Sumo in Hiroshima City

This weekend I had the opportunity to go watch Sumo with Setsuko and her family.

Setsuko has helped me with many many things here in Kurahashi ranging from helping me send money back to the U.S.,  to helping me obtain a skirt for a Halloween costume. She graciously invited me to attend a Sumo event in Hiroshima city.

On Saturday we drove from Kurahashi Island to Hiroshima City which is around an hour car ride. Setsuko and I met her family at her brothers office and headed to an Okonomiyaki (fried batter w/ veggies and sauce) shop. Lately the weather has started to cool down so it was very comfortable in the small shop with the cool breeze coming from outside matched by the warm heat off the large Okonomiyaki cook-top.

Out of curiousity, I asked if the option I chose was large which turned into the table assuming I wanted a large meal so they “gratiously” ordered me a 1.5 order of the Deluxe Okonomiyaki option. It was gigantic.

 After appropriately feeling like a sumo wrestler now, we headed over to the building where the sumo was held. It was very exciting seeing some of the sumo wrestlers only wearing shorts standing outside. Once we walked in, I peaked in the gym and got a glimpse some guys doing sumo in real life. We walked past the gym and into the changing and preparation room where Setsuko’s family member would be getting dressed to be the judge for the sumo matches.

It was unreal seeing so many giant guys in a one room and it was oodly quite. We were informed that it was “nap time” for many of them because many had just eaten and they try to sleep after eating to gain weight. 

It was funny how strikingly opposite the Sumo wrestlers were from you typical Japanese person. Instead of a short and super skinny person, they were mostly all taller than me and quite a bit larger J

lots of naked sumo dudes

As we quietly sat in the room, Setsuko and I we all looking around excitingly watching the Sumo wrestlers. 

Many were sleeping on their stomachs and some were on their cellphones. It was kind of ironic to see the traditional Sumo guys on their using a cellphone.  Quite the interesting clash of traditional Japanese sport and modern technology.

We were sitting on tatami mats and a very large man was napping next to us. Snapped a few photos of him.

Setsuko's family let me hold the judge stick that they use during the sumo matches!

 After watching Setsuko’s family member dress up in his formal judge Kimono, we went to the sumo auditorium where they were actually wrestling. It was fun to see such big bodies slap into each other and every time before this would happen my adrenaline would rush before they collided. 

Since Setsuko’s family was a traveling judge for Sumo, he knew many of the guys and introduced us and let us take pictures w/ many of them. How lucky we were!

 After watching the wrestling for a few hours and taking more pics with some of the champions, we got to watch them pack up their belongings quickly and carry their big ancient looking suitcases to a semi that would transport their luggage to the next location. Watched them all load up on the bus and as they pulled away on 4-5 coach buses, the Sumo wrestlers were waving out the windows to us. Pretty funny to think about  now. 

I’m very grateful for this special opportunity and want to try Sumo’ing sometime!