This past August Christian and I were invited to a small village up north for a local festival. The village is the hometown of our friend Chigusa. The festival was for the small, local neighborhood people and was a sumo tournament. The local men or spouses of children would compete. Chigusa and Martin invited us to join in the fun!
The fun started with lunch and at Chigusa's parents' house. They set up a noodle slide for us! It is a piece of bamboo that us cut in half. As you can see, a hose is then tied to the top and noodle are fed down the line. We all stay by with bowls of sauce ready to catch!
After lunch we took a lovely drive into the countryside where an old fashion dam had been built on the river. The slight elevation meant that fish swam up and were waiting to be grabbed! The fish to be caught were called "ayu" or in English, sweet fish. They smelled like watermelons. We didn't catch any big ones and set some small ones free.
They were prepared by slow cooking over embers...
When we got back...it was Sumo time! The fighting done here wasn't exactly up to standard Sumo rules and regulations...in fact...most rules were ignored and the fighting got dirty....salt in eyes, spiting, slapping and scratching were all "fair" game!
Christian is ready to fight!
And the battle begins...
And a WIN for Christian!
Christian did REALLY well! He won the "battle royal" and the "5 in a row" tournaments. For it, he was awarded cases of beers for a prize which he shared with our lovely hosts.
We had a lovely day of sumo and snow cones (for me at least!)
