the big men

There was a 'get together' in my honour later in the evening so on the way to the tournament, dressed traditionally, I sneaked glances of the yukata-clad sumo wrestlers, furoshiki's in hand, as they stared at my skirt and smiled. Traffic was moving slowly and hundreds stood outside waiting for the arrival of their heroes as we were perched across the street in the sun, munching on kebabs and trying to shake off our respective hang-overs.

It was a cold day though. At 7am it had been snowing as I looked out the window trying to regain full conciousness before training, not quite believing what I was seeing. The seven of us headed to the combini to stock up - 3 tall boys each, a bottle of whisky, some mixers, shredded squid to snack on and a few onigiri's and a bottle of water to try and win some favour with our bodies.

The sumo was great - I don't know why I've never had the urge to go. The souvenir stand was great - I bought posters of the standings at 50 yen each - they're beautiful! I got a set of 4 cups and a Takamisakari 'mug' which I'm so happy with - it was only 600yen - I still can't believe the stuff was so cheap and wish I'd bought more presents.

We arrived at 2 and it finished up at 6 but the time certainly didn't drag and some of the bouts were great fun. No big upsets, the highlight of the day was surely Takamisakari pleasing the crowd with the famous aggressive slapping of his body as he prepared to fight. He won his bout which resulted in lot's of cheers.

Sumo fans tend to just shout names - a bit like at Wimbledon but without the 'come-on's'. The Osaka Gymnasium was a great venue for the sumo - very compact and even our seats toward the back allowed an adequate view (I was similarly impressed at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, which has no track or excess, just the stand then the pitch). Two thirds of the seats in the gym are tatami - about 2 - enough for 4 people to sit cross-legged on cushions. These come with bento and souvenirs and are more expensive than the 3,600 -5,400 yen (£15-24) seats we were in - closer.

The roof over the ring frames the wrestlers beautifully - very impressive.
When we went to the toilet we could see the wrestlers passing to go to the locker room - they were gigantic - some tall (over 2 metres) as well as bulky.
We headed out afterwards and got talking to a Tokyo wrestler who's attractive friend (as they tend to have) had taken interest in my kilt. He won so he was in a reasonably good mood. I congratulated him at the traffic lights as they went their seperate way. All in all I was glad I wore the kilt even if it wasn't designed for sitting in tiered seating.

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