Kokonoe-Beya with My British Teacher

Kokonoe-beya is a sumo stable run by a former popular and strong Yokozuna, Chiyonofuji. I visited the stable with my British English teacher, her American husband and their friend from South Africa. The stable building is quite modern and about 15 other people including children were watching the training. Today, Kokonoe's stable master and the other coach were absent so the wrestlers seemed to be relaxing; still, the matches between the Sekitori wrestlers were very exciting. — at Kokonoe-beya Sumo Stable.

Keiko-Soken with a Couple from Australia

The Yokozuna Promotion Committee is the most important sumo-related board which recommends a strong sumo wrestler to become a Yokozuna, the highest rank of sumo wrestlers. Before a tournament held in Tokyo, high ranking wrestlers called Sekitori do their morning training in front of the members of the Committee, which is called Keiko-Soken in Japanese. Sometimes it is open to the public. I guided a nice Australian couple to this event in Kokugikan Arena. Luckily, we could get a box seat near the ring. My guests and I really enjoyed their exciting matches. — at Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena.

An American Couple from Texas

A nice American couple from Texas visited my house to make sushi. The husband was really good at cooking and I learned how to dice an avocado in my hand, not on a cutting board. After the sushi party, I guided them to Ikebukuro Station through the busy Sunshine City shopping center and shopping mall. They were so interested in the many stores and crowds. Near the station there is a big specialty store selling beautiful Japanese paper with colored patterns. The wife got so excited at the many kinds of sheets of paper.

the Tokyo National Museum and Kyoto

I worked as one of the guides who took care of over 800 employees of an international company. Our guests attended the meeting held in Tokyo and a Japanese travel agent provided many kinds of optional tours in Tokyo and Kyoto. I guided my guests around the Tokyo National Museum twice and on a one-day tour in central Kyoto, where we walked from Yasaka Shrine to Higashiyama Street through Nene-no-Michi and Ishibei-koji in the morning and enjoyed making sushi at a local cooking school near Nishiki-ichiba. In the Tokyo National Museum, they enjoyed a tea ceremony in a Japanese garden behind the museum at first and then appreciated the Japanese art exhibition in the Honkan gallery.

Sushi-making with an American Family, Arashio-Beya in Ningyo-Cho, and Kasugano-Beya

I worked as a sushi instructor and guide for three days in a row.

On the first day, a family with three daughters from California visited my house after they had bought a block of tuna and wasabi horseradish with my excellent coworker. Though my kitchen was a little bit small for seven people, I had a wonderful time making sushi with them.

On the second day I guided an American couple to Arashio-beya sumo stable in Hama-cho. It was raining so hard and there was a line of foreign people in front of the stable. The sumo tournament ended about ten days ago and it was also a period of a kind of road-show so only a few stables were doing their morning training on that day. Only several visitors can enter the training room at one time and the others usually watch the training through the window facing a narrow road. Unfortunately, it was raining so the window was clouded with moisture. The visitors were allowed to enter in turn so my guests could enter and enjoy watching the training. After that I took them Amazake-yokocho, an old shopping mall. The couple was really interested in the Japanese confectionery, so they took many pictures of beautiful sweets, which depict the spring season, and they bought some traditional sweets.

On the third day, I guided a German gentleman to Kasugano-beya. After their hard training my favorite wrestler, Tochinoshin, allowed us to take pictures with him and I could touch his muscular arm.