Sumo Sumo and Bye Bye Carolyne

I admit it, it was my mistake.  I misread the sumo tournament timetable and thought that the 2 week Osaka tournament started on the 6th March (which meant we could have visited when we were in nearby Kyoto) and not on the 15th.  Which meant that we had to make a bit of a rush down to Osaka from Tokyo.

This was worst for Carolyne as it meant spending 1 night either side of the tournament on overnight buses from Tokyo to Osaka and back, before spending the third night on the plane flying back to Perth. Alex and I travelled down in comfort on our first bullet train, although we had to get an expensive taxi to get to the station on time after a navigational hiccup and some serious panic about whether we'd make the last train at all.

little sumo-bitch

We then struggled to meet Carolyne as it turned out that her bus was arriving at a Osaka's Namba train station, which has over 30 exits.  Sadly this meant that we missed out on buying the cheap unreserved, only available on the day tickets.  So we had to pay over £50 to get in.

However, it was still worth it, we had a really good day out.  Not just watching the wrestlers in action, but also seeing them arrive outside.  Particularly when the big stars arrived with their little sumo-bitch helpers who would carry bags, and pay taxi drivers and the like.  The stadium itself also offered lots of opportunities for walking around backstage to see the wrestlers warming up.

Each bout was pretty short, and there is a lot of ceremony before each one, but actually it is all very smoothly run, and the fights just keep coming, especially in the morning when the less experienced wrestler were on.

After the sumo we had a strange dinner in a sort of culinary theme park before saying a tearful goodbye to Carolyne, we've had a really nice 3 weeks travelling with her, although I think Alex and I might have argued a bit much.  Sorry Caz