For a brief moment in time, on the streets of Tokyo, Tess & I were rock stars! Dressed in colorful, plushy, costumes we zoomed past hordes of people with camera’s in go-karts. Really real go-karts, on the really real streets of Tokyo! Hands down, this was our favorite experience of the entire trip. What an amazing way to see an amazing city!

Originally called Mario Kart, they lost the battle with Nintendo, stupid if you ask me because what great advertising this is for them, street karting is exactly what it sounds like. Go Karts on city streets. Our two-hour tour included a safety briefing, colorful costumes and a guide. Thank God for our guide!

We’re not used to driving on the left, following our guide made that a whole lot easier. Even Tess, who hasn’t done any city driving at all, felt comfortable in her kart zooming behind our guide. I brought up the rear, keeping my precious daughter sandwiched in between the safety of me & a stranger in tiny, topless cars.

We did worry beforehand. In fact, as it got closer & closer to the our scheduled time, to actually sitting in the kart, up until the kart was actually moving, it felt like dumber & dumber. Who gets in a go-kart to drive through a major city? How is that a good idea? In Japan, in Tokyo, this is a good idea.

Just like the people, Tokyo’s drivers are very polite. They take great care of our presence on their roads. They take great care of all the drivers and traffic is slow and not pressured. There is not honking. No crowding. It is a beautiful city to drive through. It is a fantabulous way to see sights we hadn’t seen from trains, or subways, or even the one lone taxi we took. But mostly, it’s a huge boost to the ego!

We were, for that brief moment in time, celebrities! People waved, smiled, took our picture, took videos of us zooming about, dressed in our crazy costumes. It was amazing! I’m not sure what I loved more, being a rock star or racing in my go kart. At one point, completely against the rules in our safety briefing, also completely unplanned, I actually Tokyo drifted my little go-kart around a big, wide corner trying to catch up to a suddenly speedy Tessa.

That, right there, may have been the higlight of my life.

Extra Fast video of the last 20 minutes!