A Big Day in Nagoya

I went to the Grand Sumo Tournament today.

One of my students asked if I wanted to go and of course I jumped at the chance. In the days leading up to the event, I was thinking, "it's sumo, it has to be awesome. Though it might just be awesome because I get to say that I went to a sumo tournament in Japan. In actuality it will probably be boring once I get past the idea of giant dudes in diapers."

Well, as it turns out, it really was awesome.

When we first arrived, a match-up between a classic Japanese sumo guy and a little white dude was about to take place. What could be better than that? Now don't get me wrong, the little guy was ripped, but he couldn't have weighed much more than 200 lbs.

So they start going at it and the little guy gets pushed back to the edge of the ring, feet pressed up against the raised circle that he cannot step out of. (Yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition.) He struggles to bring the fight back to the center of the ring, only to be swiftly pushed back against the other side. At this point he's teetering, about to fall flat on his back with a 400 pound dude on top of him. The suddenly in a last ditch effort, he hip-tosses the big guy. They both go flying, not just out of the circle, but clearing the entire platform. The big guy landed first so the little dude won, much to the delight and amusement of the entire crowd.

This is not an exaggeration.

Later on this guy showed up—the biggest dude in the place. I had to take some video:

I also got some video of this other guy who everyone loved because he acted like a WWE star. I lost the video somehow.

In the end I walked away with tons of sweet sumo gear and huge memories. Well worth the $50 ticket.

Enjoy this likely unrelated quote:

"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?"

—Carl Sagen