Sumo
What an amazing start to our holiday.
Well, breakfast at the hotel consists mainly of bread; sliced bread, bread rolls, & brioche, with jams. There's soup, tea, coffee...& that's about it. Chris & I left the hotel at around 10am & got to try out the Japanese railway system - which is nothing like the English trains, because they are clean, wide, comfortable, quiet, & reliable! We started to head to our destination & really started to get a feel for Tokyo. So much food! It surprised me that every other shop seemed to sell food in one form or another as the Japanese are so slim! We came across a place called Orange Street, where the road was literally painted orange.
We found the place we were looking for - ちやんこ場 - where we were going to watch sumo wrestlers & have lunch. Once a week on a Monday, 3 ex-professional sumo wrestlers get together with a translator & talk in English to foreigners about the history, technique, rules, & lifestyle of sumo, do a demonstration, then feed the customers the typical meal they would eat. The translator was funny & informative but a little hard to understand sometimes, & the sumo wrestlers were brilliant & very entertaining. They picked me to put on a fun sumo suit & 'fight' with one of the wrestlers! It was really funny & like trying to move a tree!
After lunch there, we were given a small package of Japanese snacks, said our goodbyes, then headed back, but we stumbled across something called 'Kaminarimon Gate', which was incredible impressive & lead into a huge market that was absolutely brimming with people.
Back at the hotel, we had a kip after arranging to meet the others in the lobby but when we got up, we found that Matt & Kayla were too tired for dinner & Christine felt ill from a Chinese meal they had earlier in the day, so Chris & I were on our own for dinner. We decided on a place called Sがスト where you choose what you want by selecting it on a type of vending machine then taking the ticket to the counter & waiting for the food. I had mincemeat, rice, scrambled egg, & fried chicken, & Chris has something like a beef patty, poached egg, & rice; both of which were really nice.
It's been a long day; lets hope it's a slightly more chilled one tomorrow!
