SUMO...Japan's #1 Sport

During the first week of our time here in Japan, it is mandatory that every adult attend an AOB/ICR, Area Orientation Brief/Intercultural Awareness Training (Don't ask, I don't know why the acronym is ICR.)  It is five days long.  The first two days are standard Navy training...we take 1 day's worth of material and cram it into 2 days!  The last three days of training were great.  It had lectures about the trains, food, chop sticks, shrines, all sorts of stuff I don't remember because I was in a jet-lagged induced culture shock.  Felt like I was looking at stuff through a gas mask while cooking meth (we just started watching Breaking Bad...that's what you do when your TV options either AFN.  Thank you Apple TV).

What I do remember from the ICR is that the Native Japanese Instructor, who went to college at the University of Alabama, was phenomenal, and SUMO is Japan's #1 sport! 

You hear about Japanese baseball in the news, but Sumo truly is King.  It is the equivalent of the NFL!  We haven't been to a Sumo match yet, it's on the list, but we had a great introduction last weekend.

Lila is attending pre-school at a Japanese school out in town called the Seika.  At first it was rough getting used to the new environment but she has really taken to it and is enjoying it.  Last weekend was Sumo Weekend.  It was held on the elementary school grounds adjacent to the Seika.  The playground was your standard setup...soccer field, basketball hoops, playground with swings and Sumo stage!  The Sumo ring is a fixed structure, it was not erected just for the Sumo weekend.

The school hosts a couple of Sumo wrestlers from a local Sumo training school to come out and introduce Sumo to the kids by giving a demonstration.  

The kids spend the two weeks prior practicing their Sumo skills.  The boys actually compete against one another to come up with the top 8 competitors who compete to determine the #1 Kids sumo wrestler of the year.  As a prize, that kid gets to square up one v. one against an actual Sumo!  The Sumo wrestler was great.  Despite his size and skill advantage every kid or group of kids who went up against him won.

 

I am not so sure Lila was impressed with the whole Sumo thing.  She participated and wasn't afraid to square up with the Sumo, but when push came to shove, she chose to push her classmates into the Sumo.

Lila said she had fun, but I don't think she was that into it.  

I think the major problem for Lila was uniforms.

She just wasn't that interested.