We said goodbye to Hisashi’s family this morning. They were all so lovely and hospitable with us that it was sad to say goodbye.
before we left, Ya-San gave us another incredibly generous gift. He gave me a matching set of black pearl earrings to give to Michele to complete her set. He said that he had them in his shop. He runs a pawn shop. I could not believe his generosity.
We are sad but also very excited to go to Nagoya today to enjoy sumo!
We arrived in Nagoya in time to take a taxi to the sumo gymnasium which is adjacent to “Central Park” and Nagoya Castle.
We had time to take a peek at Nagoya Castle and to make it to the sumo match to see the last two levels of the sumo championship. The tournament had been going on for fifteen days.
Hisashi got us tickets for a very nice “box seat” which was a square with four cushions on the floor. We bought some snacks and some beer and settled in for some sumo!
Sumo is incredible. The atmosphere is laid back but the event is very serious. Sumo is partially a religious ceremony and partially a sport.
The ring has a “shrine” suspended over it. The large tassels hanging down denote the Cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) respectively black, red, white, and green.
Each bout is very ceremonial and the wrestling is spectacular but it is only a part of the whole.
Owen, Hisashi, and I enjoyed about five hours of championship sumo including the award ceremonies and we loved every minute.
It was the perfect way to end a perfect vacation with my great friend.
I will always remember sumo.