Yokozuna -- SUMO

Well we have reached the highlight of the trip. Tonight we went to Sumo. It was awesome. It is so cool. First off, here is all you need to know about Sumo. Sumo is one of the coolest things around. With America being so fat I am surprised that Sumo has not taken off at all in the States. The arena that it is in is very small and they have awesome seats. The first level is all "box seats." That means you get a box with 4 little pillows in it. There is no way you fit 4 people in them. Well we had Dad and I both sitting on the floor watching Sumo. Ray sat in the box behind us because that was open. So that is very fun. The event goes all day but the real action does not start until about 4:00 pm. This goes on for 2 hours. There is a lot of showmanship and stare downs and things like that, but the rush of when the two guys go belly to belly is pretty awesome. Since we had no idea who was good and who was bad we each would pick a guy who we thought would win each match. That made it a lot more fun. I would say the coolest part is that this is something that has been going on forever and they still do it about the same way. Between matches they have people walk around the Sumo ring with banners to advertise things. As you can tell it really worked with me because I could not read one sign. I would say the worst part of the night is that all of the wrestlers showed up so they did not go looking into the audience seeing if anyone wanted to do it. So that is a bummer but these were some big dudes. The thing that is crazy is that they look really fat and out of shape but there legs are rock solid and they have a lot of mass traveling with them. If you get a seat in the first couple of rows, you are in the splash zone and you can have guys fall on you. Talk about a bad deal. There is not a bad seat in the house and they are throwing salt around all of the place. There is some interaction with the fans, when the matches take a while to get going all of the fans start clapping to get things on pace.
The whole thing is great and if you are every thinking about going to Tokyo, please go in either January, May or September because that is when the Sumo happens. This post does not do it justice, but I did my best. I hope all is well and MORE TO COME.

Peace out.
Kirk