SUMO SUNDAY!

A forewarning: there are quite a few videos in this post.  Take your time, I think they're pretty good!

We had the opportunity to attend a Sumo tournament today in Tokyo with some coworkers of Tim's, all arranged by the MWR on base.  To get to the tournament, we had to meet a bus on base and drive for about an hour and a half to central Tokyo.  The drive was gorgeous!  But, lucky for you, bus windows aren't the best things to take a picture through, so you get a picture of us! :-)

Once we got to the arena, the whole group decided to get lunch in the area around the stadium, instead of waiting in the food lines inside.  

 

The Sumo Arena

Our group walking through the crowd of spectators

On our way back to the stadium, we managed to get a shot of some of the Sumo wrestlers entering the arena through their private entrance.  This area was surrounded by camera crews and spectators, and many of the Sumos required security escorts.  

Do you see the Sumo?? Yes, they always dress in the traditional Kimono, it's tradition. 

Once we finally got into the arena, we found our seats, wandered around the perimeter, and waited for the tournament to begin.  

The dohyo, a 18 sq. foot clay platform, covered by a pseudo-Shinto shrine

A better view of the Dohyo and the arena

There was a drum performance to start off the tournament and then the lower, Juryo division performed their ceremonial entrance.  

This was almost exactly what the higher, Makuuchi division's ceremonial entrance looked like later on in the tournament. 

Here is a video of what a Sumo match looks like when the wrestlers are not even close to being the same size.  I was betting on the big guy...

That's pretty much how all of my bets ended until the last round, where my guy won the whole she-bang!  

Between the two division tournaments, there was a children's sumo demonstration and a comic sumo match.  The second video is about 4 minutes long, but pretty funny. 

We also got our picture taken with the Sumo mascot.  This guy had a line around the building waiting to take pictures before the tournament started, but we found him in-between the tournaments with absolutely no line! 

Then the Makuuchi wrestlers and the sole Yokozuna wrestler entered. 

The Yokozuna is the most elite wrestler in the sport, only 69 wrestlers have been promoted to this rank since official record keeping started in 1789.  Yeah, in 221 years, 69 wrestlers have qualified for this rank!! They are expected to always act with hinkaku, dignity and grace, and they have to be extremely good wrestlers.  This past week, the other Yokozuna decided to retire after it came to surface that he was involved in a drunken brawl outside a Tokyo nightclub.  I guess it was the "straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back" for Asashoryu and instead of being forced to retire, he stepped up and made the announcement himself.  You should google his name, there are quite a few controversies surrounding him.  

ANYWAY, this tournament was pretty intense and Hokuho, the Yokozuna, was kicking serious butt until he got to the "Final Four" where we was defeated by Goeido, a maegashira!  I should explain that in the main tournament, there are 5 different rankings of sumos.  At the top is the Yokozuna, followed by the Ozeki, the Sekiwake, the Komusubi, and the maegashira.  So the very elite was beaten by the very bottom.  It was intense.  Many of the spectators on the floor cushions threw their cushions onto the dohyo, a sign of congratulations for the underdog.  

So the final match came down to Goeido and Kotooshu, an Ozeki, who also happens to be from Romania.  And he's huge: 6'6" - 340ish lbs.  

You can see why it was an exciting match!  

After all the wrestling, Goeido was presented with the trophy and some other things in another ceremony.  We left after he got his trophy because we couldn't really understand anything that was going on.  

When we got on the bus to go back to Yokosuka, we saw Goeido leaving the arena through the special sumo entrance completely surrounded by cameras, spectators, and tv crews.  It was a madhouse! 

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves!  I thought it was a fascinating sport and I think I picked up on a lot of what was going on in the ring.  A great feat for not understanding a word or what was going on!