The Plan
- 9/17 – Sumo Tournament
- 1 PM heading to a walking tour before Sumo tournament
- Sitting with a few people in the box seats watching and enjoying Sumo
- They’re gonna provide a cheering banner and I plan on using it haha
- 5 PM dinner with the tour group
- Post Dinner – Off to izekayas haha
The Reality
- 9/17 – Sumo Tournament
- Get up early, get lunch
- Thoroughly embarrassed myself at my first ticket based ramen restaurant
- 1 PM heading to a walking tour before Sumo tournament
- Sitting with a few people in the nosebleed seats watching and enjoying Sumo
- They’re gonna provide a cheering banner and I plan on using it haha
- 5 PM dinner with the tour group
- There were 3 of us
- Post Dinner – Off to izekayas haha
- Missing the last train is absolute hell
- Sitting with a few people in the nosebleed seats watching and enjoying Sumo
- Get up early, get lunch
Please help me Oshi no Ko-Chan!
I swear to God I’ll never get a good night’s sleep. I left this crack in between my curtains and it’s like the sun found this direct laser beam to my face and woke me up. I also had a bunch of nightmares, which is me trying to work out my anxiety. Whatever. Prepping for sumo. 🙂
Laughing at yourself brings one closer to God
I woke up early to get stuff done and ended up working on blog stuff. Then I went to the meeting spot a bit early, decided to grab lunch at a nearby ramen shop on my own. I’ve never done the ticket system and I was like a fish out of water. I ordered a large（大きい） portion of Soba (mistake #1, it was a metric TON) and then didn’t know what to do with the ticket. They assisted me by taking the ticket and guiding me to the seat so I don’t look like a total fool, then delivered the food and I was flabbergasted by the amount. I was like, “Oh no, I have to eat all this so I don’t look stupid for ordering so much. Food waste is the worst.” So I grab the soba and immediately drop like 10% of it because it slid off the plate on to the floor. I picked up the noodles and was like “SUMIMASEN, HAZUKASHII ;_;” and some absolutely based salary man helped me by getting some tissues and grabbing it then giving it to the staff to throw out. I thanked him profusely as he probably thought to himself how effing stupid I am, then I proceeded to struggle to figure out how to eat it all. I was incredibly embarrassed. I can never show my face in this city of 14 million people ever again. Oh not to mention I dropped it on my shorts so now they’re like, covered in starch and it’s like 40 minutes from the meeting time so I don’t have time to get a fresh pair. So instead I go to 7Eleven and get a water, go into the bathroom and try to fix it. Come out looking like I pissed myself and find a spot far away from public view where I can hide my shame until it dries… Great start to my day lmao.
Sumo Tour then Tournament
Eventually things dry out and I get to the meeting spot. The tour guide was great and I had a really good time talking to him. He was a veteran who was stationed many places and does the Sumo tour as a guide through a company in his spare time. He was awesome. We walked to the sumo stable, which is kinda like, just a house, but it was closed so we couldn’t see the Doyo (sacred sumo ring) but the stable owner came out and got into a taxi to head to the tournament while we were standing outside near the Fundoshi. Sumo’s fundoshi is called Mawashi. They hang them out to dry outside next to the stable, and it’s a lucky sign. There is a nearby sumo shrine that is said to keep the soul of the first Sumo, and contains engravings of all the names of the 73 Yokozuna (Grand Champion) who have existed since the dawn of recorded Sumo.
After the walking tour and some really cool history, we get to the Sumo tourney. There’s a TON of people and we’re summarily shuffled along, interrupting Kenji-san trying to give us history lessons on all the wall paintings. It was a little tough. So then we get to our seats and fortunately I’m seated right next to Kenji-san. He and I are speaking a bit, and I’m using some Japanese reading the sumo names. My favorite was 白熊 (Polar Bear [lit. “White Bear”]). The one we were all rooting for was 大の里 (Onosato) who is extremely popular as an up and coming sumo. The crowds were so good. The children and the women yelling was so wild lol. You can hear them yelling “ONOSATOOOO” and like it was so awesome. What a great time! One thing I found is that a lot of people don’t root for the underdog and just root for the person with the most wins. I just kept rooting for the underdogs. Some of the sumo were like 1-8 and it was tough to see them lose. 🙁
Kenji-san said, “You are very smart and your Japanese is good. What are you doing for work?” And I was like, “uhh I’m unemployed right now” and he was like “HONTO NI?” It made me realize unemployment is a bit shameful, especially to a veteran.
Chankonabe Dinner
I opted for the Chankonabe dinner package expecting most of the tour group to be doing that. They weren’t. It’s too bad because I was getting along with most of them but then one guy dipped and the other two had arrived late so I didn’t even get to speak with them much until dinner. Then we got separated and mixed in with the several other tour groups to sit at random tables for dinner lol. Kenji-san didn’t even join us. It was a bit disappointing. I am not sure how to feel about chankonabe either. I felt like the stew didn’t really cook the chicken enough and I was confused as to what goes in the pot and what doesn’t and all in all it was slightly underwhelming for the extra price. I was assuming I’d have access to Kenji-san for more sumo questions during that time.
All said and done, it was still a great experience.
Deathmatch in Hell
After the Sumo I decided I should get going to the bars to hang out with some friends I was talking to on Discord. Turns out people jam their schedules too full. I get it, I do too lmao. I went to Deathmatch in Hell and hung out there, talked with the owner a bit. His favorite film is Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Waited for my friend for a while, didn’t hear back from them for like… ever… so I had 4 beers and made chat with people in the bar. Met a couple from Vancouver who were really nice. They weren’t into horror movies though so it was a bit weird they’d be in that bar lol. But then a bunch of Aussies came in and I was chatting with them about hardcore and metal until I moved on to Godz again. Texted a different friend. He and I were supposed to meet up after sumo and he’s like, “I’m at a jazz bar.” I was like, “oh well I’m supposed to meet this other dude to hang so I can’t join you there.” Spoiler: I ended up by myself again just randomly talking to strangers. Met some cool people though. There’s a Black Metal festival called Mess de Mort in Canada this November. Might be sick. Mayhem is playing and the dude was like, “Yeah it’s ALL black metal, they don’t mess around”.
After that I ended up talking to some random Russian guy at the bar. To be honest, it’s kind of nice to just be alone and go up to random people and start conversation. It’s so far out of my comfort zone lol. Was a lot of fun though. He told me that he’s on student visa going to school to learn Japanese. That actually might be an option and I’m going to seriously look into it. Paying like $1000 a month for rent, $500 for school and then actually learning Japanese and being in the area would be awesome. I’m actually enjoying the city a lot more than I thought I would. And it’s not just because I’m out partying all the time. I just enjoy the convenience of transportation, the quality of everything over here and the care that everyone puts into everything. It’s so much better than the west where everything is just an exploitative corporate hellscape. While I’m romanticizing it a bit, I do understand there are downsides to living here.
Anyway, I’m off to the cat festival today so I’ll see you all tomorrow!
