Edo-Tokyo Museum & Sumo

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was very interesting. It held exhibits of different eras of Tokyo (formerly known as Edo). I’ll let the pictures talk for themselves. It was definitely interesting traveling with a group of over 60. It felt as if the Americans had taken over the museum for the day. It was fun though.
Right next to the museum was the arena for the Sumo Tournament. The center area is considered sacred, nobody but the participants is supposed to go too near it. It’s not a good idea to pass between the “stage” and the judges. The higher ranking wrestlers went through a lot more ceremony before each fight. They throw salt onto the “stage” (which is clay and dirt) to cleanse the area. There is some type of signal that indicates that both fighters are ready and then the fight begins. The first to step out of the ring or to fall down loses. Sometimes the fight is really intense and the loser will literally be thrown out of the ring. There were moments when I feared for the lives of the judges and closest spectators. Each fighter represents either the “East” or the “West”. The move where they pick up their leg and “slam” it against the ground that everyone tries to imitate is actually a stretch. They lift their leg, bring it down, and then go into a squat. Anyone who’s ever done a sport might know what I’m talking about. This is at the very beginning of the ritual before they engage and occurs right after they bow to each other when first entering the ring. Before each participant stepped onto the ring, a man would chant something. I’m not sure if he was blessing the ring or the participants. There was a lot about sumo that I didn’t really understand, but it was interesting to watch. Of course we were there from about 2:30 until around 6:00. Almost four hours of sumo was definitely enough to last a lifetime. I had wondered at the very beginning of the match why there were so little spectators. As the numbers increased as time went on, I began to understand. There is a lot of ritual involved and very little actual engagement. I’m sure it’s much more fun when you have a favorite.
I do have a good story from the Sumo Tournament that depicts the extreme hospitality of the Japanese people. Viki and I had gone to get some food at the tournament. I was holding the tray as we were walking back and someone opened one of the doors to the arena on me. I got hit in the arm and the tray and all its contents went flying. Viki, me, and the guys that ran into us kind of just stood there for a moment. Then Viki and I started cleaning up the spilled food and one of the guys leaned down with some Kleenex to wipe up the ketchup. Then the guy who had opened the door kept saying something to us, but we couldn’t understand. So he had us follow him back to the concession stand. He then bought us a brand new tray with everything we had ordered. He was very apologetic and we tried our best to convey that everything was okay.

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