It was raining pretty heavily in the morning, so we donned coats, grabbed an umbrella and headed to the subway and Roppongi for a look around. The complex of Roppongi Hills is over a decade old, but is still considered a forerunner of modern Tokyo city design, with apartments, offices, galleries, restaurants etc rolled up into a couple of buildings. There was a great sculpture by Louise Bourgeoise of the Maman spider at the bottom of the Mori Tower.
Harriet had been excited for months about visiting the new Hedgehog cafe in Roppongi - where people can actually buy one to take home to their apartment. It wasn't cheap to hold one for half an hour, but the delight on the girls' faces was very worthwhile.
A short walk around Tokyo Midtown and the peaceful park behind - then back on the train to Ryogoku Stadium and the September bout of Sumo.
What a spectacle! Our pass was an all day one, but we arrived at 2.30pm, just in time for the second ceremony, where all the wrestlers in the next round parade around, slap themselves a bit, and walk off again. I couldn't believe how much the girls got into it. We explained the rules: 2 wrestlers enter the ring, face each other in squats, slap their cheat, stretch their legs one at a time up towards their ears, and then leave the centre circle to get some salt. This is thrown in before reentering, they both squat, then it starts with a rugby-like scrum. First one to have hands on the ground or both feet out is the loser. Some matches took less than 5 seconds, while some of the really good ones took maybe a minute. In equal parts serious and hilarious, we chose the colour we wanted to win, and cheered with the rest of the crowd. We left half way through the last round, and headed next door to the Edo Tokyo Museum for some history about the region prior to it becoming the capital. The building was really imposing - like walking into a huge airship from Star Wars; and we spent the next hour or so getting a Japanese culture lesson before it closed. Great way to spend a rainy day.
Dinner was back in Azabu-Juban at an Izakaya basement restaurant called Wara Wara, where we could order in English via an iPad. They had really good fried chicken, some mixed vegetables, rice, gyoza and teriyaki beef, all for the cheapest bill we've had so far.