Day 15 – SUMOS!
The majority of our crew stayed up like the party animals we’re not last night, so our morning was much less crowded than usual. Chris, Sarma, Tim, Drew and myself went off to Tokyo tower this for beautiful views in the morning. We met downstairs at 10 and headed off to Shinjuku station right near home. One thing I’ve noticed about Tokyo that is different to the other cities we’ve experienced, is that their trains are so organised, methodical and frequent, that as long as you catch the right colour train line, you’ll end up where you need to be. Quite useful for the ones who get lost constantly.
Once we got off the train, it was a short walk until we could see the tower. It was different than I imagined it would look. It’s basically an orange and white Eiffel Tower. It has 2 observation decks; you pay entry to get inside the tower and up to the middle deck, and an additional fee for access to the deck at 250 meters. Once we had bought our tickets we headed in where we were greeted by an employee and quickly ushered towards the elevators up. On this floor there’s a 360 degree view of Tokyo. This view was pretty impressive itself, so we were interested in going higher to see everything we could at 250 meters. We explored this floor for a bit, which held a gift shop and plenty of photo opportunities. Plenty of photos were taken.
Once we were satisfied, we lined up to get access to the upper level. 700 yen and 51 steps later, we were in another line waiting for the elevator up to the upper level. That’s another thing about Japan that is majorly different than home – lines. Long long lines, but full of patient people. If Melbournian’s experienced lines as long as we’ve seen, punches would no doubt be thrown! But when we finally got up to the level, the views were amazing. I hate to keep comparing it to back home, but when looking at Tokyo, there is seriously no break in the buildings. The amount of people and buildings they have put into the small amount of space they have is pretty incredible. There is no wasted space. This makes for a city view that is completely different to what i’m used to. Beautiful as well. You could sit up there all day finding unique buildings and interesting landmarks spotted throughout the chaos.
We spent a good amount of time up there doing just that. But once we were done, yet another line for the elevators down. Something unique about this building in particular was that it also includes basically a One Piece theme park! We didn’t have much time in the Tower, so we weren’t able to fit that in, but we made sure that we made time to go through the gift shop… Japan is so good at theming their attractions! Even the store was beautiful! With life sized characters for photo opportunities as well as props that appeared in the series. A very cool place!
Once we were done boring the crap out of Chris and Sarma (who have no interest in anime, at all), we started to make out way out of the tower. Stopping for a bit of lunch before moving forward. We ate at the cafe at the tower and got some brioche sandwiches and something that was listed as pudding, but had ice cream and corn flakes! Rather tasty too! While we were eating we were able to watch a man performing for others at the cafe with balance and juggling tricks. Nothing like a bite to eat with some entertainment right?
We were still pretty early, but we decided that we’d start heading towards the bus terminal for the Sumo tour. It was lucky we left so early in the end, do you reckon we could find the damned thing? We were wandering around for so long searching, that the others actually caught up with us! With Amy there, (Amy to the rescue again), we were able to find where we needed to get to, check in and get our tour stickers and meet our tour guide Michiko. A lovely little lady with, thankfully, very good English! But, as always with a group of 12, we were missing some crew members. Bloody Brad and Alysha! Rob and I made a quick dash out the front to see if we could find them, and after waving them down (lucky I was wearing my new Beemo, bright green, jumper, so they could spot me in the crowd). With the lost now found, we rushed back to join our group just in time to start moving towards the Sumos!
2 trains later and we were there! Michiko gave us a quick history of the Sumo culture and a run down of what they were doing, and what each ritual meant, before we headed into find our seats. When we were on our way to our seats, we got our first taste of a sumo fight! Because a fight was in progress we all had to sit down in the aisle – like the tennis, you’re not allowed to be moving around while a match is happening. It was impressive! And the arena being built how it was, the sounds of the slaps of skin on skin were echoing through the entire place. Kind of fantastic! So as soon as that was done, we were able to move towards out seats. Michiko had written up and given everyone in the group her own version of the program – who was fighting who, and also a little bit about each Sumo, eg weight, age and sometimes a few things more personal like favourite drink, one was afraid of ghosts, where they came from etc. Quite cool really. She also explained the ranks of the Sumos, so we knew which matches were going to be most impressive with the highest ranked guys fighting near the end.
I have to say; Sumo day is right up there with my favourite days so far. I probably got more into it than I should have – must be the Melbourne sporting culture coming out of me (something like that anyway). It’s hard to really describe how awesome it was.
So, it’s now 10.30 and I’m thinking about going to bed – so early for us at the moment! We need all the rest and sleep we can get, particularly with Disney Land tomorrow! Not gonna lie, I’m pretty pumped! Should be a blast!
