Greetings, True Believers! First things first; here are some updated pictures from when I was turned into a Kabuki actor. These pictures were sent to me from Temple University, so a big thank you to them for the help. They show what the process was like, the actor performing, and a shot of myself with the actor all Kabuki-ed up. Enjoy:
One more update! A few weeks ago, I went to some political places in Japan. The first I went to was the Soka Gakkai International Office. The reason for this was because I was studying how religion and politics interact in Japan and I contacted a source from one of the leading organizations in Japan. I met with a member who discussed the history of the organization and how their religious background, Nichiern Buddhism, has affected their group and policies. I also went to the Diet Building, the "Capital Building of Japan," in hopes of seeing President Obama, when he visited Japan recently. It was raining that day and there was no way I could get close to the building to get a better view, due to high concrete walls. No reporters or protestors, just me, the rain, and many police officers (I know he was in the area because I saw many vehicles with the White House seal). Here are what the two buildings look like:
Now onto the crux of my blog entry: a Sumo school. A workshop was scheduled, in which we would see real sumo wrestlers train and experience a day in the life of a sumo. We met at our university and walked down a few streets, to a small hut like building. Who knew a sumo school was blocks away?
We were given the option to wear the actual cloth itself by itself, but I opted that day to wear my workout clothes. We wrapped our big toes up as well, in order to reduce the friction down on our toes. The arena is made of stone and rock bits, so we were advised to protect our feet as much as possible. The students also would clean the arena from time to time to keep it from being too uncomfortable for our feet. The main sensei also threw salt onto the ring to bless our training for the day, as it is still a ceremonially thing to do in the world of sumo wrestling.
We had to warm-up first and the sumo instructor gave us many drills. We had to warm our legs up by raising them in the air, brining them back down, and repeating with both feet. For sumo wrestlers, they do this about 200 times before any other warm-up routines. We did a few jumping jacks and more leg raises and then it was time to work on our upper and lower body in the ring. It is of sumo tradition that only men can enter the ring, so the ladies that were there could not really advance that much in terms of training. It is not something to offend people, it is just a part of the tradition and culture.
The next part of our bodies that we worked on was both of our legs and arms. Sumo wrestling requires a lot of strength from the legs and the arms in order to push the opponent down or out of the arena. We did a series of exercises, where we worked on fast legs and powerful hands and vice versa. I was given the opportunity to practice these techniques on a fellow wrestler, as seen below.
It was really difficult to push one person from part of the arena to the other. You push from under, with your palms, into the opponent's chest, around the breast muscles and slightly under the armpits to get better leverage. We took our turns with the wrestlers and they should us what their training was like on a regular basis. We even had little small matches with the wrestlers, where you can see the results with one the bigger wrestlers, go me.
The videos provided show two High School students practicing on an older wrestler in order to perfect their techniques. Enjoy:
The sensei thought it would be a good idea to have a mini tournament with the students who decided to participate in this workshop. I went up against a man who decided to accompany us on the trip with his family. My match lasted quite a while, until I slipped and put my hand on the floor. It was for the best because his family was cheering him on and his son was really proud. So, it all evened out in my opinion. The student who won actually went up against one of the bigger wrestlers at the dojo. The match was pretty quick as all the sumo wrestler did was pick him up and carry him out of the ring! An interesting way to end the match to say the least.
After our training and matches, we sat down to lunch. We were given a traditional bowl of stew that had chicken and assorted vegetables. It was very tasty and the wrestlers eat it everyday. The only difference is that while I only had one bowl of the stew, they have eight along with six bowls of rice, sausages, horseradish, fish, and tea. The pot from which we got all our food from, which we couldn't finish, was big enough for only five wrestlers! The rest of the day was talking about where we were from, the workings behind sumo wrestling and its traditions, and a few photos with the wrestlers as well. The man in the suit was a former wrestler and the director of the school as well.
Well, another entry in the can, True Believers. I am busily working on another massive entry about one of the most wonderful places in the world, but only Japanese. I only have four days left in this great country and I am trying to have as much fun before I leave. I have two exams left, but they look easy as pie at this point. I have had so much fun at this point, I do not want it all to end. Well, back to working on my blog and packing! China and my mom in four days!
"The best armor is to keep out of range" - Italian Proverb
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