Sumo is a demanding sport requiring strength, flexibility, short bursts of power and a lack of shame in wearing brightly coloured fabrics which accentuate your massive dimpled hind quarters.
Sumo wrestlers wear wooden sandals to improve their height to weight ratio.
Most of the match involves ceremony and various poses. Barry hates it when his belly overhangs his belt, but here it is encouraged.
The goal is to push your oponent out of the rope ring, or onto the ground.
Let us pause for more ceremony, this time throwing salt into the ring.
The referees wear fantastic robes and hats to indicate supreme authority. Here you can see him ruling on a clear win.
When there is a difficult call, there is no replay, instead the judge calls upon 4 wise men. When not judging, the wise men sit ringside, with attendants who cover them in blankets, presumably to avoid getting sand up their robes. Wise men don't like that.
The stadium provides ample seating, with a notable lack of big TV screens and advertising.
We calculated that you get about 15 seconds of wrestling for every 4 minutes of ceremony. Here is some which led to a front row man being crushed flat. Note the expressions of astonishment.
The famous bow ceremony performed by the current champion.
Sumo wrestlers intimidate each other through the following leg lifting maneuver. No really, imagine seeing this in a dark alley - scary, right?
The stars gather in a sumo circle to allow for comparison of heights, weights, and colourful aprons.
The 22 cheeks ceremony is also important.
Ok, how about another action shot.
On the street, sumo wrestlers are harder to spot, but if you look carefully, you can tell by their hairdos.
Finally, this is what losing looks like.
You can tell these are Asian elephants because of their smaller ears, and the fact that we're in Asia. You can tell they're Sri Lankan elephants through the fact that they still exist, as opposed to most of Asia.
We went to the Minneriya National park which, as you can see, is the best!
The elephants come to drink and to mow the lawn.
The 1 week and 1 month old babies spent most of their time hiding from the camera.
And occasionally stumbling around.
We also saw, to much trumpeting, how baby elephants are made!
Only 7% of the adult males have tusks, and mostly females hang around in the group, since the boys just don't get along.
These ones got very close to our jeep, which made Barry scared since they were bigger than our jeep, and jeeps are not very reliable.
Barry says I included too many pictures, but look, elephants!
At the time, Barry expressed enjoyment for both of us, so I'm doing so retroactively!
Sometimes, Japan is a collection of small, inexplicable things. Like fashion slippers, direct from Rome to your hotel washroom. (What would Milan think?)
Or perhaps cream puff girlies.
The "I am with you" alien girl's eyes are larger than the cream puff heads, I figure.
We stumbled upon a pet cemetary in Tokyo. It's not as scary as the Stephen King version, but made Barry sad.
Speaking of pets, Gloomy is Pity's pet bear, and he likes to go berzerk and kill people. We've seen him show up in Engrish 
Speaking of berzerk, below is when not to be a drunkard.
But if you're not feeling as hot as the pink-haired girl, try Shape Up Gel, which cures ugly body.
If you're looking for something simpler, perhaps just make bath time your pleasant time.
Personally, I prefer the cow rains, since they're simmered in bowl and all.
Barry, on the other hand, works out a lot and he needs extra salt.
We went to the 
A salt ship!
After all that, I got hungry. How about some beef barbequed on a leaf with special miso?
Barry prefers eel mixed with rice, wasabi and onions, it never fails.
Some times in your life that are more Japanese than others.
During these times, it's best to stay in a traditional Ryokan hotel. 
I wore appropriate attire and contemplated the tree in the tree contemplation nook.
Then Barry, too, got more Japanese.
With the contemplation complete, it was time for some Ryokan eating. You get so many pretty and small dishes that afterwards your stomach is as sore as your legs under the short table.
After this experience, things around us started to get more zen.
The next day, we upped the ante and moved to a Ryokan with a private hot spring bath called a Rotenburo.
With a view of the misty mountains.
Filled with even more Japanesely relax, it was time for more eating. Here is Barry and cuttlefish.
