Sumo is...
Sumo, it is Japan's national sport, and it has long history and related to the Shinto religion. Even Japanese are suprised to know the details of sumo, because it has very ritual. A famous strict rule is that women cannot step on the sumo ring. Grand tournaments are held 6 times per year - Tokyo (3), Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka. In each place, the prefectural governor presents a prize to the winner of the Grand Tournament for his achievement. But now Osaka's governor is Ms. Ota, and she can't give the prize because she cannot step onto the sumo ring. She protested and tried to change the rule, and actually some feminist groups supported her too. But the association did not change the rule. Personally I like to keep these kinds of traditions. I want to keep sumo's rules and style without changing anything. I can't think it's serious gender issue. I can tell you another funny bit of trivia. Their uniform belt is called mawashi; since it is made from silk, they do not wash it. They just dry it like this. Stincky? Yes maybe so.
Let's go to Ryogoku!
In Tokyo, most Sumo-beya(sumo stables) are in the Ryogoku area. Ryogoku is a kind of SUMO town. When you visit Ryogoku, you can see many sumo wrestlers walking about, but there is also a lot of other interesting stuff. This one of my favorite sites: nifty portal daily z (They are really crazy, I wish they had an English version. I wrote about this site before in "Yaminabe"). Anyway, Nifty has a post called "Let's Go Ryogoku!". Many things in the town are designed around sumo. Food tends to be big in size. And you can find big clothes and shoes. To enjoy this down town Tokyo area, I will pick some good places to visit here.
Area information
Train map
Ryogoku area map
Some places to visit
Kokugikan
Sumo Museum
Edo-Tokyo Muesum
Kyu Yasuda Teien
Sumo Picture Museum(JP)
Tokyo Water Cruise
Souvenir information
Sumo goods shop Takahashi
A day in the life of a Sumo wrestler
I heard sumo wrestlers have such big bodies but their health condition is excellent; actually, they are a kind of pro-sports players, not regular fat guys. They shouldn't lose weight and some wrestlers have to gain more weight to be strong in healthy way.
How? They have their own eating style. To increase weight efficiently, they practice in the morning without eating breakfast. Then they eat a big lunch. After lunch they take a nap. Yes, skipping breakfast and after that eat and sleep, eat and sleep. This is the best way to be big. Their main meal is basically Chanko nabe. It is a kind of hot-pot meal. The lower class wrestlers in the Sumo stable have to do cooking duty. Mail is nabe, but they cook and eat various food. Each sumo stable and sumo wrestlers may have their own unique recipe, but I will introduce the basic type: Chicken Chanko. Here is another chicken type. There's a lot of different food in the pot - at least a good variety of vegetables. This is the important part to being big and healthy. You can't only eat potato chips, french fries, and pizza.
Chanko restaurant
In Tokyo, there are some good chanko restaurants which famous retired sumo wrestlers opened. Japan Today introduces five restaurants in Tokyo. If you want to check the movie, Anthoney Bourdain enjoyed Chanko in this show. Now the most famous chanko restaurant is Chanko Waka. It is the restaurant of Yokozuna(= Champion) Wakanohana. (they have a tough family business too).
Here is a good blog about Tokyo and sumo. It explains how Asashoryu received the prize in his left hand. Because he is a lefty, maybe he did it unintentionally. But in Sumo rules, the winner should accept a prize with their right hand. As he is Yokozuna, he is a kind of symbol of the national sport of Sumo. So people expect him to keep rules and traditions. In that respect, he sometimes made trouble... He is really strong though. That is the reason some people like him so much and some people dislike him.
Comments