OSAKA GRAND SUMO TOURNAMENT

17 de Març, 2007

This weekend we went to Osaka to see the Grand Sumo Tournament !!!!! It has been amazing !!!!

Sumo is a sport were two fighters (rikishi) fight inside a circle, it is original from Japan, it is religious and it is considered as a marial art.

Every year there are 6 Grand Sumo Tournament in Japan. Three of them are in Tokyo, one in Nagoya, another one in Kyushu and one in Osaka (where we went).

Here some pictures from the entrance:

Look how big are the guys behind me !!!!!

The first thing we saw when we came into the place was........... No comments....

The tournament starts early in the morning, but the first combats are not very important. There are several rankings, and they start with the lowest ones. After 3 pm start the important ones, and with the BIG FAT guys. We arrived there at 1 pm, and there was not so many people, but it got crowd quite fast !!!!!

We like very much the seating place .... We bought a box, that consists in a square with four pillows for four people.........

We share it with Iddya and Orlando.

Every sumo fight it takes just a few seconds, what it takes more time is all the ritual they make before every fight.

The rules are easy:

- The first who touch the floor with his body, except the feet lose.
- The first one that touch outside of the circle lose.
- Who use il·legal technics lose.
- If during the fight one gets naked he lose.

This are some friends who came with us.

Here is the beginning of the last fights, with the fighers with best ranking, they are really the authentic BIG FAT GUYS!!!!

At that time it was already crowded !!!!!

Before we left David wanted to take a picture with the most famous ones!!!! jejeje.....

If you want to know more about sumo, you can check this web:

http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/