Sumo

After missing out in 2012, heading to Osaka to watch the Sumo Grand Tournament was high on my To Do List this year.  Sumo only happens 6 times a year and tickets for our closest tourney went on sale in January so a bunch of us jumped on the opening day sales opportunity to make a weekend of it.

Being the end of the school year, most of us had enkai (work drinking/dinner party) plans on the Friday night, but we each managed to straggle across to Osaka by bus on the Saturday.  We met up at the Bodymaker Colosseum at 3pm though and weaved through the crowds (who were there hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite Sumo stars) to enter the venue.  We were kindly escorted up to our seats by a handsome young usher and sat down to a pretty awesome view (especially for the $35AUD ticket price!).

The Sumo matches themselves were over fairly quickly, each battle lasting only mere minutes.  But the spectacle of the show and the smashing falls some of the guys took made it worth every second.  Some of the wrestlers were huge and surprisingly, many of them were also foreign.  Apparently, competitors must square up with the others in their division at least once during the course of the tournament.  Since we visited on Day 13, we were able to distinguish the pecking order - with a mammoth guy called Hakuho sitting undefeated at 13/0.  Between matches, some Sumo wrestlers performed in rather intimidating and highly stylized ceremonies - it was a sight to behold!

Unfortunately, the day was over far too quickly, with the lights raised and crowds spilling out of the colosseum by 6.30pm.  I left feeling rather buzzed (thanks to the cheap beers available from the souvenir kiosks dotted around the dome) and ruing the fact that we'd decided to get there so late in the day.  Oh well, Sumo in Japan?  Cross it off the list!