Paul Hays wrote:
> Hello- I'm visiting a friend staying in Tokyo for 10 days next month
> and was hoping to check out a Keirin race. Web info is pretty opaque
> for me, being pretty much entirely in Japanese- can anyone recommend
> an English language site? Even better, if you've been, any
> information you could pass along would be great.
>
> thanks, Paul
>
There are a number of velodromes in and around Tokyo, but I have only
been to the Keirin Races at the Kawasaki velodrome. If you get the train
to Kawasaki train station (about 40 minutes from Shinjuku station in
Tokyo, changing train once), look for exit 17. Across the road is bus
stop 13 with a free bus service to Kawasaki stadium. The bus service
starts at 10:30am.
Around the velodrome, there are lots of fast food sellers selling
unidentifiable things, but the hot dogs are tasty if not nutritionally
good. There is usually a guy with a track bike on rollers encouraging
westerners to go head to head with the locals. Good safe fun.
It costs peanuts to get in, but there is a seated pavilion that I could
not work out how to get a ticket to get entry. Trackside is concrete
terracing with plastic seats - all under cover. Racing starts at 11 and
goes on until about 5pm. There is a break between each race - all the
track marshalls react to orders by whistle, and all very formal.
www.kawaskikeirin.com holds the information you need, but it doesn't
translate well with google. I had to get a local to work out which days
there are races on. Most weekends hold races during the summer.
Don't expect many cycling enthusiasts though - It's more like a
greyhound track than a festival of cycling. But it's great fun and
highly recommended.
