Day 9. Tsukiji Fish Market fail. Sumo Win.

Day 9. (Warning: Lots of pictures in this one).

The night before, Chris, Estelle, and I decided we wanted to go see the Tuna auction at Tsukiji Fish Market. We knew we had to get there a little after 4am to get a spot in on the 5am group. Chris checked the website and the last day of the closed season had been yesterday. Our alarms woke us at about 3:45, and we got ready and walked to the station.
..where we discovered that the first direct train was at 5:15. This wasn't going to make it in time so we took a short trip to the next station and caught a subway line to the nearest stop. This worked out quite well and we made it to the market at around 4:30.
..where there was no-one. A lone restaurant hand was out in the street handing out flyers and when we mentioned we were looking to get to the market he explained that it isn't open on Sunday. Someone should probably put that on the website somewhere.
With no auction, and a market that opened in about 4 hours, there was only one thing left to do.
Eat sushi.
We didn't like the look of the flyer guy's place so we looked around for somewhere that had some light and other people inside. We soon found Tsukiji Sushi Sen.

https://maps.google.com.au/maps/place?q=35.664204,139.771051&hl=en&ftid=0x60188bd8c48e947b:0xdabf523245ab4925
(on the left of street view)

I'm pretty sure this was the exact same place we had been on our last trip to Japan. It was still pretty early but I don't think any of us cared. We just wanted something to dull the pain on having to get up so early for nothing.
Thankfully, the sushi was delicious and fairly cheap. I got a large platter on special for less than $20 and the fish was really fresh. I got small bowl of miso with mine which did wonders to wash away the cold from the morning air.
After the meal we took some happy snaps of us in the wooden face portrait thingy out the front and made our way back to the hotel.

 I also came across this awesome poster in the train station.

We headed back to the hotel to see if we could get some sleep before heading to Sumo Wrestling that afternoon. Some of us managed to get some shut-eye. Others were not so lucky.








 The Sumo Stadium is actually located centraly in between the Skytree, the Fish Market, and Akihabara, just north of Ryogoku station right on the river.

A number or restaurants line the path from the station to the stadium, all suitably themed with their visitor-friendly spectacles.

The stadium itself is surrounded by a large wall, presumably to keep the riff-raff out. Even the ticket checkers at the gate were huge and we speculated they may be apprentice sumo or retired wrestlers who still keep in touch with the sport.

A number of flags representing what I can only guess to be representative of teams or training houses were visible on most walltops around the outer wall.

 Once inside, we could see the murals on all the walls of the inner building depicting scenes of sumo.

 It all added to the atmosphere.

The courtyard funneled into a long main entrance peppered with life-size standees of popular 'rikishi'.
This guy was one of our favourites because he was so not-asian looking, and we had seen him (lose) on the hotel TV a few days before.

 Each sumo had a custom design on their 'kesho-mawashi'.

 I especially like this one depicting a hello kitty with a tiger hat, in front of a backdrop of a Shenron-esque (from DragonballZ) dragon.

 Directly facing the entrance is a large display area showing multitudes of trophies and sumo loot. Nowhere was it more apparent that I needed a circular polarizer on the front of my camera lens.

We picked up a map of the stadium and a few other info pamphlets and decided to check out where our seats were. Apart from the main ring, the audience seating area was quite dimly lit but this actually meant that we could focus on the fights without getting distracted, even all the way up the back where we were sitting. Thank god for telephoto zooms.

All around the roofline are pictures of sumo. I'm guessing they are the champions from previous years.

 The roof itself is quite high.

At about midday, the minor matches had just started and not many people were in attendance yet.
 

We were also getting a bit hungry so we wondered around to see what there was to eat. In one of the pamphlets it mentioned a dining room where you could eat the same thing a sumo eats, so we headed down to the basement level and found the place serving Chanko-nabe. A kind of soup high in calories but also full of good healthy ingredients.

 

 For a token fee, we got a bowl of some really nice tasting soup. Normally it has fish in it and possibly more noodles but the version we ate was more based on chicken or pork with less noodles. I just wished they had turned the heating down because I was sweating during the meal. (that's not me in the photo BTW).

With such a rich diet in quantities about 10 to 15 times as big as our serving, it's surprising that not all rikishi are gigantic, but one non-japanese contender in the lower tier appeared to be bucking the trend.

 And after getting smashed around the ring..

 ..was able to win the match in the end.

 It wasn't all Chankonabe in the statium though, and pretty soon, all the excitement got me hungry again. We found a food stall a bit closer on our level, and picked up some essentials. Beer and yakitori. There was also a lot of other food on offer.

 After checking the form and the lineup, a few (actually most) of us thought we'd make the day a little more interesting and put a tip on for the day's matches.

 Sadly, I came last but at least that got me my 500 yen back. Chris came out the winner and reluctantly promised us all a beer, which made my total of 3 beers owed to him from random on the spot punts drop to 2 beers, which was slightly less painful.
Once the second tier matches began the seats began to fill up and pretty soon the place was packed.
For a first time live sumo spectator the action was riveting. So much so that I forgot to press the shutter at the critical moments because I didn't want the viewfinder to blackout for even a split second.
From the ritual bowing and psychological warware before the match..

.. the salt being thrown in the ring..

 ..To the 'smack' of bodies after the ref yells 'HAJIME' and the despair as someone hits the floor or steps outside the ring.

Even the passing of water to the loser to 'drink for the n00b cup' as someone put it.

 Everything about sumo was a huge spectacle wrapped up in tradition and ceremony.

And for over 5 hours I don't think I got bored once. Sumo is awesome and I suggest to anyone who hasn't seen it live to go see it if the opportunity arises.

After all the matches had concluded we took a while to look at all the souvenirs on offer and concurred that everything was overpriced. This didn't stop me from picking up a couple of things for the guys at work though.


(Special thanks to Meals for some of the photos).