10-07-06 Saturday Sumo (Part 2) & Shibuya Crossing

SUMO ENTRY – PART TWO –
On our way to the Sumo Museum in Ryogoku, were most of the actual sumo dojos are located as well, I looked to my surprise in a window –and guess what I saw.

!PANTS!

Big pants! Little pants! Medium sized pants! Rows and rows of glorious pants. I rushed right in and tried on 4 or five pair until I finally found a super nice pair for $25 dollars or so. They were pretty much what I was hoping for, except for being a little bit too long.

Just like the treadmill back at The New Otani hotel, the pants were not in a measurement I understood. At home, I take about a size 36 (a 38 if I have eaten at a buffet the night before). In Japan, I take a 97. Though the tag did not flatter my ego and made m e feel even more like Godzilla in Tokyo, a leviathan amidst everything so small and fragile… I "domo air gato’ed" the cashier and ended the week which I now call “Pant less in Tokyo.”

Kip, Jenny and I grouped up again. Kip was very happy we had done the sumo dojo, as he was not 100% sure at the start. The same with Jenny.

On the way to the Sumo museum, we made a pit stop at the Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum in Yakama, Sumida-key –an area that we were passing through. This museum featured artifacts, reference materials, reconstruction materials and tidbits from Japan’s “Edo period” which started in the mid 1600’s and ended in 1867. The year 1867 marks the end of the Meji Restoration, a period of time like our civil war in Japan where the people saw democracy and finally rebelled against the Samara system of government. A pass to this museum costs about 6 dollars and was a fun little trip, despite so much of it being described in Japanese.

In this particular museum, and even more generally speaking in much of what I have seen so far in Japan, tourists are more trusted than they would be in the states. Here one could touch and interact with displays. For instance, I was able to pull an old rickshaw and also take a shot sitting inside a very elaborated decorated and luxurious kago. You know what a kago is, but maybe not what it is called. A kago is a fancy box that royalty would ride in hoisted in the air above four slaves holding on to its two long rails on either side.

We saw a number of Ancient handwritten books & scrolls, wooden boxes, models of villages from some two hundred years ago, golden coins and other very interesting artifacts.

After the Edo Museum, we stopped at a little mom-n-pops dinner where I got a life sustaining, not super, but not terrible, wedge of tofu.

The way that they displayed their food was odd. Little plates of food were pre-made and in a glass case. You ordered very much like buying pre arranged flowers behind glass. It was Kip that had me look in the corner at a television, whose sound I had been ignoring, just as I did at most Japanese television.

LIVE SUMO!

It was a televised sumo tournament! We had been informed that sumo was out-of-season, but it looked as if something were going on at that very instant.

As we finished, we headed over to where the sumo museum was supposed to be. It turns out that the museum was in a small corner of a huge sports complex. We went in front of it and saw a number of gigantic painted morals dedicated to the largest athletes on the planet. At first we weren’t sure at what was going on, but then soon realized that the event we saw just down the street on the tube was happening just inside in front of us.

I was all set to go, but Jenny and Kip were not sold on the fact that tickets were 3,500 to 7,500 Yen ($33 - $70 USD.) Though it would be a little scary making the trek back alone, I bid them a due and prepared to make Saturday a “full sumo experience.”

Leaving Rygoku - my group took off, as to not miss a kite shop to see for a follow on plan. Kip & Jen took off for Shibuya (where I would try to meet up with later, knowing that full well that in a place called “the busiest intersection of the world” that this would not happen.

Getting the money out of my wallet (which incidentally does not fit because the height of each bill is larger than back in the U.S.), a nice Japanese woman rushed up to me holding a ticket. “A Japanese scalper!” I thought to myself. But I was wrong.

The woman explaining to me in broken English that she had an extra ticket and wanted to give it to me free of charge. I graciously accepted. Kip and Jenny were already gone.

Entering the sumo sports plex, I enjoyed the painted tile work depicted ancient sumo battles being fought for the entertainment of emperors.

I went in and found that to my surprise it was very much like going into the Pepsi Arena for a WWE pro wrestling event. Just like prowrestling, there was a gothic modern stage, live commentators for television –some in costumes and face paint, and two huge screens on either side of the ring for interviews, live coverage and graphics.

Because none of the ushers could speak any English and the ticket I had was in kanji Japanese, I was on my own. I grabbed a good seat, probably not what the freebie ticket had assigned to me, and watched a couple of bouts.

I didn’t know what weight class or division that I was watching, but it was very much like the sparring I had seen earlier in the day, only in this case it was at a bigger forum.

The Japanese audience cheered and acted similarly to the American prowrestling fan, but only much tamer. Another big difference related to the spectators was that the whole lower section sat on little cushions on the floor with their footwear removed. (I can’t imagine this happening any time soon at Madison Square Garden.)

I picked up a program in English, which I believe was there just for a person like me as it had a section that fully explained the rules. The program also explained some very basic questions to me through the itinerary of a day in a tournament.




Sumo bouts are very traditional and have a format to them. Because a match is relatively quick, more matches and wrestlers are needed than in say a boxing or prowrestling event back in the states.

To see an event in its entirety happens with some hardcore fans, but many people are kind of in an out. There are 220 bouts a day and usually 15 full days in the midst of a traditional tournament like this one. I am not sure what tournament day it was out of the 15, but in the whole scheme of things, today’s card started at 8:30AM, some six hours or so before I showed up. It was still under way.

According to the schedule in the program, after the doors opened to a ceremonial drum performance, preliminary bouts started at 9:AM between new sumo trainees yet to be officially ranked. This were rookies, but at the level of for instance the sumo I called Collosus in a previous entry; the best that a dojo has to offer.

Next, I learned that around 9:30AM, the Jookuchi (lowest rank) and the Makushita (junior class) division bouts had taken place.

At around 1:30PM, the Juro division bouts started. These bouts include “young hopefuls aiming for the higher division promotions” as well as weathered veterans of the sumo circuit. Fighters at this rank are considered full-fledged and salaried sumo professionals.

It was about 2:00PM and just as the schedule said a few hardcore sumo fans greeted the highest division of sumo wrestlers called “The Makuuchi” at The Kokugikan South Gate.

It is funny because there was very little security anywhere at The Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Sports Plex. Because of the culture, they simply didn’t need it.

In Japan, there is very little crime. This is largely due to the fact that if you commit a crime, not only do you risk jail time and your good name, but you disgrace your family’s good name in the public eye. Out of their culture, people of Japan do not wish to commit as many heinous acts as they do in other places in the world simply because it makes their families look bad. The people are very honorable, and despite long work days/school hours and being apart from their families, families ARE important.

I hadn’t given any of this much of any thought when I walked directly into the lockerroom hallway of the different sumo divisions. There the sumos walked freely about, laughing and shaking the hands of some former competitors. Most of them were more than happy to pose with me, seeing how not many of any fans would just walk down into the area that I had. I did see a handful of maybe 4 or 5 kids looking for autographs, but none would even approach the sumos.



One sumo named Katsunori Kotoosho, a Bulgarian oddly enough, approached the kids and signed some autographs and posed for some pictures. (I incidentally took a mark-out shot with him as well.) I looked him up later and found that he was once a European Junior Wrestling Champion in the Netherlands who left his Olympic competing dreams behind when he was unable to make weight.

I hung in the “gorilla position” for a while (parados entrance way for the sumo wrestlers), watching the sumos going out for their matches.

I watched one of the final few Juryo matches from the back, then decided to go and watch again from the stands. In the last Juryo out of the day, I saw a sumo wrestler take a golden cup upon the finish of what I believed to be the final match. (I hadn’t found the itinerary in the program yet.)

At about 3:30 when the Juryos had completed their competition, the chairmen of the JSA (Japanese Sumo Association) stepped into the ring with top-ranked wrestlers and thanked attendance for coming.

I watched a mixed demographic of people smile, including a few senior citizens who reminded me of my grandmother who loved professional wrestling back in the day and would have smiled hearing Bruno Samartino, Fritz VonErich or Dusty Rhodes behind the microphone.

Something that happened next really confused me. After the regular bouts had ended, entertainment bouts began as an intermission before the Makuuchi (heavyweight and highest division of sumos) were to compete.



At first, they had a number of young kids, about 10 years old, in full sumo regalia. They then had three kids take on a Makuuchi wrester, unable to budge him. Next they had five and so forth and so forth. The ended with two overweight middle schoolers not doing to badly either. The Makuuchi decided to sell it like they were really good and allowed himself to be thrown from the circle to the roar of the crowd.

The next match was very Harlem Globetrotter-esque, or much like the comedy seen in midget wrestling, only with a heck of a lot more BELLY laughs behind it. Because of the honor and respect behind the sumo tradition, I had no idea that staged/rehearsed sumo matches existed.

The two sumo competitors took forever to lock up and would do ridiculous things to the referee trying to control the chaos. At one point in the match, the sumos decided to start over and went back to their salt buckets…

Let me digress for a moment about salt as a side note. I mentioned earlier that sumo matches had religious roots. In traditional sumo wrestling, salt is thrown before the match. From ancient times, salt had been believed to possess purifying powers. Much like the Shinto water fountain and the Buddist smoke purification pits, salt is thrown as a ritual. Before each bout, both wrestlers throw salt into the air as they prepare for battle. As the salt lands, it purifies the ring as a sacred place, just like the rituals done before entering Shinto shrines and Buddist temples.

To continue the idea of religious themes in sumo wrestling, the wrestlers stop their feet to supposedly squash any bad spirits that the ring may hold. They additionally drink water from a basin at ringside to purify their bodies, following Shinto beliefs.

Back to the Globetrotters… the two sumos started over. One went and through some salt into the ring, so the other decided to out do him by throwing a huge heaping handful. The first grabbed even more and launched it, making the ring covered in white. To top this off, his competitor took the entire bucket and through it just as the ref got in the way. A similar pun was also done with the water, but this time dousing the front row in mizi (water.)

Because I hadn’t finished reading the program, I thought the night was over around 4:PM when the Makuuchi ceremonial entrance took place, though I didn’t know this was the beginning of a whole new part of the show. Many mammoth sumo wrestlers sauntered out wearing kesho-mawashi, vividly decorated ceremonial loincloths over their wrestling attire. I thought I was witnessing the role call of different dojos, like the final bow of competitors, but that is not what it was.

What I saw was huge groups of huge sumos encircling the ring, one at a time, until it was full with the biggest wrestlers I had seen all day; the Makuuchi competitors. Once it was full, fans would cheer for the ones that they liked the most then the ring would exit and it would happen all over again. This happened about six or seven times.

As I was about to leave, a smaller circle stopped filling up and one sumo stood in the center. He then broke into song. No one seemed to be surprise but I found this quite amusing. A four hundred plus pound salt throwing machine singing practically soprano. Japan is another world.

When the circles ended, the hosts, a man and women in formal attire.

The ceremonial stuff was over, so I headed to the souvenir stand to see what I could take back with me to commemorate my Mecca to Sumo City. I picked up a large Sumo mug –nice. The stands loaded up and again, I thought everything was over.

MORE MATCHES! I was wrong. I looked at the program again some and learned there was a whole 3-4 hours left! As much as I would have loved to watch it all, I had the full flavor and wanted to go check out some more of Tokyo before my independent day was gone. I watched a couple more matches and bid the sumos a fond “sayonara.”

I went out and immediately followed the Tokyo rule of thumb and got lost. Eventually, I found a few officers who directed me to the closest Tokyo Metro. They told me, “Twenty minute,” and pointed ahead.

I walked seemingly forever to find next stop. It was cool though to see a non-touristy area. I stopped into a number of little shops in sumo city; a thrift store, a pawn shop, a sumo theme store, and a number of different konbini (convenience stores like Mini-stop, Family Mart, AM/PM, Lawson and yes, even Seven Eleven.)

At a pawn shop, I picked up a set of Japanese statuettes that looked like two balls of wood on to columns, painted like traditional Japanese women. I also picked up a couple of goofy Japanese CDs to use as gifts. One looked like Japanese Spice Girls.

Because I was getting bored as my 20 min walk was ACTUALLY about two hours, I sang The Love Boat Theme while walking as a social experiment. Most of the indigenous people ignored me, but a few that I passed were slightly amused. I am not sure if they recognized the jingle, but were maybe smirking at the sight of a large American singing on the streets of Tokyo to himself.


SHIBUYA!!!
I jumped on the train took train to Shibuya catching the Ginza line from the Honomozin. By this time, I was starting to get pretty good at using the Tokyo Metro to get around. It really is not that difficult, because every line is color coded and stops are numbered.



Shibuya is like Tokyo’s “Time Square” but BIGGER. At Hachiko Square the main intersection by Shibuya Station (a giant station that has the Tokyo Metro, the Nozomi and the The Tokaido/Sanyo Shikansen.)

The intersection at Shibuya is said by some to be the largest, most trafficked intersection in the entire world. After this experience, I would not contest this for one moment.

The crosswalk itself was the width of a football field and people boat-load up between crosswalk passing times. When the light for crossing indicates that it is safe to pass, the street fills up like you would not believe. The pictures that I took do not do the congestion justice.

“Yeah. Shibuya is some ridiculous $h--,” a British accented voice says over my shoulder. I look up and a friendly bloke was video taping some footage hanging off a rafter. “Your first time?”

“Can you tell?”

I talked with Roger, a former Canadian BBC videographer/camera man for a few minutes. He explained to me that he was sent to film Japan some 5 years ago and fell in love with it and decided to stay. He now works freelance.

Roger pointed out to me where Hachiko The Dog statue was. It was across the street. I thanked him and fought the masses to fulfill yet another key destination experience.

Hachiko, as legend has it, is a dog who used to follow his master to work everyday then wait for him at the subway station. This happened everyday for many years until his master died at work. The dog then continued to wait at the same place for some 5-10 years before passing away.

The story of this famous dog has since been immortalized in the world of children’s literature and too in the form of a bronze statue commemorating his loyalty at “Hachiko Square.” This statue is now a meeting place for many people in Shabuya today –and I wanted to go see it.

I saw it and got pictures.



I returned to Roger and explained that one of my teachers back home was hoping that I could bring him back a NODA soccer whistle. Just like the friendly nature of the Japanese, Roger walked me to a Soccer store near Tokyo Hands department store to find Boz’s whistle.

No real luck in the soccer store, which incidentally was four floors high, so I continued to do what Tokyo visitors do best -shop. I went in an action figure shop and saw a Bob Sapp (Japanese Boxer) action figure and some t-shirts that were about $40. I wanted the Bob Sapp but they wouldn’t let me charge anything under $50. (Lame!)

One goal I had was to find a hat shop where I could find a fitted cap with Japanese text on it. No luck.. All they had was about 40 different styles of New York Yankees.

Everything on clothing in Tokyo (and I would find later in Arao as well) is in English text.

Needless to say, I made it back alive, but man, I was so SHOT!