This is the first instalment of my weekend adventures. It makes things easier for me if I split stuff up, so deal with it. Sorry, some of the photos pertain to the next installments, so bear with me.
Ok, so I got to the ninja restaurant. It's called Ninja by the way (yes, very creative). We tried to go last week, but you needed a reservation. Anyway, we made one for Friday at 8:45. You walk in and it's a small dark room with only a receptionist around. We were told to split up in groups at this point. When my group went in, we stood in the dark room next to the receptionist. We were told there was a ninja hidden in the room somewhere. Suddenly, the wall behind me opens (uh o, trap door!) and out pops a female ninja. She tells us to follow her down the trap door. We enter through the door. It's still pretty dark. She lead us down this winding tunnel that looks like it was dug out of a cave. There are doors and things all around. Half the time we had to duck, because there wasn't enough room in the "cave." Eventually, we round this corner and stop. In front of us are these steps that lead down to this stream. The ninja says some stuff and out pops a hidden drawbridge so we can cross the stream. Pretty neat, lol. We cross the bridge and enter this big cave. This is were the dining area is. Every table in here is a private little cave or room. Our cave room had a stream running through it and some wooden sliding doors on one side. There are wooden structures integrated in the cave which add to the complexity of the dining area. You seriuosly need a guide in this place, because it is so easy to get lost. And it's intimidating too, because all these ninjas are running around.
Our waiter lived in Califronia for 5 yrs, so ordering food was easy. It was a good time, except I ate one of the habenero peppers in my drink. Never again. I got steak, bad choice because steak is not readily available in Japan (i.e. expensive, there aren't a lot of cows in Japan and they don't like American beef). But I wanted to try Japanese steak, to see what the hype as about. It wasn't bad, but it was a small portion size. I also had french onion soup. All in all it is was an ok meal. After we ate, a ninja magicain came by and did a few tricks that were pretty entertaining. After we paid, another ninja guide lead us out of the restaurant. So, it wasn't bad I guess. I wanted to go mostly because I wanted to see all the ninja stuff. It was cool, but I probably won't be back.
Next day was sumo day. Ok, before sumo, we went to a sumo restaurant. I felt kind of jipped because my meal I had to cook myself. I got chicken something. They brought it out raw in a pot with other ingredients on a portable gas burner and I had to sit and cook it for 10 minutes, which was kind of weird. Next I walked around the part of the city where I was. I stumbled across a Shinto temple. I've never been in one, so I found it interesting. It was big, but no one was there. I felt akward inside it though because it had all these pictures from the Tokyo fire bombings of World War II. I've heard people say that they were worse for Japan then the atomic bombs. I think the pictures in this shrine helped confirm that for me.
Finally we got to sumo. Ah, sumo. After watching it, I wish I had broguht a book with me. Most of the time nothing happens at all. Let me describe a typical sumo bout: the wrestlers get ready in their corners. They wipe themselves down with a towel, stretch or loosen up briefly, then dip one hand into a bucket of salt. Then both wrestlers silmultaneously turn around, toss the salt in the air and start making huge stomping gestures with there legs. Then they walk out to the middle of the ring, do the stomping thing again, get down, stare at each other, ready to charge...the ref, in his very ornate garb, hunches over, ready to begin the match...then one of the wrestlers gets up. Both wrestlers go back to their corners and do everything all over again. This cycle repeats about 4 -5 times. When they finally get down and wrestle, matches can last anywhere from 5 seconds to one minute. Usually, they are under 30 secs. So for me, watching sumo can be frustrating because most of the time there is no sumo. It's stomping feet, throwing salt and having staring contests (by the way, the rituals like salt and stomping have religious [shinto] connotations. For instance, the stopming of the feet destroys evil spirits in the ring, etc.). Yea, so after 3 hours of 'action,' I went home. I appreciated seeing the culture side of things though. For instance, the good seats in the stadium, close to the ring, were not seats, but rather large mats. And the outifts of the sumo entourage were quite ornate and beautiful, especailly the refs. After each bout, a man would come out and chant, lamenting I think about the winner. It was also neat to see all the wrestlers walking around in the streets and on the trains. They all have the typical sumo haircut and dress only in tradtional sumo garb.
Here's a vid of a match that was surprisingly exciting. I guess it was more exciting for us, because nothing much was happening for a little while.
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