Days 8 & 9: Nagoya, Tokyo, Shibuya

Resting masterfully at the intersection of sport, ritual, and mass, sumo wrestling is entertainment at its finest. 

Two featherweights prepare to duel

Tournaments last 14 days with rookies squaring off in the mornings and the vets going later in the day. 

The Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium  was relatively empty when we arrived for the low-rank matches at 11am. We moved from our back row seats up to a set of four floor cushions that constituted ring-side box seats. From there we had quite the view of the wrestlers squashing into each other. It was awesome. We only half understood what was going on but between the cushion seating, noodles from the concession stand, and gnarly takedowns, it was an afternoon that couldn't be beat. 

Some big boys 

Afterwards we checked into our hostel in Tokyo, a run-down white building in the middle of nowhere. Inside the smelly entrance, an ugly smattering of men was making grunting noises and Dickie was headed to the couch to pass out. Tau Epsilon Phi, it appeared, was solvent and thriving. 

The beds made no sense. They were large cupboards that held a single mattress. 

Dick was wary of the fact that the lock was on the outside. We were sitting ducks for any deranged backpacker who wanted to lock us in our capsules. For safety's sake, we ran a couple of lock-in simulations before going to bed, but Dick was never able to escape. 

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Anyways, that's about it from Japan, folks. Tomorrow we'll so a little shopping in the Shibuya district before shipping back home to New York. Thanks to everyone for following along -- we'll try to do better next time!

 People are sometimes used as horses in Japan. Neat!