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Published: July 14th 2008
I had planned for Sunday to be the day I took Nagoya castle and aquarium off the to-do list, maybe even the shrine or a braizen dash towards Matsumoto to suck in the view of its famed moated castle, alas neither of this did happen. Instead I had given in to jetlag of the highest order. Not managing to fall asleep until three in the morning I instead chose to waste the day away sleeping in late and not really doing much. In the afternoon I headed over to the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium - home of the Nagoya Basho tournament - to have a look around outside the arena and maybe catch a rikishi or two arriving at the scene.
It was a blazing hot day but I soon found myself in a small crowd gathering in the little available shadow under the gymnasium just next to the entrance to the parking lot. We'd stand around waiting for VIP cars to drive through the gates and drop their precious cargo in front of our noses. Sure enough, the occasional Mercedes, Bentley or Hummer would bring in some famous Makuuchi rikishi and the crowd would go wild peeping in through the
toned windows trying to get a look at the big guy within. If successful, the crowd would enthusiastically call out the rikishi's name. "Kokkai!" "Kokkai!?" "Kokkai" and so on. I was the only
gaijin in the group, and it was only a question of time before someone would give in to curiosity and try to strike up a conversation. Soon I was involved in a four party conversation where only two of my counterparts had a limited understanding of the English language, but dropping sumo-related terminology was a recipe for success, and the biggest fan who unfortunately spoke no English adeptly countered with "Suiden I rav joo!". After the yokozuna had arrived the rag tag band dissolved and we each headed back to our parts of town, as none of us had gathered tickets for the expensive opening day, but would come back later. I went back to the hotel with some sushi and took it quite easy, hoping to catch some early sleep but again had to endure the early hours of Sunday clearly awake.
As Monday morning came I realized my schedule was suddenly more packed than ever. With just two days left in Nagoya I had
Nobori banners
Announcing the names of the highest ranked rikishi and gyoji (referees).a lot of things to do, and very little time to achieve it. Therefore I set ambitious goals for the day and started out by moving out to the Nagoya Aquarium located in the now familiar Nagoyako harbour. I gave it roughly one and a half hours which cut it a bit short, but I also wanted to put in a quick visit to Nagoya-jo, the city's elegant castle, conveniently located just next to the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium where the basho is taking place. It was yet another hot day, certainly not optimal for strolling around the castle gardens, so I dashed in and grabbed some photos of the towering piece of architecture from some diferrent angles before hurrying back to Kyushu Basho, not wanting to miss the Juryo division ring entering ceremony, starting some time between 2 pm and 2.30. I arrived just in time, and the ex-rikishi manning the ticketing counter was much friendlier than the crew in Fukuoka, and they made a good effort to make me feel welcomed. A young girl guided me to my seat which sat quite far up on the D-section on the Shomen-front side, still just within reach of my camera's zoom
Arrival in Yokozuna-style
Lower ranked rikishi can be seen arriving on foot, by taxi or bus, but the big stars in the top division of course have other means at their disposal... objective.
Finally back in the true element again! Although the day's matches weren't really spectacular, the roster was full and I finally got to see the legendary Asashoryou perform his dohyo-iri. Enjoy the pictures and commentary, and above all; love sumo!
Nagoya being a fairly large city the gymnasium was much more crowded than had been the case in Fukuoka. As the second day of the tournament came to an end this of course presented traffichaos. The crowds piled up in the corridors and headed in droves for the subway; I quickly realized that trying to take the train back to Sakae would be a big test of my patience, so I decided to walk the distance instead. The temperature clocked in at 28ºC degrees inside the arena and 35ºC outside, and with humidity on top it was
H O T. Still, being a pedestrian in Japan is simple enough that you ca make good progress through the streets without having to fear the cars and motorcycles unlike many other cities its size. Back at the hotel I quickly headed for a much needed shower and then went to work at the bento boxed lunch I had been
given at the Nagoya Basho, it wasn't exactly a success story, but with my newfound love - banana bread - it proved adequate enough.
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