As part of our summer school program, 21 summer school students went to Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya City for Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament with Professor Setsuko Sato of the Faculty of Education, and 9 international students from Japanese Language & Culture Studies course, on Thursday afternoon, July 17.
Participating students had a lecture on sumo from Associate Professor Shingo Hashimoto of International Student Center on the previous day of the tournament, and learned about sumo and sumo wrestlers in advance.
The students looked fascinated with sumo banners that they had never seen and soaked up the atmosphere of the sumo arena. They were excited to watch a ring entrance ceremony of yokozuna (the highest rank in sumo) and gave a cheer for sumo wrestlers while watching exciting sumo matches. Osunaarashi from Egypt scored an upset win over a yokozuna wrestler on a match, and that triggered uproarious applause from the crowd. The students headed back home after watching the bow-twirling ceremony held at the end of a day of a Grand Sumo Tournament. This sumo watching was the final program event, and we finished all Japanese culture experience program events for 2014 summer school.
Summer school closing ceremony and farewell party are held on Wednesday, July 23.