Undoubtedly one thing most people think of when they think of Japan is Sumo.
Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Sumo. In one of “those” moments I was sitting in this box at the Sumo and thought if someone had asked me 1 year ago what I would be doing in a year’s time “going to the Sumo” would not have been in the top 500 things I would have responded.
These are seriously big boys – one of the guys on the program was 203cm tall and 175 kilos! Most of them were around 180 cm tall and 150 odd kilos.
There are any number of “stables” around the country all with their resident sensei (master) and a surprising number of foreigners involved (there were Sumo from Greece, China, Mongolia, Georgia and Russia in this tournament).
There are only 2 high level tournaments held in Tokyo per year. Each tournament runs for 2 weeks. In the whole of Japan there are only three cities that hold tournaments.
We were lucky enough to be sitting in one of the boxes closer to the action. The box is an area about 1.5 meters square and thin mats on the floor (did I mention that each session runs for about 3 hours?). The guys in the box beside the one I was in were all 80+ and really got into the beers, by the end of the night they were yelling their heads off and screaming at the Sumo. However, they did take a little longer than me to stand up once the bouts were over.
Before a series of bouts begin they parade the two sides of the draw in front of the crowd and introduce them to the crowd (and give you some idea as to the size of these guys).
Once they get into it the night seems to go incredibly quickly. There is a large amount of routine and spirituality tie up in the Sumo bout that I will not even begin to try and explain. Suffice to say that after attending the night I have a new found understanding and appreciation for this sport (I had found myself watching an hour or so of the Sumo on the television at night and being fascinated even before there was a chance to go along and see it for myself).
These guys are intense, they spend way too much time getting into the right head space, staring each other down across the ring and slapping themselves around he face. Before they even get into the tournament they spend a stupid amount of time training. It is the most explosive, anaerobic sport I think you can imaging. Try and picture 300 plus kilos of guys throwing themselves at each other trying to push the opponent out of the ring or down to the ground. Some of the bouts were over in seconds with others going for up to a minute or more. There was a saying that I heard in relation to boxing “a good little man will always beat a good big man” – this doesn’t seem to hold true in the world of Sumo, big is definitely better.
Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Sumo. In one of “those” moments I was sitting in this box at the Sumo and thought if someone had asked me 1 year ago what I would be doing in a year’s time “going to the Sumo” would not have been in the top 500 things I would have responded.
These are seriously big boys – one of the guys on the program was 203cm tall and 175 kilos! Most of them were around 180 cm tall and 150 odd kilos.
There are any number of “stables” around the country all with their resident sensei (master) and a surprising number of foreigners involved (there were Sumo from Greece, China, Mongolia, Georgia and Russia in this tournament).
There are only 2 high level tournaments held in Tokyo per year. Each tournament runs for 2 weeks. In the whole of Japan there are only three cities that hold tournaments.
We were lucky enough to be sitting in one of the boxes closer to the action. The box is an area about 1.5 meters square and thin mats on the floor (did I mention that each session runs for about 3 hours?). The guys in the box beside the one I was in were all 80+ and really got into the beers, by the end of the night they were yelling their heads off and screaming at the Sumo. However, they did take a little longer than me to stand up once the bouts were over.
Before a series of bouts begin they parade the two sides of the draw in front of the crowd and introduce them to the crowd (and give you some idea as to the size of these guys). Once they get into it the night seems to go incredibly quickly. There is a large amount of routine and spirituality tie up in the Sumo bout that I will not even begin to try and explain. Suffice to say that after attending the night I have a new found understanding and appreciation for this sport (I had found myself watching an hour or so of the Sumo on the television at night and being fascinated even before there was a chance to go along and see it for myself). These guys are intense, they spend way too much time getting into the right head space, staring each other down across the ring and slapping themselves around he face. Before they even get into the tournament they spend a stupid amount of time training. It is the most explosive, anaerobic sport I think you can imaging. Try and picture 300 plus kilos of guys throwing themselves at each other trying to push the opponent out of the ring or down to the ground. Some of the bouts were over in seconds with others going for up to a minute or more. There was a saying that I heard in relation to boxing “a good little man will always beat a good big man” – this doesn’t seem to hold true in the world of Sumo, big is definitely better.
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