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May 20

Matsuyama Keirin / Dougou Onsen

The first thing I want to mention is that today is the first day, atleast since the early days of Okinawa, where the weather is actually beautiful. I mean, it is gorgeous outside. Clear skies, slight breeze, not too hot, and no rain.

After waking early, and doing my stretching routine, I went to Matsuyama station. The info booth wasn't open yet, but I got a map anyways. Had breakfast, then headed to Matsuyama's Keirin track.

Although Matsuyama Keirin doesn't have any races today, I went anyways to see what was going on. A small part of the track is open so that people can come in and bet on races in other tracks in different cities. I went in, and asked the people working there if the service counter was open. After explaining that I'm on a trip, collecting information on Keirin, volunteer for the SF Bike Coalition, and that a friend is writing about Keirin (all of which is true to one extent or another), one of the guys had me follow him. I scored the jackpot! He gave me some Keirin phone cards, and later a whole bunch of old posters they don't need, as well as 2 Matsuyama Keirin T-shirts. Turns out Matsuyama is one of the oldest tracks in Japan. The "Fighting Gate", where the racers come out of, is usually written in English. Here it is in Japanese only. If you walk around the stadium it even looks all old and jacked up. It's also the longest in Japan, at 500 meters, twice the circumference of standard Olympic tracks. He led me to the track and we took a picture there.

After leaving the Keiring track with a small box full of Keirin posters, I went to a hotel that has delivery services, and sent the stuff to Tokyo (thanks, Kyoko!) I next hit an Internet cafe, where, after telling them I lived in Tokyo, I was eligible for their cheap May prices.

Afterwards, I first ended up going to Dougou onsen, the oldest public bath in Japan. The waters were hot! Afterwards, I started out of the city. It was already 5 p.m. which meant only 2 hours riding at most. Halfway out of town, I decided to stay one more day. It was something about the number of people riding bikes, or maybe I was just feeling lazy.

Came back into town, and stayed at the Matsuyama Youth Hostel. There are 2, and I stayed at the one near Matsuyama Castle. The most expensive YH I've been in so far, but also has a pretty slick atmosphere. A nice dining hall combined with diner-style coffee shop combined with little reading room. This is one of the only YH's in Japan I've been to that doesn't have a curfew. You have your own key to your own room. I think I was the only customer that night.

At night I went exploring around, riding my bike around the city. I may not have mentioned it already, but this is the most bike-congested city I've ever seen in Japan... it's great! I figured there may be a Critical Mass or something, but inquiried have so far gotten me nowhere. Regardless, it is a 3 college town, so I went exploring the college campus at night, by bike. Didn't talk to anyone, but saw and heard some neat things - students shooting off water rockets, a band playing on campus...