I have a been a big fan of Sumo since my father in law first took me back in 1999. Its a big part of Japanese culture and is always quite an event. Interestingly sumo has become more international than ever now as well with many of the top wrestlers originating from countries outside of Japan. So when my father in law told me last week he had 1st floor box seat tickets to the January Grand Sumo Tournament I could not say no! My wife and I headed out to Tokyo early this morning to meet her dad and brother. We had sushi for lunch before heading over to the Ryogoku Kokugikan where all tournaments in Tokyo are held. For the most part of the day, staring in the early morning, matches are held between lower ranking sumo (usually in front of much sparser crowds) and its not until 4pm when Sumo’s top division, the Makuuchi begin their matches and the majority of the audience start rolling in. My father in law however is a very big fan so we were at the tournament by 1pm.
I got the chance with the early matches to see how I would do with photos. I brought along my Nikon D5100 and at this time I have no lens longer than 50mm!! So it was quite a challenge to shoot today. I brought along a Tamron 17-50mm (NO optical stabilization/vibration control) and shot using NO flash. In order to freeze the action I shot everything at high ISO (1600 all the way up to 6400) with shutter speeds of around 1/320 to 1/400. The D5100 does very admirably shooting in low light and pictures weren’t too bad considering my very very limited reach at 50mm.
For those who have the chance to visit Japan, I would suggest getting tickets if a Sumo tournament is on. The 2nd floor tickets are only 2100 yen and its a great way to take in some Japanese culture. Plus you can drink Japanese beer, shochu, eat bento (lunch) boxes and yakitori (skewered grilled chicken). You may not understand it or even care to appreciate it but its worth checking out!
