Sumo

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted again, oh man! But enough about that, let me tell you about sumo!

SUMO

I've always wanted to go to a Sumo tournament to see the sumo wrestlers in action, so when I saw that the tournament was in Tokyo, I bought a ticket for a single day (the tournament lasts all day from 9am - 6pm for two full weeks) and went to check it out! The arena was practically empty when I arrived around 11am, but it filled to the max capacity around 4pm. The reason being, there are many different ranks of sumo wrestlers and the simple explanation is that the amateur wrestlers competed in the morning, followed by the intermediate levels wrestlers in the afternoon, and then the professional athletes in the late afternoon. I didn't care who was competing, to be honest, I was interested in the way they competed. Before their match, the sumo wrestlers sat on a mat on the side of the ring. Once it was time to compete, they entered the ring and they both did a series of symbolic movements, most of the time in unison. They rub their hands, clap them, then move their arms outward to their sides, palms up, and then place them on their knees. From there, they lift up each leg (so high for some!) and slam it down. (If you are lucky enough to be my mom or my sister, you have seen these very movements demonstrated for you, by yours truly, over Skype). If you don't know the background about sumo, this may seem odd! But these specific movements are deeply rooted in about 2000 years of tradition, purifying themselves and telling the gods they are unarmed and ready to sumo. Another part of the tradition, is that the wrestlers themselves are taught to be extremely disciplined, respectful, and honest, which I got to experience first-hand (read on!). After all of the movements, the sumo wrestlers throw salt on themselves as well as the ring, also as purification acts. Then they crouched down on lines in the center of the ring and then, SUMO! Sometimes the wrestling took a few minutes and more often, only a few seconds. Most of the time, the preparation took longer than the actual wrestling! It was all so exciting to watch!

I stayed for about 5 or 6 hours and then went to pick up Jackson and Jacob from school, where I proceeded to tell everyone about how cool my experience was. For once, my chatty demeanor paid off! One of the teachers at the boys' school has connections to the sumo wrestlers and asked Joe and I if we'd like to accompany her to a celebratory dinner on the last day of the tournament. Are you kidding?! YES! So about 10 days later, we went to dine with the sumo wrestlers!

Joe and I with Hakuho san

We arrived and were sat at a table near the front of the room, thanks to Masami Sensei! (the teacher), while platter after platter of food was placed on our table. Soon, about 10 sumo wrestlers of varying rank, including the Yokozuna, or Grand Champion, Hakuho is his name, entered the room. Sumo wrestlers are like celebrities in Japan and in fact, the Yokozuna = Hakuho, is said to be touched by a god. So everyone was in awe, including Joe and me. Hakuho won his 31st tournament just a couple of hours prior to the dinner, so we were all mesmerized by him. There were many congratulatory speeches, all in Japanese, of course, which were fun to listen to and hear the crowd respond to, and then Hakuho himself spoke. Even though we couldn't understand a word he said, I instantly picked up on the fact that Hakuho is very humble, respectful, and just plain nice. He must truly be making the sumo gods proud! We were lucky enough to get a picture with him, another big thank you to Masami Sensei, and I was so giddy just to stand next to him! (He's really cute, too!) All in all, I was able to check another thing off my bucket list while having a wonderful time and learning so much about the sport of sumo wrestling. Because as I like to say, when in Rome...

Thank you so much for reading. I love you.

XOL