Sumo
March 24, 2008
One would think watching extremely overweight guys clad in nothing but diapers and shoving each other around would not be a very entertaining thing. Still, it was something I had to decide for myself. I’m glad to say, it was a lot more interesting than it sounds.
I have put off going to a sumo tournament for the last five years. I really didn’t think I would enjoy it. But last week at the behest of some classmates and not having done many Japanesey things in awhile, it was the perfect opportunity.
The place was packed but not in the beginning. I realized that most people didn’t bother watching the first half of the tournament. It seems that the lesser known sumo wrestlers are just not as crowd-pleasing as the well known wrestlers and the top-tiered wrestlers. We got there fairly early but had the chance to walk around the different stands and take pictures. There were some a few wrestlers who even let us pose for pictures with them.
The event really started picking up towards the latter half of the event. The stadium was finally packed and wrestlers who have appeared on television commercials started competing. It was interesting to see some of the idiosyncrasies that really got people roaring.
The highlights were certainly when the top ranked ozeki and yokozuna wrestlers did their thing. People were yelling and screaming!
Compared to other sporting events, sumo was “easy” to watch. In most other sports, you need to sit through the entire thing hoping to catch something amazing like a breakaway, a slam dunk, or a goal. With sumo, each match realistically lasts no more than 10 seconds and it’s preceded by a lot of traditional rituals. Although it was my first sumo tournament, I quickly learned to block out and ignore those boring rituals, instead enjoying my snacks and drinks and talking to my friends. Only when the action was about to begin when my attention refocussed on the fatties in the center of the room.
I don’t know if I will go again but I certainly enjoyed my first sumo tournament.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:16
Nice pics dude. I can never get any decent ones in there. But then again, i`m usually tanked and dreaming of competing.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:59
I bet you could. Some of them were fairly scrawny. Of course, I say scrawny but they were about four times my size.