Japan Adventure

A very popular young sumo, Takamisakari, who's very animated & the crowd laughs & cheers when he marches down to the ring. He slaps his stomach & flexes his muscles a lot while preparing for his match. And when he wins, which he does a lot -- he struts out, much to the crowd's delight!
















Look at the beautiful costume on this referee. The wrestlers have to squat down & place both fists on the clay in order to start the match. Once they start, the first one to touch the clay with any part of his body, or step outside the straw & clay circle, is the loser. Although it may just look like big overweight guys in thongs to us, they are highly-trained and very respected athletes, and are very revered here. These men range in age from about 19 to 37. This profession runs in families, and these young men were born to become sumo.