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Wednesday began with us heading back to Akihabara’s Electric Town for another crack at gadget buying. When we first went on Monday, I couldn’t help but feel that we missed a lot of the stores, so I wanted another chance to see more of the area. This time, we did see many more electronics stores and walked up and down the streets visiting the smaller vendors. As much as some of the gadget stores were neat to see, a lot of them simply contained spare PC parts, extension cords, cables, computer cases and the like. I somehow left empty-handed yet again, but this time, I at least feel like I saw more of the area and gave it a better try at satisfying my gadget-buying jones.

After Akihabara, we headed for the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Stadium. We had bought tickets the day before with the help of our hotel’s concierge. We arrived later in the day, around 3pm, based on her suggestion, in order to see the higher-ranked wrestlers who don’t begin their bouts until the afternoon. The arena is relatively large, with box seats on the first level, consisting of pads with which to sit on the floor, and standard, velvet-covered seats on the upper level. It’s a fairly modern arena, contrasting with the the simple ring in the center, and the traditional garb and ceremony of the sport itself.

As luck would have it, we are visiting Japan during one of only 6 tournaments held during the year, of which only 3 are actually held in Tokyo. The sport itself isn’t particularly hard to understand. Two wrestlers vie to either push their opponent out of the ring or to the ground. In the event there is a question as to which left the ring or hit the ground first, a group of judges meets at the center of the ring to determine the winner. The pageantry and ceremony of sumo is just as interesting as the actual competition itself. From the throwing of salt into the ring and the ceremonial stamping out of spirits, there is plenty to watch and take in. In all, it was a great experience and a wonderful way to take in something distinctly Japanese.

After sumo, we ate at a small restaurant near the stadium where your order was placed by inserting money into a vending machine, pushing the button corresponding to the dish(es) you would like to order, and receiving a ticket for your order. Your tickets are then handed to a server who then quickly brings your food. I had a rice dish with shredded beef and gravy, along with some sesame soup. Mindy had a pork dish with rice. Both were very good, and I think we’d both prefer to order all of our food that way from here on out if we could.

The final stop of the day was in Shibuya. This was another area long on hustle-and-bustle and short on personal space, however it was more fun than Shinjuku. The stores and shops were more interesting and the people-watching was great. Sitting on the second floor of the Starbucks featured in Lost in Translation, we could take in the controlled chaos of pedestrians crossing the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Crossings come from six different directions, all seemingly heading for the same spot in the center of the intersection. Every minute or so, the intersection fills with people, becomes a nebulous mass of humanity, and then empties again to be repeated again a minute later.

Pictures, including sumo, are in the following gallery.