Japan Road Trip: Akihabara - Real life Mario Kart

In Akihabara we did a super crazy fun thing which on the flip side I was crazy nervous about doing! Ben had suggested we go-kart through the streets of Tokyo, without a helmet or seat belt which caused me to have a mini heart attack. I'd almost convinced myself not to go "what happens if a truck can't see me and squashes me??" when I agreed that if we could have a guide I would brave up (the guide cost an extra 2000 yen but def worth it!). The karts themselves were easy enough to work (another thing I was freaking out about!) and since we were dressed up as Mario and Luigi we became instant stars (real life Mario Kart!) and traffic was very much obliging :) 

It was pretty cool to be an instant celeb, we got stopped everywhere for photos and people yelling out our names (well Mario and Luigi's names) he he! I couldn't recommend it enough, you do need a international drivers license and perhaps a booking (although we only rang the morning of) but everything else is super straight forward - the site which you can translate to English has a lot of good info too.  Akihabara is also just worthy of a visit being the nerd part of Tokyo, with arcades and electronics and a Gundam cafe.

We didn't go inside the Gundam cafe as the line was long but they had a shop outside selling taiyaki!

Our karts! Akiba Karts is located in the basement of the building, we met another australian lady (who rode with us as toad!) and she found the instructions on how to get to the building really confusing. We had the opposite experience but hey, in the end we both got to the same location, so it worked out for all :) On a side note, everyone kept yelling out "Kinopio" to Toad, It took ages to click that just like our pronunciations of Sega in Australia, we also had a different name for that cutie mushroom character!

Ben had done a little research and saw most people put on the Mario and Luigi costume, so he suggested we buck the trend. When we got there the guy who runs the place (who btw is the most relaxed cruisey japanese person I've ever met + with pretty good English!) straight away said the Mario costume is good for large people and grabbed it for Ben :p I was quietly happy to Luigi because he's my fav!

Ben already came pre moustached but I got my very own fake mo which was especially handy when we hit those cold Tokyo streets!

Our guide took photos every so often on his phone which they then pop up on their facebook page. I actually totally forgot about that, so these photos are kind of late additions to the post! 

You can see my gnarly moustache here! 

We ended up driving to Tokyo sky tree, which was fun and the whole experience was the perfect amount of time - I believe we did the 1 hour for 2700 yen. They also let us divide up the costs of the guide between us (Anna aka Toad was also keen for a guide so it worked out well!)

Some more costumes! When we got back, I saw a giant Bowsers shell around the corner - slight regret!

Big thumbs up to Akihabara and go-karting in peak hour Tokyo traffic :) :)