From Cooking to Sumo:Claire has arrived!

I’m late... for a very important date (argh). Day One.
Claire arrived on Friday afternoon. I sent her a bus ticket a few weeks ago, and was supposed to meet her at the bus stop in Kobe. With a reputation for arriving fashionably late, I decided to arrive early to ensure I would be there as my friend stepped off the bus and into the land of Japan for the first time. Well, I ran into my friends (on their way to dinner) on the train and one of them came with me to wait for the bus. We have been experiencing a cold front lately, and after a while, we decided to run to the local 100 Yen Store to buy some gloves quickly. And of course Claire arrived while we were gone! We pretty much went back to my place and dropped off the luggage right away, before going to a local restaurant for udon, Japanese thick-noodle soup, with my friends Jonathan and Ben. Unfortunately, Claire was ready to drop after her 23-hour trip, so I think it was pushing it a bit; she was pretty happy to fall into my western-style bed and call it a day. As for the time issue, though, I swear…I shouldn’t even try. As for the meal, I think I’m just going to schedule in some quality down-time on the first night whenever I have guests. Pushing it or going out just doesn’t cut it. But I am really excited to have Claire here!
Jetlag
Despite the hang-ups on the first evening, Claire and I have since had an absolutely amazing time! The plan for Saturday (the first full day) was to attend a Caribbean cooking class my friend Kelly was teaching, go to Sumo in Osaka with some other friends, and then go out for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations (or at least some green beer) in Osaka that night. Well, the cooking class was really fun (and delicious) and Claire blended well with the Japanese housewives, but Sumo was completed booked by the time our friends made it to the box office to pick up tickets on Saturday morning. We changed plans and decided to head to Osaka anyways with the intention of grabbing some dinner and hitting the bars, but once we found a good place to eat (everything in Umeda was packed!), Claire was pretty wiped so we decided to forego the bar and just head home. I actually didn’t mind at all, though. Our group was wearing green, we were in good company, and the beer I had with our yakitori was quality, so I should say I celebrated St.Patty’s appropriately.
The Sumo Tournament
On Sunday morning, my darling friend Lena was kind enough to go to Osaka early and get tickets to the big Sumo tourney for Kelly, Claire and I, so that we could sleep in. There are six Grand Sumo tournaments every year, but only once in Osaka, and it runs from 9-18:00 for 5 days each March. We arrived at the venue in Namba in the afternoon, just in time to witness the traditional dohyo-iri ceremony, a rite where the top wrestler does a sort of dance with his sword-bearer and attendant and a ref (which looks kind of like a priest). We ended up getting the 2,000 Yen ($18) bleacher seats, which turned out to be closer to the sumo ring than some of the really expensive seats (in a relatively small arena). The 4-person box seats that we had originally planned to order also turned out to be a small (and slightly cramped) area with cushions on Japanese tatami (bamboo/grass floors), enclosed with metal railings, resembling garden markers, so I think we got the good end of the deal. I have heard rumors from multiple people that sumo can be extremely boring to watch, which was part of the reason why we opted to only attend the afternoon matches (with higher-ranking wrestlers). We quickly discovered, however, how exciting wrestling can be. The first and most obvious reason is that it can be extremely exciting by the sheer fact that it diverges greatly from anything we have in my culture, not to mention the fact that it is an extremely suspenseful, fast and easy-to-follow sport for someone who does not regularly follow sports.
Tournament Highlights
Some of the highlights of the Grand Sumo Tournament for us were:
*The opening ceremony where they introduce each wrestler in their ceremonial aprons;
*Wrestlers being thrust out of the ring by their opponent, sometimes unapologetically knocking over the first row of spectators as if they were bowling pins;
*The groups of jester-like men that would run around the ring between matches carrying giant, colorful scrolls with advertisements on them;
*Stellar performances by Kotooshu Katsunori, the bulgarian-born sumo wrestler, currently an Ouzeki-rank (the second highest), and the ‘David Beckham’ of Sumo;
*Running into the (truly massive) sumo wrestlers (celebrities in Japan) at the station, on the street, and in the hallways around the stadium (I even spoke with and got a picture with one!);
*And the yumitori-shiki (ceremonial bow dance – kind of like a baton show) at the end of the day.
It’s really quite striking when you realize this ancient sport (dating back 1500 years) has changed relatively little in form since the Nara period (8th Century), this giving us the rare opportunity to witness – if not experience – history. Definitely an amazing day, a great experience, and one of my coolest Japanese experiences yet!

More on Sumo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo
More on Kotooshu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB_Katsunori