Day 06 and we spent the day exploring more places in Tokyo. The amount of walking we’d done in the first five days though – and we’re routinely clocking in around 15,000 steps each day – had started to take its toll, with toes and feet beginning to get sore. So much so that I had to drag myself out of bed early this morning for our planned visit to the Arashio-beya Sumo Stable.
The stable was fairly easy to get to from our Tokyo stay: we made our way to Hamacho Station, and from there it’s a short 5 minute walk. We arrived at about 8:30AM. The training session at this free-to-observe sumo stable starts at 8:30AM, and by the time we arrived there were already about a dozen other visitors watching the discipline. Most of the crowd at this point were Caucasians, and from overhearing later conversations, we concluded that they were part of a guided tour led by an English-speaking Westerner. The crowd grew a little larger later as more visitors joined in. The slightly later-than-planned time we arrived for this visit actually worked very well: because after the training segment ended at 9:15AM, presumably for a break, two of the sumo wrestlers came out for pictures with visitors, much to the delight of the crowd.
From earlier research I had expected the viewing side of the stable to have only half-height windows, so I was pleasantly surprised to see full-height windows instead, affording visitors a great view of the training. The observing crowd was remarkably well-behaved, which I assume was partly because the guided group had already been well briefed on the decorum required to observe the training.
Hopefully P does not get any funny career ideas! A friend replying to our Facebook post joked, “You never know,” and another from our small group quipped that it’s actually a great profession: professional sumo wrestlers are wealthy, attain high social status, and often marry some of the most beautiful models and actresses!
There is also a small souvenir shop selling all manner of sumo-themed items just opposite the stable.
With an hour-long visit done, we headed out to our next stop: the Cat Cafe Mocha Harajuku!