Rain was predicted for today.  In fact it was raining when I went down from my room to breakfast.  I debated if I should bring the umbrella and rain jacket or just the rain jacket.  The umbrella is just another thing to carry and the rain was light.  I chose just the rain jacket.  I should have taken both.

Today, I had scheduled a tour through the streets of Tokyo on go-karts.  I was quite excited.  I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the activity.  I headed over to the kart shop.  There were four others signed up to go with me.

It was no longer raining, but the cart guy said it was expected to start back up in the middle of the 2 hour tour.  I could get a refund or if I decided to go, they would lend me a rain coat, rain pants, gloves, goggles AND a rain poncho.  Under all that, how would I even know if it was raining.  I should have taken the refund. 

The group of 4 came in after me and didn’t know you needed to have an international driver’s license to go on the tour.  So they couldn’t go.  It was just me.  I expected it would be me and a guide in karts zipping around.  That didn’t sound as fun as a big group, but it sounded fun enough so I suited up in all the anti rain stuff and watched the safety video. 

There would be a lead car and a follow car so I just had to follow the lead car and not run any red lights.  After a hands-on tutorial of the kart, I was ready to go.  Wait, there was no guide in a kart going with me.  This suddenly went down on the fun scale to fun adjacent.  

It started off ok.  I was a little slow at first.  I didn’t want to gun it and run into the lead car.  I would start up slow and then speed up just in time to have to break at a stop light.  Apparently I was driving around with my hazards on because the guy in the follow car ran up to me at a stop light and asked if I was ok and then turned them off.  Ooops. 

The turn signal was trying to get the better of me.  I couldn’t see the toggle switch under the wheel.  I missed it quite a few times and I bet I was driving around with it on when I wasn’t turning from time to time.  I don’t even know why I cared.  The follow car had a clear view of the lead car over my head and knew when we were turning.

It rained a little harder.  The break and gas pedals were slippery.  My goggles were streaked with rain.  The rain jacket hood slowly slipped farther back exposing more of my face and allowing water to drip into the jacket.  I couldn’t tell if I was mildly wet or completely soaked.

I basically was flying slowly (felt fast to me, but probably was annoyingly slow to everyone else) in a bubble between the lead and follow cars so I felt safe-ish.  But I was sitting on the ground by myself completely exposed to the elements in a vehicle that is squirrely.  Water was everywhere.  It rained harder and harder and became more difficult to see or push the pedals.  I had dropped solidly into the category of pure un-fun – no fun anywhere to be found.

I raised my hand at the next light which was the signal to abort. Someone from the lead car ran out and asked if I wanted to abort.  Yes, very much so.  The lead car found a safe place to pull over and I was shuttled into the lead car.  I have no idea what became of the kart.  We drove around a bit.  Then we stopped for a photo at Tokyo Station, then went back.

I have a coupon for another time.  I still think it would be a lot of fun not by myself.  

I asked if there was anything they recommended I could do that was fun and not in the rain.  My plan was to go to a park after, but  that was solidly in the non-fun category now.  My feet and pants were dry, but my top was not.  Both TeamLabs and the Harry Potter Tour were recommended.  Everyone kept asking if I was cold – not in the slightest.  I had my rain jacket, but they gave me a poncho to add to the mix. 

I looked up TeamLabs – no tickets available.  I looked up the HP tour.  There were tickets, but it seemed far away.  To HP or not to HP?  I didn’t have the energy to come up with another idea.  I ordered a cab to the HP tour which cost the same as the HP tickets. 

They gave me a plastic bag to put my wet poncho in.  That was nice.  The tour covered a lot about how the movies were made.  It also had a bunch of sets that looked like the movie sets so you could walk through them.  Most of the instructions by staff were in Japanese, but it wasn’t hard to get the gist.  There were places where you could act out scenes or get your picture taken.  I tried them all, but, wow, I’m horrible.  Not that anyone around me was great, but each time I watched the video I just made, I cringed.  It wasn’t even funny bad acting.

The best part of the whole thing was that about 90% of the people, including the adults went into the gift shop ahead of the tour and bought a cape, scarf and wand.  The place was completely covered in giddy, excited people running around pretending they were wizards.  They were posing for pictures, waving their wands to do spells, and having the best time ever.

Halfway through the tour was a cafe and a bar where you could get butter beer.  I was quite ready to try butter beer.  I love everything butter.  I got the butter beer and popcorn combo.  The butter beer smelled like butterscotch, but didn’t quite taste like it.  It just tasted sweet.  It was fun to sit at the pub and have a butter beer.  It also came in a souvenir cup.  My poor husband is going to get a bunch of souvenir cups when I get home and not a single cat hat.

After taking way too many pictures it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel.  The trains would take over an hour and would involve walking in the pouring rain.  I was in a zone Go Taxis were not allowed because there was a formal taxi stand nearby.  Go is like Uber.  There was no taxi stand anywhere in sight.  There was nothing.  I thought if I headed out to the street, I might get out of the no Go zone.  I got out of the zone, but no Go’s were available in the area.  I was  completely soaked now anyway despite the gift poncho.  I ask maps to find the train station.  I hoped my phone continued to work even though it was also soaked.  Wandering through train stations and riding trains for an hour and my clothes were dry again. Yay for quick drying clothes. 

This was going to be a good night to eat at the hotel.  No, it was closed for a private party just like every other night.  Back out into the rain.  I went back to the place I went the first night for more meat on a stick.