This morning we woke up at 4:45am to line up for general admission tickets for the final day of the Sumo tournament. We got to the line outside of the Osaka Gymnasium and we were 30th in line at 5:30am. It was freezing cold, it felt like it was below 32F. Elgin wore 2 pairs of pants, 1 long sleeve t-shirt, 2 sweaters, a jacket, a cap, and a scarf, and he was still cold. Good thing we brought our snowboarding instant heat packets. They expired 2 years ago but still held enough heat to keep our toes semi-warm. While waiting in line for 2+ hours, we saw several sumo wrestlers walk into the stadium with only their robe and fabric wrapped bag. I’m sure they’re cold right? At 7:30am, the line for the tickets went around 2 sides of the block and we got our number to buy tickets. At 8:00am, the ticket booth opened and we got our 2 tickets! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we got the tickets! Sumo tournaments only happen 6 times a year, and we just happen to be here J So exciting!
The tournament began at 10am, but the semi-pros started at 1:30pm and pros at 3:15pm. We were so tired from waking up early to stand in line and keep warm, that we went back to the hotel to nap for a few more hours before the semi-pros started. After our nap, back off to the Gym and begins our Sumo Sunday! We were greeted with a red carpet and roped off lines of people staring at us going into the stadium. We found out that any minute the best sumo pros were going to enter the gym shortly and the red carpet was for him with his fan club waiting. Did you know they are Sumo wrestling trading cards?!
We actually had seats and they were not nose bleed. The gym was designed well so every seat could see the middle clearly. If you’re wondering what they sell at the arena for snacks – they had souvenir stands that sold already cooked boxes of takoyaki (octopus dough balls), dried squid, and varieties of rice crackers and shrimp chips. Then they had who we call candy stripers sell green tea and vanilla ice cream. On the premium seats closer to the center, it was actually pillow seating, not chairs.
People would take off their shoes and sit on the floor with the provided pillows. They had special servers that catered to them, mainly men that wore traditional Japanese get-up of some sort. They served hot tea, bento boxes, and several gift bags of goodies. I believe the goodie bags were boxes of mochi sweets and red bean cakes.
Watching the tournament was interesting, each match was very quick, about 2 minutes or less. Two sumo wrestlers would go up, do some stretching and stomping, ceremonial cleansing, throw rice, and game, it’s over. You lose once you get knocked out of the circle or have any body part fall on the floor. It was amazing to see how the smaller guy would usually beat the big guys. There were some big guys that seriously needed a man-bra.
After the tournament we went to walk about Namba Park and Mall. HUGE mall and really nice stores. We shared a pork katsu curry rice plate at a curry house. It was very good – very peppery and dark. There was a couple next to us that each had their own curry rice plates and they scarfed it down hella fast. The portions were reasonably large because of the large amounts of rice. Japanese men and women really do consume at lot of rice, it’s amazing how much they can eat.
Fashion note: I’ve noticed that all the men and women like to style themselves like Japanese stars and commercial ads. Guys have lengthy hair. Both girls and guys dye their hair (bleach blonde, light brown, red). You can tell that they spend a lot of time of their looks before they leave the house. In the past few days, I’ve seen probably a 100+ girls wear these outfit – A. frilly mini skirt, black panty hose, knee high boots, and short jacket OR B. short blue jean skirt/shorts, either panty hose or knee-high socks, short jacket and boots. You’d think they were cold, because we were.
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