A Day At The Sumo Tournament

Potentially, there are a lot of negative things that you could say about Tokyo: it’s too big, too crowded, too noisy, too expensive. One thing you can’t say, however, is that there’s nothing to do. It’s essentially guaranteed that at any given time there’s something to do, see or experience in the city that will be of interest to you. Case in point: Matt and I received a text message from Megan on our last day of vacation informing us that there was a sumo tournament going on-one of only three held annually in Tokyo. Our course of action was clear.
Here we are just outside of the Kokugikan-the traditional sumo arena-located in Ryogoku, just over the Sumida River from Asakusa. Many sumo leave shortly after their bouts and can be seen close to the entrance signing autographs and such. As we were leaving, I spotted a drunken old man shouting at a group of young sumo, deriding them for wrestling with foreigners. I was hoping that one of the Sumo might eat him but they simply turned around and walked away. How very disappointing.
The interior of the arena is laid out something like a basketball stadium. That is to say, if you pay $35 for seats, you had better bring binoculars.
The ring that they wrestle in is called the dohyo, a word derived from the rice bags used to mark off different areas of the ring. You’ll notice that the structure above the ring looks very much like a Shinto shrine. That’s because the dohyo itself is actually considered sacred, hence the elaborate purification rites (throwing salt, drinking water) that sumo engage in before a match.
Here we see two sumo getting ready to engage in battle. After all of the ritual preparations have been performed, the actual match takes place, with each wrestler attempting to move his opponent outside of the ring. Normally, these matches are over in less than a minute and it’s on to the next one. Normally, I don’t have the requisite attention span for watching organized sports but I do really enjoy sumo wrestling. Go figure.
Here we see the ceremonial entrance of wrestlers from the senior division. It involves a lot of clapping and stomping (to drive away evil spirits).
And here’s the reigning Yokozuna (grand champion) making his ceremonial entrance with two attendants. You can easily recognize him from the badass lightning bolts that hang around his belt.

Well, speaking of Tokyo, I’ve got a train to catch. Updates will resume sometime late next week, if you're lucky.