The promised pictures of the Plum blossoms at Osaka-jo are here! BUT I only have 2 of them...Sorry, I cant find the cord to hook my phone to my computer. I know I had it sent here but I don't know what I did with it. So here are the 2 photos of the plum blossoms...enjoy!
In the upper right corner you can see the silhouette of Osaka Castle and in the foreground are some of the plum blossoms. At the time I took this they weren't quite in full bloom. They are by now I'm sure as this was almost 4 weeks ago.
They come in three different colors...white, pink, and a deep red.Today...Well today was an adventure. Since finishing my contract with the junior high schools I have a bit of free time on my hands so I was beginning to get stir crazy. I decided I would really focus on learning Japanese for the next couple of months. So, I started taking classes again at the school that I originally took classes at. These are the same people that helped me get an apartment and gave me furniture and appliances after the collapse of my previous company. They were happy to have me back and I was happy to be back. I am also considering some Korean classes. They are really cheap and I have a private student that swears the lessons are really good. So, I will at least keep out of trouble for a couple days. I also am planning on going back to training with a local kung fu group but I have been having fun the past couple weekends so I haven't had the chance to go.
In particular this weekend, I went to the Sumo Tournament here in Osaka. It was quite the spectacle. Throughout the week I had seen some of the Sumo wrestlers walking through the train stations and they really are quite impressive. BIG DUDES. Not so much fat as they are just plain solid! I paid about 7,000 yen for seats almost in the back row but it was worth it. Here are some pictures....
This is the entrance to the Osaka Prefectural Gym where the event was held. It was packed like sardines in a tin can!
Where is everyone!? Well there are the low ranking Sumo wrestlers. So, not many people came early to watch them. The tournaments last many days (starting at about 10am and going until about 6pm.) and most people only show up for the top tier matches. Regardless, these guys were still impressive.
The guy in pink is the referee. But he's a low ranking ref . You'll see later that the top tier matches have ref with different colors...assumingly signifying they are better refs...maybe.
These are some of the trophies they are contending for. I don't know what each one means but there were 2 that stood out. The one in this picture (upper right) is filled with pickled plums. Why...I don't know! and there was another (not pictured) filled with sweet potatoes. Don't ask I don't know.
This is when the top-tier wrestlers started. As you can see more people and a Ref dressed in a fancy gold and black uniform.There are some Non-Japanese wrestlers. For example, the Champion of the west division is from Mongolia but there are some Russians and some others. There was one guy I thought might be American. He was white; about as tall as me; but really muscular. Not fat like the other guys (who aren't really fat). The girls I was with though his butt looked cute. Later, I went outside the Arena to take a break from all the chaos and the girls I was with and I ran into that Sumo wrestler but they were just shy and couldn't bring themselves to ask him for a photo. I wasnt going to ask him. He just lost his match and I didn't want to bother him.
OOOOOH! here's a video of the final match between Asa Shoryu (current champ) versus...a bigger guy. Its pretty amazing.
All and all Sumo was awesome. I'd like to go again but it doesn't come around here so often I hear.
Tomorrow's plan is a day at the beach. It's warm enough (almost..its about 60 degrees). Just a picnic to celebrate the coming of spring.
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