Day 13, Thursday, May 24th: Sumo & Baseball! (and a little seat surfing!!)

A sunny and overcast morning in Shinagawa (pronounced Shin - AGG - ah- wah). We are up later again this morning and looking forward to another sumptuous breakfast. The plan for today is to attend our last day of sumo basho :-( and then head for a Japanese professional baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. Our friends can't make it to the baseball game so gave us their three tickets. It will be interesting to attend a baseball game in Tokyo to see how different it may be?

We take the usual Yamanote Line train from Shinagawa, but is crammed with passengers! On arrival at the sumo stadium we get some very kitschy photos! Yup, here they are! For having your picture taken you get a free bag of rice crackers. The rice crackers are pretty good.

Lana with the huge macaron mentioned and photographed a few days ago!!

Randy with replica white envelopes given to the winning Makuuchi rikishi after each bout. No money in mine!!!

We are in the stadium a little after 11:00 this morning. It is bright and sunny outside. Lana smuggles in a Starbucks ice chai latte. We head for our favourite railing seats and hope the real owners do not show up for a while.

I am fascinated with the Banzuke ranking system and the six divisions of rikishi. These are my notes:

• For promotion in rank within your division you must have a greater number of wins than losses (kachi-koshi) and for demotion in rank within your division more losses than wins (make-kochi)
• There are stricter criteria for movement of rikishi between divisions
• Yokozuna and Ozeki are the two highest ranks in Makuushi and they have many privileges and responsibilities with these ranks
• A banzuke ranking conference is held within three days after each tournament and ranks of all rikishi are considered - this means your rank can change after each tournament so pretty fluid
• A rule of thumb juryo and makuuchi rikishi move up for each win and down one ranking position for each loss
• Ozeki can be demoted if they have a losing record in two straight tournaments
• Yokozuna are never demoted
• There are about 650 rikishi belonging to about 50 Heya or stables. Heya or stables receive monies from the Sumo Association based on how many Makuuchi and Juryo rikishi they have. They receive zero monies for lower-ranked rikishi. These Heya recruit new rikishi and hope they can spot future talent as that will guarantee their financial success. There is no draft of new rikishi. All Heya are in Tokyo or Chiba. Some foreign rikishi were actual wrestlers before they come to Japan. Some of the Mongolian rikishi will come to Japan as teenagers to do sumo in high school and/or college to get spotted and recruited into a Heya. 
• All rikishi start at bottom and work their way up as high as they can
• To rise up to the higher division you can as the champion of the division and/or win the majority of your bouts at each level
• Rikishi who belong to the same stable never fight each other at a major tournament
• Your rikishi ranking will determine your salary
• Lower-ranked rikishi live in the stable full-time

Observations from today's bouts:

• Sometimes the rikishi end up on the floor below as a result of being thrown out and they may land on other rikishi, judges and spectators/fans
• Occasionally, the rikishi will get injured while in the dohyo (sprained knees?)
• Announcer indicates after each bout how the rikishi won and there are stats kept
• At 12:55 today the Makushita division starts their bouts
• In the Makushita division all the rikishi wear the same coloured belts (green)
• On level one there are 'box' seats located against the walls and behind the traditional mat seats
• I head for the food truck to get my rice bowl with grilled pork loin for 800Yen and smuggle it inside again
• Lots of fans along this side area where rikishi arrive and depart
• You feel like a celebrity going through this special gate as it is for re-entry for paying customers, but nobody wants my autograph!
• Our proper seats are second row from the back and we head there before the Juryo processions
• Again, the first five bouts of the Juryo division are not listed in the English program
• The lady beside us has a Japanese app on her smart phone which is a program of the bouts
• By 16:00 the Makuuchi processions are completed and the two Yokozuna complete their special rituals by 16:05
• Lana has been keeping eyes open for free seats as we are wanting to move to a closer area for a different angle. We did a little seat surfing today--probably not proper to do here in Japan but we are going to play the "dumb tourist" card in hopes of taking advantage of empty seats! We do notice other people doing the same thing--and they are Japanese--so we don't feel so bad about it. 
• I am so impressed with how quick the rikishi are - their footwork for such big men is incredible
• If a rikishi has a big leg lift in the prep he gets a huge applause from the fans
• The last match/bout of the day is between Tochinoshin (undefeated sekiwake) and one of the yokozuna Hakuho
• We picked Tochinoshin as our favourite rikishi and it is a great bout with him upsetting Hakuho - as a result the crowd tosses the red mats onto the dohyo signifying an upset. Lana got a close up photo of him from the other day as he was leaving the arena. 

We have talked previously about the advertising for the crowd and this is a decent picture.

Two rikishi facing off.

Another good pic of riskishi in the dohyo facing off.

Tochinoshin facing Hakuho in the final bout of the night.

Another pic of Toshinoshin getting ready for his bout with Hakuho.

VIDEO: Singing announcement of the fighters

VIDEO: Kakuryu (Yokazuna) versus Ikioi (M#5 rank) bout

VIDEO: Tochinoshin (Sekiwake) versus Hakuho (Yokazuna) bout

VIDEO: Throwing of red mats at conclusion of Tochinoshin bout

We really felt privileged to be able to see the last bouts tonight as our favourite rikishi Tochinoshin upset the favoured Yokozuna. The throwing of the red mats (seat cushions) is a sign of a huge upset and usually means a disappointing performance by a Yokozuna. Clearly the cloud was expressing their opinion of Hakuho losing his match to Tochinoshin. Last time we attended sumo, the same thing happened during the last match!! It's exciting to see this happen again on our last day. We are going to miss being at the sumo basho, but we did enjoy four consecutive days and loved every minute. We will check the final results once we are home in Vancouver this Sunday.

Now, our sports day is not over as we head to the busy train station to catch the Sobu line to Suidōbashi station and walk to the Tokyo Dome. The baseball game is between Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Orix Buffaloes (the team that Ichiro played on and Naomi's favourite team). Game began at 18:00 and we will miss the first two innings plus. 

Online pic of Tokyo Dome from above. 

Baseball ticket. The first number (23) is for the entry door to the stadium. Not sure what B34 means? The next three numbers are easy. The first 32 is section 32 and the next 32 is the row and then seat 183.

It is about a five minute walk from the train station to the Tokyo Dome. The dome is in an entertainment area inclusive of an amusement park with rollercoasters and many restaurants. On entry you go through security who check your bags and then your tickets. This is a covered stadium and I don't think the roof retracts. When we arrive the stadium mezzanine and the seats themselves are both swarming with people. 

This is so much different than North American baseball events. There is loud music playing and fans for both teams are very loud when their team is up to bat. The fans sing in unison and it is very impressive. Very much like European football matches except this is much louder. The atmosphere is electric and chaotic. The weird thing is that this is not a 'home' game for either team. There are drums beating in the bleachers and then singing. 

The scoreboard in centre field is mostly in Japanese of course. There is an indicator for B (balls) , S (strikes) and O (outs)--Lana figures this out :) The innings are like North America and there is a gigantic video screen in centre field. Fans of both teams have coordinated chants and songs. They have pennants just like European football fans. There are cheerleaders with mascots on the field between innings.  The crowd enthusiastically cheers all outs and hits and plays. The noise and energy is non-stop!

We have great seats along the third base line 32 rows from the field in level one. It is pretty obvious though that many of the fans have no idea how to identify their seats. When we arrived at our seats there was a suitcase and a jersey and a briefcase in our seats! Eventually two guys show up and try to tell us we are in the wrong row. When Lana checks their tickets they are for row 35 and she points this out to them! Yikes! Many other tickets holders come by other rows and are lost and mistaking other seats for their seats. We are in the loud Rakuten section.

There are huge advertising signs on the outfield walls. In Japan at the sporting events you can leave personal items in your seat with zero worries about them being stolen. We leave the game at the bottom of the seventh inning with Rakuten in the lead 2-1. We want to miss the rush to the train station and we can't get to our hotel too late as we need to update the blog and be ready for early tomorrow morning.

Concession menu board for beer and soft drinks.

Very interesting concession treats. Not sure what these treats are though?

What are these?

I figured the cashier would not know any English so I took a picture of my order to show and that worked. Plus, easy to ask for a beer in any language.

Another concession sign except this was for a Tokyo dome-shaped cookie!!

Lana took this picture for her order of a Japanese hot dog. 

This is Lana's order of a hot dog Japanese style. She enjoyed this hot dog of mild chili (with a slight taste of curry) cheese sauce and crispy onions. Cost 560Yen. Lana thinks the Vancouver phenomenon of Japadog would do very well here!!

Randy's order of a rice bowl with egg and shredded pork. You break up the egg and mix it in with the rice and pork. Pretty yummy and quite a lot of food. With a beer this cost 1590Yen. I ate it at my seat. Beer holders in back of seat in front of me.

Photo of a 'beer girl' who patrols the aisles selling beer from the mini beer keg strapped to her back. There is a hose used to pour the beer in the cup - portable and handy. We figured this must be pretty heavy for these petite girls. The girls had permanent sincere smiles the entire time and hustled up and down and between aisles. Some wear knee high socks. 

Beer girl pouring beer for fan in front of us. 

We call this a mixer girl as she is pouring a mix of alcohol and soda right at your seat. 

 Yup, those are cheerleaders in the outfield at the baseball game. Their choreography is every bit as good as North American cheerleaders. There are many cheerleaders and a number of mascots. Of course in North America at baseball games there are no cheerleaders.

VIDEO: Fans cheering.  

Home plate area at the Tokyo Dome.

Outfield area at the Tokyo Dome. We saw a baseball actually hit the dome roof--the player caught it and the batter was out.

Wow, being at a Japanese baseball game was quite an introduction to a different culture. Baseball in Canada and USA is fairly laid back while here it is full of energy and enthusiasm the entire game. Incredible support for their teams. We won't forget this!

Back to our room by 21:00 and fortunately the internet was working fairly well. We upload our photos and complete our blog. 

Stats for today:  10,000 steps and 7 kms with 18 floors. We did a lot of sitting today at sumo and baseball!