Weekend in Tokyo

Go for the sumo, stay for the Belgians!

Last weekend, I went to one of six yearly grand sumo tournaments, held in Tokyo. Although I don't know much about the complicated world of sumo, I managed to learn quite a bit and really enjoyed it. But I am not going to summarize it all here...sleeping is more important right now!

Outside the sumo arena.

This is me eating ちゃんこなべ (chankonabe) -- it's the soup that the sumo wrestlers eat, and you can get a bowl for only 200 yen! Apparently it is made with a bit of every animal under the sun. おいしです！ Wrestlers in the opening ceremony

The initial clash

Stamping the ground represents scaring away the evil spirits before a bout.

Raising the hands to show you have no weapons.

Some of the more popular wrestlers are sponsored. See the guy with the banner walking around the ring? He is showing an advertisement for the company that sponsored one of these guys.

The top top wrestlers have LOTS of sponsors....

The Japanese princess attended the tournament - this is shot of the crowd waving to her as she left.

And, here she is!

Banners outside the arena display the names of wrestlers and their stables.

There is so much to do in Tokyo....

In the park near the National Museum, a group of teenagers dressed up and dancing to 50's music. Anywhere else in the world it would be really out of place, but in Tokyo it fits right in.

Kids watching a mime-show outside the museum.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Harajuku, which is famous for being a gathering place of Tokyo youth exercising their right to self-expression. Or, in other words, where all the weirdos hang out. The area has gotten really well-known, and there is one bridge where the kids just line up so visitors can take photos of them. We got there a bit late in the day, plus it was raining, so most of the kids had gone home already, but there were a few still out.

I am almost 100% sure I have seen this exact same guy in Berkeley. It is hard to see in the photo, but he is wearing fish bowl earrings with live goldfish in them. Nice!

This guy reminds me of David Bowie in Labyrinth twirling the crystal ball, only with a much bigger smile and a much smaller package. (If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean:-)

Cute, isn't he?

I took this guy up on the offer, and he gave great hugs!

Free hugs are way better than free hags!

This gaijin decided to join them and reap some of the joys of free hugs.

But they always looked really awkward whenever anyone actually took them up on the offer!

This is the outside of the UT store, which is an offshoot of UniQlo (think Old Navy, but much cooler).

UT has this thing that they call the T-Shirt Project, or something along those lines ... based on the idea that a t-shirt can be such a strong form of self-expression, they have artists and companies from around the world design shirts in limited quantities. The design of the store is really smart - there is one of every shirt hanging on the racks - probably about 100 or 150 different shirts. Once you find the one you like, you check the number, and go to the corresponding shelves that run along the sides of the store, where you find the shirts in various sizes all packed up in plastic tubes. You grab the size you need and take it to the register. Not exactly environmentally friendly....but clever.

The outside of the Audi building, which we ended up spending almost an hour in so that Glen could sit in every car and drool.

And here he is!

If you really dig around, there are untold treasures to be found in Tokyo, like this bar with a cooler full of every Belgian beer you could possibly ever ask for.