I felt like giving up at this stage but decided to push on as the home straight was just ahead.

It wasn’t that straight-forward though as Yebisu Garden Place (21) was difficult to get to.

Up the road in Harajuku was Meiji-jingu Shrine (22) but that had already closed not that I was ever going to do more than view the huge exterior wooden torii gate. Takeshita-dori represented Harajuku (23) itself and it was quite embarrassing getting the photo there.

The final pair of locations were in Shinjuku beginning with Shinjuku-gyoen Garden (24) which was of course closed and not very well lit-up. Bicycle lights were needed after that as I cycled to the west side of Shinjuku for the final stop which was Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (25). Yet again it was a struggle to locate it and I was getting frustrated as it was a bad place to finish the challenge as it was dark and not really possible to photograph the actual building, so ended up just getting one of me in front of the entrance doors with a little sign for show.

I felt no emotion or any sense of achievement as I left but my tale wasn’t over just yet as two policemen signaled that I couldn’t cycle through a tunnel to get back to where I needed to be going. I asked them if it was illegal to which they said no but it was just dangerous. Not wanting another altercation, I carried my bicycle up some stairs and took an alternative route.

It was 6:35 pm when I arrived home after half a day in the saddle with hardly any breaks. It was only the next day when I began to feel something, and I don’t mean the stiffness in my legs! As I told a couple of students about my challenge I realised the feat of my accomplishment. More in depth details here.

About five years later I worked out that the distance covered was about 130 kilometres but that is based on the assumption that I took the quickest route between places each time. That definitely did not happen as I got lost many times so another 10 (or even 20!) kilometres could be added to that total. What I do know is that it took just under 12.5 hours and that I will never, ever undertake such a task ever again!

Click here to read ‘TF Top 10……Tokyo Themed Cycling Rides’

Click here to read ‘Cycling to Tokyo’s Best 25 Sights…in 1 Day Pt I’

Click here to read ‘Cycling to Tokyo’s Best 25 Sights…in 1 Day Pt II’

Click here to read ‘Cycling to Tokyo’s Best 25 Sights…in 1 Day Pt III’