'Tis the season for Sumo!

Last Sunday we headed out early to catch a bus to Fukuoka to watch the Sumo tournament, 1 of only 6 that occur every year. The tournament started at 8:30am and went until 6pm and had 750 matches. We left Nagasaki at 9am and after a two hour bus ride arrived in Fukuoka where we took another bus to the stadium.

So the first thing I'm sure you've noticed is that there is a roof suspended above the ring. This is normal in Sumo, it's part of the traditional roots when Sumo took place in outdoor arena. The four tassels that are hanging down (fusa) represent the four Shinto spirits of direction: Azure Dragon of the East (青龍)Vermilion Bird of the South (朱雀) White Tiger of the West (白虎) Black Tortoise of the North (玄武). The ring (Douyo) itself is about 50cm tall, almost 7m square and is composed completely of clay and is built in house before the tournament and then is torn down afterward. The circle is roughly 4.5m and is lined with rice straw bails.
The rules for Sumo are simple, no hitting or kicking, though slapping is okay (open palm), you win when your opponent steps or touches anywhere outside of the circle, or any part of his body, other than the bottom of his feet touch the ground. This means is you slip and touch a finger to the ground, or you throw your opponent but your hair touches the ground while throwing (and before your opponent touches) or you trip a little and brush the top of your toes on the ground you lose. You are also not allowed to attack injuries or do anything with the intent of causing harm, so for example if your opponent has a wrapped knee as much as possible you should avoid attacking it. Finally, you can not wrap your arms fully around your opponent, ie. your hands/arms can not be touching while holding. This is why when you see Sumo they often grab the belt to gain some leverage.
Despite the simplicity of the rules Sumo does involve a decent amount of strategy. When the match begins the announcer stands in the middle of the ring and sings the name of the West opponent from where I'm sitting that is the left) and then the name of the East opponent. The referee stands with is fan turned horizontally so that it is barely visible if looking at him directly. Until he turns his fan to face the wrestlers the match can not begin. The two Sumos step into the ring and will drink strength water, which is offered by the last Sumo that won on that side (East or West) and will remain there until another wrestler wins on his side, losers leave the stadium immediately so as to not jinx the other wrestlers. They will throw salt in the ring to purify it (at one point when a wrestler was injured in his match salt was immediately thrown into the ring to purify it). In Shinto the three purifying elements are Salt, Water, and Paper. The salt does have the added benefit of providing traction in the moist clay and guarding against infection in the event of injury. During this time the wrestlers will come to the line and hunch down like football line men to have stare downs. Once the fan is turned however as soon as your hands touch the line they remain there until the match begins. Once both wrestlers have placed both hands (generally as a fist) on the line the match begins and it is the last time any part of the body other than the bottom of the feet can be touching. There are various advantages and disadvantages to being the first and last one to touch the line and so the wrestlers will try to take the position that benefits them the most in the match, and likewise try to take the advantage away from their opponent. Here are a few matches from the higer rankings (lower rankings do not get salt or strength water):

The Sumo ranks are very hierarchical and determine things such as salary. If you are interested in the rankings and pay scale you can read more about Sumo in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo Later that evening, around 4pm the higher ranks arrived and the intensity dramatically increased. Bets were placed on matches (called incentives) with the money going to the wrestler that won (part of which goes to the wrestlers "stable"). These were announced by men carrying banners around the ring representing the party or company placing the bet. One match had 30 banners and was valued at over $10,000 US.

 These are the big boys, they can wear silk Mawashi instead of cloth

 These next few actions shots are courtesy of Evan and his amazing photo taking skills

Here are a few more videos of fights earlier in the day:

When the big matches started we also got to see a traditional dance performed my the Yokozuna (Grand Champion). All Yokozuna perform this dance, however, currently there is only 1 Yokozuna.

This is a fight near the end of the night, you can hear the difference in excitement between this match and the low ranked ones.

When the night was over we headed out and were pretty psyched up which led to a few impromptu Sumo matches outside the Stadium by a few of us, oddly the Japanese did not stare at us anymore strangely than usual, and largely just ignored us (though part of this was probably due to game 7 of the Japan series (baseball) starting just after Sumo ended).

Before going home we had a little time to wander around Fukuoka and get some food. I took part of the time to photograph some Christmas lights.

 These last three were taken in Nagasaki

Christmas here is largely a couples holiday and has little to do with Christmas in America. Largely gifts are not exchanged and the decorations are not a pronounces as in America. There are lights up here and there, and every once in a while you might see a reindeer, but it is rare to even see a representation of Santa here. It will be interesting to see what I can tell you about Christmas come January.

The last thing I wanted to show you was my first Ikebana project (Japanese flower arranging, a type of art form).

I was told I had a good use of space (in Ikebana empty space is just as important as the areas that are filled). The goal is to design something essentially that looks natural, I think it was a descent first attempt. That's all I have for now, hope you enjoyed it.

Theme Parks and Commercials

So, this weekend I found myself going to Sasebo. A friend knew a missionary couple there that had a small house church that mostly had members from the US Navy base who were more than happy to let us stay the night and feed us. The first thing that struck me when we got there was that if it weren't for the Japanese writing I would believe myself to be in Los Angeles. I assume this was because of the influence from the local base. Also, no one looked at us strangely, Americans are not at all uncommon sights here. On the way to the house we stopped off to see "99 Islands" a small bay with a lot of islands, feel free to count them.

I took some video in case anyone wanted more than stills

After a little more sight seeing around town we headed to their house for lunch. After having a great Taco Salad (not any better than Japanese food, but it was still nice to get a change up... and real peppers, food in Japan is just not spicy, even when they say it is) we headed out to Huis Ten Bosch, a Dutch Theme Park. We got a cheap pass (2800 yen) that let us see many attractions for free, based on what the attractions cost and how many we happened to stumble upon with no real plan it was a good choice.

 There's a point where you just say "Yep, this is Japan" and go on with life

The first place we ended up going was the Teddy Bear Museum. It was interesting and laid out the history of the Teddy Bear (as well as some myths) and had an interesting collection of bears made with different themes.

This one was taken just for my Mom

Yes the Japanese also make "bear ears" too

After the Teddy Bear Museum we followed the cow...

And after seeing some more beautiful scenery and some other plastic cows we were not allowed to ride...

 If you've ever wondered what was in a windmill, there you go

 The wonderful world of cheese

 It's like they knew we wanted to...

We found a snack stand that had ice cream, of more interest was the "cheese" ice cream. It had the slight taste of cheese cake and sour cream mixed with vanilla. It was very good (an opinion shared by all four of us). While eating our ice cream we wandered around seeing more of the sights. The park looked great at night, something photos just can not do justice for.

 Chocolate anyone?

 This was fun to play with, it's always changing colors and the tiles change when you step on them

After we finished our ice cream we went to a theater and watched a 3D movie with really strange geometric effects. I didn't follow the whole plot because it was in Japanese, and I'm not sure it made much sense to begin with, but it basically boiled down to a little girl going on a spiritual odyssey to save her sick dog. I obviously could not record the movie, but have a few photos and a video of neat things in the theater. These first two pictures were of things on the ceiling.

Sorry I cut it short at the end, the show was starting

After this we entered another theater with the title "Grand Odyssey". We were told we would be in the movie, which made us all nervous at first because we thought we were going to have to act and maybe even in Japanese. Our fears were quickly put to rest however when we realized that our faces were going to be digitally mapped and placed on characters in the movie. I ended up being part of the bridge crew and had a few lines, which I spoke perfect Japanese in, it was like I was a native speaker (maybe that's because someone else had done the voice for my character, but you take what you can get). The story was about a colony of humans that lived on a distant planet (maybe a moon?). They had fled Earth after they created machines to eliminate harmful viruses and bacteria, but the machines started to see all non-human life as a threat to humans and began wiping it out. The humans were successful in finally stopping the machines, but Earth was in ruins, so they left to live amongst the stars while the planet recovered. Over time however, Earth faded into legend, until one day a signal was received of waves on the beach. No one knew why, but they were drawn to it. And thus the adventure began to learn about what had happened to Earth in the past and to return to our world. I had hoped you could get a DVD copy of the movie, but it seems technology hasn't come that far yet, but I was able to get a photo print of my character.

After the movie we went on a ride that was reminiscent of the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland where you find yourself watching scenes from a story as you move along on a floating car. All I really followed was that the fairies were good and the witch was bad and that the fairies finally defeated the witch. After exhausting the attractions in the area we headed out again to find ourselves in Thriller Fantasy Town, which apparently was a combination of western music and haunted houses ruled by Michael Jackson...

 This is also apparently where Batman and Superman hang out on their days off

One of the greatest things was stumbling into a music and light show that happens in this little square. The whole area is flashing with choreographed lights while various American hits play.

After this we went into the building, which was a Japanese style haunted house that relies more on being creepy than trying to scare you with shock like in America. The illusion was ruined however when we stepped out and immediately were bombarded by the song "Girls just wanna have fun" playing in the square.

With nothing else looking particularly interesting we headed to the next area and found a tower with some remarkable glass work from around the world.

 

After this we caught Taiko performances outside.

Afterward we visited a few shops before they closed up and headed home.

The next morning we attended the church service at the house. It was like any church service I've seen in the States, there was singing, a time for prayer, an offering, and then a message. I would have also liked to see the service at the Japanese church, but the house church was having a pot luck so we did not go to the other service, though I did meet several people there that are helpful in realizing my long term goals of working and living in Japan.
Around dinner time we headed home. It had been a long weekend and I was happy to come home and relax quietly in familiar surroundings. Even though the missionary's house had been more western I find myself strangely more comfortable in more Japanese arrangements.
The last thing I wanted to share was a few commercials from Japan, they have some very crazy things here, and I find myself looking forward to commercial breaks as much as the shows I am watching just to see what bizarre means they will use to try and sell me things. The last one is subtitled and is by far the funniest (in my opinion).