I Like Pigeons Because Nobody Else Does

We’re having some unusual weather – low humidity, blue sky and puffy white clouds. Rainy season is just about here, so I guess we’d better enjoy the low humidity while we can.

Here are some miscellaneous photos. More from sumo and some insect photos I took last week. The guy with the lump on his head was one of the sumo judges. I was told that when he was a young aspiring sumo wrestler he did not meet the height requirement and somehow produced that lump on his head to add height. The guy who told me this wasn’t laughing when he said it so I don’t think he was kidding, but it seems almost unfathomable that someone would go to such ridiculous lengths…but then again, look at all the breast implants in the US and I guess it’s not such a stretch after all. I really wonder how he did it.

Gene and I are going to Tokyo this weekend to do some sightseeing and eating. Not a whole lot going on otherwise. It’s pouring down rain right now and if it continues tomorrow it will put a serious damper on our fun.

I took the preliminary paperwork to a crabby guy at the shipping office yesterday to have our household items shipped back to the states. So now we have to go to a “PCS counseling meeting” on June 4th. What that involves, I have no idea, but it will likely be painful.

More sumo photos:

May 23, Rikishi quotes

Asashoryu to the throng of reporters surrounding him in the dressing room:

“Don’t get too close to me!”

Asashoryu on his first loss:

 ”My tachi-ai sucked. I looked past him too much, but that’s sumo for you…a trapdoor where you least expect it. I failed at the tachi-ai, I failed myself, it was all a failure. But hey, I’ll have fun chasing him down.”

I mentioned last post that I was going to sumo again. I went. Holy crap. Last night definitely ranks as one of the top experiences I’ve had here. It was an incredible cultural experience and just exciting as hell. Some people look upon this as an undesirable character trait, but I will freely admit with no reservations that I really like a good fight. No doubt the reason I enjoyed last night so much.

Frankly, I don’t understand any of it – the rules, ranking, nothing. But after last night I do now know that there is a lot more involved that what one sees on TV. Most of the matches lasted only a few seconds, a few of them maybe 20 or 30 seconds at the most. But what was so amazing was how every single move counts. Nothing can be wasted or it will all be over in a blink of an eye. Those familiar with Japanese culture can probably see some parallels here with regard to the fleetingness of so many other facets of art and life.  The Nihon Sumo Kyokai Official Grand Sumo Home Page is a fantastic resource for anyone wishing to learn more about sumo. They have full explanations of the history, ranking procedures, fight techniques, terminology and even sumo exercises that you can go at home – which really aren’t too far removed from Yoga.

I was also amazed by their incredible power. Those buttcheeks and legs might look fat, but they’re all muscle. And the sound produced by two enormous wrestlers slamming into each other is enough to make one cringe. You don’t get the sound effects on TV which really adds to the ambience.

There are 15 days in each tournament and several tournaments a year. Last night was the 10th day of the May tournament. I’m not sure how opponents are matched, but there are rankings and you can determine what rank a fighter is by his hairstyle and mawashi (loincoth). There is a top fighter, only one at a time, called the Yokozuna. The reigning Yokozuna is this guy:

a Mongolian who has taken the Japanese name Asashoryu. His real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj.  If you’re wondering why it seems as if he’s looking right at me, it’s because he was. A new friend of mine, Hiromi-san were the lucky guests of a mutual friend and were honored with the best seat in the house. All the action played out right in front of our box seat as we ate yakitori and frozen mikan sherbet. Hiromi told me that the particular seat we were occupying is always reserved for the Prime Minister on the last night of the tournament.

Asashoyru fought last, the biggest and most important night of the fight. He lost to his opponent and immediately following his downfall, the audience went wild (as wild as a crowd of Nihonjin are going to get) and starting throwing their zabutons (pillows) into the ring. Hiromi and I were being pelted with zabuton from behind and ended up with half a dozen or so in our box.

I repeatedly read how “secretive” Japanese people are and how it’s so tough to “penetrate” their society. The people making these claims must have been to this country in another space and time because I have found the exact opposite to be true. Take this “luck” of mine in getting this incredible opportunity last night. I repeatedly have opportunities like that and it’s not because I’m lucky. It’s because I take the time to express genuine and serious interest in Japanese people and culture and when people find out that you give a damn about their lives and culture, they are very willing to share. And I just don’t mean in the sense of getting to do cool things like go to fights and dress up in a kimono, but on a much more personal level too. I am a firm believer in the fact that the more you give, the more you receive.  Someone was in a position to show an interested foreigner one of the most important traditions in one of the most unique cultures in the world and I happened to be the “lucky” recipient. Enthusiasm and an adventurous spirit can get you a long way!

By Thursday my guests didn’t seem to be wearing down at all…but I was. I was actually starting to wonder if something was wrong with me because I was so tired. But I guess after a week of talking pretty much non-stop, hours and hours spent on a train, and general sensory overload, any normal person would be exhausted. Liz just emailed me and said they returned home on Saturday and she went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 3:35 the next day, so I guess it wasn’t just me.

Coincidentally the 2007 May Grand Sumo Tournament started the same day of their arrival, so I got us tickets for Thursday. I had no idea what to expect and since our tickets were cheap, I assumed we’d be very far away from the action. We had reservations at a hotel that night in Tokyo after a full day of sightseeing and I didn’t feel like dragging around a whole complement of heavy camera equipment, so I left it at home. Which was a total mistake because we had decent seats and the photos would have been fantastic. I took my old camera, a small Canon G5 and got these really poor shots. But, as luck would have it, a friend of mine hooked me up with a ringside seat at today’s match! We’re leaving at 1pm and I’m taking all my good equipment so check back soon to see the results of my first foray into sports photography.

After sumo we went next door to the Edo-Tokyo Museum which was really nice.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was founded on March 28,1993, as the place, where visitors come to learn more about Tokyo’s history and culture , and which also serves as a projection onto the city and the living of the future. In the Permanent Exhibition area, there can be found original and replicated exhibits, as well as large-scale models, faithful representations of their originals, which have been reproduced after painstaking investigations and research.

If you are interested in the history of Tokyo and the Edo period, this is a great place to get a lot of history packed into a couple of hours. The exhibits are very well done and it’s a tremendous learning opportunity.

After the musuem, and a short stop in Akihabara, we went to our hotel and relaxed for a bit with some dinner before heading back out to Shibuya for some karaoke. I love karaoke, but I do have a complaint about the accompanying visuals. Two of the many songs we sang were Lynyrd Syknyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama and AC-DC’s Touch Too Much. I know, I know, tired old songs by American standards, but when you’ve been away from your native culture this long they take on a a whole new significance, just trust me. Here’s a shot of the screen for each song which is just one illustration of some of the many American cultural items here that are gruesomely botched in translation:

Pastel Downtown Miami + Lynryd Skynryd = Ronnie Van Zandt coming back from the grave to kick some Japanese karaoke producer’s ass. Everyone knows that a guy in a wife-beater and a can of Budweiser should be involved somehow.

I was a little late with the camera for the AC-DC one. Immediately before that tree scene, they showed a very cute close-up of an Eastern Gray Squirrel.  Bucolic park scenes of picnickers and cute squirrels paired with Bon Scott (a man who died in the back of a car, the result of choking on his own vomit after a night of ribald behavior and power drinking) screeching things like She wanted it hard, And wanted it fast, She liked it done medium rare is a bizarre juxtaposition.  Although I really enjoy those types of scenes, and squirrels, they’re not exactly conducive to rockin’ out to a debauched AC-DC song. Oh well, I guess that’s what the shochu is for and I can’t really blame that karaoke people either. Those are the kinds of things you just don’t get unless you really live in the US.
 I almost forgot to mention day 6. We slept in pretty late (our hotel, despite being a government facility, had temperature control which was a welcome relief from our apartment here on base. The system-wide heat was turned off about 2 months ago and the air conditioning will not come on until the authorities deem it appropriate, usually the end of May. You can imagine what it’s like on the 9th floor where we live. I slept great at the hotel!) and then had a leisurely breakfast before setting off for the base. I wasn’t expecting a crowded train since it was 11:30 by the time we were ready to leave Tokyo. Boy, was I wrong! We got on the Yamanote Line at Ebisu with the intent to switch trains at Shinagawa and it was one of the top 3 most-crowded trains I’ve been on yet. I can’t handle that kind of crowding and like the rest of the Japanese commuters, I retreated into my own dark place in my mind and just kind of shut down. That’s the only way to cope. Foreigners get on trains in Japan and just don’t understand why everyone looks like a stonefaced zombie – it’s only a coping mechanism.  They’re just hiding as best they can. My friends were not used to this kind of thing and of course were at a loss as to what to do.  I am actually glad that they got a great good-bye gift from the city of Tokyo; the infamous sardine-packed Yamanote Line! Chalk it up to one more cultural experience!