Rain, Pool, Sumo, and more Rain!

We have had such an amazing time with Mike's parents visiting. Unfortunately, the weather didn't get my memo about sunny and clear skies, and gave us rain, rain, and some more rain! We made the best of it; swimming in the rain, sightseeing in the rain, and of course, watching baseball games in the rain. We went to Nagoya to play the Dragons this last weekend and went out to our friends' bar for dinner, and enjoyed watching the games inside their dome. The All-Star Break began after the Dragons series and we started off the break with some sumo time!

Outside, Shooters, our friends', Takako & Dennis' bar. Yummy food & great company!

On our way to Sumo, luckily Jordyn cooled herself off with her pink fan. Sumo begins at 8 am and lasts until 6 pm. The higher ranked wrestlers don't start until about 3 pm so we got there around 2:30 to make sure we saw the ceremonies. Mike, the kids, and I sat in a box, meaning we sat on the floor, on mats, without shoes, and had enough room to sit Indian style. Mike's parents had seats not far away from us. We were there until the last fight at 6 pm.

This was the opening ceremony for the higher ranked wrestlers, the Maegashira & Ozeki levels. Each patterned cloth they are wearing costs between $4000-$6000 each. These aprons are beautifully made of silk, richly embroidered with different designs and hemmed with gold fringe. These ceremonial aprons are called kesho-mawashi. Sorry about the history lesson, people I was just amazed by all of this.

This is Asasyoryu, one of our favorite wrestlers, he is in the Yokozuna level which is the highest there is. There were two Yokozuna's and they were amazing to watch. Their opening ceremony was incredible. They go through this traditional ceremony with their sword bearer or attendant nearby. The Yokozuna wears this massive braided hemp rope weighing from 25 to 35 lbs. tied in a bow at the back and ornamented in the front with strips of paper hanging in the zigzag pattern. This is a familiar religious symbol in Japan. On a side note, the people who tie their "diapers" as I like to call them, have a very important job. This is their only job and it is a disgrace if these cloth "diapers" come undone during their fight, so they are extra careful when tying them. None of our friends here have ever seen one come undone, until.....today! Yes, the referee had to stop one of the fights in the middle, because one of their cloths were coming undone. After he fixed it, he put the wrestlers back in the exact position they were in before stopping the fight. It was so incredible. Luckily, we did not see too much!

My Loobi and I loving every second of our Sumo experience. It was so awesome!

This was Asasyoru the Yokozuma (highest level) fighting against Kotomitsuki the Ozeki (2nd highest level). If Asasyoru were to have lost, the audience members chuck their seating mats at the Sumo ring, because the higher guy would have lost to the lower ranked guy. It does happen pretty often, but not today. Mike and I were ready to chuck our mats, but left them under our butts instead!

This was just about toward the end. Jake and Jordyn had no nap, but faired pretty well. What a day!
Back in Hiroshima at the Family Pool. It rained on us nearly the whole day, but who can tell when you are in the pool! Jordyn practicing her jumps to daddy!

3 Generations of Schultz's!

Mike and his parents in front of his jersey at Sam's. What fun it was for Janet and Gary to see our world here in Japan.

Well, today is Sunday for us, and we leave tomorrow for Tokyo. Mike's parents leave from Tokyo on Friday and my dad and brother come to visit on Tuesday night. We have a full house yet again. It has been awesome having them here and we are sure going to miss them. Other than that, not too much else is new! Have a great week!