Visitors to Tokyo have an abundance of choice when it comes to picking bouldering and climbing gyms to train in. New gyms have starting popping up all over this sprawling city, which is great news for anyone visiting or working in the city. One of the most famous names belongs to B-Pump Akihabara, located near electric city Akihabara. Seeing as I didn’t already have enough gym membership cards in the city, I thought I’d pop in to see what all the fuss is about.
Bouldering Hall Rhino & Bird, Tokyo Japan
North of Ueno park and tucked away behind the Nishi-Nippori Metro station in Tokyo is the charming little bouldering gym of Rhino & Bird. Making your way from the station to the gym, you’ll think you may have strayed along the wrong path as you criss-cross the back yards of traditional Japanese houses, which makes eventually finding this gym such a pleasant surprise.
Bouldering Hall T-Wall Shinbashi, Tokyo Japan
Japan has always been keen on climbing, but a recent string of strong performances in competitive bouldering and climbing as well as the continued exploits of Dai Koyamada, Yuji Hirayama and Ashima Shiraishi has seen the sport garner a lot of interest, as Japan works its way to climbing’s first official Olympic debut in 2020. Unsurprisingly, Tokyo has seen a number of gyms spring up across the wider city area to profit from this trend. The T-Wall company runs 5 gyms around Tokyo. For this review, I visited the Shinbashi store to get in a little practice during my holiday.