Sumo & Enchiladas

The previous Friday was my friend Dan's birthday. I believe he's still in his 20's or some ungodly age like that. Hasn't nearly accrued the wisdom I have at my ripe old age, which I sometimes have to recalculate to remember what it is. So we went to the annual Spring Sumo Basho in Osaka. My friend Craig joined us too. We got to the Osaka prefectural stadium sometime after 1pm to get our tickets. In previous years I had bought the absolute cheapest standing room tickets and then proceeded to find a much nicer (meaning closer to the dohyo) seat. On weekdays the stadium is basically empty until about 5pm when everyone gets off work and you are allowed to sit anywhere until the designated ticket holders show up. Then you've got to shove off. Well being the high rolling types we are, we decided to splurge and buy the second cheapest seats. What a waste! Dan you fool! After being led to our actual seats we never laid eyes on them again. We spent most of the day in a box seat about 10 rows back from the dohyo.
We really lucked out too. While the boxes around us slowly filled up no one came to claim our until the day was just about over. When they finally did come we just moved a few rows back into another empty box. The matches were very fun and (like all sports) nothing compares to seeing it live. You can see the sumo wrestlers walking around the halls when you go to use the washroom or buy yet another beer, and they are certainly big. It's amazing to see how flexible and fast they are. I'm sure one guy won his match via suplex. Craig was a little disappointed that the lone Yokozuna, Asashoryu, won the final match of the day. It's a tradition in sumo that if a Yokozuna (top ranked wrestler) loses to a non-Yokozuna then the audience all throw their cushions into the ring.
On a side note, when we moved into the box seat a little further back we saw a famous gaijin sitting in front of us. Well I don't know if he's famous, but I see his picture in the local magazines all the time. He teaches a Tai-Chi-Chuan martial arts club in Kyoto. Craig saw him and immediately asked me if I could kick his ass with all the training I've done. The answer... absolutely, but I didn't see anything big and heavy laying around that I could use to blind side him with, which would be my preferred strategy. I'm also too nice a guy to beat up everyone he meets for the first time. Although I'm sure I could. Don't you all know that I'm a ninja?!

The top level Rikishi are introduced and enter the dohyo before their matches.

We were sure these 2 guys were brothers. Must be the chops.

A sumo tradition that is better left unspoken. You really don't want to know what the sword is for.

The crowd waits for the final match to begin.

The real stars of the show. Craig & Dan stretch out in a couple of box seats. How they expect 4 big gaijin to squeeze into one of these, even though they haven't paid for them, I don't know.

I thought Sumo guys were supposed to be fat, not tall?

After the sumo we rushed off to Shinsaibashi in Osaka for some Mexican food. We met up with Yukiko and a bunch of Dan's other friends. Now I have to say that in all my years in Japan I have never once had good Mexican food. So I was a little hesitant about this place. It turned out to be great though. Excellent food, big servings and reasonable prices. That's El Pancho in Shinsaibashi! I went for the vegetarian course meal that included a delicious avocado burger. The only thing we weren't happy with were the margueritas. Great taste but almost no alcohol.

The birthday boy. And he's single ladies!

Dan, Abby, Matt, Yukiko, ninja, Kiyo. Must be Craig taking the picture.