Boat Race Biwako — Attraction in Otsu

We saw this on the map and decided to check it out. It ended up being a really cool experience, although a bit confusing at first since everything was in Japanese. So, full disclosure, we didn't end up betting, since that was just a little bit too complicated for us (although there seemed to be a good tutorial on their website), but just watching the boat races were fun. The races run all day, presumably, because we showed up in the early afternoon and were there for a couple hours and got to see a few races. There are two races every hour, one at 20 after, and one at 50 after. In between those times, the racers can come out and practice, I guess, and kind of demonstrate their abilities, that way you can chose who to bet on. It's 100¥ to enter (there's just a little coin slot at the entrance, and when you drop your coin in, the gate opens up), and some food trucks and beer vendors inside. You can sit inside or outside, but the top...

Tourist review - this was a surprisingly interesting thing to do on a very rainy day. We got the train from Kyoto and watched a few of the 12 races, which were really fun to watch. Loads of indoor seating (it was torrential rain outside) and food/drink stands. And it only cost 100 yen to enter! This should be a more well known attraction for tourists, even if you only watch 1 or 2 races (they last a couple of minutes with a 15 min break between)... it's 100...

Japanese boat race, didn't win any money but enjoyed my time over there, was hard to understand how to bet but finally made it, although I didn't manage to make my...