Saturday May 15, 2010

Today was cool. We visited the temple. It was a cultural shock for me. I saw men in kimonos and diapers. The temple was very extravagant. There was so much stuff going on.  On the way to the temple there were several shops everywhere. The people participated in cultural rituals. I saw kids banging on drums giving thanks to their ancestors on their way to the temple. Also I saw a group of men and women carrying ritual things to the temple. They were all dressed in ceremonial outfits and special shoes for marching to the temple. On the way to the temple there were all sorts of vendors that sold everything you could imagine and more. I found lots of souvenirs for my friends and family. I was a little disappointed at the fact we couldn’t actually go inside the temple since we had done all that walking to get there. But it was cool the experience of it all and to say the new cultural experience.

Later that day we went to see the Sumo wrestlers. They weren’t as big as I expected them to be. It was cool that I got to see them in real life then just watching them on television or movies. There are a lot of rituals that go into to Sumo matches. They take a lot of breaks to read off and show these scrolls to the audience. The matches don’t really last long they are usually over in 15 seconds. If it’s a real intense match then it will be over in 30 seconds. At the match I tried this new to me flavor of ice cream which was cappuccino.  At the time I thought it was chocolate to I began to eat it.