If you only have one day in Tokyo, what would you do? Easy – dress up as a fictional video game character and drive around the busiest city in the world for three hours in a go-kart. I’ve never driven a go-kart before and much like many of my prior well thought out life decisions (i.e. first time riding a bike in New York City traffic), I decided it was best to try it out for the first time in arguably the largest/busiest city in the world, with only the safety of a velour onesie to protect me from any life-threatening injuries – choice well-made I say!

After some prior research, I decided to book with Street Kart in Akihabara. Booking itself was rather simple, they have a virtual assistant on their Facebook page which steps you through the process, ensures you have all the right credentials and secures your booking – we paid on arrival. Also, we purchased insurance, it felt like most appropriate given my lack of go-karting experience, and you know the whole driving around the busiest city in the world in a go-kart thing. 

Getting there early is essential as choosing the outfit you are going to cruise around in for the next three hours could be one of the most agonising decisions you make – or if you are like us we decided in one minute and spent the next half an hour sitting around. You can choose from all the popular characters from the Super Mario Universe as well as other superheroes and popular fictional characters. Our costume decision came down to two important evaluation questions:

1. Was the purpose of this activity to simulate Mario Kart in real life? 
2. Does anyone in your travel party have a beard and look suspiciously like Mario?

The answers to both of those questions were yes, and after some debate about who resembled Mario more (myself of Matt), I settled on dressing as Luigi.

Note: due to legal reasons I believe now you can only dress up as common superheroes, according to the disclaimer on their website: Street Kart is in no way a reflection of Nintendo, the game ‘Mario Kart’. We do not provide rental of costumes of Mario Series.

I also did this in Osaka and can guarantee that any onesie is fun to drive around in, or wear in public really. 

Once all members of the tour group had arrived and selected their costumes, which took a lot longer than I would have ever anticipated providing me with ample time to freak out about my go-kart skills, or lack thereof, we were finally ready to take off. We had a quick tutorial on how to drive a go-kart and were then seated in our go-karts ready to go! But there was slightly more waiting around while the crew did their final checks and balances. All perfectly normal, and reassuring from a safety perspective, but again giving me more time to regret my decision to learn how to go-kart on the streets of Tokyo. But once we took off and I proved that I could drive without crashing into the first moving object I encountered all of my nerves took off like a discarded banana peel – see what I did there? And no you can’t throw banana peels on the road behind you, this is Japan after all, people don’t litter in Tokyo!

Our tour guide had the important task of ensuring we didn’t kill ourselves, top marks for attainting that goal and making it look easy! He took many photos for us along the way which he airdropped to us at the end making for nice mementos.

We selected the A1-L course which covered the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and Ginza which costs around 12,000 Yen each and took approximately three hours. The courses and prices do change so please check their site directly for up to date information. As we visited Tokyo in Spring the weather was mild, the sun was shining and Cherry Blossoms we in full bloom, making for great sightseeing along the tour. The weather also was perfect for race attire, I would assume in the colder months you would need to rug up a little more as the costumes would not provide enough shelter from the elements. 

The people of Tokyo seem to enjoy seeing you zoom around the city, many people take photos and wave while you are stopped at traffic lights which made the trip even more special. The highlight for me was driving over the Rainbow bridge, there is nothing quite like the feeling of speeding across a bridge with Tokyo traffic while taking in the sights, it really was an awesome experience.

All initial fears aside, this was one of the most unique tourist activities I’ve participated in. In true Tokyo style, the people who run the activity were incredibly friendly and happy and the entire process ran smoothly. I recommend this to anyone who wants to spend a couple of hours viewing the wonderful city of Tokyo in a very distinctive and incredibly fun way.

Any regrets?

Reflecting on the situation, do I regret not embracing my 15-year-old inner nerd to dress up as Goku from Dragon Ball Z? Yes. Well who am I kidding, it would have been Vegeta anyway….but our entire tour group selected Mario themed characters which made for a well-themed group shot.

Mario number one! This post is in no way a reflection of the Nintendo, the game Mario Kart….