Sumo Day!

We have tickets for the Sumo Wrestling today. It goes all day but we think that might be a bit much so we are off to visit the fish market this morning first.
We broke the golden rule of being early and by the time we got there it was crowded. Interesting place to look around though, lots of different food to buy and eat. Of course we had to sample a few of them.

The sumo wrestling starts with the novices in the morning and gets to the more experienced wrestlers as the day goes on. We saw a few of the morning ones heading home on the train. The stadium is massive, would have to be as big as Rod Laver Arena if not bigger.
It’s a very ritualised affair. They have announcer who calls out the name of each wrestler to the ring in song. Then the referee comes in, then the wrestlers. There is lots of clapping , arm raising, leg raising and belly slapping for a while. the bouts starts when both the wrestlers are behind their line. It’s a little like chicken, someone has to break first and then it’s on. It’s all very exciting sometimes for a few seconds, occasionally for a few minutes.

The matches got more intense and the crowd more involved as the day went along. Our tickets where for the balcony seats, and since there were lots of empty seats closer we moved closer to the action. The lower level which is closer to the action again was booked out. I had read though that a lot of people don’t get there until about four when the senior division is on, so after a while we went down to see if we could sneak in. They had an usher on each door and I didn’t think we’d have much luck but Graham sweet talked one of them into letting us in. It was great up close to the action, except for when one poor guy went over on his knee and had to be carried off. We stayed there for a while but then more people started coming in and we didn’t want to get kicked out, so back to the cheap seats.

It was a great afternoon, we throughly enjoyed it. I can see why it so popular with the Japanese people.

We wandered around Asakusabashi and found another great little Bar Kitchen to have dinner in. The waitress who opened the door for us nearly had a heart attack, I’m sure she didn’t want to let us in and then was horrified when we wanted to sit at the bar. 😂😂. It’s amazing the amount of food they can prepare in that tiny bit of room behind the bar.Les mer