Grand Sumo Tournament in Hawaii 2007

SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN POSTINGS BUT I'VE BEEN BUSY WITH WORK RECENTLY. Picture this . . . two half naked sweaty men, each weighing over 300 pounds, grabbing each other's underwear while doing pelvic thrusts together. Sound like your idea of a good time? Probably not, unless you're watching the Grand Sumo Tournament in Hawaii 2007! The Japan crew attended the Grand Sumo Tournament a few weeks ago, the first time since 1993 that the world's top sumo wrestlers faced off in Honolulu, Hawaii. While there were no Hawaii wrestlers in this tournament, it was still pretty exciting to watch.

For the uninitiated, Sumo wrestling is the national sport of Japan. It involves individual matches between two rikishi or Sumo wrestlers. The wrestlers are dressed in mawashi which look like colorful thongs attached to really big belts. They wrestle each other in a small dirt ring, doing their best to push the other wrestler out of the ring or make them fall down using hand thrusts and throws. One of the more popular foreign Sumo wrestlers right now is Kotooshu from Bulgaria. (That's him in the above picture on the right.) In a relatively short amount of time, Kotooshu has already attained the rank of Ozeki, or "champion" which is the second highest rank in Sumo, just below Yokuzuna.

Usually Sumo tournaments are held for 15 days, with the winner of the tournament being the wrestler with the best winning record overall. Because the Grand Sumo Tournament in Hawaii was held for only two days, it was conducted as two separate nights of "sudden death" elimination matches. Lose your match and you were out, win and you continued on. The two semi-finalists on Saturday night, Asashoryu and Hakuho, each wrestled four matches before finally getting to wrestle each other for the championship. The Grand Tournament ended it's first night with Asashoryu wining the event. In the above picture he is awarded the Mayor's Cup by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman.