Sumo

The last day was again dedicated to discovering some of the Japan “prides”. I saw in our schedule that we were supposed to see a Sumo match (as I was not a Sumo fan and I kind of ignored our guide’s explanation as to the bliss of seeing this – Sumo championships happen only a few months a year – and I would have preferred seeing Japan in spring, when the cherries were in bloom – I was not in my most enthusiastic state of mind). I got there though and fell in love with the ceremony, even admired the Sumo players for their strength, concentration, technique and perseverance. There were thousands of people attending the championship, I found out that one of our tickets was about 80-90USD and I started to understand a little bit why they worship the Sumo wrestlers – they at least behave like men  our last destination before leaving was the Tokyo Panasonic Center, a place useless for me (before seeing it) but extremely interesting afterwards. I found out about the care Japanese have for the environment, I was amazed by their wish to make the world a comfortable and clean place and really venerate nature. Harmony and well-being.

Before leaving, on Saturday morning, I took a very fast walk around the hotel, managed to get to another near-by Shinto shrine (or was it a Buddhist temple??), where of course I exchanged additional smiles with Shinto believers and then got back for another looooong trip. I said good-bye to the cleanest place on Earth, where people have an obsession with cleanness, where you cannot breathe dust or see a piece of paper in the street, where men and women never throw anything in the street for the simple reason that the Government has decided, after the 1995 gas attack not to put garbage bins in the street so that now they would keep the garbage in the purse, pocket, jacket or elsewhere but never leave it in the street. Japan was nice, not a place that you would instantly fall in love with, but a clean and humble one. The place where I heard the strangest English pronunciations so that the word “laboratory” turned out to be “lavatory” and the word “valuables” became “variables”. So now, whenever I want to go to the laboratory, I will have to take care of my variables with me. Too sweet Japan.