The completion of remodeling of the Sumo wrestling arena in Kuramae, Tokyo, was celebrated in a ceremony held Saturday in the presence of more than 2,500 persons.
    The arena has been completely modernized and is ready for use in the autumn Sumo wrestling meet which starts on Sunday.

    I still did not know what a Sumo was so a Japanese friend tried to explain it to me. He described the person to me and I got as far as the fact that the person is fat. Then he described his clothes or rather lack of them, and that's where the confusion set in.
    I thought he was a woman for the only one I’d ever heard of wearing a grass skirt is a Hawaiian hula dancer and all the shaking around my friend said the Sumo does sound more like a hula dance than a fight. He finally convinced me it wasn't a hula dancer but still I didn't understand what the grass skirt-like thing was for. Then I decided it must be to chase away flies as big sweaty guy like that was sure to attract flies.
    “No,” said my Japanese friend, “it isn't to chase flies. Besides, there aren't many stands hanging down.”
    “Okay,” I said, “So there aren't many flies!”
    I couldn't get any decent explanation out of him so I went to a Japanese book and found a picture of a shimenawa. “Ah!” I thought, “this solves it! It is a Shimenawa and the book says it is used to purify places. So, the sumo wrestlers wear it to purify themselves and so they don't have to bother taking baths!”
    “No, no”, insisted my Japanese friend, “you still don't understand. Maybe you'd better go see a Sumo match.”
    Yes, maybe I’d better.

(To Be Continued)