Sumo!

As its tournament time now in Tokyo, i finally could witness the best in this traditional style of wrestling. The tournament goes on for two weeks, and takes from early morning until 6pm, when the two Yokozunas (grand champions) have their fights. Of spectators particular interest are of course the major rounds (makuuchi), where the highest ranked compete against each other, from around 4 pm. In fact those guys are not just fat, but incredibly well trained. (Its all muscles, you know...).
As this is thousands of year old practice, it is filled with ritualistic gestures and movements, but those aren't mere decoration. The preparations before the actual fights, with all that throwing of salt, getting in position and then raising again, slapping own bodyparts..., is already a form of engagement. And its possible to estimate who is going to win even before they touched each other. For that it was good to see the minor fights too, because there you see the uncertainties of the contrahents, who don't synchronise that perfectly as do the champions, the later making you think it was only a ceremonial.
Although japanese in tradition, sumo today is rather international, quite a few of the grand wrestlers being of Eastern European origin and the two Yokozunas both being Mongolian.
Watch the clip of one single competition:

And of course there are Fotos as well...

Tonoyaki at Torigoe-Jinja

Somewhat awkward title, i know, but thats how its called. Shops and restaurants all reopened again, but The New Year period lasting for quite some days here in Japan and are followed by various typical acitivites. One i visited is the said Tonoyaki, where New Year decorations are burnt. Additionaly, people hold Omochi into the fire, using long bamboo sticks. Both of it is considered bringing good luck, for the new Year. This custom used to be a rather widespread one, but in Tokyo now it only survived at Torigoe-Jinja.

Omochi is typically eat for new year, it is a small cake made of - Yes! - rice. You hold it into the fire until its starting to turn black. Then you can eat it. I got my own stick, and roasted my own one. The taste was funny!

A more relaxed way of roasting your Omochi
The Dark side of Omochi

Video

Christmas in Tokyo

Christmas is a big thing here. Of course there is no real tradition for it so it is something rather modern and therefore are some funny things to find. Nevertheless, not quite different from the copy and paste food (i will report of later) i am somewhat disappointed because of the decency with which things are put up here all in all. I only heard “Last Christmas” twice. Most of the time You have dimmed down classical music or choruses chanting even very rare themes from my home country like “Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen”.
Yesterday i passed by Roppongi Hills with my love, who is staying in Tokyo at the time, and we stumbled into a Christmas Market, where you can get lots of wooden craft, sausage and kraut, and even sweet hot wine (Glühwein)! Yeah!

Anyway it really is birthday time now, as the Japanese Emperor is celebrating his on the 23rd. We took the rare occasion to enter the area of the Imperial Palace which is closed except for two days of the year and get a glance of the buildings as well as the royal family, showing up on a balcony and addressing the crowd.

Then we went on to nearby Yasukuni shrine, which in fact never has been visited by the present emperor, there we had some soba among ultra nationalists and an assembly of Yakuza, who nevertheless gathered there for that particular day.
All in all exploring Tokyo together with my girlfriend was a very exciting and romantic time. Today we will celebrate Christmas together, and from tomorrow travel to Takayama and Kyoto.






















Merry Christmas to all of You!
Kathi and Christian

Christmas Fotos

Aizu Matsuri - Festival

This is the festival to celebrate the beginning of autumn as well as rice harvest season. During three days there were celebrations all day long of witch i visited the evenening lantern parade and the Bandai dancers as well as the samurai procession the next morning.
In the evening events took place in the towncenter where the main road was blocked for circulation. I came early so to see how things would develop.


First of all, no alcohol anywhere! Instead the sidewalk was rowed with stands offering, diverse specialties, like Tako-Yaki, which is some sort of Knoedel made out of octopus. Look here how its made!
So first came the pupils, who were each carrying a lanteren, then the street was open to the bandai dancers. The most impressing thing wasnt the opulence of costumes, but the sheer mass of performers! I didnt manage to count the children, but I estimated the dancers to be a 1000 at the very least (locals told me it was much more!) So there where nearly as many people involved in the dance, than where standing by watching. Perfomers not only came from diverese clubs engaged in some cultural activity but also from local companies, who seemed to have kindly invited their employees to join the celebration.
What they did, was dancing around a main stand at the central crossing of the road, filling it up from one end to the other (about 1km). They where accompanied by the repeated enchantement of a female voice (which i first thought to be playback), who continued to chant for at least three hours long without pause. A really dionysic feast that was and you could feel a rise of temper just without any alcohol, people on the sidewalk gradually joining the dance as the evening advanced.

The next morning, there was a troop gathering at Tsuruga-Choo. Again there where several hundred people involved, wearing different samurai-costumes. They were welcomed by a assembly of the daimyo and other high rank warriors. During the day, they would make their way from the castle, again through the city center. I only watched the gathering, as I had to catch the train to Niigata, to go on to the three sacred mountains of Dewa Sanzan.

You can find the complete album of the Festival here!