Sumo Weekend, Day 3

I woke up and studied the sumo moves whose names I'd written down the day before.

We went to breakfast in South Pasadena, and then wandered about in an antique store. I bought some old correspondence, a solicitation for a medical foundation, that began "The crippled children missed your letter at Christmas." Then we went shopping for vintage clothes and bought boutique sodas.

Then more sumo.

Our day 2 seats were on the other side of the dohyo. That was nice, actually. What was remarkable about day 2 was the audience response to the Mongolian wrestlers. There was an entire section in the stands that went rock-star crazy every time a Mongolian was announced. At floor level, someone had a large Mongolian flag that he was waving. My former sumo boyfriend, Asashoryu, won the Sakura cup on day 2. He and the other yokozuna are both from Mongolia.

We went to floor level for the ceremonies at the end and got very close to Kotooshu (Ms. S's sumo boyfriend). As we were filing out, we passed right by Musashimaru. I whipped out my signing uke and asked if he would mind. His buddy encouraged him to sing Kaimana Hila, and I said I'd sing it with him, but we didn't. He signed my uke, though.

We hung out and got to see the athletes up close again, took pictures of the bus (we're pretty sure Kotooshu isn't a fan of the beer hat), and tootled off to Pasadena to hang out with friends.

So ends the grand sumo girls' weekend of 2008.