Haha, not really! But I guess this is my fifteen minutes of fame story.
As I mentioned before, my homestay father is actually a celebrity in the Kansai region. Well today I filmed for six hours with him and his crew for a ten minute segment on his television show, which is quite well known in the area and probably more people watch than are in Minnesota.
Needless to say, I am pretty tired. I never realized that filming could be so much work.
My day began early, and I was pretty nervous and did not know what to wear, but I settled for an outfit even though I was unsatified with every single garment I own as far as it is television worthy. Which is not worthy at all in my opinion. I wore my favorite jeans, but they are kinda worn out in some, ahem, areas and when I had to sit cross legged while eating in front of the cameras I was a little worried!
So I did not realize that the filming would begin the moment I stepped out the door... but it did. As soon as I was on the stairs I saw the cameras and thought... "S***, I'm in over my head".
But camera's aside, what I was really excited about was the entire reason for the trip, introducing me to sumo wrestling. Oh my gosh, I feel so privelaged because I wasn't just watching some televised match, I was allowed to view a private practice session, shake hands with the sumo wrestlers, and (I still can't believe this) I had lunch with the top Sumo wrestler in Japan, while the lower ranking sumo wrestlers waited on us hand and foot.
That is not something just anyone gets to do.
The surprising thing is how down to earth and extremely humble the sumo wrestlers are. Watching the practice session, I was in the front row of course with the cameras watching my every reaction (which was very unnerving) and I was only a yard or two away from the ring. One poor guy fell in front of my feet. I could smell the sweat, see the blood and bruises of which there were many, and maybe a little too much considering the scant amount of clothing they wear.
Afterwards we saw, to my delight, the wrestlers in their yukata and one even used a mickey mouse towel. That made me smile.
It was a good, tiring, rare experience in Japan. And I can go to bed happy ^_^
All I can say is, sumo wrestling is brutal and I have the utmost respect for these guys.
