A Day at the Races

So somehow I convinced Nicole to go to Keirin with me. An hour long train ride later and we were at Seibu-en Keirin-jo, one of the local velodromes.



It was actually kinda depressing. I've heard this before, but actual Keirin in Japan is far from the hipster world of San Francisco. It's basically a bunch of old men (and like two old women) betting what's left of their paychecks away. But depressing aside, it was still cool to finally see in person, though we were two of maybe four young people there on the only Gaijin. We stayed for a couple of races then headed back.





Number 2 won, I called it. Had I bet, I would have won 1,000 yen ($10).

Around the back of the velodrome was this weird ski jump thing, better seen then explained:



On the way back it started pouring.... :(