As I was high atop the city, one of the places I saw that was within walking distance was the Zojoji Temple.  I didn’t see a lot of people walking through the temple grounds, but I wanted to see it up close since from up in Tokyo Tower, it was pretty cool to see a temple in the middle of a very large and vibrant city.  Not just the fact that the temple and surrounding buildings differ architecturally, but that the overall juxtaposition of traditional beside modernity is very moving.

The view of the Zojoji Temple from Tokyo Tower

Although the temple itself is smaller than it was in the past, the overall complex is still stunning.  I honestly stopped at one point when I realized how singular I felt within the complex. When you realize that just outside those walls live thousands of people, many passing the temple by without much notice…you kind of realize how easily a place, or person can be forgotten.  It’s like one of those commercials that show the main character in the middle of the screen, changing very little, as the rest of the world around him is in fast-forward – that pretty much sums up the feeling I had while inside the Zojoji Temple.  I suppose when Ayaka and I went out to Kamakura, it felt like we were leaving the modernity of Tokyo and then visiting a historic area with more remnants of its past in comparison to many of the cities/districts within Tokyo.  But the Zojoji Temple was different in that in one moment, I felt like I was looking at the past, but stepping just outside of the temple grounds, or even just looking just above the line of tree tops to see skyscrapers, quickly brought me back to reality.

Going through a decently sized park on the way to the temple

The main temple within the compound...notice Tokyo Tower in the background

Looking out towards the front gate

Some of the adjacent buildings

Went inside the temple and found a very elaboratly decorated meditation area

One pretty cool aspect about Zojoji Temple is a cedar tree that was planted by General Ulysses S. Grant (18^th President of the United States) when he visited the Zojoji temple as a national guest in 1879.  To see it there with a few signs around marking its importance is funny.  I thought to myself, wow 1879 seems like ages ago, and yet the temple itself is much older, funny how a tree caused that thought to dawn in me.  I almost lost the concept of time, hahaha.

The sign designating that this cedar tree was planted by General Grant

The cedar tree that has been there since 1879

After leaving the Zojoji Temple, I walked towards Daimon Station and then took the metro to Ryōgoku – a neighborhood in Sumida.  The neighborhood is famous for being the heart of sumo wrestling and home to the Ryōgoku Kokugikan.  The Ryōgoku Kokugikan is an indoor sumo arena that was built in 1985.  It is sometimes used for other events, but most often, the arena hosts large sumo wrestling tournaments (honbasho).

The busy street right outside of the Zojoji Temple grounds

On my way to Daimon Metro Station and I see this. It looked cool so I took a photo, hahaha

Coming out of the metro station, I took a few photos of maps to get a general orientation of the area.  I took the elevator up to exit A3.  As I walked out, I was met by two sumo wrestlers.  I passed them by and then I quickly turned around to take a photo of them, hahaha.  I guess I was in the right place!  After that quick encounter, I walked back towards the Edo-Tokyo Museum and passed a funny sign that I believe was attempting to ward people not to trespass after the museum closes or on holidays, but instead it read, “It is allowed to enter or trepass after the closing hour and on the holiday.”  And yes, they wrote “trepass” not trespass.  Across the street was an outdoor track with a few high school aged kids who were stretching and a few others were already jogging around the track.  As I passed under the DoCoMo building, I noticed a large parking lot to my left.  It looked as though it were part of a large complex.  I had the hunch that I was looking at the parking lot of the the Ryōgoku Kokugikan (behind the arena).  I walked a few streets up and sure enough, I turned the corner to the left and saw a lot of very colorful flags and a gated entrance.  I kept telling myself how much I wanted to go inside but that I was expecting to only take some photos from the outside.  I saw a few people in line and realized that the ticket counter was open.  I thought to myself, “maybe there is a tour of some kind that I can take.”  I saw a group of five French tourists.  As I neared I overheard them say that they wanted to buy tickets.  I looked over and realized that a ticket agent was already approaching the group.  She asked if they knew English and they nodded and then they asked if there was a tour; I suppose they had the same idea I had.  She told them that there was a tournament going on and that they could buy tickets at the ticket counter.  Like any sporting event, the closer the seat, the more expensive the ticket.  They were looking for the overall experience and asked for the cheapest tickets available.  After listening in, I followed their lead.  I walked up to the ticket counter, asked for a ticket in Section C (the cheapest area that still had seats available) and then walked in.

One of the first things that I saw coming out of the main terminal

King of Sumo!

Map of the area, started near the bottom (A3) and walked up towards the Sumo stadium

Yup! I'm in the right place...I said I wanted to see sumo wrestlers

The infamous funny sign...Ayaka told me to look out for these!

I suppose it was gym class or something

The Docomo building near the stadium

So much color, it was pretty cool to see all this as I turned the corner

I just love the amount of color on all the signs

Saw these around a lot...too Tokyo lost their bid, but then again, so did Chicago

The french tourists trying to figure out what to do

The ticket cost about $30 or so and gave me a decent view.  I took plenty of photos and videos.  There were a good number of people present for the 2009 September Grand Sumo Tournament.  In fact, I sat beside a group of tourists from Mexico that had been traveling throughout Japan for the past month.  Needless to say we had a few conversations regarding our travels, our experiences, and of course, I asked them to take a photo of me since I didn’t feel like holding the camera while trying to guess to see if my face would make it into in to the frame.  They were very nice and took the photo.  Overall, the experience was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing – if you don’t live in Japan or have access to professional sumo tournaments, hahaha.  Everyone there gets very excited for each match, especially for the ones featuring more well known wrestlers.  There are specific chants for individual wrestlers, and some wrestlers do take in the entire scene; yelling or grunting at the crowd and slapping their hamstrings in approval and thanking everyone for their support.  I even tried a few chants, very simple ones but needless to say, just as affective.  The old Japanese gentleman sitting to my other side got a few laughs as the guys behind me yelled a few choice words and chants to the wrestlers.  Of course he probably thought it was funnier when I would shout “Go for it!” and “Let’s go!” in Japanese in response to an audience member’s signal.  Oh well, you only experience an event of this magnitude if you go to Japan, and considering that that isn’t something I do very often, why not try to be a part of the entire scene as much as possible.  Actually, the Mexican tourists even tried a few times, but then we all laughed when one of them yelled in Spanish, “Son of a B****, I wanted him to win!…now I owe you…what, a coca-cola from the concession stand?”  Apparently, they’d made a bet, hahaha.  After about 20 or so matches, I decided to leave.  The tournament lasts about 6-8 hours or so a day, with small breaks in between individual wrestling matches, and lasts for a couple days.  After a while, I felt that I’d seen enough and plus, it was a nice rest for me, but I knew that I still wanted to go to Akihabara again to see if I could find a few video games for my Nintendo DS.

Saw this little guy as I walked into the stadium

So many people came out for today's round of matches

Here, the wrestlers are not about to start, just getting ready...otherwise, the guy in green would be in trouble

YES! got my photo taken at the sumo stadium!!

Just about ready to start the match

People clapped much louder when these guys came out to make this mini announcment

Sweeping the area after every few matches

The guy in blue was from Bulgaria, so foreigners are allowed to sumo, he actually is a bit popular

It's getting darker outside, but the colors still pop!

After stepping out of the Ryogoku Kokugikan, I walked around a bit.  A few of the restaurants lining the streets near the arena had large flat screen televisions outside the entrances, all of which were turned to a channel that was showing the sumo matches, and all of the televisions had at least five people watching it.

Next up…Akihabara @ night!

Filed under: Travel by Giancarlo Deleon