The magazine said to call and book tickets but i decided just to go to Ryogoku on the day and hope i would be able to get in. The ticket cost only afew thousand yen, and i had a decent view. I actualy really enjoyed the event and if i lived in Japan i would try to make it to afew events a year! I would recomend paying a little more for tickets to get an even better view.
The whole event as just pure entertainment in the nicest form. As i arrived late i caught the end of the intoduction and the first group of fights. Its really nice to see the respect the give each other, but as soon as the fight begins they really do change into a differant animal, focused and ready. Like most sports i think a lot of the techniques are mental. When i used to skateboard, if you believed in yourself you would be able to land the best tricks. Much like sumo i think they really beleive in themselfs and you can see this in the way they fight.
After about an hour a comedy act started between a really small sumo and a larger. It was so funny, i regreat not shooting some video. The were running around the ring, diving over each other and performing silly stunts. One of my favorite was when the smaller guy slide underneath the larger, and stood up to find himself facing the wrong way then turns around to face a huge angry sumo. He had a trick suprise thought slapping his head with a slipper sending the larger crashing to the dusty ring.
After they had a sumo school come to the ring, for again some more comedy. 10year olds VS sumo champions. Staff at the event walked around the ring with a sign asking not to shoot photos so i repected that sign... a little. I had to make one or two frames when it was the whole school VS 3 sumo. After this i decided to leave when the arm wresting event started, as i wanted to make it to the national photography museum. I traveled 20mins to find out that the galleries were closed, i was really pissed off because i wasted 20mins the day before going there to be told it was close. I thought that it was closed for just the day but she meant it was closed for afew weeks while they set up an exhibition. I really should check these things online before i go out!
Anyway here are a few photos from the day, mostly taken with the leica as it was the longest focal length i owned 100mm.
sumo ready to clash! booom then lots of flashes and shouting from the crowd
down and out!
cropped zoom
going downnnnn
readying for the fight
the sumo on the right wont he event! look how strong his stance is! under the fat these guys have some serious muscle and strength!!!
this was about the view i had from my seat
20vs3 who will win!
the battle
After finding out that photography gallery was closed, i used my guide to find the watari museum of contemporary. This took me some time and it was raining really heavy and i had no umberalla, i was getting angry as if it was the guide books fault. The book bascily tells you which station exit to take but not where to go from there, and my map reading is OK but sometimes i do have trouble. Eventualy i found the place and was even more raged that it was such a shit exhibtion, the art looked as thought it was painted my small childrens and some of the pieces just seamed to stupid and childish. As an example one peice had a man with a bears arm and the caption below said "america has the right to bear arms". I found it really crude and obvious. The fact i paid 1000YEN to see the work just raged me even more and i was really tempted to ask for my money back.
on the way to the museum i passed a lexus auto salon and was able to see the £300,000 Lexus supercar LF-A
Here are last few from the day taken in Shibuya in the heavy rain!
here is the leica shot in colour, not sure what to make of the colours from the lens.
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