Sumo - Nagoya basho 2010

Once again this year, there was a trip to Nagoya with teachers (and some students this time) to watch sumo wrestling. Ayako decided not to come this year, but here is a photo of us from last year in front of some of the many trophies given to the winner of the tournament:
This year, however, there was a baseball betting scandal before the tournament resulting in one highly-ranked wrestler being forced to retire and many other wrestlers forced to sit-out this tournament. They also decided not to present the many trophies this tournament, and so you can see the quite small trophies that will be presented at the end of this tournament:
The top division matches start at 4:00 each day and so I've usually arrived then. Matches from the lowest division (there are 6 divisions in total) start from 9:00 in the morning, so I decided to arrive at 2:00 in the afternoon to watch the last three divisions. We had tickets for the back seats (which are much cheaper), but if you arrive early enough, you can sneak down to watch near the ring since many of the seats are still empty. Here was my view from the fourth row:
It was interesting to get a close-up view of the dohyo (wrestling ring) which is made out of mud for the tournament:
It was also interesting looking up to watch the matches (rather than looking down from the cheap seats or watching on TV). Here is someone introducing the next wrestlers:
Before each match, they sweep the sides so that footprints can be easily seen if a wrestler slightly steps outside the ring:
The next two photos are of wrestlers doing the ritual preparations before the match:

The next photos are the beginning of the match to the end (of various matches). These usually last from 5 seconds to 1 minute on average:



There is one referee in the centre of the ring and four on the outside of the ring. If a match is too close to call, all of the referees will gather inside the ring to determine who the winner was or if there should be a rematch if both wrestlers stepped outside the ring at the same time. Here is a photo from when the referees met and decided there should be a rematch:
After watching from beside the ring, I went to the entrance where the wrestlers come in. Here they are wearing ceremonial dress for the ring-entering ceremony that starts before the top two divisions:
Here is the largest wrestler these days, Yamamotoyama, weighing in at 265 kg:
He actually injured himself slightly when he fell awkwardly. He lay at the side of the ring like a beached whale and they needed to carry him off in a sumo-sized wheelchair.
After that, I went up to watch the rest of the bouts with the teachers.
If you want to see more photos from previous trips to watch sumo, click here and here.

Poster at JALT event

There was a joint JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) seminar between the Hamamatsu and Toyohashi chapters. There were seven presentations throughout the day and a number of poster presentations, including mine:
My poster was on electronic dictionary use by university students. It was a busy day but I got to see some good presentations.

Third-year Anniversary

Ayako and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Tuesday, but actually went out to celebrate it on Thursday. We went to the Kanzanji area near our house, which is where we celebrated our first anniversary. This time though, we ate lunch and enjoyed an onsen (hot spring bath) at the priciest hotel in the area, Kokonoe Hotel.
We had lunch first which included tempura and sashimi:

The lunch was very delicious and we had a lovely view of Hamanako lake:After lunch, we had our photo taken outside the restaurant:
Since we were so full, we decided to go for a walk outside before going to the onsens. We found a long deck leading out into the lake and we took a photo together there. Here was our first attempt when the self-timer went off sooner than expected:
The second one was the shot that we were aiming for (although I'm not sure which I like better):
Afterwards, we went to the separate male/female onsens. Mine was wonderful with 9 types of baths and a sauna. Since it was early afternoon on a Thursday, I had the whole place to myself for two hours. Definitely one of my best onsen experiences.

Visiting a service station

Ayako and I went for a short drive today around the coast of the lake. There is an old hotel that we can see when we go for walks and we wanted to check it out. We found that it is now closed but will become a part of a local school.

We continued driving and found a back entrance to a highway service station. We decided to check out this local service station since I know we will never actually use it when on the highway. Here is Ayako walking towards it:
I found that it is one of the best service stations I've seen in Japan with a large park for relaxing from driving and a beautiful view of the lake:
Here's another shot looking in another direction. Kanzanji area is behind Ayako and our house is to the left of this photo:
We decided to get some snacks while we were there. Here I am waiting for a banana-custard crepe:
It hit the spot:
We continued our nice drive through the forest on the way back home with stop-offs at the library and the supermarket (where everything was 20% off - Woohoo!).