After talking about doing it for eight years, I finally cycled the Yamanote Line loop today.
It was supposed to be a 34k course but the clock on my bike reckons it was 51k. It took the whole short sunny November day.
Yanaka Cemetery, the huge, sprawling graveyard just after Ueno, caused some navigational problems, as did the section from Osaki to Shinagawa. Akihabara remains out of control. Today it was full of young girls, dressed up as maids, trying to entice the Akiba geeks to "maid coffee shops." As bearded American tourists acquired photographic proof that Japan is a weird and wacky place, I weaved my way through the waves of people and moved on.
Vortexes and navigational difficulties aside, it was a pleasant ride beside the tracks through the many different worlds of the Yamanote Line, from the verve and creativity and affluence of your Harajukus and your Ebisus to the grit and death and decay of your Nipporis and your Tabatas.
Posted by Setsunai at November 13, 2005 10:24 PMHow long would it take to walk that?
Posted by: Pat at November 14, 2005 4:42 PM | Permalink to CommentOn the bike, it took from 10 in the morning to 5 in the evening, with one stop for a fancy sandwich in a posh coffee shop in Ebisu and one for downmarket udon in downmarket Komagome.
I don't think you'd do it in a day walking, or if you did, it'd be a very long day.
Posted by: Setsunai at November 14, 2005 4:45 PM | Permalink to CommentI actually read an article a while back about walking it. the author did it in about 12 hours I think. Couldn't find that right now, but here's a link to some who did it last year: http://smt.blogs.com/tokyo_travel/2004/08/urban_challenge.html (that's the first half, the next blog post has the second part). It's one of those things I'll do sometime in my lifetime (like walking the original Tokkaido -- yeah, right!)
Posted by: Kurt at November 14, 2005 11:49 PM | Permalink to CommentFifteen years ago, my wife and I had our first date in Ueno and decided to walk a bit at the end of the evening. We walked from Okachimachi to Nishi-Nippori. We stopped for yakitori in Uguisidani, an smokey, dreamy vignette. On subsequent dates we continued to walk around the Yamanote in stages of four or five stations each evening, finally finishing about a month later. It was nice. Walking and talking.
Now, I frequently bicycle around the Yamanote on New Year's Day. The traffic is light or non-existent and takes about four hours. I usually cut across the neck down by Osaki, though.
If nothing else, it gives you the idea that Tokyo really isn't all that big.
Posted by: Jay Johnson at May 4, 2007 10:44 AM | Permalink to Comment