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Wanna Wrestle?

Ryogoku Kokugikan Stadium, Tokyo
May 19, 2011
2 min read

Sumo wrestling is AWESOME!

It’s basically like going to an NBA game, only instead of 8 foot tall guys dunking on each other, there’s two really fat dudes in diapers running towards each other and trying to knock each other to the ground. What isn’t there to love about this sport!? We managed to get tickets to the May Grand Tournament which are pretty tough to get, especially for foreigners (thank you teachers!).

Sumo wrestlers have to wear traditional dress at all times

I am fully aware that what I am about to say is entirely ignorant and very stereotypical of the “Ugly American”, but I didn’t realise just how big this sport was in Japan. It’s something that’s totally Japanese that has not seemed to make it out to the rest of the world, which I really liked about it. There are famous sumo wrestlers, and you see posters of them around town, they do commercials, they even have their own fan swag - I ended up buying a pen with the image of my favourite wrestler, Kotoōshū, a Bulgarian man who had risen to one of the top echelons of sumo wrestling in Japan.

Image from http://www.zasada.bg/kaloyan-mahlyanov-kotooshu/

Before each match, the ring was purified by throwing salt around, and after each match the wrestlers would bow to the judges, each other and the crowd. I got really into it and found myself cheering along (although in a very Japanese-reserved way) as I enjoyed my Asahi and picked up the rules as I went along. When something happened that made the fans unhappy, they threw their seat cushions around the stadium - I guess that's one way to show dissatisfaction!