It was about an hour passed midnight, when I finally decided to leave the busy shopping district of Shibuya. I had spent close to 2 hours on the 4th floor of skyscraper drinking sake and watching the crowds of shoppers walk across one of the busiest intersections in the world. It was my last day in Japan and I had thoroughly enjoyed climbing to the top of Tokyo tower and marveling at the view, walking the gardens at Meiji Jingu shrine and meeting fishermen at the Tsukiji fish market.

Tsukiji fish market

I hopped on Gaby for what I thought would be a quick 15 km ride to the nearest hostel and immediately upon turning the pedals the bottom bracket, the component that holds the crankset together snapped. Gaby is too large to put in a taxi and without a box I had little choice other than to push through the busy crowds on the sidewalk. I stopped into several hotels but soon found that my cheapest option would be something between $150-200! I had little option other than pushing Gaby to the nearest park and pitching my tent for the night.

Shibuya crossing

Broken bottom bracket

After a few hours of pushing through the busy streets I arrived at Shinjuku park, where I looked for the small community of tarp shelters I had seen during the day. An easy sight, even in the early hours of the morning, I pushed Gaby near and looked for a place to pitch my tent. I put my ground tarp down, and before I could get my tent out a homeless man, rolled out of his tarp and told me that if I wanted to camp in here I  would have to pay him 1,000 yen ($10). Exhausted and very cold, I packed up my supplies and looked around for another place to sleep. I found a small space between two trees, and slept in my bag on the ground a few hours before waking up to the sunrise.

It was a big rush getting to the airport as I had to find a new bottom bracket, bicycle box and pedal 50 miles to make my flight at 2 pm. All in all it went ok and I was able to escape a hefty over weight fee on the bicycle box. I am back in So Cal and wish you all happy holidays.