US Sumo Open

Yesterday my friend Binu and I went to check out the US Sumo Open here in L.A. It was pretty cool; they gave us a bunch of free stuff, like a sumo fan and a Sapporo beer keychain/bottle opener, and there was some taiko drumming and a raffle for tons of beer and sake, and a drunk British guy behind us yelling things like "yeah, I love sumo!", "yeah, you look hot!!", "yeah, guy in the black shorts!" etc. I bought some overpriced Spam sushi and Binu got a $5 pretzel.

At first, we were wondering why everyone was yelling the names of the wrestlers; like... "are these actual fans?" But by the end of the competition, we knew most of the wrestlers, where they were from, what weight class they were in, and which ones were our favorites. We had nicknames for some of 'em, too (well, if you consider "cottonbutt" a nickname).

I think sumo must be a little different in Japan; cause all the wrestlers were really friendly w/ one another and spent an unusual amount of time posing w/ fans and hoisting them onto their shoulders, etc.

There was even a women's division, although there were only like three competitors, unfortunately, and one of them got injured in the first match and had to be carried out by one of the male sumo wrestlers.

I uploaded some videos I took.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGETFaO9y8E Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VZHe8fEZ3c Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zOkhX2vu9M