Sumo in Nagoya
This past weekend we headed to Nagoya to see a Sumo tournament. We traveled on Japan's fastest train, a Nozomi Shinkansen, and made the trip from Tokyo in about 90 minutes. On Saturday, we head North to Inuyama and visited the oldest castle in Japan. While it was pretty modest compared with castles in Britain or Europe, the commanding view and the river access must have made it a mighty fortress.
Megan sits and looks out of a fourth floor window of Inuyama Castle.
Doug poses on the roof of the castle.
We headed to Inuyama to see cormorant fishing. The fishermen light a fire that hangs over the side of their boat. The fish are then attracted to the flame and the ten trained cormorants catch the fish. The fisherman control the birds using leashes that prevents them from swallowing the fish. The bird is plucked from the river and the fish is removed from the bird's mouth.
The fisherman and his team of cormorants are looking for some not-so-tasty river fish.
The main event in Nagoya was the annual Sumo tournament (Honbasho). There are six such tournaments nationwide throughout the year. We went on the opening day. Early in the afternoon, we were able to sit in the front row and watch the wrestlers up close and personal. We didn't have anyone with us to explain what exactly was going on, but the rules seemed kind of simple. If you fell down or touch the ground outside of the ring, you lost. It would have been nice to have some explanation of all the ceremonial happenings, but I guess that is why we have wikipedia. To this end, I am afraid that our descriptions below might not be all that accurate.
Here are a couple of pictures and videos from our experience.
The sum wrestlers are introduced before the fighting begins.
The sumo wrestlers are called to the ring by some aspiring
male vocalists .
As the day moved on, there were more and more 'pre-fight hype' for lack of a better expression. The most common movement was the leg lift.
The sumo wrestlers prepare for the "go" command from the referee. When the command is issued, they explode at one another. This sometimes resembles a slapping fight, but usually involves a hold or a push until one gets pushed out of ring or turned onto the ground.
There is nothing quite like two giants sumo wrestlers falling off the stage.
Megan sits and looks out of a fourth floor window of Inuyama Castle.
Doug poses on the roof of the castle.We headed to Inuyama to see cormorant fishing. The fishermen light a fire that hangs over the side of their boat. The fish are then attracted to the flame and the ten trained cormorants catch the fish. The fisherman control the birds using leashes that prevents them from swallowing the fish. The bird is plucked from the river and the fish is removed from the bird's mouth.
The fisherman and his team of cormorants are looking for some not-so-tasty river fish.The main event in Nagoya was the annual Sumo tournament (Honbasho). There are six such tournaments nationwide throughout the year. We went on the opening day. Early in the afternoon, we were able to sit in the front row and watch the wrestlers up close and personal. We didn't have anyone with us to explain what exactly was going on, but the rules seemed kind of simple. If you fell down or touch the ground outside of the ring, you lost. It would have been nice to have some explanation of all the ceremonial happenings, but I guess that is why we have wikipedia. To this end, I am afraid that our descriptions below might not be all that accurate.
Here are a couple of pictures and videos from our experience.
The sum wrestlers are introduced before the fighting begins.The sumo wrestlers are called to the ring by some aspiring
male vocalists .
As the day moved on, there were more and more 'pre-fight hype' for lack of a better expression. The most common movement was the leg lift. 
The sumo wrestlers prepare for the "go" command from the referee. When the command is issued, they explode at one another. This sometimes resembles a slapping fight, but usually involves a hold or a push until one gets pushed out of ring or turned onto the ground. There is nothing quite like two giants sumo wrestlers falling off the stage.
posted by Turnbull at 4:30 PM
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