SUMO!!!!!!!

Okay, what is more awesome than watching huge, fat guys wearing a loincloth wrestling--nothing--sumo wrestling is AWESOME!! Brooke, Cade and I got to experience this spectacular experience. Three times a year they have a grand sumo tournament here in Tokyo and for 2 weeks all day it is sumo wrestling.

Brooke and I got up to the Sumo stadium to get tickets at 8 am. Here we are waiting outside the sumo stadium.

While we waited for them to start wrestling, we took advantage and got some good pictures. This is to show Cade in 10 years that I did take him to do fun things!

I think Brooke needs to beef up a little more if she wants a career in sumo

Here is my little sumo--so cute!

Sumo wrestling is very traditional. It dates back 1500 years and was a form of ritual to the Gods with prayers. Here is a picture of the sumo ring (dohyo). Over the Dohyo, suspended from the ceiling is a roof of a shinto shrine with four tassels representing the seasons.

Before each match, this guy comes into the middle of the ring and sings a song.

The guy to the right in the colorful outfit is the gyoji (referee). He comes into the dohyo and calls of each wrestler in a specially trained high-pitched voice and then during the match shouts words of encouragement to the wrestlers. Each match lasts about 4 minutes or less. The wrestlers are matched up by weight at all. Some of the matches we had these big, huge guys against littler guys--very interesting. You lose when any part of you touches the ground or you go out of the ring.

These were some of the higher ranked guys and they come in before the match for an "entering the ring" ceremony. Before they start wrestling, the sumos rinse their mouth with water, wipes their body with a paper towel, raise their arms (to show they have no weapons) and stamp their feet and scatter a handful of salt to purify the rings. The stamping of the feet scares the evil spirits away. They the sumos squat and face each other and glare at each other, go back to the corner for more salt, scatter it, glare, and then when they are ready they wrestle. The symbolic stuff takes longer than the actual match. It was so interesting to watch, especially once you know all the symbolism behind it.

Sumo wrestlers leaving the arena

Sumo mascot