Yukie took me to see the Sumo grand tournament in Osaka and I must admit that it is a strange and wonderful sport. In a county of skinny people, they find the fattest, chuck them into a ring with only a small lyon cloth on and make them jump on top of each other. I used to watch it on the telie box, but seeing it live is no comparison. The crowd were lively, shouting out the names of their heros and ohhing and ahhhing at each bout. It’s a sport filled with tradition and there is a lot of fan fair leading up to the bout that last about 10-60 seconds long. When they stamp their legs on the ground it is to drive out any evil in the dohyo. Each player fights each other once in a round robin that lasts 15 days and the winner is the person with the most wins. Even though he lost, I was still excited to see Kytooshu, my favorite sumo perform. I also got to see a great performance by Asashoryu, the reining champion, currently undefeated in this tournament.
After dinner saw us dinning at a organic restaurant and I started to ponder the differences between Tokyo and Osaka. From the outset, they look pretty much the same, but I knew I’d be native to suggest they were. It wasn’t until halfway through my organic dinner that I realized, I was eating an organic dinner!! A perfect example of the difference in attitude of the two largest cities.
Arriving at the station saw Yukie visibly shocked. My poor knowledge of Kanji and a method of deduction made me realize that we’d missed out last Shinkensen back to Tokyo. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but considering my flight was at 11am, you're meant to be there 2 hours before and it takes 2 hours to get to the airport we were kinda screwed. The morning train was booked and everything was starting to close, so hiring a car was out of the question. A frantic call to Australia to get Dad and Fiona onto the case and we finally found a overnight bus in the nick if time. So now it will take 8 hours in the bus, to do what wold have taken 2:30 hours on the train. Never mind, as long as it gets me onto the plane and then FRANCE here we come!!
Until next time "Matta Ne"
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