CMWC Arrival and Registration

Puck sent us some details and photos from this weekend’s happenings at the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Tokyo.

I got into Tokyo on Saturday evening. The flight from SF was amazing. Japan Airlines is my favorite airline; they did not hassle me about the large bike cases I had with me, no question about what was in the cases, no large baggage fees. I think it is because I packed the box and did not go over the 50 lb. weight limit. I brought an Alex Moulton road bike and a Colnago track bike (Alex Moulton for my girlfriend and the track bike for myself). I am quite happy that I brought the road bike because in the CMWC race, track bikes must have brakes. The Colnago track bike doesn’t have brake holes.

We checked in at Westin hotel in Ebisu. Sunday, we got up real early to build up the bikes and hit the road.

We went to W-Base to meet Yohei. W-Base is a well-known track bike shop. Yohei used to be a messenger in San Francisco; he moved back to Tokyo last year and is now W-Base’s store manager. Of course, many people that were in town for CMWC showed up one after another while we were at W-Base. W-base is off Meiji Dori near Shibuya.

After that, I went to register for the race at B1 Building, also in Shibuya. The CMWC Tokyo registration team is very well organized. It’s located in the basement of the building. You walk down and come to the first table, where they check your name and accept your registration fees. They gave me a package that included a wristband for foot down competition, a race number sign to attach to my bag (my number was 69). Along the line, they took my picture to make my ID card, which I used to gain entry to various events every night.

Lots of people showed up at the registration office and flocked the whole street with messengers, boys and girls and their bikes, their bags and even their sleeping bags, sleeping on the street.

After the registrations we went to Club Asia to see the Goldsprint race. Club Asia is also in Shibuya. The party started at 3pm. Again, tons of people showed up and flocked the whole single lane street. By about 9pm, the whole street got even crazier because people would come out of the nearby bar.

Some other messenger groups, the San Francisco crew, were down the street hanging out in front of 7-Eleven. I thought that was funny: drunk messengers decided to pick 7-Eleven as their drinking base.

Lots of people from around the world showed up for the event. We got to meet Irish, Scottish, Finnish, Taiwanese, Swedes, French, Germans, and even Australians. Everyone was happy to be in Tokyo, share their stories, exchange cultures and, best of all, make new friends.

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