sumo

September 30, 2005
What have I been up to? I have no idea…I do want to take this time and focus on being home sick.
August’s main event was a trip to Bali with my new friend Chris—the scuba diving, dining and nightlife was fantastic. We visited the area of the 2002 Bali bombings to support one of the nightclubs that took a hit. It is still a very empty area, as many still shy away, and no wonder, a day after writing this, the 2005 Bali bombings occured. The beaches at Kuta and Jimbaran were just hit. Areas that I have now visited twice (see pictures from the last trip). It is so important to embrace life and and every second of the experiences we encounter. I am glad to have introduced Chris to “Dreamland”—a surfer beach with waves that crushed us. 5 feet from shore, 10 foot waves and over my head… I couldn’t get out. After swallowing too much salt water, and finally finding which way was up…. I managed to get air! This happened three times before I figured I’d rather drink a Pepsi than the ocean!

This month, I also tipped up to SKYDIVE SINGAPORE. Only for one week a year, they allow skydiving here. So skydivers from all over the world came to Singapore and I teamed up with one on a tandem jump. 8,000 feet in a helicopter, I only looked down once. We jumped out together, and there was the helicopter floor, and then it was gone. Not like falling, but more like being in a wind tunnel. We did a few flips, and I immediately felt car sick…. Scared? Not me…. sick… definitely. Finally we settled into a nice falling position that I got enough air and felt better… and then once the parachute was open, we spun more, and more… We landed and I was thrilled—what a rush, what a trip, HOW LIBERATING! Err…Dramamine next time.

Last weekend I went to Japan with my dear friend Bob from New York. You can take the boy out of the US but not the US out of the boy. Bob, I think you finally had fun on the day you knew you were leaving! Japan is a long way from home, while still being a cosmopolitan city with an energy just like NYC. We watched some of Lost in Translation to commemorate the trip. Of course, we went to the temple that the girl goes to (what’s her name?) and to the bar that he goes to (Bill Murray that is...Even I can get his name right).
The highlight of the trip was the semi-final rounds of Sumo wrestling. We couldn’t quite figure it out. Rather slow moving, the two wrestlers squat down (lifting one leg and slamming it to the ground—I think it was a threat). Then they stare at each other, and walk away from each other… to just do this again, and again….till finally they wrestle until one is pushed out of the ring. Not understanding a thing, I did a little research to explain it better—Bob, this is for you in case you thought of taking it up as a hobby!

Apparently, SUMO wrestling was a means of negotiation of land ownership. According to legend about 2,500 years ago, two gods Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata wrestled, and the Japanese God won…making the island of Japan-Japanese…. Or something like that. With no written records until the 8th century, does anyone really know? Prehistoric paintings indicate that SUMO wrestling was performed mainly as an agricultural ritual to pray for good harvest. And of course, rumor has it that in ancient times, it was a fight to the end… the end of the loser.
There are ranks of sumo wrestlers, so when someone wins, they move up in rank in the SUMO society. They all live together, with lower ranking doing the chores. They practice five hours per day—slamming into each other, and into polls and that kind of thing—and I assume eating!
First they face and stare at each other, and when they are in synchronized timing, they can agree to start. Otherwise, the referee (or the gyoji) flips the fan (gunbai) he has in his hand.Well that’s it for the SUMO lesson!

I am watching SAC and it is the final episode where Carey lives in France (we are a little behind here). I still cannot keep a dry eye when I watch this show. Somehow she finds her way home to NYC, which is where my heart ends up all the time.