Howdy all! One of the most interesting and even a little bit exciting things I did whilst in Tokyo this year was an ‘Early Morning Sumo Practice Tour’. I’ve never actually seen Sumo Wrestling live and I thought this would be something good to tick off the list when I visited Tokyo again, however there are very specific times of the year that the tournaments are run, and I wasn’t there at the right time.

So I discovered the option to go on a tour of Ryogoku, which is the district of Tokyo where the Sumo Wrestlers live and train – in what they call ‘Sumo Stables’. They talk you for a walking tour of Ryogoku and they take you to see about 45 minutes of Sumo Wrestlers training – which is basically them practicing Sumo wrestling so you do get some idea of how it’s done. A tour will also include the Sumo Museum but as luck would have it, it was closed at the time.

You get off at the JR Ryogoku Station (EAST Exit) to find your guide. Attached to the station is a building which houses a full size Sumo ring which was also part of the tour. It’s also pretty much next to the Ryogoku Kokugikan National Stadium where the professional tournaments are staged in Tokyo and I think at the right time of the year you can get a glimpse inside of that with the tour, but there was some sort of conference going on at the time so we could only see from outside.

The tour I took cost a little over $150USD or around $100USD and was booked through Viator. Tours in Japan seem to be pretty expensive all in all but they pay for access to training so the stables must charge them a fair amount. In all fairness it’s opening your training routine up to be gawked at like you’re an attraction so it’s fair enough they get properly compensated.

We met at the station on a raining Tokyo day – and boy it rained and rained and rained that day! But the tour must go on and so it did. As I said I booked online through Viator and the company running this tour (and I presume there are others) is called ‘Magical Trip’. Yeah, it doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s a tour company, I know!

We walked around and learnt a bit about the history of Sumo. For example – it’s the national sport of Japan. Google tells me the first sumo bouts were held in the 7^th century. The vlog relays a lot of the information.

Eventually we arrived at the door of a perfectly normal looking building. This was the Sumo Stable ‘Tokitsukaze Stable’ – a stable with an interesting history including the death of a member (17 years old) in 2007. It dates back to 1769 but in its current form 1941. Inside we took our shoes off and sat on the tatami mats and watching the wrestlers practicing for around 45 minutes. We were allowed to take photos but no video, and we had to turn off the shutter sound. I quickly discovered on my Nikon DSLR that the shutter sound could not be turned off. Or if it can I couldn’t work out how too. So I was left to use my phone. I took loads of photos, many quickly in a row to try and bring life to the shots in my video as I wasn’t actually allowed to take video.

At the end we all posed for a photo with the wrestlers behind us which our guide sent to us all. Unfortunately I was cropped out of the photos! As was someone on the other side of the group. One catches 1/3 of me, but I’m looking down at my phone! C’est La Vie.

After that we were shown the building with the real size sumo ring and then the outside of the stadium. Our guide’s name was Nao and he was very kind and knowledgeable and I would recommend him heartily – although he may need to improve his photography skills!

All in all a great little way to experience Sumo culture and Ryokgoku. Not cheap, the tour I think had about 12-15 people on it, a mix of folks from Europe, the States and me! If you don’t have the chance to see a tournament first hand, or even if you do, this might be an activity for you!

Thanks for popping by today! Take care wherever you are in the World – May the Journey Never End!