Grand Sumo Tournament

On my last day in Tokyo, I had a couple of hours to kill before I needed to head to the airport, so I ended up at the Grand Sumo Tournament. One of the girls that I roomed with at the hostel had gone to the Sumo tournament on Sunday. She highly recommended it and gave me directions to the arena. The tournament goes on all day, with the best bouts (what they call the matches) occurring later in the day. I got there early, so it wasn't very busy. My seat was pretty far, but after awhile I noticed that no one was checking tickets on the main floor, so I went down there and had a really great view. I was prepared to use the "I'm just a dumb foreigner, who doesn't know anything" card if I needed to, but nobody even asked to see my ticket. 

The circular ring is called the "dohyo" and the wrestlers are "rikishi." There are many rituals that take place before and after the bouts. One of them that I noticed was that they threw salt before each bout for purification.

The rikishi also did many stretches, squats, and slapped their bums before the bout began. 

That rikishi was probably the smallest one I saw that day. As you can see, he lost. The other rikishi just kind of pushed him out of the dohyo. It was a rather quick bout, only lasted a couple of seconds. A lot were pretty short, but they lasted longer as the competition got better. 

That's the BIGGEST rikishi I saw that day and he got owned by the guy half his size. Big is not always better in the world of sumo. 

That's got to hurt!

That poor guy went tumbling off the stage into the other wrestlers, who were waiting for their bout to begin. 

There were a lot of sumo wrestlers walking around and riding their bikes outside the arena. It was really funny to see these 400+ lb men, who I had just seen almost naked slapping their bums and throwing each other around in a ring, wearing these elegant kimonos and flips flops with their hair in a bun. I saw this one very large wrestler riding uphill on this dainty bike with a basket- he was definitely struggling but he made it. Overall, it was a GREAT experience. I had a lot of fun! I wish I could've stayed longer. 

Old People Love Me

There were a bunch of bands playing on the sidewalk surrounding Yoyogi Park. While I was watching one of the bands and taking photos, this old guy, who was really into one of the bands, told me to take a picture of him. Then he took out a newspaper and told me the weather for about 15 different cities. When he was done with that, he counted to ten in about 10  languages. When he found out I have been living in Seoul, he told me all the Korean words he knew. It was pretty funny. He was a cool old guy just hanging out at the park on a beautiful Sunday, enjoying good music. I can dig that. 

Usually, I get on the plane and I'm not in the mood to socialize, so I put on my headphones right away in case I get stuck next to a chatter. On my way back to Seoul, I got to my seat and there was an old woman in the seat next to mine. She was definitely a chatter, but it was cool. She ended up being a lovely woman. She is a 78 year old British woman, who currently lives near Seattle. She was heading to Seoul to visit her son and his wife. She talked to me for the entire flight about her travels, her family, her Mormon neighbors... I could probably write her autobiography. After we landed, I walked her through customs and helped her fill out her forms. Before we parted ways, she wrote down all her information and told me to come to Seattle to visit her and we could go hiking. She's one of those people you meet and don't forget. 

Tokyo Rockabilly Club: Harajuku City Gang

I spent almost all of Sunday in the Harajuku/Omotesando neighborhoods of Tokyo. It's the area where a lot of artists, fashion-conscious teenagers, musicians, and eccentrics hang out. When I got near Yoyogi park (similar to Central park, only better), I noticed a couple of 50's rockabilly types hanging out by a pink cadillac. A couple of hours later, as I was leaving the park, there were a bunch more of them dancing to Rock & Roll music near the park's entrance. There were only one or two girls dressed up, it was mostly older Japanese men, with a couple of younger guys. It was a lot of fun to watch! 

That's one of the younger guys that was part of the gang, the rest looked a lot older. 

I love this guy's attitude. 

Grounds of the Imperial Palace

I shot this near the entrance of the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. You can see Tokyo Tower in the background. It is the Eiffel Tower of Tokyo. 

Old meets new. 

I wanted to get a closer look at the guards, but the bridge was blocked off. 

The area surrounding the gardens and the palace was huge. There was a big park with a lot of benches and trees. There were a lot of people hanging out, walking their dogs, running, or reading books. I really enjoyed walking through here and taking photos. It was peaceful and a nice contrast to the craziness of Shibuya and Ginza. 

Kimono Shots

Ginza

My first night in Tokyo, I checked out the Ginza area, which is where Namiki Dori is located. It's supposed to be Tokyo's equivalent to New York's 5th Avenue. Really, I just wanted to check out the Apple store, cause it's just been too long since I've seen a 30 foot back-lit Apple logo. Anyway, I thought Namiki Dori was more impressive than New York's 5th Avenue. There were a lot of architecturally interesting buildings and while Namiki Dori was pretty busy and housed most of the bigger designer names, there were also some quieter side streets with cute restaurants and shops with lesser known brands. I had dinner at Ten-ichi, which is one of the best tempura places in Japan (well, according to Lonely Planet). I tried some "white fish," tiger shrimp, and squid tempura. It was delicious! 

Namiki Dori

Audemars Piguet Boutique

There were some really fancy cars parked on the street. I am not a car enthusiast, but this one sure is pretty. 

Chuseok

This weekend is a big holiday weekend in Seoul. It's Chuseok, a holiday to celebrate good harvest. Most Seoulites will be heading into the countryside to enjoy big feasts of traditional Korean food with their families.

A big holiday equals presents for moi. I was really hoping for a spam gift set but sadly I did not receive one. I did get some other equally strange gift sets though. Just not as funny. 

Chuseok Gift Breakdown:

13 bars of soap 

6 jars of different fruit jam

6 tubes of toothpaste

2 huge boxes of dried seaweed 

Clarins facial products

a set of chopsticks with a table cloth 

some various Dove and Vaseline products

some jewelry

some socks

My replacement will definitely be inheriting most of this. He will never have to buy any soap or toothpaste for a year. 

ALSO, I leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning! Check back for those posts next week, sometime after Tuesday. 

Gyeongbuk Palace + Random Photos

This guard looked like a wax figure, with his obviously fake beard and shiny skin. It was a little creepy. 

Maria, Julie, and Kelly at Gyeongbuk Palace.

Benny at Korea House. Those were just two out of the 14 dishes we were served (not counting the banchan). It was really neat to try so many different dishes, some of which I still have no clue what they were.  

Maria took this photo at the Korean Folk Village. I would've been a giant if I had lived there. 

This post is coming a little late, but I've been pretty busy and will be till I leave. So, I probably won't update very much in the next month. Although, I will make an effort to post about Tokyo. I'm sure I will have a lot of photos to share. 

The Dr. Fish Experience

Maria, Kelly, and Julie heard about "doctor fish" before coming to Seoul, so they wanted to try it out. Also, Jenn has been to a Dr.Fish cafe here and said it was worth experiencing. Basically, you stick your feet in a pool with "doctor fish" and they nibble off the dead skin from your feet. This method has been used to treat psoriasis, but is now becoming a popular "pedicure."  I put that in quotations because it's not what I think of when I hear the word pedicure, but that's how it's advertised. Anyway, we decided to be adventurous and we found a place in Insadong that offers it. The place looked like an ordinary cafe downstairs, but upstairs it had a row of sinks for washing your feet, and a small tub filled with fish. Maria and I went first.  The first couple of times I put my feet in, I only lasted a couple of seconds. It felt too creepy and gross. On some parts of my feet, it felt like a little pinches and other parts it just tickled a little. After awhile, I got used to it. 

Sinks to wash your feet, in preparation for the pedicure (although if you ask Julie, I think she would replace pedicure with torture) 

The fish loved my feet, a little too much. It was creeping me out. 

There was a lot less love for Maria's feet. Even when I took mine out, so they would go to her's, some of them would still stay by my side, waiting with their mouths open for me to put my feet back in. 

Maria enjoying her tea during Kelly and Julie's turn. Benny is in the background playing dead. 

The fish also really loved Kelly's feet. Maria suggested a foot-off, which would've been really interesting but one doctor fish experience is enough for me. 

Dr. Fish verdict: I think to notice a real difference in your feet, you'd have to spend a lot more than just 15 minutes in the tub. It was super cheap (2 bucks) and my feet felt a little softer, but I think a regular old pedicure gives better results. Regular pedicures are also more relaxing. I was feeling anxious the whole time my feet were in the tub. 

BTW, bonus points to anyone who can name the punk rock band that inspired my blog post title. Brings me back to 8th grade. 

More Visitors + Korean Folk Village

Maria and Julie left Seoul today. I had a really great time with the both of them. We explored Insadong and Samchung; visited Gyeongbuk palace; ate a lot of frozen yogurt and pajeon; tried out Dr.Fish, I'll post photos and explain this one later; enjoyed a 14 dish royal dinner and a cultural performance at Korea House; and we went to the Korean Folk Village. 

At the Korean Folk Village, there were a lot of old houses set up to walk through, acrobatic and cultural performances, stores selling Korean goods, some museums, and various activities (like pottery making) set up. They even had a haunted house. When we passed the haunted house,  a kid came out of it crying. This deterred me from trying it out. I get scared quite easily. If you've watched scary movies with me, you probably already know this and understand why I skipped out. 

My camera ran out of battery life pretty early on, so I don't have too many photos. But here are some from the performances we saw. I'll share some of Maria's photos when she gets her's online. 

The See-Saw girls were neat. They got pretty high and some of them did flips in the air. 

These guys were awesome. They would flip/twirl/spin in the air multiple times in a row. I have no idea how to describe it or what the technical term would be, but it was cool. I would've gotten so dizzy.

This guy did some break dancing. Some of the drummers had ribbons attached to their hats that they twirled around by moving their heads. It was a much cooler version of the ribbon dancing that I was forced to do in my 3rd grade P.E. class.

We also saw a tight rope walking performance. It was a very old man and he was really impressive. He hopped across the rope on one leg, he would sit on the rope and bounce back up on his feet, and then he did some sort of duck walk across the rope.