This was our last full day in Japan and I did a lot without doing a lot. First we went to see morning sumo practice! It was pretty intense watching low level sumo players practice. They went HARD. And when the oyakata showed up they went even harder. It’s hard to describe the power in sumo and how awesome it was to see them in person! I think the oyakata was Hokutoumi, who was huge when I as in Japan.

We even got pictures with one of the guys who was in the practice! (Sorry for the tiny picture, I’ll have to get a better one later.)

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After that we were off to see Zoe’s dorm room Koudoukan happened to be on the way and I got to see part of a nage-no-waza seminar. Like most seminars like that, there were way too many details and we just saw one throw. There was a large contingent from France who were participating in the seminar and so many kohaku belts (above 5-dan).

We just had a 7Eleven lunch at Zoe’s dorm and headed back to the hotel. Did some shopping at Don Quixote on the way back. I went down to the lobby to see if the concierge could make us reservations at a fancy sushi restaurant at Takashimaya, and I noticed they were having an event in the lobby. Part of it was a hanga artist making prints live. It was pretty cool and I watched for two hours.

The artist was very friendly and answered my silly questions and after it was done, the staff asked if I wanted to get my picture taken with him! I’m holding one of his finished prints and he’s holding the press he used against his face. He would rub it on his face so it would glide on the paper.

We went to Otaru Masazushi on the 14th floor of Takashimaya for dinner. It was excellent! We all did the ~$100 omakase course and it was some of the best sushi I’ve had. I’m not sure I got pictures of everything because we were so busy eating.

Ika somen. Somen is a noodle dish but instead of noodles they had thinly sliced squid. And uni was on the leaf and mixed into the somen broth.

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Of course we had to get takoyaki (finally) and we should’ve had it in Osaka. Kevin was being a weirdo about it the whole trip so we didn’t get it until the last minute.

And that’s about it for today. I have another story about finding stains on the seat of my jeans (sat in something probably on the subway) and running into two guys having a bit too much fun in the public restroom near the sushi restaurant, but you know.