相撲: Sumo

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to attend a Sumo tournament in Osaka. Tournaments are held in Osaka on the weekends of March and in other months in Fukuoka, Nagoya and Tokyo. This first picture is the part of the tournament when the wrestlers are introduced to the crowd.
Sumo is believed to have origins dating back a couple thousand years, but its current form developed predominantly in the past couple hundred years. The rituals at Sumo tournaments rely heavily on Shinto beliefs and traditions, and the Sumo lifestyle is strictly regulated by the Japan Sumo Association. Currently there are less than 1,000 professional Sumo.
The winner is the Sumo who forces his opponent out of the ring or on the ground. Even though most matches seem to end in a brief burst of force, there are actually dozens of recognized techniques that a Sumo may use to force an opponent out.

The Sumo league is divided into an East and West division with the top wrestler from each division carrying the title of Yokuzuna. In spite of the fact that Sumo exists almost exclusively in Japan, there have been many foreigners in the league. The 2 current Yokuzuna, for example, are actually Mongolian. There is also a very successful Bulgarian who is quite popular with the ladies. Foreign sumo take on a Japanese name once they're accepted into the league.
Here you see an example of the Shinto influence on the sport's rituals. The sword is one of the three imperial emblems (the emperor, once believed to be descended from the sun goddess, is also closely tied with Shinto). Before each match the Sumo toss salt on the ring to purify it in Shinto fashion.

All in all, I'm glad I spent a day at the tournament. It's not something I'd do very often, but it was a good experience. The atmosphere for most of the day was very relaxed, but as the higher ranking Sumo began competing the audience gradually became more and more excited.

I was able to take a few videos with my digital camera. You can find them on youtube by looking up videos under my username: huancaina

Or, you could just click on these links:
Yokuzuna Hakuho
Yokuzuna Asashoryu
"Robocop"
I have a few others posted as well. Just look around if you want more Sumo.
As you can see in this photograph, Sumo are normal blokes with the same interests as anyone.
Anyone with a strange affinity for naughty cartoons is also included in that aforementioned "anyone"

Winter Holiday 1: Osaka

新年好！

あけましておめでとう！

Bonne Année!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year, Minasan. I'm back in Fukui now. I'll be updating about my winter holiday travels throughout the coming week or so. Things did not go as planned, but I'll let you know the details as they are relevant to each post. Let's start from the beginning - a very fine place to start.

大阪

Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, is a vibrant hub of rock 'n' roll, good eats, a characteristically non-nonchalant populace and a dialect of Japanese highly favorable to comedy. I needed to fly out of the international airport but decided to spend a day in the city before leaving the country for Thailand.

I really didn't intend to see much of anything specific. I just like wandering in big cities. This a view across the river in the park in front of Osaka Castle.
I didn't enter the castle, but, gee it sure looks pretty from outside, eh? It's actually a post-war reconstruction (Americans love the bomb), so the interior isn't much too exciting from what I've heard from others.
This is where I spent most of my afternoon. The park around the castle features some free concerts. The bands were all pretty good, but even more entertaining were the people who danced along.
They never seem to spell my name properly in this country, but, man, I sure do appreciate the effort.

In Chinese folk tales there often appear certain characters known as fox spirits. Fox spirits by nature are deceptive creatures who take various forms to trick people. A traveler gets lost on a cold night in a mountain and discovers a hut with an old man to welcome him and give him a bed only to wake up alone the next morning with no hut or kindly old man. Another man marries a wealthy woman who pays all his debts only to wake up several years later with no house or wife. Sometimes they are beneficial, sometimes harmful - but always they are deceptive.

I mention Chinese folk tales because I know that fox spirits are real and they exist today in the form of Fuji Climbing Partner. As it turns out, Fuji was in Kyoto the same time I was in Osaka (only a 20-30 minute train ride away), so we agreed to meet for dinner. We met in a very busy station with probably at least 100 different exits and an underground mall. It took me at least an hour to find the exit for the restaurant we wanted. Shortly after achieving this, the fox spirit arrived eager to help me get lost on the way to Peruvian food.

We left at the proper exit, but never found the restaurant no matter how many times we doubled back and checked side streets. So, we ate somewhere else, and afterward decided to look for the Umeda Sky Building, a tower with a good view of the city. The Umeda Sky Building is rather tall and also reportedly featured a gigantic Christmas Tree in front. I say "reportedly", of course, because we never found it.

Fuji Climbing Partner has also been known to beguile travelers in search of the very-simple-to-find Philosopher's Path in Kyoto and to silence people climbing mountains so severely that onlookers marvel at what they believe to be the austere religious devotion of her victims.


Life lesson, amigos, if you ever come to Japan, be wary of anyone who speaks Chinese. Such a person may be a fox spirit.


Anyhoo, the meandering and failed adventures in Osaka were good preparation for things to come.