Alleycat in Tokyo (now with report and pics!)

there is an haloween costumed alleycat today at 5pm here in Tokyo! I have the flyer. BUT IT'S RAINING LIKE I'VE RARELY SEEN BEFORE!!!!
I'm so pissed off.
Might go to check if it is still on but I doubt.

maybe I'll just go and look for that elusive £45 NJS frame...

have fun!

if you are just trying to make me jealous that you are in Tokyo ...Let me tell you it works.

OK so after saturday's goddamn TYPHOON, I found out that the race was still on, same place, same time, on (sunny) sunday.
I armed myself with the name of the starting Park written in japanese on the back of the alleycat flyer. I could not risk showing the front of the flyer to the police who have small information boxes (and were my main chance of reaching the start) as they have been trying to clamp down on alleycats. Then I set off and got properly lost. No one in this city seems to know their way around.

Anyway got there finally, the guy organising it was actually American, and there were a few Gaijins around, plus some english-speaking Japanese.

Because of the change of race day, the turnout went from an expected 70 to a meager 10. Lots more guys hanging around doing wheelies and tricks though.
We did a bit of PISUMO (more on this later) and a skid comp, then got ready for the start.

I found out who would be the fastest and best (Hal, who is Shino's sidekick in Track Kaiju, the movie shown at the BFF), and followed him from the start.
It was a fairly simple alleycat: 5 manned checkpoints, in any order, with "trick or treat" candies to be picked up at each.
Hal was good but not blindingly fast, it felt quite leisurely at times (nothing like following Jos or Josh for example!). We ended up in a leading pack of 3, with an American guy.
Beautiful night rides through eerie parks, with scattered people playing guitar and singing J-pop by themselves, girls jogging in complete darkness with no fear of (non-existent) criminals, crickets singing, neons flashing. Ok I'm getting a bit poetic here.

After about 50 minutes Hal started to speed up a bit, and next thing you know he turned abruptly to the right without warning (he'd been giving me notice with hand signals before - very Japanese). I followed him and realised this was the the entry to the park where we started from and therefore the END! But he did a mistake and went up some long flat stairs whilst I went to the left, up a smooth bank. So... I won.

I felt bad about it though and apologised and bowed down. But still kept my winning prize (an iPod shuffle)

Overall an amazing way to discover a city and be part of its underground scene!

photos next.

Riding through tokyo on my way to the start:

Shino - the fastest messenger in Tokyo, wins every alleycat (was late for this one), and finished 3rd at Monstertrack 07, then Angela, new friend from Tokyo (ouch!), then sweaty and short me:

The winning trophy:

Those pics were taken by my friend Karta, so there is not much "bike porn" from the other bikes present that night. Trying find some flickr accounts..

Sneaky move!

Cool trip, did you know anyone to start off with or just arked around when you got to Tokyo?

photos.

OK... now let's talk about PISUMO!!!

PISTA+SUMO=PISUMO

Basically this guy Eli and his friends invented this:

• you create a big circle of riders holding their bikes (6-7 meters wide)
  
• then 2 riders at each time get into the circle
  
• 3 laps in one direction, then START!
  
• from then it's like footdown, but with only 2 people.
  
• you make sumo noises
  
• If you exit the circle you're out
  
• It's hilarious
  
• works better with a fat suit (see pics)
  
  

PISUMO is coming to Pike Polo next weekend!! get your fat suits ready..

Congrats Yorgo - representing in Tokyo :-)

Pisumo looks brilliant, but doesn't it just descend into a track stand comp?

No I guess you get to ram into each other and push each other.

well done Y, looks like fun!

you gunna come show us your moves at this?

hell yeah, sounds like great fun

Bloody sandbagger! Nice work :)

Some expensive bits to be dropping on the ground up there.

I won't be needing a sumo suit..

what about the 45 quid njs frames
did you find them ?

heh, heh, heh
I'm still so smug.