Fat Guys Wearing Thongs is a Sport in Hello Kitty Land

Before my friends and I went to Obama city (see previous post) we went to the famous city of Osaka. I had been once before but only to Universal Studios, which is very cool by the way. This trip was to experience more of the city. Osaka is known for being a little different than the rest of Japan. Of course every city in the world has its own flavor, but in Japan one city can seem the same as another. Osaka stands out among them all. The people tend to be younger, into fashion, and much more liberal. The natives even have a different way of talking that can throw off even the best Japanese speakers. Osaka is also known for its food. It has a wide variety and it is cheap, delicious and not all that healthy. YUM! The biggest reason we visited the city was for SUMO!! My favorite sport ever! Sumo tournaments take place every two months around the country. The sumo organization has a great website in English. I have chosen to explain the sport with a lot of photos.

       

This is the venue for sumo. Hanging over the stage area        This guy comes out between each match and 

is a mock temple roof. Sumo is a holy sport. There is a            announces the competitors. The better the 

a tassel on each corner that is a different color. They              the players the fancier his outfit gets. 

represent North, South, East, and West. There is                

a judge sitting on each side of the stage area wearing                        

a black robe. The main referee is in the middle.

 

  There are a lot of rituals a wrestler must do. This one is the famous slapping-the-legs-and-stomping. The tassels are for decoration only and are easily removed. They often fall off during the match. The uniform the wrestler wears is made of about 23 yards of fabric! It protects the wrestler while being very useful during the match. There are about 32 different tactics to win using the belt. The "wedgie" is not one

The wrestler who just finished his match offers water to the current wrestler, then he may leave. The person in the  middle is the referee. Again as the match becomes more important the fancier his outfit gets. You can see that wrestlers wear their hair in a bun or knot as they call it. The style is based on the wrestlers ranking. It is held in place by a special hair wax and the knot is actually protective. It acts as a helmet for the back of the head. 

 

Next the wrestlers enter the ring which is 18meters in        Another ritual movement. 

diameter. They throw salt to purify it. 

   

Then they stare each other down. This is all part of the ritual. They size each other up and try to intimidate the opponent.  

At this point the men can choose to fight right away or stand up if they are not ready. Once someone stands up they both go back to their corners and gather their thoughts, get pumped up, drink more water. The higher up their ranking the more dramatic their pumping up ritual gets. They sometimes even start slapping their arms, legs and head. The audience loves it! Then the  two go back to the center of the ring, again they can choose to stand up at this point. It sometimes happens  3-4 times. Usually by the same guy, and I put my  figurative money on the guy who isn't standing up. 

 

Finally they are ready. Both hands on the ground. It is a split second before they class.

 

The initial attack! These guys have a lot of muscle! Most of the time they fight it out for about 10 seconds. But sometimes one of the guys just steps to the side and the opponent falls. Of the 30 or so matches we watched this move was used 2-3 times. 

These pictures are from a few different matches. In order to win your opponent must touch the ground with some other body part than his feet OR be knocked out of the ring. Even a small finger on the ground or outside the ring will cost you the game. There are about 50 matches a day starting at 8AM and finishing at 6PM. Every wrestler fights once a day for 15 days straight. Your opponents change based on your ranking. So if you are a little guy and you are doing well, you could be fighting a really big guy! Typically though the little guys (lowest ranking) go at the beginning of the day.  Each match can not take longer than 4-7 minutes. If you are high ranking then you have more time. This is used to get the audience excited. The low ranking guys though must fight when they get to the middle, no time to gather your thoughts.

At the end of each match the winner collects money from the referee that is in an envelope. Sponsors pay for advertising during the match. The better you are the more sponsors thus more money.  

 

The wrestlers are divided into sections. you have 3 sections (I think). The REALLY low guys are in the morning, the middle guys in the afternoon, and then these guys. Before they start the matches, all wrestlers in that section walk out and form this circle, then perform ritual movements. They wear these aprons over their belts at this ceremony only. The apron is purchased by their sponsors and can cost upwards of $30'000. Some are encrusted with jewels!

There is ranking among the wrestlers that is separate from the daily rankings. Wrestlers can work their way up to earn titles. Once they have earned  a title it can not be taken away unless they break a MAJOR rule. If a title holder performs badly at a few tournaments then he is expected to do the honorable thing and step down or retire. Pictured here, in the middle, is one of the ozekis. Kotoshu is from Bulgaria and nicknamed the "David Beckham" of sumo wrestling. Pretty hot isn't he?!? There are many non-Japanese wrestlers and there is some controversy over that. An ozeki is the second highest ranking. Yokozuna is the highest ranking and their are currently two and they are both Mongolian.

At the end of the day a yokozuna performs the traditional bow dance. The special belt he wears is reserved only for the yokozunas and features the white fabric that looks like lightning. You can find this same white fabric on anything that is holy in Japan. Although many people choose to make their escape from the venue at this time, I think it is worth watching. At the end of the tournament the person with the most wins gets the Emperor's Cup.

So that is sumo. It is a lot of fun and if you are ever in Japan during a tournament I think it is worth going to check it out. 

The "Obama for Obama" tour

This spring break I took a small trip with two very cool friends of mine. We went to Osaka (about that later) and to a city called Obama. Yes ladies and gents Japan has two of those cities. One WAY down south near Nagasaki with a neighboring town of Usa (I kid you not, pronounced oo-sah) and one on the west coast of the main island Honshu. Obama means "little beach" and it is just that, a tiny seaside town famous for squid, blowfish, and crabs. We found an amazing hostel run by the cutest woman ever. Unfortunately I have just learned that Nima Guesthouse has permanently closed in the last month. 

Squid boats docked for the day. They go out at night and use the glass lanterns you see hanging to illuminate the clear ocean creatures. 

This hotel is on a bluff and since we were there in the off season we were able to have the entire place to ourselves! The first night there we went into the center of town, which consists of about 8 city blocks, for some much anticipated seafood at the best restaurant in town. Mind you the other competition is a ramen place and cheap sushi joint, but it really was an amazing place. One of the family members who runs the place immediately introduced herself and helped us decipher the menu. We asked for what she recommended and she gave us a feast! Fried blowfish, blowfish & vegetable hot pot, grilled whole bass, raw squid, marinated tiny fish, and the list goes on. All washed down with amazing warm sake.

It is hard to see the detail because this photo was taken on my cell phone. It is a raw squid. The raw edible part of the body is draped in slivers over a Japanese radish cut in half. The head is put on the end and it actually looks as if the squid is alive. They offered to fry up the head later for us but we kindly declined. 

Next to our table in a more private room was another foreigner. Because a friend of ours had recently traveled to the area we were aware that cool foreigners could be found, but imagine our luck running into them our first night! After stuffing ourselves we were introduced to Al and her Japanese friends, and elderly couple who travel frequently. Turns out the couple has visited my hometown and enjoyed golfing! Such a small world! We agreed to meet with Al the following day for lunch and took off to the only onsen (public bath) in town.

The weather was pretty bad so we asked for a taxi. Instead though the woman who helped us order and introduced us to Al decided to drive us to the onsen. This is one of the great things about Japan, people are genuinely nice and trusting. The onsen was great! It was on the top floor and overlooked the port. There were three baths to choose from, all filled with different minerals and varying in colors. I loved the Chinese teabath that made my skin look orange in the water. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and slept in our traditional Japanese beds and listened to the ocean below.

My friend Amanda enjoying the sea and scenery of Obama

The next day we had lunch at the sushi place with Al and also visited the famous Obama shop. Dedicated to all things Barack and Obama city. They have a their own promotion with his picture on it and I bought my fair share of memorbilia. Check it out!

   

That evening walked around the various piers, talked to fisherman, visited the outlying beaches and islands and admired the scenery. It is a great area that is very chill with people who are incredibly nice. We decided to save some money and cook dinner that night at the hostel. Crab was so cheap that we could buy two! 

A hawk scavenging for scraps left by the fishermen on the dock. In the background you can see just how small Obama is. 

Our third day we hit the long road home. Road trips in Japan can offer some unexpected twists and turns. I love road tripping in Japan, but there is a cardinal rule. Leave yourself twice as much time as you think you need. To start with, maps in Japan are not really to any particular scale. Even the road signs have their own system. If the sign says you are 21 kilometers from your destination, then it is best to assume you are closer to 40. Thing is, when they measure those kilometers, they are saying "If you stretched a straight line from here to ___city, then it is 21 km." That is not how roads work though, especially in Japan when the majority of the country is mountainous. The road sign people do not account for the twists and turns you encounter. 

On a map your roads are color coded. Red roads are major. They are supposedly big and important, and it is best to stick to those. Yellow roads are a bit more local but still substantial. Green roads are small but still paved and marked. White are....well...you are lucky to see them over the rice paddy grass. Then sometimes you are thrown for a loop. Here is the RED road we encountered on our way home.

 

That sign basically says if you are not driving a major construction vehicle then it is very dangerous to continue this road. The railing you see up ahead is made of simple timber from the side of the road. This road is nothing but mud. We decided to turn around because it was rainy that day and seemed a bit dangerous. This is what we saw on the way back down. 

Too Much Sapporo Beer Got Me Crabs In Hokkaido

As promised

One of my goals is to travel as much of Japan as possible, including hitting up the 5 main islands. I live on the biggest and best, Honshu. North of me is Hokkaido. Southeast is Shikoku and southwest, sitting on top of Shikoku like shrimp on sushi is Kyushu. Then WAY down south there are some little islands that make up Okinawa. This past February I hit up my fourth island, Hokkaido. It is a place known for being cold most of the year, producing good beer, crab fishing, having lots of cows and unpaved land for said cows, and producing 80% of Japan's cannabis. So I figured at the least it was going to be fun. Crab, beer and cheese for everyone!

I went to the northern territory during the coldest month of the year for a specific reason, the Sapporo Snow Festival. It is a HUGE annual festival which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the small city for two weeks every year. Ice blocks are brought in a week or two ahead of time and groups carve out a new creation each year. You walk through the cities central park and admire these gargantuan sculptures. Some are as high as 40 feet, all have a different theme. Enjoy the pictures   

      

                                         

Throughout the city there are other small events happening like smaller ice sculptures. In the neighboring port town, Otaru, the citizens make lanterns out of ice everyday and light the city up by candlelight each night. It is spectacular! There we enjoyed the freshest sushi, glass blowing demonstrations and international beers. I highly recommend banana beer.

Sapporo beer is one of the top 3 brands here in Japan. So naturally we had to take the ummm cultural tour? If you breeze past the displays on the history and cultivation then you soon arrive to the bar where we enjoyed 3 half pints of beer for 6$! Ooh and we got some of that famous cheese too. It was great. This facility also sports one of my favorite activities in Japan. BBQ!!! It is carried over from Korea and what you do is sit at your table and cook your own meal over the open grill in the center of your table. The unique thing about this place is the meat is all lamb. Yes glorious baby sheep. I am salivating at the thought. It was great! For a set price per person we could eat as much as we liked for 2 hours, and drink as much of their beer as we could get down. Just beer and lamb. Doesn't get much better.

 

So what else is there to do up there? Well not much else besides eat, drink and be merry. I did find the best English bookstore I have ever seen in Japan! This is like finding oil in your backyard. Usually the best you get at a shop is 2 shelves of titles you have already seen a million times. This store, located near the main station, had an entire section, floor to ceiling, multiple shelves! I spent hours looking around and picked up two great titles; "I Am A Pencil" which is about a teacher and his class doing a creative project (really good if you are a teacher, otherwise probably bore the pants off of you), and " 'Tis" the sequel to "Angela's Ashes". Both great books if you are interested in Irish American immigrant stories.

So that is my trip. A few of the more magical moments. I fell and gave myself a concussion, my flight did not land the first night due to a snow storm so I spent it in a airport hotel on the southern coast of Japan, and I learned that beer flavored caramel is about as gross as you can imagine.

   

Random van we came upon.                               I think she is making a statement

My deepest apologies

I got so busy living in Japan that I forgot about telling you all about it. These past 2 months have taken me on some great journeys that I will be updating about shortly. A sneak peak...

* To much Sapporo beer got me crabs in northern Japan

* The "Obama for Obama" tour

*Fat guys in thongs is a sport in Hello Kitty Land

* School graduation had 46'900 bows

But for now I am going to publish an article that I recently wrote about HIV and AIDS in Japan. It is a little long for a blog but I think it has a lot of information and one person even told me it was good. Hey!!!!! Don't feel like reading about HIV/AIDS? Then here is the moral of the story....get tested even if you are in a monogamous relationship, wear a condom for the love of baklava, and NEVER think you in the clear for not contracting the disease. It is a world wide problem so get yourself educated and tested. Okay enough preaching. Read the article.

AIDS and HIV in Japan is a topic, which is not brought up much. Few conversations are being had about it, and even fewer articles are written about this topic, which is increasingly becoming a major problem for Japan. I have spent the better part of six months researching the epidemic and I feel as if I have only scratched the surface. About once a year an article or two pop up and they state the same thing with more current facts. Even the 2008 UNAIDS report, the most comprehensive and definitive voice on the world’s state concerning AIDS and HIV is filled with blanks and old information on Japan’s statistics. Starting up a conversation about the illusive topic is met with a lot of sucking teeth, clearing throats and blank, puzzled looks, the same reaction you get for asking for vacation time. What is most surprising is that the world’s second largest economic contributor has a rising rate of infection comparable to Sub-Saharan Africa. Japan has a problem y’all.

Before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning. Maybe you have heard about the blood tainting scandal that rocked Japan’s Ministry of Health. Here is what happened in a nutshell. In 1983 Japan imported 3.14 million litres of blood plasma and 46 million units of prepared blood products from the U.S, which were distributed and used throughout this country until 1986. Japan used these products to make their own blood supply. These supplies were said to be uncontaminated but unfortunately they were not. At that time though a company called BTL had begun manufacturing heat-treated blood products. This product was licensed by the U.S. FDA and proved to kill HIV in blood supplies. They offered this product to Japan but Japan refused for a variety of reasons like a "lack of evidence pointing to links between infection with HIV and the use of unheated blood products."(Japan Ministry of Health) And that Japan was not capable of competing with this product because it was "not prepared to make heat-treated agents itself". (Green Cross Corporation) So basically for fiscal reasons the product, which would have taken the first shipment of tainted blood off the shelf and replaced it with guaranteed HIV negative products, was rejected. Tainted blood was made and distributed and patients were never warned of the risk. Around 2’000 patients had become infected with HIV by 1990.

HIV infections were being reported as early as 1984 but nothing was documented until 1985, and still not until 1987 was any public knowledge made about HIV or AIDS. Hemophiliacs were the primarily infected people but Japan’s government created hysteria that the disease came via promiscuous foreigners and transmitted to sex workers. In 1989 a lawsuit was brought against the Ministry of Health and Welfare along with Japanese drug companies. A long investigation into multiple agencies and involving a number of officials facing murder charges dragged on until 2005 when a verdict of “guilty of professional negligence” was given to one individual who was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

The one thing Japan has got right when it comes to HIV/AIDS is the medical treatment. It may have taken them a little while to acknowledge the virus was here but once they did they put in place a system for those living with the disease to have support. At least financially there is little burden because of their universal health care. The government offers medicine at a very low rate, counseling and the latest treatments. There is just one little hitch, you cannot receive these benefits and remain anonymous. Privacy has gotten better recently but it is still not 100%. Going public means you face losing your job, friends, family, and being shunned by your own community. An opinion poll was taken a couple years ago and 45% of those surveyed said they would not work with an infected person. This idea that the disease should be kept hidden is one of the reasons the infection rat is rising so rapidly.
In addition to HIV/AIDS being a taboo topic, there is a lack of information being given to the public. This is the root of the problem. Currently there are over 14’000 people living with AIDS/HIV in Japan and that number is increasing by 13% each year. These are the reported cases. Experts believe it is closer to 35’000 people. The public is not being informed about testing and using condoms. Japan provides free and anonymous testing but many choose not to find out. Doctors estimate only 6-25% of sexually active people use condoms and that is usually only to prevent pregnancy. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are “perceived to be someone else’s problem” says Shizuko Tominaga, a former health minister. The health ministry does have plenty of accurate information, and even offers it in five additional languages, all free and available at public health centers. Once a year there is even a “kenkou matsuri” or free HIV screening. In Nagano prefecture it coincides with a full check-up with interpreters on hand.
But educating the public needs to start early. Schools typically dedicate a class period year to sex education. It starts in junior high. The first year they learn about puberty, the second about pregnancy and the third about STIs. I asked why they do not dedicate more time to this subject and I was told that parents often don’t want their child exposed to the material for fear it will make them more sexually active. The education student’s get is more of an abstinence-only model versus promoting condom use and smart choices. The kids grow up to adults and still safe sex is not discussed. On top of this there is the belief that asking your partner to wear a condom is like calling them dirty. I discussed this with a lot of friends and once we got pass the uncomfortable giggles they opened up some. They confirmed all these things saying that they don’t really bring up condom use ever. One friend had never even heard about HIV and AIDS in Japan until a tiny article was printed in a local shopping magazine. None of them had ever considered being tested, stating that “it was someone else’s problem”. Those people they talk of are homosexuals and sex workers. A comment like this shows a lack of understanding about HIV/AIDS and safe sex, but I can see some of their reasoning. Sixty-three percent of new HIV infections happened because of homosexual relations. Another 23% come from heterosexual, 1% from drug use, and the remaining amount is unknown. The largest age range affected is 30-39 year olds, but among the heterosexual community it is 40 year olds and above and mainly men. Although in the foreign community it is women under the age of 30. So what experts say is that men are having unprotected sex at those special clubs we all know about, then they bring it home to their wives.

The main thing here is that while no country has figured out the best way to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Japan seems to be further behind than most people. They have access to the latest technologies and information. In spite of all of their social achievements, the problem lies in the mindset of its people. Acknowledging a problem can be hard to do, and changing minds can be even harder. A country who is facing a serious decline in population, staying quiet and uneducated is killing them.