Sumo
 

I am eager to watch Sumo in Tokyo during the current tournament. Is it difficult to get tickets? What is the best way to get them? How would I get to the stadium from the train station which I would arrive at coming from the north (Asahi)? Is there any problem going there alone as a young woman?
Thanks for your help.

Hi

We went to a sumo match independetly...we bought tickets at a metro station at Ginza and we took the train/metro to get out the stadium. I have written more about my experience and posted some pictures in my trip report http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm . Get in touch if you have any question.

Regards
Gard
My world map: http://gardkarlsen.com/Nikki_Gard_world_map.htm

No it is not difficult to get tickets. You can get get tickets at the window at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. The last few days of the tournament could sell out (the tournament ends on the 24th).

Your best bet is during the week.

Take the subway or train to Ryogoku station.

No, there is no problem at all for a single woman going there alone. It's family fun.

I've been to the January and May tournaments in Tokyo and got tickets at the window both times. I think it was the subway that was more convenient than the JR train. Had to ask directions from the train station but was it obvious from the subway (or maybe it was the other way around). In any case, you should find a pic of the Ryogoku Kokugikan so that you will know it when you see it.

Asahi where, what prefecture?

Bonjour Mediatorr,

Except for being wooed by a handsome Rikishi (sumo wrestler), or gaining weight through eating too much Chanko Nabe, there is absolutely no risk at all going to watch sumo, or even strolling through the streets of Ryogoku alone ;)

Mrwunrfl,

You can see the Kokugikan (and the Edo-Tokyo Museum) from the train station (on your right coming from Tokyo, on your left from Chiba).

I went to a sumo match in Osaka w/my son and would have felt completely comfortable going alone.

How wild would that be, to have a sumo wrestler make a pass at you...

Florence, you've given me an unusual visual thought for the rest of the workday.

Bonjour Emd,

A Japanese friend of mine and I were once invited in a chanko restaurant by a couple of our kendo teachers. As members of a sumo fan club, they had arranged for two junior wrestlers to be there with us, and they jokingly suggested we should marry them, big fans of sumo that we both were. The two wrestlers started giggling and blushing like the teenagers they most certainly were, and we all had a very funny evening. I might have accepted their proposition had I not already been around 40 ... ;)

Thank you all for your very helpful replies and your assurances. Actually, I was writing for my very fetching daughter (who will probably read this from Asahi, in Chiba prefecture where she is situated while her husband is working in a hospital there). Now, she can feel reassured and so can I. Leave it someone who introduces her messages with "Bonjour" to conjure up an image of my daughter and her new Sumo heartflame. I can't wait to hear about her experience at wrestling; I'm quite jealous.