My mom came to visit! She traveled around Japan with her friend for a few weeks and then popped over to Niigata to visit me for 10 days. It was so amazing to have my mom here. I have become accustomed to being alone most of the time so it was a lovely change to come home and make dinner with her and spend the evenings chatting with her. We explored the city on the weekends and we even made it to Sado Island for a fun visit. We got to make pottery, ride in traditional tub boats, learned about taiko drumming, participated in tea ceremony, and visited some truly beautiful sites. Mostly it was just nice to have my family back. When she left I felt exactly like I had when I first said goodbye, devastated and alone. It reaffirmed that I made the right choice to move back to Canada at the end of the summer. I love being near my family and friends. Even though I have made some amazing friends and I love so many things about living in Japan, there is so much emptiness where my loved ones should be. I have learned that I am better suited to traveling rather than living abroad. If I ever lived abroad again, I would want to do it with someone, being alone all of the time is not something I am suited for. I appreciate the lesson in independence but I yearn for connectedness and shared experiences.
Here are some pictures from our fun filled visit. I love my mom!
I finally got to see a live Sumo tournament and it was incredibly entertaining! It was a special festival held in Nagaoka for the first time. Usually the large scale sumo events are held in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka and are usually very pricey. They added a special event this year to promote sumo and it was held only an hour away from Niigata City. I was told over and over by my teachers that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Sumo (especially if I am only going to be here one year). When we arrived at the venue it was packed with the typical food stall vendors serving anything you can think of on a stick, fried, battered, and sauced. The conbini (convenience stores) were lined up out the door with patrons buying up cheap chu-hai`s, beer and sake. I was in line to buy some yakisoba and when I turned around with my order, 5 gigantic sumo wrestlers towered over me in all of their adult-diaper glory. At first glance they look incredibly intimidating with stern, stoic and smile-free faces who walk slowly with an air of high esteem and focus. I must`ve looked stunned and slack-jawed staring at them in line. I had never seen such girth and power and it was completely surreal to brush shoulders with these legendary warriors. I immediately felt bad for staring but then all of them gave me an ear-to-ear grin and proceeded to order my weight in noodles. It sounds like a weird thing to do, but I watched them eat all of it and it was quick and incredible sight to see. But I digress...
The event started at 8am but the matches didn`t begin until around 11am, the morning was taken up by ceremonies and other esoteric sumo traditions. They started by having little kids donned in the thong diapers trying to push full sized sumo wrestlers out of the ring. It was definitely super cute and it was cool to see the wrestlers be so playful with the kids and throw them around the ring. Next was the slapstick comedy show in the form of a mock sumo match performance. It was pretty funny and really out of character for the wrestlers. Then came the lower level matches, these wrestlers were skinny and fit! Definitely less energetic and not as fun to watch. Then the big guns came out and you could tell they were pros. The crowd was getting riled up and people clearly had favourites. When their picks didn't win, they would tear their seat cushions and throw the fluff at the ring. It was the rowdiest I have ever seen Japanese people get, pure awesomeness! When I found out about this event I made a post on the Facebook ALT group page to see if anyone would want to go. I expected maybe a few people would be interested but I got a huge response back and in the end 38 gaijin (foreigners) attended the event with me. We definitely got a few double takes and sumo wrestlers asked to take pictures with us!! I usually blend in with the crowd so it was unusual to be part of such a gaijin sight. It was really fun to take part in this sake and sushi filled sumo event with so many friends. It was another truly special Japanese moment that I will always remember.
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