In early May, Japan has a national holiday called Golden Week that celebrates the emperor's birthday, the writing of the constitution and that kind stuff. Schools and some offices in the whole country are closed for a couple days, and pretty much everyone goes somewhere to travel. Me and three guys from Sophia, my school here, decided to go Okinawa, Japan for Golden Week. Okinawa is a series of islands way south of Japan, and it is pretty much beers on the beach, fresh fruit, beach volleyball and that all good stuff Jimmy Buffett sings about. We did some of the touristy stuff, as in visit an Okinawan beer brewery, did some cave spelunking, paid to go see a mongoose vs. cobra fight, and drank sake that was made with snake venom or something. So college student touristy stuff... One night we decided to take a journey to the US army base, which is located in Okinawa, it was one of the strangest experiences of my life, and I can see why the Okinawans don't want American troops there.... stories from that night are not exactly blog friendly. It was a great little break though we got some sun, some sand, and plenty of raw fish, pineapple, and beer. Nothing better.
A little later in May I made a trip over to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the most famous fish market in Tokyo. It handles over 400 different types of seafood, from tiny sardines to 600lb tuna, from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar. I was able to see a fish auction where cooks and restaurant managers from around Tokyo come to bid on the biggest and best fish and other seafood. These auctions start around 5:00 am, so it was an early day. I kind of felt bad because this is a wholesaler market, that is the workplace for over 10,000 Japanese fishermen and wholesalesmen, and there are a bunch of Gaijin tourists walking around with their giant cameras getting in the way of trucks, carts, and forklifts. Here were plenty of Japanese workers who work everyday gutting and cleaning, and selling these fish, and then these tourists walk up and get in the way of everything, trying to get an artistic shot of the fish... of course I was one of these tourists, I tried to stay out of the way though.
After Tsukiji, I made my way over to the Ryugoku Sumo Stadium and bought my self and some friends tickets to the May sumo tournament. There are I think five sumo tournaments in Japan throughout the year. Two in Tokyo, one in Kyoto, and the other two move around Japan. Each tournament last 15 days, where each day all the wrestlers fight a different opponent. The matches usually start around 11:00 am with the amateur fighters. We got there early enough to get ringside seats for the amateur fighters. We close enough that you could see the fat rolls... lovely, and when the wrestlers were pushed off the stage, they almost fell on top of us. The amateurs were all sizes and the weight limit is actually only 67kg... I am 71kg right now so technically I could be a amateur sumo wrestler. Don't think that would go over to well back home if I dropped everything and decided to chase my dream of being a sumo wrestler.
After the amateurs finished it was time for the professional wrestlers to start. Unfortunately we lost our good seats, but it was still awesome. The champion Hakuho, was already decided by that day so we got to see his championship ceremony as well.
