Tokyo Trip (part san) ...

Still Saturday. Still the morning.

Melissa, Ashley & Teresa getting pumped for sumo.

Xiao, myself & Melissa ... looking pretty good.
We walked to Ryogoku Kokugikan Arena and purchased our tickets for the day long event. The tickets were 2,000 yen, which is about $20. We went in and, since hardly anyone was there at 9:30am, were able to sit very close to the ring to get some up close action. We watched the Jonokuchi-Makushita division bouts (the lowest rank) for about an hour.

Up close & almost too personal:

In case you were wondering - no, their belts do not 'slip' or 'shift' in any way. Just wanted to clear that up.
Everything stereotypical of sumo wrestling is true!
Teresa, Ashley & I enjoyed betting on the bouts. Ashley was going broke.
I almost felt bad for these beginners ... There were only a handful of people cheering them on at 10:00am.
Click here to watch a recorded sumo bout:
(keep in mind I'm not good at staying still & Ashley was making me laugh the entire time!)
Sumo Video

After watching up close we then decided that since the arena wasn't crowded & there was ample space in the top tier, this might be an ok place to take a nap! We ventured all the way to the top of the arena (where our seats were) and got comfortable.

A view of the ring:
Just testing out the zoom:


Some of us decided to approach a day full of sumo similarly to an Iowa Hawkeye football game, with tailgating. Well, our version of tailgating. Drinking tall boys of Asahi (Japanese beer) and making bets on the bouts.
Everything was going great (Xiao & Melissa were napping, Teresa, Ashley & I were enjoying the bouts & I was winning the bets) until ... (dun, dun, DUN) Ashley went down to get another beer and some ice cream and came back on the verge of hysteric laughter & extreme crying. She was limping. It took her a second before she was able to say, "The craziest thing in the world just happened to me! (long pause, high anticipation) I was in line for ice cream and I was behind a sumo wrestler & when he turned around to leave he didn't see me (she's only like 5 foot tall) and he stepped on my big toe!!" HAHAHAHA!! We all started laughing. I was laughing so hard my face hurt. I love laughing like that. Ashley's toe, on the other hand, was not looking so humorous (the nail was cracked all the way down the center & there was blood & it was gross looking) & as the pain set in Ashley wasn't laughing so much either. Although when we all stopped laughing and tried to be serious it wasn't long before someone wasn't able to keep a straight face & we all started laughing hysterically again, including Ashley. How many people can say they have been stepped on by a sumo wrestler?
She used the ice cream to ice her toe & everything was fine. I still laugh out loud when I think about it.

Ashley, icing her toe with her ice cream:
Deciding that she didn't want to waste the ice cream, Ashley ate it instead. She did keep her foot elevated for the rest of the afternoon.
We watched sumo for most of the afternoon, between napping, drinking, and betting we were all content. At noon we went to this hall to eat lunch. We ate 'chanko' which they called 'boiled potpourri for sumo wrestlers'. At $2.00 a bowl we got our money's worth. It wasn't good & it smelled far from potpourri. We returned to our seats and the arena began to fill up. at 2:35 the Juryo wrestlers had their ceremonial entrance and at 3:50 the Makuuchi (the senior division) wrestlers had their entrance and bouts.

The senior and highest division wrestlers took place in this introduction ceremony before wrestling. The arena looked a lot different than at 9:00am. Apparently the seats were sold out & good, up close seats sell for hundreds of dollars.
We left in the early afternoon to continue on with our adventure, but this was definitely one of the highlights. What's more Japanese than sumo wresting?

Stay tuned ...

much love
-tara-
xoxo