saturday afternoon sumo

Early yesterday evening I returned from my whirlwind weekend trip to Tokyo. On Friday night I took a 9 hour overnight bus from Naruto to Tokyo and, unfortunately, did not catch a bit of sleep on the journey there. Getting on an overnight bus on its last stop can be a pretty strange scene...it felt like I was barging in on some exclusive Japanese nap time. But I rested my eyes and got excited about hanging out with Julia and her Yamagata-ken crew in an amazing city of nearly 28 million people.

My bus arrived in Tokyo at 7:00am and Julia did not get in until four hours later so I used this time to catch some sleep in a random corner of Tokyo Station. Actually, I didn't really plan on taking a nap but I think that my body just knew to rest up before going at it in the big city. As expected, I was shuffled away by police before re-energizing much. Julia's train came in right on time and we grabbed some quick lunch, headed to our hostel, and then to the sumo match. Being in Tokyo for an event like this was just awesome...it all felt so 'Japanese'. I knew nothing about sumo before attending the match but by the end I was schooled on the basics (as a result of sitting by Julia's friend Max) and even caught the gossip about the top seeded wrestlers. The thing that I really enjoyed about the atmosphere is the incredible amount of anticipation that surrounds a match that could potentially last only a few seconds. The wrestlers literally invest their lives in the sport (they aren't even allowed to drive cars!) and some become a few of the biggest celebrities in Japan. Tokyo is not at all close to where I live but experiencing this event was so worth the time/money/lack of sleep that it took to get there just for this weekend.


I have to say that the events of that evening might have been just as memorable. After taking a two hour nap, we all went in separate shifts to eat dinner before catching the subway to the well-known Shibuya district. It was one of those nights where I didn't even take a camera because just wanted to experience it without worrying about documentation (and it's not like it'll be my last time in Tokyo). We arrived at a club called 'Womb' around midnight where a well-known (to some people) German DJ was spinning records. Although I've not seen the movie yet I was told that this club was in the film 'Babel'. Anyway, at this point I think everyone lost track of each others' whereabouts and time as well, but I know that we left around 5:30am (or later?) and I finished the night with some spicy ramen. I finally got to bed at 8:00am and had to be out of the hostel by 11:00am, so the total amount of actual sleep for the weekend was about three hours. I'm glad that Sunday was spent taking trains and buses back to my town because I don't think I was good for much else at that point.

And, just as quickly as I left it, it's back to the weekday routine in Naruto. Life here in the countryside can be so calm but once in a while it's nice to remind myself of how much I enjoy big city life. As for now I'm seeing that life from a considerable distance and, so far, I like it that way.