Day 4: Return to Tsukiji, Shrines, and Sumo

Today we awoke to a nearly clear morning.  So much so we questioned when we opened the blinds of our room and saw this large mountain straight ahead in the distance.  It can't be.  It was. Mount Fuji. After another workout we would have breakfast again with the masses on the 33rd floor.  But that view today was spectacular and today we got a seat right on the windows.

After breakfast we were off, returning to Tsukiji Market for some food and purchases after our 1 hour speed walk through it the other day.  We were pretty impressed with our navigation skills as we found all the stores we were looking for 1) dashi 2) dishes and 3) chopsticks.  Dashi we got from Dashi Okume a store established in 1871 inside the main market. For dishes we went with some of the traditional patterns like the octopus, fish names, and fish scales from Takizawa Ceramics which  was founded in 1931. Chopsticks were from a store called The Ichi. And Andy was able to pick some of the food he was drooling over the other day, including sashimi of tuna and salmon as well as a gigantic oyster. And sorry Byron and Tina (my gym trainers) I caved and had a matcha soft serve and it was oh so good.  We also returned to the shrine we had visited prior as well as stopped at another on the way back to our hotel so I could add to my book.

A seriously quick turn at the hotel to drop our packages we opted to taxi to the Grand Sumo Tournament located at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo's legendary sumo arena.  We could have taken the subway but it would have taken 38 minutes and the taxi was only 20.  And it had gotten quite hot with the lack of clouds.  When we arrived it took us a minute to find the entrance as we were confused by all the people standing behind barriers and we would realize they were trying to get glimpses of some of the ranked wrestlers that would compete during the last session.

It was super easy to get in.  When you have your ticket checked you are given a map.  Once inside you were met by people who could take that map and tell you exactly how to get to your seat. The back of the map have the day's bouts and schedule,  Here is also where you could get a program with photos and info about the wrestlers.  We woud make our way to the second floor and our seats.  So seats/tickets...it is like trying to get a campsite in Yosemite.  We had to be on-line when they went on sale and cross our fingers it would not sell out.  We were lucky.  The tournament which is 14 days sold out in the matter of minutes.  We went for seats.  You can get boxes on the floor, but you have to sit cross-legged for hours and generally require 4 person occupancy. They do have swag you can purchase for your favorite wrestler from towels to fans with their faces on them.  The concessions, other than beer and wine, were a bit disappointing.

We had a good laugh when we got to our seats.  It almost seemed like they knew our IP when we purchased our tickets was from overseas as we were surrounded by other foreigners.  To our right Germans to our left Australians. Both luckily had a guide that was explaning things so we picked up some good intel.  As the bouts went on the wrestlers got better and better.  Each bout started with rituals of announcing the wrestlers, drinking of water, throwing of salt, and stomping, but also posturing.  They have 4 minutes to start and they can get to the line and back off as many times as they want during those 4 miuntes. But once it got going it often lasted seconds as their goal is simply to throw your opponent out of the ring or off balance enough something other than the souls of their feet touches the ground. There are also rules about how they can engage with their hands.  We really got into it after a while and was researching the wrestlers to come, their rankings, and more. Ettiquette dictates you sit during bouts, do not whistle, you applaud if wrestlers lock up and make it more than a few seconds as well as when they bout's over, and stay in your seat when a bout is underway.  I think Andy got into it enough he plans to watch the results of the upcoming days.

After it was over we were exhausted and had to walk about 15 minutes to get the subway.  Luckily the wind had picked up and it was very nice.  And we got to walk over some bridges and harbor inlets so that was pretty.  Once off the subway we found Andy some take-out and another 15 minutes of walking and we settled into our room for our last night in Tokyo.  Tomorrow we are off to Hakone National Park.