The weekend after the wedding was a 3-day weekend, so we took the opportunity to head down to Osaka for the sumo tournament. We had initially wanted to try to get some good seats, but registering online for the initial ticket raffle was a pain in the arse. Plus the closer seats are tiny box seats with pillows, which are supposed to somehow seat four people. Let’s just say four foreigners of substantial height would NOT fit comfortably, so instead we went with the stadium style seats up above and bought the tickets at the door. The great part is the stadium (more like a gymnasium, actually) wasn’t that big, so even the higher up seats still felt really close to the action. We got there early and watched a number of the lower ranking matches. There was a another pair of older foreigners a few rows down. One of whom turned around to ask us “what are the rules?” Okay, I certainly understand if you don’t get all the intricacies of it, but the basic rule I feel is pretty obvious. You fall down? You lose. You get pushed out of the ring? You lose. My opinion of those two guys didn’t improve when they left to buy beer time after time, eventually spilling one of them and having some staff member clean it up. Way to keep it classy, guys. We grabbed lunch at the cafeteria-esque restaurant inside the venue, where they had some quality noodle set that, consider we were still on the premises of a major sporting event, was semi-reasonably priced. We were a bit disappointed that they didn't have a closed circuit TV in the cafeteria with the matches running live, but oh well. Also, in retrospect, it was completely worth it to go early and see a bunch of the lower ranking matches. Sure, the quality and technique isn't quite up there, but the lower ranks also don't have as much ritual before their match, so you have much less down time between the action, making it just as enjoyable as the later matches. Most Japanese people don't show up until just before the top division starts.
Note the empty bleachers
A closer view of the ring
The rarely seen quadruple man-boob. Damn dude...just, damn.
The side judges confer about a close call by the main judge. This is their version of instant replay.
Some other foreigner sat down in the row in front of us, and some more next to us. And I imagine they were as annoyed with us and we were with those two guys a few rows down. Why? Because we were getting into it quite a bit. Although far from experts, we actually had been watching and paying attention to the previous sumo tournaments, and have certain wrestlers we pull for. One guy in particular, a wrestler by the name of Baruto, who is originally from Estonia, had been doing quite well and was potentially up for promotion to Ozeki, the second highest rank in sumo. (Update: Baruto went an impressive 14-1 over the tournament and was promoted up to Ozeki. The tournament going on now in Tokyo is his first at this new rank, and so far he's 6-0, go Baruto!!) It is general practice to shout support for the wrestlers before and even during their match, so we were screaming from the top row when Baruto, along with a few others, took to the ring.
And now there's a proper crowd for the top division, maku no uchi
So THAT'S how they get so fat, McDonald's sponsors them!
Overall, a solid day of sumo, and we topped it off with dinner at a Mexican restaurant in the nearby area. Mexican cuisine is quite difficult to find in Japan, so this place really hit the spot. As per usual, the portions were less than satisfying, but it all tasted really yummy. Mmmm….now I’m just thinking about Chipotle Burritos and enchiladas at Durango’s.
A neat building in the Namba area of Osaka
The weekend after that was relatively uneventful, although we did have a demo for capoeira in Yanagase, the floundering shopping district just north of Gifu station. Jon and Sarah came along and we grabbed lunch at favorite restaurant of ours. And again Jon was put on photo duty for the demo by Naomi. Whew! That wraps up March. Also, I put up a post about Sara's Wedding earlier today, so don't miss that!
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