Edo, Tokyo and Sumoland

If you go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, not only do you get to learn a lot about every day life in 17th century Edo and modern pre-war Tokyo, but you can also play daimyo for a day -- or a minute. The daimyos were direct reports of the shogun, basically territory managers. Their jobs required a lot of travel, which they mostly did on horseback. But before entering a city, especially Edo, they would climb into this rig and have a couple assistants lug them in by hand to show everyone who was boss.

  

Let's go. Or maybe Game On. Whatever.

If you're lucky, you'll visit the museum on a slow day and get a personalized guide. I followed the signs for an English guide thinking it would be a pair of headphones or a pamphlet. Nope. I got Yamashita all to myself. Good guy.

Yamashita.

Yamashita said he worked in Bellevue years ago for Data IO. He loved the summers, hated the winters. Go figure. Now semi-retired, he divides his time volunteering at the museum and working as a part-time translator.

After getting big-brained about Edo and Tokyo, you can clear your head at the nearby Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo stadium and museum.

Unfortunately, there were no tournaments scheduled while I was in town and none of the neighborhood sumo stables were allowing visitors. But the museum was open and so was the gift shop. Hours of fun! Or maybe 15 minutes. In the museum you can:

See pictures of champions, past and present.

See some old posters.

Watch classic match-ups.

But try to see this sign on your way into the museum, not on you way out. Oops. Time to visit the sumo goods shop anyway.

You'll see it.

Behold the treasure...

It's a shame my suitcase was full. They don't ship. Oh, well. It's time to bid sayonara to Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo stadium and museum.

Hey, there were no signs prohibiting stalking...