Well I do, big whup, wanna fight about it?  I remember staying up late nights watching tape delayed sumo tournaments on ESPN2 throughout high school and college.  It fascinated to me.  The size, the strength, the outfit (or lack there of).  What else I was drawn to was the candor and demeanor of the wrestlers.  No matter if in victory or defeat these giants  be gentle(man).  They'd help each other up, keep a straight and mellow face, and go about their business - kicking ass.  I'm sure it all starts with the polite, subdued Japanese culture, add to it aspects of traditional sumo and and I've always admired the individual athletes for how they carried themselves.

So after knowing that Japan was a stop on our world tour, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, if provided the chance - watch a sumo tournament.

Come to find out, you can get sumo tickets at your local convenient store.  Talk about convenient, is there anything you can't do Family Mart!?

So after a few emails with our Tokyo host, Emily Erwin, we were in business.  We had a box for four at day 11 of September's 15 day tournament.

First, the box.  It's a one and a half meter by one and a half meter square raised floor space, with four pillows.  There are no seats, so deal.  Great view of the doyo, but not spacious to the point of comfortable.

So, what I wasn't seeing growing up watching these shortened televised broadcasts was everything that happens in between the 10-30 second matches - two biggest things being the ritual and the showmanship.

In addition to traditional entrance ceremonies, personal colors and outfits, each wrestler goes through upwards of 6 min of ritual before each match.  Traditional stances, throwing salt onto the doyo, drinking water, washing up ... all of it very interesting to see, because each wrestler does it a bit differently.  And this is where the showmanship comes in.  These rituals are also a time of the dudes to intimidate, stare down and basically 'get into the head' of the his opponent.  And boy does the crowd love the show.  Yokozuna (highest ranking wrestler) Asashōryū was a standout... bending lower than his opponent, staring him down in the pre-match stance practices, and his energy, really got the crowds support.  In an event which has lots of down time, if you're NOT into the ritual, that showmanship is just what you're looking for.


So, we did it.  Went to sumo, crammed into our box, had our bento boxes and watched giants, scantly clad throw each other about.  It was..... AWESOME. Check out the Tokyo pics to get a taste.