Dinner with Sumo Wrestlers

Wednesday I pretty much hung out around the house getting caught up on some sleep, but that evening my host mother took me down to Osaka to see a friend of hers that owned a temple that housed a sumo stable. I’m not exactly certain what the arrangement there is, but Sumo is currently having a tournament in Osaka, so there was a group of Sumo wrestlers staying on the grounds. The main guy there is a graduate of the same school that I’m currently studying at here, and was very nice, especially since he’d one his match that day. When we got to the stable, we sat down on the floor around low, circular tables on which were laid out a variety of cold dishes such as pickled plums, this tasty spaghetti salad, and marinated squid. The place setting included a rather large rice bowl and a smaller bowl that they put ‘nabe,’ (nah-beh) a sort of Japanese soup with chicken, clams, cabbage and other things. I was a little surprised when, instead of filling the larger bowl with rice, they offered to fill it with beer. Apparently, when dinning with Sumo wrestlers you drink out of rice bowls instead of glasses or sake cups. I decided on some sake, though only a little to start off with. The people at our table were very nice, though a little tipsy already when we got there, and the main Sumo guy was kind enough to pose for a picture with me. When drinking with friends here, it is customary to fill each other’s glasses, which meant that it was a little difficult for me to stop people from refilling my rice bowl. We were served the whole time by younger Sumo wrestlers that I took to be junior stable members. All of them seemed rather young, though all of them were, naturally, several times my size.
-Apparently women aren’t allowed into the Sumo ring. I’m sure that this is because Sumo originated as a Shinto ceremony.
-Sumo wrestlers are much bigger in real life than they look on TV
-When a top-ranked wrestler looses a match the front several rows of people throw the cushions that they are sitting on into the ring.
-To advertise at Sumo matches, they have people walk around the ring holding up cloth signs during breaks between matches.