An Overwhelming, Intense Day Two

 The day started with the early service at the church.  My friend, Sachiko came, but had to leave to go to a meeting after. Here's a picture of us.






During the lunch time after the second service there was a farewell for me.  I've totally lost track of how many this makes.  A lot by any standard. Many people said nice things about me and all of the years I've been hanging around Ichikawa.  My friend Inoo san came for that part.






There was the traditional silver ball hanging from the ceiling which had a pull string on it.  When pulled, the ball opens and dumps flower petals and streamers and a thoughtful sentiment written on the central streamer.  A convenient package of tissues was attached in case one became overcome by the experience.





There were singing and prayers and gifts all by way of saying "Thank You" and then many many individuals who wanted to say good bye, take care, come back to Japan.







I had a little break then and came back to my room and started rearranging my packing. Later in the afternoon I went downstairs to watch the final day of the Sumo Tournament.  The championship to be determined by the final bout between the undefeated (in the previous 30 bouts) challenger and the previous champion who had lost one match of the previous 14 days. Hakuho vs. Haramafuji. Two wrestlers from Mongolia.

And the winner of the Emperor's Cup in the Aki Basho is Haramafuji.  Will Yokozuna ranking be far behind?

The couple who had offered to take me out to dinner came and watched the last three bouts along with the pastor.

Then indeed there was dinner.  What a lovely event that was!  So much silverware on the table I was almost intimidated.  A couple of hours and three knives, three forks  and countless spoons later, coffee was served with crystal sugar on a stick to stir with.  Each course was a lovely presentation.  Sauces and garnishes added all manner of bright notes to the nicely cooked, colorful food.  Dessert was a sampler of fruits and custard and caramel and ice and mint.  Uber-yum.

And now that this report is complete, back to rearranging the packing.

DAY THREE!

It's 11:30 pm so I don't have time to look for some cute illustration for the number 3 or the concept of threeness.

Another mixed bag of work and visiting places for the last time and having a great time with friends eating Japanese food.  I was really happy to figure out that the Guest Home management software is not broken even though it didn't seem to be allowing me to manually change amounts or put in mileage etc.  I was sure we had finally broken some fundamental function of the program.  What a relief to realize that because I use the nine key numbers on the right hand side of the keyboard the NUMLOCK button must be on for it to actually work!

Had a lovely dinner at the local Okonomiyaki place and the waitress took pity on we poor foreigners and made some of those lovely pancakes for us to keep us from struggling and making a mess and perhaps even embarrassing ourselves in front of others. (not likely)

Haramafuji won his sumo bout again today, 29 in a row, or maybe 30, but Hakuho won his too, so they will still fight for the championship tomorrow, the last day of the fall tournament.  Life just gets more and more interesting!

My Favorite Wins Again

It's always difficult to explain to anyone why I like Sumo.  To many, especially my Western friends and acquaintances it's a lot of sweaty fat guys pushing each other around. There is some of that, but Sumo has it's skills, it's rules, it's stars, it's up-and-comers. Six tournaments a year, one in each of the odd numbered months.

This year as the second week of the July Tournament was drawing to a close, two men remained unbeaten and by today's final round the Yokozuna, Hakuho with a perfect record went up against the Ozeki Harumafuji also 14-0. Both are Mongolians. Both are tough. This was only the fifth time since the advent of 15 day tourneys that two men came up to the final day without a loss.
I was pleased when Harumafuji came up the winner.  He's been solid in every match. I've liked him for several years now, since he came up the ranks to win his first Tournament several years ago. He's not huge and he's not pretty, there's a bit of the underdog about him.  Tonight though, he's the King of the Ring.