Party, sumo, and more

 On Saturday evening Sean’s friend Hiro hosted a welcome party for us at his bar. All of Sean’s Tokyo family of regulars was there (the bar was not open to the public ) and each had contributed something to the party. Most of it was very good (though the gizzard skewers weren’t for me, I know my dad loved gizzards). Hiro made Dave, Milo and I each a deluxe hamburger (but no one else). He provided iced tea for Dave, Calpis for Milo, and beer for me. It was wonderful to meet all of Sean’s friends - the older gentleman made a point of telling us they all loved Sean and he wasn’t alone. 

Milo stayed with Sean that night as the plan was to go to a street racing meeting- they went but unfortunately the police had closed it down before they arrived.

On Sunday we moved hotels to the Gate Hotel Kaminarimon where we had stayed in 2016 and Dave wanted to repeat the experience- it is right by the Kaminarimon gate to Senso-ji shrine, so was still hopping on Sunday which was the second day of the festival.

After dropping our luggage we took the subway to Ryogoku Kokugikan - we met up with a tour group and Michiko told us about Sumo traditions and rules, gave us a little tour of arena, and led us to our chair seats. The ringside first level seating is all Japanese style (floor) seating, we were on the second level with regular stadium chairs (but small). Once we knew what was going on it was actually very entertaining. We saw one up and coming sumo guy win a match against someone about 100 pounds heavier (there are no weight classes in sumo). 

The subway/train trip there tired Dave and I out with a lot of stairs (and no escalators or elevators) so we took a taxi almost back to the hotel - the festival precluded the taxi from dropping us in front. 

Today we walked through Senso-ji where the crowds had diminished to the normal amount and we could actually see the stores and temple. 

This afternoon Milo braved Tokyo public transport on his own to go to a point where Sean, Hiro and Ran (Hiro’s girlfriend) could meet him and drive him to RWB garage: RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF who hand makes custom Porsche bodies for exorbitant amounts of money and who Milo first learned about playing car racing video games. The garage was not actually open (contrary to its website) but there were 3 cars out that Milo could see and photograph. Then the group went go-cart racing and played racing games in an arcade. Then ate and brought Milo back to the hotel.

Dave and I rested our tired bodies, went to ramen cafe for lunch and hotel for dinner.

We all had a good day.