I had sort of a crazy weekend.Some of it is covered in the letter I wrote to my grand mom which I will post most of here but going to sumo wrestling is not covered. So I went to my first ever sumo match/tournament and it was really pretty interesting.On the way into the stadium we passed by some wrestlers and we were unimpressed with there girth and decided that we or at the very least Tyler could take them...but we didn't try. Before that we went to the Edo museum which I really liked but everyone else was lukewarm about.It had a bunch of re-creations(is that a word) inside and I really liked them.It was also useful to go with architects and get info about the buildings and why they were constructed in particular ways and where the influences cam from.A fascinating perspective that I didn't even know I was missing.I may come back knowing more about architecture than anything else.Ask me about the difference between and cable and suspension bridge!
But I liked the Edo museum because it was so damn practical and you could touch things and hold things.I am not a great visual learner so the museum experience is largely lost on me if I can only take things in visually.
Now everyone could agree that sumo was cool.Idris and Tyler got the best pictures.So I'll post mine which will be blurry until I can photoshop them and all but you get the idea.I didn't get a chance to read about Sumo like I wanted to before I left but once I started picking a wrestler things were so much more fun. Some of the matches were really amazing with dudes getting flipped out of the ring and inevitably onto the first row.Miraculously no one was hurt.
And now a little info from Wikipedia...
here are six divisions in sumo: makuuchi (fixed at 42 wrestlers), jūryō (fixed at 28 wrestlers), makushita (fixed at 120 wrestlers), sandanme (fixed at 200 wrestlers), jonidan (approximately 230 wrestlers), and jonokuchi (approximately 80 wrestlers). Wrestlers enter sumo in the lowest jonokuchi division and, ability permitting, work their way up to the top division. Wrestlers in the top two division are known as sekitori, while lower division wrestlers are generally referred to by the generic term for wrestlers, rikishi.[6]
The topmost makuuchi division receives the most attention from fans and has the most complex hierarchy. The majority of wrestlers are maegashira and are numbered from one (at the top) down to about sixteen or seventeen. Above the maegashira are the champion or titleholder ranks, called the sanyaku. These are, in ascending order, komusubi, sekiwake, ōzeki and, at the pinnacle of the ranking system, yokozuna.[6]
Now my only association with Yokozuna was as the WWF wrestler who put the Undertaker in is own casket during a steel cage match.I realize now that this was culturally insensitive on the part of the WWF but then again so was every wrestler they had. All in all I had a really good time with my friend and then we headed home.Later Tyler,Joe , and I went to a party for a woman I am making friends with who is from Turkey. They got wasted and I spent much of the walk home saying sumimasen(kind of like excuse me but not quite) to other people for them. Tyler is a big guy ...bout 6'3, rugby player, blond, blue-eyed and he gets no shortage of stares here.He is also a filmmaker,photographer, and sculptor.People are so complex. I am actually friends with quite a few photo geeks and they are teaching me that stuff.I think at this point we are both sort of sick of being stared at but it was a good time and I got them home safe.
So I'll post the pictures I have whe I egt back from school and write about the weekend.
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