SUMO!

Asawa had a change of heart yesterday, and gave Kumano and Sakata permission to take me around Tokyo this afternoon. They suggest shopping and maybe even Kabuki, but I knew what was up, and asked to go to the Sumo tournament.

We took the subway from Meguro station thought Akihabara to Ryogoku. Right after you walk out of the station, you can see the pageantry begin with tall banners announcing the tournament.
Tickets aren't cheap, and we settle for some B level seats for 4900 yen each (~$50). And they don't accept credit cards... Ugh, guess I'll have to pull some more cash for tomorrow. Next cheapest seats were something like 9200 yen, or about $100. Yikes! That's as much as a Laker ticket.

We went into the Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium and got our seats, up high in the mezzanine. We still had a great view of the action, even though it was pretty far away. We caught the tail end of the very youngest Sumo group, and then the Juryo came out. These are the lower level professional Sumo, and we still quite entertaining. There were 28 wrestlers in 14 boughts. Even though the battle of each round typically takes less than a minute, each round takes about 10, with the extended announcement of the names and all of the extensive posturing before the the fighting starts. The timing with the two Sumo must be just right. They both must feel that they are at their peak, so there are many false starts and some posing and such. It's interesting, gives the wrestlers personality, and builds the tension before the round. If the battle is good, it makes things much more exiting. If the battle is short, it makes things pretty anticlimactic.

Most of the rounds were great, and the whole experience was amazing.

After the Juryo finished, there was a short break as they watered and swept the ring, and then the Mokuuchi came out. These are the highest level Sumo, and the rounds were all much better. Much more posturing. Much more character, and much more excitement. Takamisakari was especially interesting. He comes out and all of his posturing is very robotic. The crowd just eats it up. They're cheering and yelling, and when he won, the crowd exploded in applause and revelry.

I took lots of pictures and some short videos. I'll post those later.

We had to leave before the very best Sumo came out, in order for me to meet up with the marketing group for dinner. I'll post that later, but here's a highlight, I ate both baby eels and imitation jelly fish.

I'm really sleepy right now, and I have another meeting in the morning. After that morning meeting, Melody and I are gonna find some market area and do some shopping, before meeting back here at Shinagawa for the Shinkansen back to Narita Airport.