How Sumo saved the Japanese race...

Legend has it that the Japanese race was depended on a sumo wrestling match. A long long time ago, the god Take-mikazuchi challenged an rival tribe on the islands of Japan to a sumo wrestling match. The god had to win the match to save the Japanese race, or the tribe would retain control of the islands. The god won and the Japanese race survived. This was the information provided by the nice brochure at the sumo tournament that I attended in Nagoya, which explains all the rules of the ceremony and the actual match.

At first, I was reluctant to go to a sumo tournament. I had no interest in staring at very large men wrestle practically naked, but the idea of attending sumo tournament became much more appealing when I realized there are only six per year and only one in the summer--when else would I ever get a chance to go to a sumo tournament?! The tournament I went to took place in Nagoya. There is only one Grand Sumo tournament in Nagoya, three in Tokyo, one in Kyushu and one in Osaka. So I went and its been one of the coolest things I've done in Japan.

The Nagoya gymnasium is located next to the Nagoya castle so we spent the early afternoon at the castle. The special feature of this castle are the giant golden fish at the top corners of the roof (not to be confused with giant goldfish, as one Japanese person warned). Inside the castle there is a museum and one of their collections was of bugs--all sorts of bugs and some of them were gigantic bugs. Mo put her hand on the glass to show the relative size of the bugs in case no one believe that they were actually big. We arrived at the gymnasium for Sumo in mid-afternoon--in time to see the Juryo division. It seems in this division there are sumo wrestlers that are more fat than muscle. But let me tell you, the makuuchi division are very large men, but its rumored that they have less fat mass than the average person. And after seeing a bunch of them, they are so solid, they're very frightening. Before the makuuchi division starts there's this whole ceremony that takes place where all of the rikishi (sumo wrestlers) go on the ring in display their decorative aprons. After they're all presented the each Yokozuna, the highest title you can receive (there is currently only one who is my age) has their own ceremony. Its really cool--there's a lot of dance-like features (imagine a sumo wrestler doing ballet-like moves) and lots of stomping to drive away evil spirits. After he's done his dance, there's a break and some people have their dinner. No hot dogs or crackerjacks here, though. People order bento boxed lunches ahead of time and have real meals in the gym. Then the wresting begins. Surprisingly, the matches are frequently less than a minute and often less than 30 seconds. Some of the matches were vicious and you could tell who were the crowd favorites as the crowd went nuts and the rikishi did as well. The yokozuna's match was the last one and through the day we saw him (14th day) he was undefeated. He won the match and people tossed their purple cushions. After that, another rikishi comes out and swings a stick and that's that. That evening we went back to Osaka and celebrated A's 25th birthday. We were so exhausted from the day so the night didn't go all that long. Once again, finding our way back to the hotel was a challenge. First, trying to get a cab takes forever. For some reason, the cabbies don't want to pick up foreigners in their mid-20s. I was tempted to flash 10000yen bills to see if they would stop. Once we got a cab, find the hotel was the next challenge. We mentioned the subway stop but were taken to the wrong one and FINALLY Spa World to the rescue. We stayed near a place that has a water park on the rooftop (Spa World) and I'm kinda sad we didn't get to check it out. Anyway, this guy knew where it was so he took us one block away from our hotel.

The next morning, since I didn't have definite plans, I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Bad idea. I think I saw maybe 4 women in the span of 20 minutes and about 100 men, a lot of them looking hung over. I was definitely in a part of town that foreigners don't step foot in as I was stared down by every other person. I decided not to venture out more in this territory and turned back to take the subway to go to Kyoto.

I had been to Kyoto the previous week, but there is so much to see in Kyoto, one day wasn't sufficient. Unfortunately, the weather gods hate me and every time I've visited Kyoto it has rained. This time, I decided to take it easy and just try to hit up 2 places. I went to Daitoku-ji, a complex of Rinzai Zen Buddhist temples. I was unimpressed, as I had already spent some time in Koyasan at a temple. Instead, it was raining and I got lost in a maze of a temple. Literally a maze. There was a stone sidewalk that you follow that kept turning and would often lead to dead ends and I'd have to turn back. The rock garden was pretty but very small for the price (400yen). I then went to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Temple. What can I say. The thing was gold. Bright gold. It was very beautiful and I took my time strolling through the grounds (even in the rain). At the end of the route I found a bunch of the German guys that are in the summer program. Funny how in all of Japan, I only recognize about 100 faces from my program, who are dispersed throughout the country, and I seem to run into them ALL of the time. Its actually a nice feeling running into someone you recongnize in such a foreign place.

Pictures here