What a day!

Today was sweet. I woke up, ate, went to net cafe, and there, I had an email from a guy I had been corresponding with on bikeforums.net. He is a professional keirin racer, and lives in japan (no shit, pro. keirin only exists here and in korea). SO, today, I met him, and we spent about 4 or 5 hours chillin. He took me a track when gambling wasnt going on, and we talked track, we walked around the track, went into the lockerroom, which might sound kinda weird, but when we got there, there were a bunch of bikes, a bunch of keirin racers riding rollers, and...a tatami section. Tatami is a traditional japanese cushion. I have some pictures that I will try and post later. I met a bunch of keirin racers, including the japanese keirin champion. that was cool, holy shit, is that guy ripped. We were chillin there, and I was looking around and came across the trash. What was there? tons of track tubulars. unfortunately, they were all seamless, so it would have been impossible to repair. There was also a sugino zen chainring, that Tomity (thats his nickname) took, and he gave me some other stuff we found in the trash. I got a special NJS certified keirin saddle, and... a keirin helmet!!!!! those are so stupid looking. I also got a poster from the japan championships, and a manga called gamble racer, which, you guessed it, is about keirin. Then, we went for a very pretty drive, passed the stadium where teh Seibu Lions play, and went to this really cool temple. It was called Yamaguchi kannon. kannon comes from the buddhist god kwanyon, and is also the namesake for canon camera. Then we took me home. He told me about a cycling flea market (sweet huh) that is taking place next weekend. I will go and buy lots of cool japanese cycling things. Back at the house, he gave me a keychain that has a special track cog that he hand customized. He makes a bunch of these things, and they have won at least 2 world championships. It is super polished to reduce friction or something like that. And I understood most of what was being said too. I was proud. I am happy. I now have ambitions to become the worlds first foreign keirin racer in Japan. The keirin school in open to anyone if they speak japanese, but as of yet, no person other than a Japanese has completed the school. Sweet.

love to all, and pics. I am gonna try to upload some tomorrow.

PEter