Sumo in Osaka

On Friday I headed to Osaka to watch the sweeping, salt-throwing, name-announcing, ice cream-hawking, futon-carrying, bow-wielding, face-wiping, belly-pounding extravaganza known as sumo. Oh yeah, there was also some fat man shoving and throwing going on.



First, the two competing stables will have their members called one-by-one as they enter the ring and do a little ritual. It is the "macarena" of sumo. Easy to do and synchronized.




Before the actual bout can begin, there's still a lot to do.



You gotta sweep and water and then do some more sweeping.



Then you gotta announce the wrestlers and if there are any sponsors, you get some stable boys to walk around the ring with advertisements. At the final bout McDonald's had three banners. Mm, the food of champions.

Finally, the wrestlers enter the ring after throwing in some salt. Everyone has their preferences for how much they throw and how high. And then the stare-down begins. They look like they're about to duke it out when finally one stands up and walks out of the ring and the other follows. They go back to their corners, get a drink, spit it out, and grab some more salt. There is another round of staring each other down. Then they stand up again. The crowd goes nuts. They go back to their corners and wipe themselves with a handkerchief. They grab some more salt. Finally they're ready to go.



There's a lot of preparation (sometimes 3 minutes) and the actual bout lasts usually less than a minute.

Rinse and repeat 35 times.