feeling pretty good after about 7 hours of sleep. Well-rested enough to jump
back on the train(s) into
Tokyo.
Today’s first stop was Ryogoku,
home of Tokyo’s national sumo
stadium.
Yes, I said “sumo
stadium.”
Even after going there
myself, it feels odd to put those two words together. When most people (myself
included) think of sumo, they probably think of two fat guys wearing oversized
jockstraps slamming into each other like rhinoceri competing for a mate.
Not that it’s
not like
that, just that there’s more to it than
that.
As I approached the stadium, I
had a random sumo moment. Walking in front of me, on his way to the stadium was
a genuine sumo
wrestler!
I’m
not sure how I thought these guys got to work. Maybe I had some image of the
coming in on flatbeds like monster trucks or something, but no! Most of them can
cover long distances under their own power! What a crazy
world.
In the above photo, you can see
some colorful flags. Those display the names of all the big (rank, not size,
though there is some correlation there) sumos. Here’s a better pic of some of
them:
The
main reason I was going to the stadium was to track down souvenirs for my
sister. I was led to believe that they’d be available outside the stadium, but
this proved to be incorrect. As it was, I had to buy a ticket to go inside where
all the “sumovenirs” (as I took to calling them) were being sold.
The cheapest ticket was the
standing-room-only one, and it went for ¥2,100. Thankfully, some of those
were still available as it was early in the day and only the hardest of the
hardcore sumo fans were there already. Ticket in hand, I head to the entrance
and am greeted by this
guy:
My,
but he seems happy about those
apples!
I’ve no idea what the sign
says, but I’m guessing it’s from a produce company or some such thing. When I
gave the tickettaker, also a sumo (sorry, no pic of him), my ticket and went to
go inside, I had to pass through a small tent/pavilion thing, where the security
checkpoint was. I had my backpack examined by a security guard, then the woman
next to him handed me a small bag and said “gift.” Okay, thanks.
The gift was a pair of the biggest
apples I’d ever seen. These things were bigger than grapefruits and could easily
stun a person if applied to their head with enough force. I’m thinking there
just might be some connection between the free apple and the above
poster.
Apple’s in hand, I went inside
and had a look around. I found the souvenir stand, but they didn’t have the
bobbleheads I was sent in search of. They did have these guys
though:
I’d
been given phonetic instructions for how to say “my sister is an Asashoryu fan”
in Japanese, which had the desired effect on the lady working the counter. Well,
once she got past the “gaijin speaking Japanese” thing and the “sister is a sumo
fan” conundrum.
I got the Asashoryu one
for my sister (plus a couple other goodies – I got into a sumo buying mood). For
those who don’t follow sumo (which is probably 99+% of the world’s population),
Asashoryu is the current
yokozuna,
which means he king of the world. A fact many Japanese don’t like, since the
guy’s from Mongolia, not
Japan.
Sumovenirs in hand, I figured it
was time to go find out what the sumo thing was all about.
The
Kokugikan
(sumo stadium) itself was pretty sweet looking
inside.
The
big clay square in the center is the
dohyu,
where all the action takes place.
I
hung around for a bit, taking pictures and shooting some video of a batch of
matches. (A few sumo videos have been added to the “Movies” page.) It was
actually pretty cool to watch. Some of the matches were real mismatches and were
over quite quickly. Some were drawn out (about one minute) and the audience
(such as it was that early in the day) seemed to like those. I found them the
most interesting too, since it was during those bouts that you got a sense of
just how strong some of these guys were. Sure, they’re fat, but I wouldn’t want
to get hit by one of ’em.
After
watching for an hour or so, I started wandering around the
Kokugikan
again. That’s when I had another random sumo
moment:
Dig
the sandals!
There were a bunch of
life-sized cardboard standups of various famous sumo. In one spot they had two
of them real close together and it seemed to be the place to take photos. (It
probably also helped that one of the two was Asashoryu.)
When I saw the pair together, a family
was taking turns getting each others’ pictures with them. First the Son, then
Mom and Son, then Dad and Son. Their kid was in a wheelchair (the only person I
saw in a wheelchair during my visit) and I got the impression that going to see
sumo was a big deal for the family. I stood next to Mom as she was taking a
photo of her guys and made the international sign of “give me your camera so you
can all be in a picture together.” They were happy for the offer and I snapped a
pic of them and the two cardboard sumo. After I’d taken their photo, Mom
returned the favor with my (embarrasingly crappy) camera. This is the end
product:
The
sad part is, I still look fatter than the dude on the left. But he’s got his
“sumo girdle” on, so he’s cheating.
And
that wrapped up my time with the sumo. I packed up my cameras and sumovenirs and
headed out in search of more stuff to
do/see/film/buy.
Next stop:
Akihabara!!