Sumo in Shinjuku: Live Bouts, Ring Challenge and Photos with the Wrestlers in Tokyo

Sumo is difficult to see properly as a visitor. The six official tournaments sell out months ahead and only three of them are in Tokyo, which leaves most travellers with a museum visit and a photograph of a poster. This ninety-minute show in Shinjuku exists to fill that gap, and it does it with working professionals rather than actors.

The venue is a hall on the second floor of a building in Okubo, a few minutes' walk from Shin-Okubo station, and the seating puts you close enough to hear the impact. The wrestlers open with the parts of sumo that are usually explained badly or not at all: shiko, the heavy foot-stamping that drives out bad spirits; the salt thrown into the ring to purify it; the long staring stand-off before the charge, which is not showmanship but a genuine test of readiness. An English-speaking MC talks through each of these as it happens, so the ritual stops being decorative and starts making sense.

Then they fight. The bouts are real sparring, and at close range the speed is the surprise — most last only a few seconds, decided by a grip or a shift of weight that you would miss entirely on television.

Afterwards the tone changes completely. Guests are invited to put on a sumo outfit and take a turn in the ring against a wrestler, which is played for laughs and is where most of the good photographs come from. Places for this are limited and drawn by lottery when more people want to try than there is time for, so treat it as a bonus rather than the reason you came. Photographs with the wrestlers afterwards are open to everyone.

A bottle of water is included, the hall is indoors, and the whole thing takes an hour and a half, which makes it easy to put either side of dinner in Shinjuku. It suits families, first-time visitors and anyone whose trip does not line up with a tournament.