Today I'm finally back at work. This has been a wonderful trip and I really enjoyed writting about it.
I think a trip at the other end of the world is a really good way to forget about your daily routines and see and do something new, clear your mind.
Life is too short to overthink anything. If you ever feel the urge to leave, go somewhere, do it.
Even for a short time if you can.
Thank you for following me during this Japan trip.
I'm looking forward to my next trip and I'll make sure to use this blog again for it.
I wonder where I should go next ...
As I land off in Doha it was 4:15 local time and my next flight to Paris was leaving at 8:50.
I took the bus to the transit terminal again and found my gate. At 4 am it was almost empty.
Then I waited watching Game of Thrones.
At 7 AM I still would not find my flight on the departure boards. As it turned out later it had been canceled.
But would they show delayed or cancelled on the boards in Doha ?
No! the flight simply disappeared from the boards.
So, long story short, I got to spend a few hours in the Doha airport lounge.
And then got an new boarding card for the next day.
And free hotel accommodation with lunch and diner.
Here's my room.
Here's my view
And here are the streets around my hotel.
It's a pity the flight was cancelled, I'd wanted back home today. But the Qatar staff was really friendly and the hotel accommodation is really nice, the food buffet in the hotel was awesome.
I wont get to spend a full night as my plane leaves really early in the morning tomorrow so I have to leave the hotel inn the middle of the night.
I'll make my lat post tomorrow when I get home!
Yesterday was my last day in Japan, So I woke up early around 8 AM and headed to the Shibuya Station early enough so not all the lockers would be in use. I found my locker and placed my suitcase and backpack in it and off I went.
On this last day there only one place I wanted to spend the day, Akihabara so I could walk into all the stores and see as much as I could.
I stoped at Akihabara station and went in front of the AKB48 and Gundam Cafes that were about to open.
I did not quiet understand why there were so many people at the AKB48 cafe even before it opened there were already 100 people outside.
Gundam cafe was not open yet but I never was a fan of Gundam or mecha anime anyway.
I had my breakfast at the Vie de France cafe the went into the shops were I spent all day.
At nightfall I went back to shibuya get my bags and off to Narita.
At Narita everything was closed so I could not spent my last yens on any more goodies nor gift as I was planing to. My Flight was the lasst one to leave the airport that day and it left 20 minutes early at 22h instead of 22:30. I was so tired I slept 8 hours out of the 12 hours flight to Doha.
Today is my last full day in Japan, I'm travelling back tomorrow night so my last post for this trip will be done Sunday from home. Before I came to Japan I checked out the event that were scheduled.
The Tokyo Sumo tournament was one that caught my attention so I got myself a ticket to it for today.
There are six Grand Sumo tournaments (or honbasho) each year: three at The Sumo Hall (or Ryōgoku Kokugikan) in Ryōgoku, Tokyo (January, May, and September), and one each in Osaka (March), Nagoya (July) and Fukuoka (November). Each tournament begins on a Sunday and runs for 15 days, ending also on a Sunday.
So after a good night sleep I woke up and headed strati to Ryogoku station.
I first Walk around the Tokyo Edo museum which is an impressive structure
From there I (easily thanks to the map) found my way to the Sumo Hall.
I retrieved my prepaid ticket and entered.
The hall was almost empty of spectators as I sat down, it was still morning and the tournament lasts 15 days.
The rules of Sumo are fairly simple, the winner of a sumo bout is either:
The first wrestler to force his opponent to step out of the circle ring.
The first wrestler to force his opponent to touch the ground with any part of his body other than the bottom of his feet.
Unlike most other wrestling or fighting sports there are no weight categories only sumo divisions based on skill.
As I sat down wrestlers from lower divisions were wrestling.
So , as I noticed that the wrestlers were from different weight and sizes I was trying to predict who would have the advantage as some of the fights did not seem to be fair at all.
How would a fighter weighing 100 + kilos could fight fairly one that was weighing 150 + ?
Sumos matches are not very long from a few seconds to a minute tops.
So I could see a lot of matches.
Some would push their opponent out of the ring with strength alone.
Some would fall out with them .
Then the higher division wrestlers came in as the hall was getting more crowded.
And I kept wondering as I noticed it was not necessarily the bigger nor the stronger that would win.
look at this video.
The other thing was there was a huge difference in skills (especially agility) between the wrestlers of the lower division and these.
Then it stroke me, the one that wins does not win because he is the fastest, nor the strongest of the two. Being stronger than the opponent is important of course, being faster too, so is having a good balance and being heavy. The one that always won was the one that was the smartest of the two.
Who do you think won this ?
The other thing is that sumo is really exiting to watch , all fights are different, there are lots of fight, the fights are violent , the wrestlers slap each other (often in the face) so hard that they disorient their opponent long enough to make him fall.
I was planing to stay only an hour or two but I ended up spending all the day there and see all the matches. I really enjoyed it. If you ever come to Japan during a sumo tournament go see it.
Yesterday I traveled back from Sapporo to Tokyo.
Woke up at 6, took my first train at 8:30 and arrived back in the hotel at 7 pm.
So what did I do today besides enjoying the landscape ?
Well I watched something I'd brought along.
It's a pretty good show to watch when you have nothing else to do.
It reminds me a lot of the Rome t show. I liked Rome more because of Titus Pulo, but I already knew how it would end.
At least here I don't.
