How not to see keiko (3?)

[Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]

>Tim wrote:


>Subject: Advice for a Neophyte
>Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 11:29:10 +1000
>
>I will find myself in Tokyo this weekend for work and have a free Sunday
>with a desire to squeeze a couple of sumo-related hours into the day.  Pity
>it couldn't have been a week or two later, but it's a gift horse and I'm not
>interested in teeth...
>
>So, any advice please:
>
>- how non-Japanese speaker friendly is the Ryogoku Kokugikan?

This Sunday, apart from the ticket offices facing onto the street, the 
Kokugikan will be closed.

>- are the museum and any souvenir opportunities open on Sundays; what hours?

No. But there are a few shops nearby that sell souvenirs.

>- are there any restrictions on access a week out from a tournament?

Access to what?  You can never get into the Kokugikan itself unless there 
is an event. If you go to one of the nearby sumo-beya not much later than 
8:00 a.m., they may let you in to watch training, though they don't really 
welcome visitors within the final two weeks before the tournament;  and if 
you are not able to ask in Japanese they may well politely refuse you.

>- any suggestions for "only got a couple of hours, must-do sumo highlights"

No; you simply picked a bad time.  Just about all I can think of, if you 
can't get into a heya, is to walk around the streets with a map showing the 
sumo-beya (available free beside the ticket office at the Nishi (west) exit 
of Ryogoku station) between the hours of six and ten-thirty in the morning 
and you are likely to see sumo-san out on the street doing exercises when 
it's not their turn to be inside doing practice bouts in the ring.

There is also the temple of Ekoin (distinguished by an ugly archway at the 
T-junction at the bottom of the road leading south from the Kokugikan) and 
the plot next to it on the left (now an open square of large buildings with 
a Denny's restaurant in front"  which is the site of the first Ryogoku 
Kokugikan. The only thing remaining is a circle marked out in the tiles in 
the middle of the open square. In that remains of the  grounds of Ekoin 
there is a big standing stone which is a sumo memorial, with the names of 
famous men below.

Sorry I can't help more than this.

BTW, last Monday I met a small group of Israeli visitors who picked a 
_really_ bad day; the banzuke was out that morning, and after the youngest 
apprentices had come back from the Kokugikan with a great sheaf of copies, 
each heya was turned into a production line: stamping the heya (or 
sekitori)'s name in the margin, folding each page neatly into six, and 
stuffing it into an addressed envelope ready to send out to all the paying 
supporters. When I caught up with the visitors, they were trying in vain to 
get into the third heya that they'd visited; a young rikishi was politely 
giving them the "crossed forearms" sign that means "we're closed" -- but 
they persisted in asking. Eventually I descended from my balcony and went 
to explain to them.  I also told 'em Moti was a friend of mine, which 
impressed them no end    ;-)



~Doreen Simmons
      <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>~