Sumo Tournament in Tokyo

What a cool experience it was checking out our first sumo tournament in Tokyo over the weekend. Sumo has been a part of the Japanese culture for well over 1,500 years which is why everything about the sport is so steeped in tradition.

Bern and I first started our excursion with an hour bus ride to Tokyo for Sunday brunch at the New Sanno Hotel. It was nice to have an American style breakfast since this hotel is only for U.S. military personnel and guests. The food, customer service, and ambiance were all first class!

After brunch, we boarded back on the tour bus and headed over to the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena. Our tour guide, Kazumi, was a huge sumo fan. It seemed liked she knew everything about the sport and was so enthusiastic because this day was the final day of the tournament; the championship! There are only 6 sumo tournaments a year in Japan lasting for two weeks each so that made it even more special. Included in our tour package were tickets to the Edo-Tokyo museum which was literally right next to the arena so we decided to check that out first since we had plenty of time to kill before the important sumo bouts began. To me, the exterior of the museum resembled either the library on the campus of UCSD or the main headquarters of OCP in the old movie Robocop. Anyhow, there were some fascinating exhibits explaining the history of the capital city dating back hundreds of years when it was originally called Edo.

The museum even displayed a sample of Tokyo's marketing material when it hosts the Summer Olympics in 2020.

Heading back to Sumo tournament, Bern and I couldn't resist taking some funny photos near the entrance of the arena.

Bern being rescued by a popular Sumo named Endo

Dang these sumo have a lot of surface area!

Before returning to our seats, we stopped by the cafeteria to try a sample of Chanko stew which is what the sumo wrestlers eat to really bulk up.

As I mentioned earlier, Sumo is full of traditions...many of these rituals derive from the Shinto religion. Everything about sumo has a purpose or a meaning, so here are a few examples:

The roof above the sumo ring resembles a Shinto Shrine.

The "gyoji" or referee wearing ceremonial Japanese clothing

Sumo wrestlers from a certain division step into the ring with their ceremonial aprons (kesho-mawashi)

Sumo throw salt in the ring to purify it, then they squat in front of each other to show respect,

raise their legs and stomp them on the ground to ward off any evil spirits,

and finally spread their arms and clap twice to signify they are not carrying any concealed weapons.

The winner is the one who makes his opponent step outside the ring or touch the ground with any part of his body

In any close bout, the outside judges will convene for a final verdict

Really popular sumo wrestlers will have sponsors display their advertisements.

For each banner, sumo receive about 30,000 Yen bonus ($300)

After all the sumo matches are over, the ceremonial Yumitori (bow dance) is performed

Towards the final sumo matches, the crowd really started to go off and we didn't know why. It took us a few minutes to realize that they were welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the arena. It was surprising to me that he just sat down in the middle of a seating area with the rest of the fans around him...like he was a regular guy. That would never happen with the U.S. President.