Scribbler's Cafe

The Queen of Sumo

Two days ago, I became the first woman in the 100+ year history of my school to referee in the sumo tournament. I felt quite a rush when I slipped off my sneakers and stepped my bare feet onto the cool packed dirt of the dojo. Being gioji was great fun. I didn't do the whole procedure exactly right, but none of the teachers do. I did call all of the matches correctly and that's what's important. Here I am in the dojo starting a match between two first years:

The day was horribly hot and humid. No breeze blew through the dojo, so I quickly became covered with sweat and dirt. So pretty. After the tournament, I ran home to towel off and change into something not convered in grime and then hurried back to meet some of the teachers. A small group of us were treated to dinner at a very nice French restaurant. It was the kind of place where each course warranted the waiters to give us a new set of cutlery and china, even though each consisted of only about 1 square inch of decidedly decadent food lost in the center of a plate the size of a hubcap. We all drank wine and laughed and talked about our school and each other's feeble private lives. So civilized. Such a contrast from the yelling, screaming sweaty sumo tournament earlier in the day.

After dinner, We all headed over to a karaoke snack bar. The "snack" part means that it's a hostess bar, which means that there were four lovely and pleasant women refilling our drinks, twisting the stems off our cherries and yelling bravo when we finished our karaoke numbers. I love hostesses. I really do. The PE teacher had been practicing Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" so that he could duet with me. His voice is amazing, mine is just passable, but I love to sing with him. The hostesses made us all dance with each other, very funny stiff backed formal dancing. We laughed the whole time. In my honor, the teachers sang English songs - Bob Dylan and Celine Dion. I have no particular connection to these songs, but they were in English and therefore what they chose to sing for me. Very sweet.

Around midnight we split taxis home. Nice happy chatter in the back seat of the car while being driven through the lit city. None of the teachers I went out with have a very good command of English, but all can speak just a little bit. I was forced to use all my feeble Tarzan Japanese, but was surprised that we could actually maintain decent conversations. I was not isolated and I was not nervous about communicating. There were definitely some jokes that flew right past my comprehension, but otherwise I was able to do just fine. The day was long and exhausting, but highly satisfying.

posted by Scribbler @ Sunday, July 16, 2006