The Day of the Sumo!! (By Jeffrey)

One day on our family’s world trip we were rushed, very rushed indeed. We were going to something you can only see in Japan....SUMO WRESTLING!! We weren’t sure we could even get tickets. I was thinking that we had a fifty-fifty chance of getting them because we had read that you needed to be at the stadium very early to get tickets for the same day.

It took around 30 minutes to get there by train and subway on Thursday, September 18th. We got the tickets for an awesome price. It cost 4600Yen in total, about $46Cdn. Each adult was $21 and each kid was $2. We weren’t expecting it to cost so little. The matches started out by showcasing the lower ranked Sumo wrestlers. We had the best seats in the house, only four feet away from the place they wrestled. We could also ask for tea in our seats. The seats were actually cushions arranged in a group of four to one box. We sat in these seats until lunch.

After lunch we sat in seats closer to the top of the building. Also after lunch the quality of the Sumo increased. We also met an Australian whose parents were Japanese. It was really weird to hear an Australian accent in Japan.

Many people believe that Sumo wrestlers are extremely fat. Of course some of them are, but the best aren’t that fat. The bouts were actually very interesting. My dad even said “I’d rather se Sumo wrestling than see a Leaf game if given the choice again.” I don’t necessarily agree with him but I do think Sumo wrestling offered better value. Four people could attend a full day (8 hours) and have a great lunch for the price of a decent seat at a Leaf’s game!

You can watch approximately 220 Sumo bouts in one day. The average bout was about 20 seconds with the longest running to about a minute and a half. Each bout had a repetitious 3 minute ceremony prior to the bout. We had no idea what the ref and his assistant were saying at this time even after 4:00pm when we got our English commentary radios. I thought the ceremonies were not necessary, however, I enjoyed every other minute of Sumo. When the current champion (no losses in his last 20 bouts) lost to the worst wrestler in his group, everybody on the lower deck started throwing their cushions at him. It was hilarious!

On our way home we saw a Sumo wrestler all by himself on the subway. It shocked me because Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport. I thought he would have been treated like royalty. Well I guess that probably only the top Sumo wrestlers would be treated like royalty. The funny thing is that we weren’t expecting to get into the match because there are only 6 tournaments per year, however, not only did we get in but we had fabulous seats. Without a doubt I would go to another Sumo tournament. Even my sister enjoyed it!

(P.S. – you can leave me a comment if you have any questions about Sumo)