Sumo

There is a big sumo tournament on in Tokyo at the moment. It is a Grand Tournament. There are 6 Grand Tournaments held each year, three of which are in Tokyo. They are held in an area of Tokyo called Ryoogoku and the stadium is called Kokugikan.

I had been twice before during my previous visits to Japan but i still find it interesting. After observing a few bouts, you realise that there is technique involved, and it's not just a case of the bigger guy always winning... and these guys are big... You can see that they have alot of muscle under that fat too (have a look at my pic with the two sumo wrestlers- they are only from lower divisions but are still huge).

Another aspect of sumo i find intriguing is the ammount of foreigners that are now competing. In the top two divisions alone, there are 19 foreign wrestlers (out of a total of 70 wrestlers). They come from places such as Hawaii, Mongolia, Russia, Bulgaria, and some other Eastern European countries. One of the most popular wrestlers is from Bulgaria and goes by the sumo name Kotooshu Katsunori- Koto is a name shared from all wrestlers originating from his stable and oshu means Europe. He's very tall (6'8) and leaner and fitter looking than most of the other wrestlers. He fights in the top division (makuuchi) and has the ranking of ozeki or 'champion', which is the second highest level in the sumo ranking system. He is also sponsored by a yoghurt company.

My personal favourite is Japanese wrestler Takamisakari. He is renouned for getting very fired up before each bout and puts on a bit of a show, slapping his face and beating his chest... the crowd love it though. This is far from normal for sumo as most wrestlers seem very placid and controlled... the usualn Japanese way of hiding all emotion.

Well, enjoy the pics...

Nothing too exciting

Nothing much going on lately. I went out clubbing on Saturday night and on Sunday i went to the beach. The beach i went to is called Onjuku. It takes just over two hours on the train from my house. I met the Brasilian guys there, who i went surfing with last time. I took my surfboard but the surf was tiny. I had a short surf but the main purpose of the day was to have a bbq on the beach. I met some more of their Brasilian friends and tried some interesting Brasilian bbq foods, includings chicken heart skewers... tasted salty. I havn't had a decent surf since i got here but i have to remember that i didn't move to Tokyo to go surfing, i came here for other reasons...

This saturday is the Tokyo Bay fireworks. There are fireworks most weekends during summer but this is the big-daddy of them all. I'm going with some guys from work and some Japanese friends and we are going to wear traditional summer festival clothing- Jinbei and geta for the guys and yukata and geta for the girls. More about this later. Will hopefully have some photos too...

Speak soon

Cheers

James

Catching up

Caught up with some Japanese friends from Adelaide on Sunday. One of them is from Osaka, whilst the other is from Tokyo. They also brought along a friend.

We went to Tsukiji, which is famous for it's enormous fish market- the world's largest i believe. The market is closed on Sunday, but i have been there during a previous visit to Japan so it wasn't an issue. The purpose of our visit this time was for the sushi. There are hordes of sushi restaurants surrounding the market, as being on the market's footstep allows them to get very fresh ingredients.

The sushi we ate was fantastic, it was so fresh that it seemed to melt in your mouth and the taste was incredible. It was great to watch it being prepared as well. One of the guys i was with sampled some whale sushi but i stuck to salmon (sake), tuna (maguro) and salmon eggs (ikura)- I was more adventurous the other night and was eating beef tongue, but thats another story...).

After lunch, we ventured to Hama-rikyu Gardens (a nearby park/traditional garden). The park was surrounded by a river, and within the garden was a large lake, housing an island in it's centre. A 300 year old tea house (ochaya) was erected on the island, which was joined to the mainland by a bridge. We attended a tea ceremony at the ochaya, and enjoyed powdered green tea with traditional Japanese sweets. We also met a Swiss couple at the ochaya, who were actually in Tokyo for the world barista championships. Turns out she is the Swiss national champion- so we traded cappuccino making tips for suggestions of places they should visit whilst in Japan. All in all, a great, relaxing day.




Left to right: Atsu, some gaijin idiot, Mai and Masa