I Heart Fukuoka

One of the best things about living in a place where everyone knows who you are and theres more rice fields than restaurants is leaving it and enjoying the city in all its polluted, busy, annonymous glory.
I especially like Fukuoka now that i know where the best restaurants,hotels and shops are (plus the people are way freindlier than Hiroshima) Although theres a lot of us ghost faces, I was well chuffed to be recognised by the staff last weekend at 2 places that me and sarah frequented over the summer (one with a nice "hisashiburi ne!" and the other with "ah-killers!!" remembering the t-shirt I wore last time!!) We had an ace chilled out night on Friday (ending up hammered as all "calm" night do) and got quite over-excited for the sumo. The atmosphere was amazing even outside with the big dudes wandering around in dressing gowns (sorry-traditional garments) and millions of souveneers (sumo tissues anyone?) to be sold as well as sho-chu and bentos-a quitessential Japanese experience. Being a sumo wrestler looks like a bloody cushy job to me-you fight for a total of two minutes at the most and get paid shitloads to be a big beefer. Some interesting facts about sumo...
-the wrestlers sleep after they eat to encourage weight gain
-women are not allowed toplay or even in the ring as it would "anger the gods"...
-...which is why sumo cant be a olympic sport.
-The mongolian one is strangely attractive
I was glad I bothered to watch this in Japan, it was spectacle worthy of a weekend and about as far away from the English sporting attitude of swearing at the ref and eating pies as possible.