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Published: September 18th 2007
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A Good Ol American BBQ
Everyone at the beginning of our little soiree. My oh my it's been a while. Last week I ended up lying low due to a little cold that's going around and a lack of funds. There was the usual partying, some people went to Tokyo and came back with anticlimactic stories, though one of our group managed to get lost with a new Japanese friend overnight. That ended up ok. She says all they did was talk all night in a hotel room, and we have no reason to not believe her, I just think that's a disappointing way to end that kind of story!
However, last weekend is definitely in the running for top five best weekends ever. I'll give you three guesses as to what I did...
I was in class on Friday, when I happened to mention casually to my teacher that I had wanted to go to sumo - and originally was planning on going next weekend, since it is the beginning of our ten day break. However, she informed me that Sumo was only going on for two weeks, which means the last day is the only day I'd be able to go - which means I probably wouldn't be able to
Doing a Man's Duty
Yes even in Japan it is a man's duty to light the bbq go, since it gets really packed at the end of the tournament.
So, during the break in the middle of class, I mentioned this to Hiro, one of the tutors, who, by the end of class, had left and come back with all the information needed to get our rears over to Tokyo to see sumo. Since the tournament started at 8:30, though, that means we would have to catch the 5:52 am train out of Tsuru to get to Tokyo in time.
Some other ryugakusei had planned a picnic/party on friday, so that was going to make it a little difficult - but hey, anything for sumo. They had gone to Costco and bought a bunch of food and we had a nice American-style bbq. Somehow I ended up cooking everything, as usual. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just not sure how I ended up in charge of the grill. We had hot dogs, potato salad, chips, dip, and smores even! It was the first time the Japanese people had smores!
What was not good and American about it was the amount of bugs biting us. I had put bug spray on, and I still got
6 am train
Kim on the left and Kazu on the right, this about sums up how we felt at 6 am sitting on the train. bit so much my ankle swelled up. It was disgusting and painful and itchy.
The ensuing party was fun, and not drinking at a party was interesting. Honestly, I didn't drink. I had to wake up at 5 am the next day - there was no way I was missing sumo!
So somehow we all got together and made it on time for the train, and were on our way to Tokyo. My classmate and co-worker, the lovely Courtney Smith, is a ryugakusei in Tokyo, so we were able to meet her in front of the now-infamous (to me at least) Sensoji. She had informed us that Sumos doesn't really become interesting until about noon or 3, so we hung out in Asakusa and shopped some.
After lunch we made it to the Ryogoku (that's the town) Kokugikan (the name of the arena). It turns out that a tournament starts early in the day, but the important bouts aren't until the very end - so as the day goes on the Sumo, in theory, gets more interesting. Since we made it there early, we were able to just snag seats closer to the ring than our real
too cool
Me and Hiro looking awesome at probably about 7. He seems to like my shades. seats, which were in the back.
Now, for those of you who don't know sumo... well, if a sumo bout lasts five minutes, MAYBE 10 seconds of it is action. For those of you acquainted with fencing - it makes epee look like an action packed event. It starts when both sumo put their hands on the ground at the lines, so they decide when they start.
A sumo bout will go something like.. The wrestlers enter the ring, salute each other, take a drink of water, throw salt in the ring, do the little ground stompy dealy, stretch a bit, smack their bellies a bit, walk up to each other, eye eachother a bit, crouch, put a hand on the ground, get up, go back to their corners, take a drink, wipe their faces, throw some salt, smack their bellies, go back, crouch, get up, go to the corner, salt, back, crouch, get up, crouch, hand on the ground, get up, go back to the corners, salt, wipe, stretch, belly, back to the line, feint, crouch....
You get the idea. It borders on obnoxious, but there is also an interesting mental game going on in all
Denny's Menu!
We went to Denny's for brunch, and, as you would expect, it has all the familiar trappings of American Denny's. On the menu I'm sure you'll recognize such classics as the Ramen Grand Slam and Moons Over My Tempura. this. There's some sort of jockeying for control of the rhythm, and I'm sure they have in mind whether or not they want to start first. I'm not sure of all the subtleties, but I know they're there.
What is really surprising is how many foreign sumo there are. We saw three Russian guys, a Brazillian, a Georgian, an Estonian, a handful of Koreans, Mongolians, and Chinese. The current East Yokozuna is actually a Mongolian, and apparently had a tough time being promoted to that position because of it. The current leader of the east is also a foreigner, from Bulgaria. He is actually extremely popular right now, though in this tournament he has accrued a couple losses, and may not retain his rank.
One of the other really impressive things about sumo is not only how strong they are, but these guys are FAST. They are large men, but a good majority of that is muscle. Muscle that they use to LAUNCH themselves from that line.
In case you can't tell, I am very much interested in this sport now. I don't know how I'm going to deal with not being able to watch it in
OSumosan!
We ran into a couple Sumo on our way to the stadium. I'm not sure how we managed to block most of them out. the states.
At a certain point we went to McDonald's to get some food and brought it back to the ring. I got a teriyaki chicken burger, which had wasabi on it. That was very interesting. As well, it is worth mentioning that their Largest size is about the size of a medium in the states. Really, the way it should be at McDonald's.
This is the abridged version of the Sumo account. I actually wrote this once before, but travelblog decided it wasn't worth keeping and threw it out. I'll have to let the pictures and the video wrap up the sumo for me 😉.
Afterwards we went to dinner and did some more shopping. This time I looked for some modern type Japanese clothing, which led to the realization that Japanese men are FAR too skinny. All I'm saying is that my shirt size here is LL. I think that speaks for itself.
Sunday was a treat - I got to sleep in till SEVEN, and then went to the prefecture's capital city to fence! I went to a local high school where, it turned out, they had a little informal tournament for fun,
Outside the Arena
Hiro, Courtney, Kim, and Kazu outside the gates of the Ryogoku Kokugikan and the playing field was all high schoolers, none of whom had been fencing more than three years. So it was fun, I got to show off a bit, and got a neat certificate saying I won, and they put my name in the local newspaper!! I will post a picture of that once I get my hands on the article.
The best part about that was I was invited to help coach at the high school when I am able to, and one of the coaches invited to take me along to Tokyo Daigaku (university) to practice with their fencing club once the school-year begins. So that is good.
This week we have finals, and then a ten day break. I am planning to go to Tokyo for a few days, then meet my dad in Osaka, catch a baseball game between the Hanshin Tigers and the Chunnichi Dragons, then head over to Kyoto for a day or two, and then back to Tsuru for the beginning of classes.
At this point, I am halfway through my time here in Japan! I can't believe I've only been here for two moths - it feels like a
Sumo Mural
the facade of the Kokugikan year. I wont' miss not fencing, but I will miss Sumo....
At the end of the week we have to give a final speech. I am either going to do it on Sumo, or about how the wonders of the orient never cease. Or I could just tell them about how Sumo is part of the wonders of the orient what never cease. Yeah, that's the ticket I think.
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anonymous
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The combination of that jacket and your UCSD shirt means that you need to have this be your team photo. Can you imagine Aaron in this jacket?