I asked the chap at the desk if there was a Keirin race on while i’m here. It turned out that there was one on today, so i jumped on the underground and off i went, it turned out that what the lad said was a “short journey” was in fact an hour and a half ride on the train with two changes.

We got there eventually and it was quite a sight, it was 100 Yen to get in which is about 75pence, we paid our money and went in. The racing was from 1.30 till 4.30 the first couple of races were the less advanced racing and i was pretty glad that we had arrived at 2.30 and just saw the S-Class elite riders.

The racing was fast and furious with lots of elbows and plenty of head butting

It was on a big 400m track with a special non slip coating so that they could race in the rain, like today

so we watched a fair few races, there is also some good video that i took but, i cant upload it at the moment.

There was also some roller racing which was good fun, i recorded the fastest speed of the day with 72kph

it was a good day all round and i would have loved to make a bet but the system was so complicated that a simple gijen like me had no hope of deciphering it. So as it turned out the whole adventure costed less the 1000 yen, about £5. so a good day out and good fun all round.

Being your typical man is began packing on the Thursday morning, things went from drawers go this with a bit of panic

Then from that to this and we’re all ready to go

I made a friend on the flight and she helped me through all the security and baggage claim, she also helped me figure out which train to get, for that i am very greatful indeed.

I’ve learned a great deal about traveling over the last few days,

- Be really nice to the women behind the check in desk because then they will let you check in oversized bags for free.

- Make an effort to make friends with the cabin crew, i ended up in a club class full length bed because of that.

-The world is a really small place, the woman i sat next to on the plane’s husband has been working in toll cross for the last 3 years and she visits from japan very regularly, one of the cabin crew on my flight grew up in the same town as Alberto Contador and knew him as a kid

-Jet lag really is an absolute bastard, i went to sleep at 4pm local time and woke up at 9am local time, yep thats 16 strait hours, feeding your self is also a paJin, because at Japanese tea time its 3.30 pm Edinburgh time

I’ll have more for you over the next few days, i plan on going to a proper keirin race.

I’m currently going through a phase of loving the whole 6 day concept, it might be an interest to some other folk.

here are some articles from PEZ cycling about one of their journo’s who went to the Grenoble 6 as a runner and generally the riders bitch

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=3566

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=3581

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=3585

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=3573

Here is also a look into the life of a 6 day mechanic. It seems absolutely ideal to me, and some thing id love to do at some point

http://www.fatnick.com/spanner.htm

Finally here is a picture of Joop Ziljard who has won a rediculous amount of derney races as the pacer, you can kind of see why. Here he is leading Brad Wiggins to a Euro derny champs win, back in the day.

cheers

The legend that is Theo Bos has jut beaten Mark Cavendish in the Classico de Almeria.

It came down to a bunch sprint and Bos took the win.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8543542.stm

So here are some photos of me at the Manchester track league a couple of weeks ago