SUMO

Guess what I did yesterdaaaaaay?
If you guessed 'win a trophy for "Procrastinator of the year" ' well.....close but nope.

This:

 SUMO

All the Oregon students went to the "Ryogoku-Kokugikan" today- for the finale of the Sumo Tournament. It was SOOO much fun.

The main bouts started at 3:30 but Dorothy and I got there early to take some photos of the sumo-san entering the building, and walk around the arena a bit. 

Outside, the names of the sumo-san on flags. 

Sumo entering the building...you can be all "name-san GANBARRE!" (good luck!)

Me and Dorothy near the main entrance

A little side area for, well I don't know what....But it was pretty!

Then we went and ate this soup, "The Special Chanko" which is eaten by sumo wrestlers in vast quantities to help them gain weight. 

We also got ice cream! .....twice.....

It's like a chocolate bar...only filled with ice cream!

Let it be known me and Doro will never turn down soft serve....

And this is a side note...but I've encountered these type of  sinks twice in Japan now and I think they are the coolest thing ever....The middle is the water, left is soap, then right is air. All automatic in the sink!...COOL HUH (I'm a dork)

Oregon kids!

Anyway, then the Sumo main bouts started:

The Arena 

The sumo wrestlers come out in their ceremonial aprons (kesho-mowashi)

Then the bouts begin! 

Throwing salt into the ring before entering it:

The wrestlers throw salt in the area as they prepare for their bout to purify the ring as a sacred place. Also, the above picture...the stamping (leg lifting high in the air then onto the ground) is supposed to be to squash the bad spirits. You will also see them sipping water in their corners, to purify their bodies. All religious rituals..

and GO

Boom! In Sumo you beat the other wrestler by either getting them out of the ring, or getting them on the ground.

Here's a video of one of the bouts. It was the last one of the night- I was saying "throw the cushions"..because if the expected winner loses the bout, the people on the floor will throw their cushions at him. Well the expected winner did win...but dang! I wanted to see cushion throwing! (Sometimes people will do it regardless and throw them at the loser) haha

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Here's a few more photos from the day...I did a mini-photoshoot with Dorothy (working on my photography skills!!!)

More photos on her blog later.

And then, walking back to the train station......we saw this:

...PACMAN WHYY?

Last but not least....until next time.

Imma stop procrastinating for finals now....time to study