Sumo Memoirs

I figured that while I was in Japan I had no excuse not to go to a Sumo Wrestling match- and besides, when else can you watch near-naked, long-haired, foam thong-wearing, gigantic men try to push each other out of a small ring? That's right...never. So, with camera in hand I made my way to the tri-annual Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo with my friend Aya. When we arrived at the train station near the stadium, we were greeted with huge billboards of sumo wrestlers and vendors trying to sell sumo souvenirs and sumo "food" (the food that apparently makes them so big- mostly a meat stew thing, I think). As we walked around looking for a place to eat we saw sumo wrestler's milling about, eventually making their way to the stadium. They were all wearing traditional Japanese robes and shoes. Being the star-struck nerd that I am, every time I saw a sumo wrestler, I would turn to whisper to Aya (to my defense, she had the same reaction) about how crazy it was to see these sumo wrestlers walking around on the street! After a lunch of udon noodles at a small shop nearby the stadium (a sumo wrestler and his family were eating there too!) we went to the stadium to find out seats. The Sumo tournament lasts all day, starting at 8:00, but the big matches don't start until 4:00, so the stadium was pretty empty until late afternoon. It was fun watching the amateurs, but I wasn't really too interested until the big matches started. Perhaps the highlight of the day was seeing the upcoming Bulgarian sumo wrestler. I've seen him a lot on TV, so he was pretty famous to me (especially because I didn't know any of the other famous wrestlers). Just a random note...I later learned (some sumo research after the tournment) that the Bulgarian sumo wrestler is my age! I thought he was 35 or 40!!! Maybe I'm becoming a Sumo fan...who knows!? What was particularly interesting is that each sumo match lasted between 5-20 seconds, and there was only one match about every 20 minutes! There was lots of foot-stamping (yes, the stereotypical stomp of the sumo wrestler!), crouching, salt-throwing, and muscle-slapping before the match would take place- and then it usually only took a few seconds for one sumo wrestler to push the other to the ground or out of the ring. But all the ceremony and preparation almost made the few seconds of fighting that much more exciting! It's kind of like other things I've experienced in Japan- the practice and preparation sometimes seems more important than the actual performance. I recommend Sumo to anyone coming to Japan- in fact, if there was another chance for me to go- I'd be there- this time with a closer seat!