日本: Sumo

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Talk about once in a lifetime opportunity. I took my mother to a sumo tournament in Osaka.

In two hours, we saw about 20 bouts. Each rikishi only has one match per day, but the tournament continues for ~14 days. We only watched the Makuuchi Division, and that was enough excitement for one evening. Before each match, the wrestlers are limited to 4 minutes of ceremonies: raising and stomping legs in a squat, staring each other down, and throwing purifying salt. And then, the actual wrestling lasts for about 20 seconds. When the crowd's upset by the outcome of a match, they throw their seat cushions.

It gets pretty intense in the stadium.