Sumo!

We made it to watch the last few hours of Sumo. It's a massive stadium with a tiny dirt arena with mats for seating for the immediate ring-side seating.

Each round involves up to four minutes of preparation before the Sumo's knuckles hit the floor and it's on! When they clash, there's this almighty SLAP! The crowd goes from reverence to loud cheering like an AFL sports match.

A quick Google explains that a lot of skill is involved. The sumos move surprisingly well for such large lads, and it's only sometimes the big guys win. As you can see in this video, Big Red (or so I called him) had his momentum used against him by his opponent.

What was especially cute was that after the event, imagine a sea of umbrellas exiting the grounds. Everyone had brought an umbrella except us tourists. The rain was the equivalent of a mist and a welcome reprieve from the heat, so we didn't care. Still, as we entered the orderly crowd of people, without us needing to ask, people of all ages lifted up their umbrellas to shield us from the rain.

It's one of many examples of politeness and kindness we've seen here. It's almost a pleasure to commute as everyone respects their environment, themselves and others.

💗Okumaya devam et