Sumo

We went to Tokyo for the September Sumo tournament this past weekend. It was our first expereince going to see this spectacle live and boy was it fantastic. We have all seen sumo pictures and possibly even a match on TV. These do the real thing no justice. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the last day of the fifteen day tournament. The last day is supposedly the best because of the intensity of the matches and the main event occurs when the Yokozuna wrestles. The Yokozuna is like the heavy weight (if there is such a distinction is sumo) champ. There are acutally different classes of wrestlers, but they are not broken down by weight, it is by skill level and number of wins that determines your rank.

The first part of the day most people spend outside of the stadium watching the wrestlers enter. It is intense and one can see the different level of wrestler by the amount of cheering they get and by their entourage. They wear very elaborate kimonos as they enter and carry huge lunch bags with containers of chanko-nabe a soup with just about everything in it that they eat with rice, a lot of rice. Incidentally there are a bunch of sumo wreslter (ret) that have opened shops around the stadium were visitors can experience the sumo cuisine first hand; we did of course. Chanko-nabe is awesome! It is wonderful comfort food that stands up to any chicken noodle soup I have ever had. If that is what sumo wrestlers eat every day, sign me up.

Inside the stadium one will not find anything like going to a sporting event in the States, there are no jumbotrons (or Megatron); in its place is the roof of a Shinto Shrine (sumo originated as a Shinto ritual) that is suspended over the cerimonial wrestling ring. The ring platform is made of clay and the circle is outlined by rice bags. The "box" seats as we know them are square platforms with four zabuton (it is like a futon without the "fu") on which the spectators sit (shoes off). There are no vendors that run around and shout, if you want tea, there is an alley in the first floor were venders go to a tea shop of your choice and bring a tray to your seat with a porclain pot and cups. There are also walk-up stands that sell sake, beer and other event foods.

The matches are intense, especially when the higher ranking wrestlers begin. They enter ther ring and toss salt ceramonially to purify the ring. They then conduct three or four stare-offs where the two wrestlers step up to the lines and get in a football style stance and stare one another down until one goes back to the salt trough and tosses more; until finnally the matches starts and is usually over within seconds. The last (main event) match did not dissappoint. The current Yokozuna, Asashoryu, is a mongolina and has one of the best records of any yokozuna. he does this Hulk Hogan-esque muscle flex before he goes on and th crow seems to love it. Asashoryu actually lost his match, but the rule it when someone beats the yokozuna they have to immediatly defend their win with a re-match. The second match Asashoryu destoyed the guy. I didn't think it was possible for men that big to go flying, I guess they must really trust each other, because they can throw each other pretty far. After the Yokozua wins everyone throws their zabuton into the ring.

It was great and we are going again in January, so we will get better pictures, this one was taken by our phones.

KAMUI

Back in July I went to a chanbara show in Tokyo. It was put on by a group of five professionals who are without a doubt the premier action sword performers in the world. They take what I have been doing in KENGEKITAI and raise it to unimaginably extreme heights. They are called KAMUI (pronounced KAH-MOO-EE), and there leader is a man named Tetsuro Shimaguchi (picture shown). He was the master mind behind the sword action scenes in Kill Bill Vol.1, he also performed in it as Miki, one of the Crazy 88s. His magnum opus in the film was the final scene between Uma Thruman and Lucy Lui called Sword Fight in the Snowy Garden. KAMUI's live performance was amazing; and all of this introduction was unknown to me at the time. My friend Nakano san simply invited me to go see a professional chanbara show by a group of her close friends. I had no idea she was close friends with such people. After the show we met the members of KAMUI, who were all very humble after putting on such a display.

This past week Nakano san told me KAMUI invited me to practice with them, I naturally accepted and headed to Tokyo for a lesson in humility. I was like a small boy going to meet one of his favorite professional athletes only I am thirty one. I have been learning/performing chanbara for ten months now; I would not say I am any sort of expert, but I have definitely seen improvement. Friday night made me feel like I had picked up a toy sword and should not have. The studio of the greatest sword performance group in the world was tiny, it was amazing to think they were capable of such skill while practicing in such a small space. They practiced as if their lives depended on it. Their leader, one would never have expected such modesty, was practicing with a broken, taped wooden sword, and when that became unusable he switched to an old taiko drum stick. It goes to show that the attitude and skill level make so much more than the equipment.

It was humbling for me, but I learned so much about why these guys have dedicated their lives to this art. Tetsuro is a nationally certified Kubuki actor and Nanaougi-ryu dancer and uses his background to incorporate these touches into his choreography to make something totally unique. We had dinner together afterward with Tetsuro and one of the other members, Takashi Fukuda. It was an amazing time and the first time for me that I saw someone order a cup of hot milk for dinner. I hope to get another opportunity to practice with them, and I wish everyone could see them in action, it is truly out of this world.

http://www.k-kamui.com/e/

Blue Eyed Samurai

A quick note to let everyone know, KENGEKITAI will be performing again on 20 September. Photos from the event to come, but the big news is the new website. I did all of the art, design and programming for the site so please check it out. www.kengekitai.com

It is my first attempt at a website, I will streamline it as I learn more; your feedback is welcome.

Extra! Extra!

There is a Manga cartoon called My Darling is a Gaijin, that tells the tail of a marriage between a Japanese woman and an American Man and cultural hurdles they experience. It is so popular it is played on the trains that have small video screens above the doors. A Japanese woman wrote the cartoon based on her own real situation being married to an American. The story is now being produced into a feature length film and Jennifer and I were recently on set as extras in the "Gainjin" party scene. A friend asked if we wanted to do it (she works with the production agency) and we said yes.

We went to Tokyo for a filming session that was supposed to go from 2pm-4am. So we geared up, and went in. There were international people from all over, but we were suprisingly amoung the only Americans. The only critieria for being in the scence was to not, as it was put to me, "look like a Japanese". There were some people who made a living here out of being an extra and it was to easy to ask when they were going to realize that if they hadn't moved beyond an extra by this time it was time to find new work. The director was an extreme looking skinny Japanese guy shouting what he wanted (it was very Lost in Translation). We were told to act natural just don't speak Japanese and some Frenchie was all, "Can we speak French or does it have to be English only?" He asked in English.

We actually got to leave after a few hours and still got paid the same, so we win! It was a fun experience and Jennifer was in front of the camera for almost the entire scence so when the movie (sorry, "film") comes out it seems like it will be subtitled in English, so we will let everyone know.