Walked over to CycleTrip Akihabara in the morning to pick up my reserved Topstone. Paid an additional ¥500/week insurance for roadside assistance/stranded pick up service, though as the employee warned, I would have to wait a day or two for help and therefore, I would likely have to abandon the bike and they would pick it up. Seemed worth it. Why not.
Since I was in Akihabara, I went to search for a camera charger and some other trip items. While separating Japan items from New York-only items going home with Ken, my camera charger ended up back home in Minneapolis. Sigh. I found a charger at Bic Camera with the help of an employee.
Except.. it was the wrong charger. Discovered when I went back to hotel room. Bic typically doesn’t allow returns but back to Akihabara I went to try. The packaging was intact and I explained my situation. They approved the return!
Except… I left my wallet in my hotel room when I switched bags from bike pick up. They couldn’t process the return without the card used for purchase.
Discouraged by my very inefficient day so far, I ate my feelings with some conbini coffee and natto temaki.
All of a sudden it was 4:30, going back and forth from Akihabara three times really blew away my grand ambitions of a couple hour dry run shakedown ride.
Off I went to my bicycle parking (5 mins away from the hotel — they did not like the idea of rinko bag in the hotel room; this was maybe a case for asking for forgiveness) to load up the bike and take it for a spin.
I quickly discovered I was going to have issues. The frame bag I definitely saw coming since it only fits half of my bikes. I brought it anyway since it didn’t take up too much luggage space. It had no chance with the Topstone. And while I typically don’t show a lot of seatpost, with our tests at home, I had felt pretty confident that the saddlebag was going to work and already planned for all my clothes to go in it.
An hour of fighting and tugging later, it was dark and I gave in to the fact that while I could technically get clearance, it wasn’t going to be enough and whether I got any daylight at all was too dependent on how I stuffed the bag.
Time to cry into some 7-eleven yakisoba. and then figure out what I’m doing. The 6-day trek to Kyoto starts tomorrow with a plan for 105 km on the day.
Bonus content:
atsuko's day 
Leave a message after the beep!