Tokyo - day 18

We got up pretty late, so we skipped breakfast and went to a "sukiyaki" restaurant for lunch. It was a traditional restaurant where the waitresses wear kimonos and where you sit on a tatami mat on the floor. Sukiyaki consists of meat and vegetables that you cook in a little pan in the middle of your table. It was very good! After lunch we walked to the Ryogoku stadium to see some sumo wrestling. While we were waiting, there were lots of sumo wrestlers that came in and out of the stadium. The funny thing is that they walk around in a kimono and slippers and people don't even really look up when they pass by. We even saw one going into the McDonalds and we thought it was funny so we took a picture of that! When we got into the stadium, the junior sumos were still wrestling. We saw the entry ceremony of the 'senior' sumos which was really fun to see. Overall, watching sumo wrestling is a fascinating experience! The referee is dressed like a shinto priest and all the things they do are related to the shinto religion. They throw lots of salt in the ring before they fight to purify the ring. And the losing sumo wrestler has to leave the ring immediately, whereas the winning one stays by the ring to offer some water to the next wrestler. We saw about twenty-four fights, including the two current champions, which were spectacular fights! Luckily one of Pierre's father's friends was with us to explain all the rituals and traditions to us. Thank you very much!!

Weather: gray but not rainy