the 23rd is the birthday of the Emperor

so there are some activities going on.
The first thing is this is an holiday, very nice.
The 2nd thing is: there was a sumo training open to the public at ryogoku, and of course I went there with a  japanese friend.

So there this is a training, like they do everyday in their beya, just they are all together in the stadium.
 And since we were sitting very close I was able to see all my favorite sumos!!!
This is Ikoi a juryo that is going up!

the sweet Takamisakari.
He was very active during the training always fight to get a chance … to fight.
The one who win the fight select the next one against who he will fight.
So this is a bit a rush there.
Takamisakari was very good :-)

Gagamaru all smile!!!

Aran all smile, no this is Aran, what do you think!!!

 Baruto, he is really smiling a lot actually, I am impress!!!

Here the 3 georgians together: Tochinoshin, Gagamaru and Kokkai, so nice to see them when they meet.
The smile in their faces is so huge.
finally they can speak georgian!!!!

Do I really have to say?
Ok Tochinoshin, my favorite, with a great smile :-)
So keep the smile, train hard and do a great January Basho please!!!

Gagamaru after a fight. Hair everywhere, red like a tomato, but still very active.

When you fall on the dojo then you can end up like that.
The training is extremely intense and the sumo are sweating a lot.

Hakuho the king.

Kotooshu.
But he always looks depressed, why is that?

In my opinion Hakuho was particularly mean during the training.
Since he is yokozuna he has all the rights.
So he decided how often he fights another sumo: he was fighting with one more than ten times, because the other one won 2 times. The other one was almost dead.

See completely exhausted, but no way to say no. If Hakuho says fight you fight. If Hakuho says get on your knees you do.
Well this was very nice to see, but so terrible for the other one…

The training was from 8am until 11am30, so great, opened my eyes very big!!!



This video is to give you an idea of the part that impress me the most in the training. What I already explained when I was at the Kasugano beya:

 After that we went to meet some other friends in Tokyo.
This is the new tower in Tokyo, very biggggg!

 And so because this is the birthday of the emperor you can visit his castle. That's the only day in the year.
In the morning he was also there, but seems he was not so well in the afternoon.

 So you sign with your name for the greeting.
Even in romanji that's ok!!!

This is some views of his castle. This is really big!!

 The view from his garden. The mix between modernity and cultural heritage is very nice. This is everywhere in Japan.

And also in Japan the weather is very strange. There is already some cherry blossom (Sakura).
Nice, since I will miss it in February.

Around the castle the people are jogging.
Japanese are crazy about jogging!!

 After that we went to a restaurant in one of this big buildings. Very impressive actually.

So high!!
We have eating some meet in a german/french restaurant.
This was so nice. Everybody's speaks very well english which makes my life easier.

So once again a great day with very nice japanese people!!!