Tokoyo

Traditionally, when we start with a trip leader, there is a welcome briefing, but our guide didn’t schedule one. Just meet at the bus at 9:30 to go see a former sumo wrestler, Kotootori Yoshifumi, and learn about sumo.

Sumo takes place in an approximately 15 ft circle. The object is to push the opponent out or get him to touch the ground with a part of the body other than the soles of his feet. The average match duration is 7 seconds, the maximum duration is 4 minutes, with a water break and then another 4 minutes.

There are around 600 pro sumo wrestlers, high ranking wrestlers can earn the equivalent of $7500 USD per month. Earnings fall off quickly, there are 7 levels and the bottom five levels don’t get a salary, but do get room and board.

Kotootori started at age 12 and from age 15 to 35 he was a professional sumo wrestler in a sumo stable and lived in the dormitory. Training started 6 am and finished around 11 am. Two meals a day, lunch and dinner. Between lunch and dinner a wrestler often ate nearly 10,000 calories a day. Chanko hotpot is a common meal for wrestlers. He weighed 310 lbs when he retired 7 years ago, is down to 250 lbs now. He made it into the top 100 wrestlers, but not into the top two levels. Kotootori retired seven years ago at age 35 and now gives sumo experiences for travelers.

Kotootori showed us some sumo practice moves, the stomping and the low centered walk.

The studio where we met Kotoohtori is near the main Sumo Wrestling hall in Tokoyo. There were matches today and the flags of the various wrestlers were out. There are also small statues of famous wrestlers along the walk.

After lunch, we headed to the Bonsai garden. The Bonsai master greeted us briefly, but the majority of the tour was conducted by one of his students from Puerto Rico, who spoke excellent English. He got interested in bonsai at a young age, applied to come learn here in Japan and was accepted.

The trees here were mostly collected from mountains in Japan, and then are worked on here for years before it can be sold. Some of the trees we saw here are 700+ years old and sell for nearly $500,000 USD (free shipping included.)

We skipped our guide’s late afternoon tour of one of the local shops, Don Quijote a large discount store. The aisles are very narrow and the store is very crowded. The store a block from the hotel is open 24/7, so it’s possible to go look around anytime.

We elected to go to the bookstore in the nearby mall and look for English language manga. They had a good selection of series to choose from.

We went to a restaurant on the 46th floor of a building overlooking the river for dinner. As we were finishing dinner, there were fireworks set off over the river.