Funny thing - when we lived in mainland Japan, we never went to see a Sumo match! We talked about it, but it never came to fruition. We were able to visit the famous training arena in Tokyo and got our picture with a few rambling sumo wrestlers, but that doesn't count as actually attending a Sumo event itself.
All that to say, the minute our friends Drucie and Jose told us about the opportunity to see a Sumo Expo here in Okinawa, we jumped on the chance to say "yes"!!
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| We drove into Naha bright and early in the morning to be there for the opening events. This wasn't an official Sumo match, rather it was more a practice tournament and show. |
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| The day began with a lot of warming up with practice matches. Watching them stretch and squat as they waited for their rotation never got old, LOL! And notice the squares on the mat? Those were reserved seats. |
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| Oomph! Grrrrr! |
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| These guys are huge yet so flexible! |
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| I warned you about the butts ;-) |
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There were many different ceremonies and and shows in between actual Sumo wrestling. We couldn't understand a word, but were still able to follow along enough and really found ourselves enjoying the festivities.
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| We took a break to go outside the arena to get some food from the street vendors and got a little distracted... |
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| This was my favorite part by FAR. All different age groups of aspiring Sumo wrestlers took their chances against the pros! |
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| It was soooooo hilarious to watch these super trained, professional Sumo wrestlers fight these kids! |
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| We even got to observe the technique involved in getting a Sumo wrestler's hair just right (lots and lots of gel!) It looked REALLY painful with all of the tugging and pulling... |
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| It definitely got crowded! |
Thank you SO much, Drucie and Jose, for such a memorable excursion last December! We can now cross Sumo off our list :)
