days two hundred and eleven thru two hundred and fifteen: april 17, 2016 thru april 21, 2016
Coming to Japan, we had really wanted to see a sumo match. After doing much research, Jonathan discovered that every year there is a free match at Yasakuni Shrine in Tokyo. Of course, the seats are first come first serve, so we tried to show up an hour early, but still ended up waiting in a long line. However, the arena is fairly large and we were able to get pretty good seats in the shade where we could see.
Sumo is pretty incredible, many of these guys are big guys, not only in girth, but many of them are pretty tall too. But it's not just size that matters, some of the small, even skinny guys won against their larger opponents. The speed and flexibility of these guys was very impressive. We also heard that Sumo is one of the only traditional sports in the world where the athletes are not paid insane amounts of money to compete like many of the sports that exist in the mainstream today.
Tokyo was a perfect way to end this segment of our travels. We were able to finish off doing some great shopping, finding unique clothes and art as well as some of the best food in the world. Coming home is both exciting and sad at the same time. We're excited to see friends and family that we've been missing for the past seven months. We're excited to wear more than just a few changes of clothes. We're excited to not live out of a backpack moving from place to place every few days. But we're also sad to leave Asia. It really became home for us. We've learned a lot about ourselves over the past seven months and we're happy that we spent such a long time on the road without returning home. It has definitely given us a different perspective -- and can't to be back again soon!
Matane! (see you again in Japanese)