SUMO

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Here are some pics related to previous posts: Japan - Morning off and Kawagoe

Here are some pics related to this post: Japan - SUMO

Moving and IKEA

One night, me and my coworkers, Simon and Vikram, went and helped another trainee (Yu, local to Japan) move! We went to his parents' house to help him pick up some stuff. But next stop, grub. And OOOOOOHHHH BABY was it goooooood.

Spicy ramen. TWO peppers, not just one. It was absolutely delectable. It was the perfect amount of spicy to clear up my sinuses and head, but still be able to taste the wondrous flavor coming from the soupy goodness. That, paired with some fresh gyoza, WHUH. Money. I definitely plan on going back at some point.

But after we filled up with food, we made our way over to Yu's new place and got to work. We got a whole slew of Ikea stuff put up that night, from chairs, to sofas, to mirrors, to garbage cans. It was great to do something with my hands again, and it was even better that I could help someone out in the process!

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

In the spirit of exploration, I took another morning off to go check out the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It was a perfect day outside, the garden was green as can be, and the scenery was a perfect way to start the day.

The garden is quite big, with three distinct areas. The Japanese Traditional Garden is all traditional, no flowers, all green, with ponds and bonsai trees creating a calm and tranquil landscape. The English Landscape Garden is a big green space, with lots of grass and trees, with plenty of space for people to come out, lounge around, and relax and enjoy the day. Lastly, the French Formal Garden (although devoid of blooming roses), was very structured and well maintained.

Throughout the park, I really enjoyed the people watching. There were tons of older people there with their canvas and paint, turning what they saw into a work of art. I watched a couple of them work, and as with any art, the sheer variation and technique each one employed was remarkable. Also, there were a couple of groups of little kids being kids, enjoying the great day outside as they escape their classroom inside. Overall, a great way to start the morning. Now if I could only do this every day.......

Frisbee Chats

After frisbee pickup last week, as per usual, I went out to eat with a bunch of the other people. And, as always, it was fun and the food was great. While we were chatting over some food, a conversation started between two of the dudes there. One of which reminded me a ton of myself a few years back. A little socially immature, unsure of what to say or how to react, especially when things get personal. I was a perfect example of this a few years back, and it's shocking (in a good way) to look back on that and see how much I have changed.

One of the topics in that conversation was about something big you've learned in the past year. I eventually got asked what was my big revelation in the last year. I said that it was you can't change people. That's something I learned a while ago. Important, but not recent. But something that's really cemented itself in my head over the last year is how important it is to be comfortable with you. It's amazing how true this is, and how much of a role it plays in your life.

We only have one life, and when you strip it all away, all you are left with is the one staring back at you in the mirror. Something I've been working on is just that, being ok, proud, and completely comfortable in my own skin. And I got to say, it's coming along well. I'm a cool, albeit weird dude, with a cool life. I'm doing my own thing, seeing, doing, and learning a lot in the process. I've got (hopefully) a long life ahead of me, and no matter what happens, I'm glad I'm the one doing it!

Fluster Face

Something uncharacteristic to myself, I ended up downloading iOS9 when it got released. I don't normally do this, and I'm not entirely sure why I did. All seemed fine, until I got to work and realized that my phone was not getting any reception. This was annoying. It ate at me that entire day, I had trouble doing stuff that night, and I decided to revert back to the previous iOS that next morning.

Well, that took a lot longer than I expected. I ended up not being able to use a previous backup, so I had to essentially reload everything back onto my phone. I didn't get it quite back to where it was, and it affected me for a large part of my day. The initial plan was to get up and go explore a new part of town, but that got moved back a bit due to the hiccup with the phone.

Once I eventually got it to a usable condition, I left and headed out. I intended to go to the Tokyo Skytree, but I got there, and the line just to get tickets was an hour long. So I agitatedly passed on that to save it for some other time. I made my way to my second stop, Asakusa. On the way, I passed through another park and shrine, and enjoyed more of the tranquility to be found in such calming places.

Eventually I made my way to Asakusa to take a look at the big Temple (which are always buddhist), and the comparatively small Shrine (which are always Shinto). This was definitely a cool area, but for some reason I kept letting the thing with my phone get to me, and I couldn't quite get into the adventure and exploration mood. That, and there was a shit-ton of people, which was to be expected.

But all in all, Asakusa (at least the part that I saw) is quite the cool place. It's obviously very touristy, but there is a good number of cool stuff in the area. Along with the temple and shrine, there's a five-story pagoda, a lot of street vendors, and a nice little garden. I took the free tour from the information center, and talked with a couple of Argentinians along the way. At the end, the tour guide singled me out and walked me randomly over the Japanese version of the walk of fame. It was kinda cool.

An American drinking Belgian beer in Japan

Beer. Thankfully, it's a big thing over here too. There was a big belgian beerfest going on, not a 10 minute walk from my house. So I met up with a few friends from frisbee, along with some other friends, and made the most of the delicious options they had available. Delicious beer, paired with some crack-laced chocolate waffles and some french fries was a great way to spend a Saturday evening.

During the beerfest, there were a couple of crowd contests, all of which was based on Rock-Paper-Scissors. How do they do it with everyone, you say? It's all against one. Everyone in the crowd plays the person on-stage. If you beat the person on stage, you advance. Lose or tie, you're out. So it's all on the honor system. And the amazing and impressive thing of it is, they adhere to that. That would (sadly) never go in the US.

So yeah, everyone vs. the guy on stage. Round by round, more people get eliminated (first round for me... :-( ). Then eventually, when it gets to just a handful of people, the remaining people go up to the stage and single down to the eventual winner. And the winner got some pretty good stuff, a six pack of legit beer. The runners up got a nice bottle opener. Either way, the fact that you can do something like that in a big crowd, and people don't cheat their way up to the front, it's a refreshing sight to see, and makes me wish that could be done at home.

Ryōgoku Kokugikan

On Sunday, me, Jenny, and Zena got up quite early to get in line for some tickets. But not just any tickets, tickets to a sumo match!!! Luckily enough, we were in line early enough to get them, and let me say, it was definitely worth every bit. The main stuff (more important rounds) didn't start until 2pm, but we got into the building around 9am, found our empty seats, but then grabbed breakfast before coming back and heading down to the center for some of the early rounds.

I learned a lot about Sumo (thanks Wikipedia, worth a read imo), and let me say that it's a very interesting sport/discipline. Here are some of the things I was impressed and intrigued about:

• There is little to no 'showiness' in the sport. The athletes are extremely respectful, show very little, usually absolutely no emotion, and have very strong sense of self-discipline and respect for self, enemy, and sport. The crowd is farily quiet, and only shows excitement at certain points in the event. In a way, it reminded me of golf or tennis, calm but directed energy.
• The hierarchical nature of the sport is concrete. The lower levels compete in the morning, the higher levels at night. Each of the higher level competitors have a couple of younger guys (essentially stable boys) to do their dirty work for them (carry their stuff, etc.). The sense of hierarchy falls in line quite well with Japanese culture, but is still remarkable for me to witness.
• Ritual is a big part of the sport. Each match proceeds in the same fashion (a couple repetitions are added as the level increases). Some guy comes up to the ring and calls out the next competitors, they enter the ring, go to the back and do a first round of stamping and stretching, come to the sides, do a couple more rounds of that, and eventually they fight.
• The rituals all have significance. From stamping out the evil demons from the ring, cleaning your hands of dirt, waving your hands to show you have no weapons, to bowing when entering and exiting the arena. The sport is steeped in tradition and deeper meaning.
• These dudes are HUGE!!! For real, it's pretty ridiculous.

The early rounds were pretty calm. There weren't that many people in the arena, but we were able to sit in the lower bowl and got a good understanding of the overall process. Plus, we all got a little napping in because of the early start. Totally worth it. At some point we got to chatting with a random fan, and he tried to explain a little bit about the sport through his partial English. Also, one of his buddies randomly offered us some pizza, which was extremely kind and out of the blue!

Eventually we went outside for a bit of fresh air and to watch the big guys in the upper levels make their way to the arena. As I said, each of them has one or two stable boys at their beck and call in their entourage as they come in. And as I said, these guys are huge. They have a distinct waddle, a clear layer of sweat on their forehead, but somehow smell as fresh as a flower. It's an interesting sensory contradiction.

Back in the ring, the pomp and circumstance was taken up a couple notches. Now, when each level entered the ring, they all had decorative aprons showing either their stable (where they train), their sponsor, or something to do with their name. Also, the intensity of the matches showed a clear improvement. The wrestlers were much bigger, the power shown in the match was much more intense, and the crowd was more present, full, and had a tad bit more energy.

A Sumo Bout

The last round was quite cool. As the makuuchi (highest division) entered the arena before their round, it was clear that this was the pinnacle. The wrestlers were huge, the aprons were extravagant, the crowd got loud, and it was time for the big boys. And let me say, it got awesome.

The audible slap of the two wrestlers making initial contact was pretty intense (as recognized by Zena's constant gasp). And seeing them slap and push each other around was pretty intense. I would not want to go up against any one of them. It was also pretty cool to see the crowd get more into it (at the appropriate times). It made me wish I had a sumo wrestler I was cheering for and get a little more into it.

Overall, it was a truly awesome experience. I feel like the connection between sumo and the Japanese culture is quite vivid, and being able to see and experience it live was an honor and something I won't easily forget.

Unrelated to the action down in the ring, as we were sitting up in our seats, the people in front of us started talking to us after they noticed we were talking in German. Again, the communication was difficult, but the sheer kindness of these strangers was astounding. They offered us dumplings, tuna boullion cubes (apparently that's like candy), as well as some other food, and of course, sake. What a friendly and tipsy group of people.

As a slight athletic commentary to Sumo wrestling, I feel like even a middle-grade offensive or defensive lineman, either college or NFL, could hold his weight in Sumo, if not start to dominate. JJ Watt came to mind, and I feel like if he got some time to adjust to the new sport, he'd easily become a yokozuna (reigning champion). Now THAT would be fun to watch.

From reading, it seems like their training involves just match after match in their stable. What ever I read said that they just essentially play king of the ring. Whoever wins stays in the ring and wrestles whoever comes up next. No exercises, no technique drills, none of that. But, I guess that's the tradition aspect of things coming out.

Keeping an Even Keel

One thing that's been a constant issue in my life is being able to keep an even keel throughout the many events in my life. Obviously enjoy the good times and triumphs, but when the bad times and dumps make their way through my door, I need to keep the big picture in view, regardless of what's going on. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in football. Whether it be....

GOOOOO PAAAAAACK GOOOOOOOO

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO BUUUUUUCKS

...I am avid, nay, nuts about my teams. Both my Packers and my Buckeyes have been a part of my life since forever. One of which is my alma mater, one of which I am part owner. Either way, these teams are all sorts of important to me.

Well, by an awesome stroke of luck, the Packers game was on in Japan at a reasonable time! I got to watch my Green and Gold take on the seahawks. Case and point, when bad plays, games, whatever happen, I let them get to me really bad. The Packers D was looking like Swiss Cheese in the third quarter, and it gets right to my head. I got pissed, started doing something else (coug , but kept it going and things ended on a good note.

I've joked about it a couple of times, but I think I might eventually die from a heart attack watching a football game. Bad plays, bad games, all go straight to my head. I know it's just a game, but the Packers and Buckeyes are my life blood. One game isn't death, a bad play doesn't mean the world's coming to an end. I need to work on keeping this in my mind and staying sane regardless of what's happening. (I know Mom, I'm working on it...)

Quick Hits

Finding Someone vs. Moving Around - At least from my current viewpoint, I'm going to be single until I decide to settle down. It seems nearly impossible that I could find someone that's willing to bounce around so much and that

Extroverts... - I really don't get and can't stand people that don't know when to or can't shut up. Even when they don't have anything to say they talk, either to hear their own voice or to act like they're contributing when they in fact are doing the opposite. As an Introvert, this really pisses me off.

Hello Kitty - It is EVERYWHERE!!!

Next Up

I'll be jumping on the subway and heading to the airport in just a bit. Why? I'm headed to South Korea for a week! Me and Zena, a trainee friend of mine, are using our Silver Week (holiday week in Japan) to reset our 90-day visa, and making a fun trip out of it. It's gonna be fun. :-)

Original Publish Date: September 20th, 2015