Sumo!

Every year, a Grand Sumo Tournament is held three times in Tokyo, and once each in Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. A tournament lasts two weeks, and I caught the bouts on a Sunday midway through the May tournament in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, I have very few, poor photos of this whole experience. It probably wasn't the best idea to stay out until 3 a.m. the night before, forget to charge the battery in my regular camera, etc. So my tiny digital I took, thinking perhaps it would be for the best if the hardcore sumo fans started to get ridiculous and jostle other folks in the crowd...oh wait this is Japan.

Anyway, you know you're in the right place when you step off the subway and two sumo wrestlers in yukata (lightweight kimono) pad by. We actually walked amongst a few competitors toward the flags displaying participants' names, flapping in front of the drum tower where taiko is played to announce the start and finish of each tournament day.
We arrived during the third-tier rounds and were able to steal box seats until the place started to fill up.

At this arena, "box" seats = four pillows in a barred-off box. Not what I'd imagined. Way better than our actual seats......which were up here:

Regardless of where I was seated, the whole experience was unforgettable. The second-tier guys walked in and formed a circle up on the dohyo (sumo ring/platform), performed a series of ceremonial movements, then filed out; this signaled the start of the intermediate matches.

After all the intermediate matches, the super-famous top-tier wrestlers came in and performed the same ritual before their bouts commenced.

There aren't weight limits in sumo as there are in wrestling or boxing, so throughout the day we got to see some (relatively) little guys go up against really huge dudes. And even up in the cheap seats, some spectators got pretty fired up cheering for their favorites. The wrestlers would face each other in the ring and do this whole psych-out bit first, then return to their respective corners to wipe their faces and toss more salt out into the ring. They'd return to face off and complete a few distinct movements, then with all anticipation mounted, the wrestling would start...and sometimes end seconds later. It was pretty awesome when a pair would deadlock and we had time to cheer before one took the other down. The sandy surface was groomed between matches, and quite meticulously before a pause between bouts for a ceremonial dance:

Then the day's matches were all finished, seemingly quickly. And my camera was dead. I hope to post a few more photos of the matches if I can snag some from a friend's camera...the more close-up sumo butts the better, right?