Lori Made It!

After two months on different continents, Lori and I are finally together in Japan. She (and her things) made it safely to Tokyo this past Tuesday, and I met her and brought her home from Narita airport. This first week has been a blur for us both but it's gone pretty smoothly. She's been able to sleep and is chipping away at the jet-lag. She's handling it better than I ever have.

On Wednesday, she tracked down an IKEA in the suburbs, so we hit it last Friday. It may have been the biggest store either of us have ever seen in our lives. (Still not sure why it took a trip to Japan for us to discover IKEA?) The upside: We have a new table & chairs on route to our apartment.

Yesterday, we went to watch day 14 of the May sumo tournament. I was happy to see that my favorite wrestler, Kaio, is still competing. Sadly, he got his butt kicked by Kotooshuu, who pulled the old yori taoshi, or frontal crush-out. Basically, Kotooshuu floored Kaio outside of the ring -- it wasn't pretty.

Alas, our camera battery conked out before the festivities began, but we were able to snap a few shots before heading inside. The flags represent the different sumo heya, or stables. Not exactly sure who the wrestler is but he competes in the top division. A friend should be sending us the pictures she took, so we'll add those sometime soon.

P.S. The tournament wrapped up today and Hakuho won. He's Mongolian, so I'm sure my classmate Davuka will be all smiles tomorrow. Here's a link to the sumo association's website. Enjoy!