Ok, all, I am quite sorry for not writing lately. I haven't had the energy or drive to do so and I've been working on writing something else--most of you would not be interested in it. So I am here to appease my fans with pictures of my last day at sumo. It happened and January and was quite a good day. Lots of sumo, lots of sake, lots of yelling for the foreign rikishi, which made our Japanese neighbors in the boxes around us either hate us or love us. We were having too much fun to care. Anyway enjoy, and know that for much of March I will back at the not-so-exciting Kencho and should have plenty of time to write.

All the following shots were taken by Mat using his new digital camera. Is quite nice.
Anyway, this shot was taken just after we arrived for a day at sumo. Three rikishi were nice enough to pose in this shot for us.

For this trip we sat on the first floor in a box for four. That's Sebastian, me and Dilek.  

The ring entering ceremony for half of the big boys. The other half will follow these guys. 

Kokkai and Takamisakari. Taka is the Japanese favorite. They get a little rowdy when he steps up to the dohyo, so we got a little rowdy for Kokkai and yelled "KOH--KKAAAIIII!!" over and over and over. Was fun.

Kokkai from the Republic of Georgia. 

Asashoryu reaches for the salt which gets tossed into the ring a few times before each bout. Rikishi all do this is slightly different manners. Most use right hands, but you see here Asa uses his left. 

The ceremonial sip of salt water to purify the fighter.  

Asashoryu faces down his foe. 

This was taken at our Thanksgiving thing back in November. Starting from me and moving counterclockwise we've got Michelle from New Zealand, Dundee from Wisconsin, Sebastian from France, Dilek from Iowa, Amy, Jay from Hawaii. The guy taking the picture is Mat from England.