Sumo Tournament Pictures

We bought our tickets in advance online (the first day that they went on sale). This was on a Monday, on the second day of the tournament.

There are 2 types of seats - boxes (these) or chairs. The boxes are closest and everyone sits on the little pillow cross legged. We bought a 4-person box for 2 so that we could spread out a bit more. I guess that's getting more popular. The box in front of us was empty right now as people trickle in throughout the day. It starts at 8 am, but the high level guys don't come out until after 2 pm (ends at 6 pm)

Drunk businessmen in front of us. Dave made friends (as per usual).

That is an entire glass of sake, provided by Dave's new friend.

Dave and his new friend, and Neil from Australia who was sitting next to us with his wife, Andrea. They helped explain what was going on and were just all around awesome. All of the Aussies that we met while in Japan were so nice, fun and just all around great people.

The sake bottle. Yes, we dragged this home in our suitcase. It pretty much tasted like gasoline (if you were to taste gasoline)

All of the higher level guys come out prior to competing.

These flags represent the sponsors for the match. The winner gets the purse.

Japanese men don't mind pink!

Scoreboard. Each symbol is the guy's name and the red bar means that they won the match.

My fan with a guy that looks just like Big Boy! It was really warm in the arena. They have air conditioning, but don't pump it quite as much as they do in the states.

I don't think these guys are to scale, otherwise Dave could have a new career...