After a great nights sleep we awoke to a beautiful day.  Here’s the view from our window.

As part of the package price for our room we had a a choice of five breakfast options:  Japanese & Western Buffet, American Breakfast, Japanese Breakfast, Chinese Buffet, and Japanese & Western Breakfast.  Here’s Japan’s version of the American breakfast.

First course:  green salad, fruit salad, corn soup, drinkable yogurt (w/blue cap), o.j. and coffee.

Second course:  two kinds of sausage, ham, green beans, tomato/vegee something and soupy scrambled eggs.

After breakfast we wandered around the neighborhood.  Most of Tokyo’s skyscrapers (and some of its most expensive land) are clustered here.

In 1991, when the city government moved into the massive 48-story Metropolitan Government Offices (also known as the twin towers) many started calling it shin toshin or the new capitol.  The facade symbolizes a computer chip and the construction is very earthquake proof.

Right in the midst of all these high rise buildings is Shinjuku Central Park.

Can you see the buildings rising above the trees?

Here’s an adult playground/fitness station.

And a lovely water feature.

Now that it’s after 0930 we are headed back to the Government Building where there is a free observatory atop each tower.  So up we go to the 46th floor to check out the sites of the city.   The spire is the Tokyo Tower.

In the picture below the Tokyo Tower is in the distance.  The tallest building from this angle is called the Little Empire State Building and the big grassy area in the center is the site of the stadium for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Remember the view from our window?  Here you can see our hotel below and the interesting building next door

and Shinjuku Central Park with the stone water feature across the street.

O.K.  Enough of that.  At noon we hopped the train for Hamamatsucho Station (just past the airport stop) for the highlight of our trip – the May 2016 Grand Sumo Tournament.  We got there early so we could eat lunch beforehand and along the way to our selected lunch spot we came upon

with great Chicago style Pizza and an amazing selection of some of our favorite craft beer.

Sumo is the national sport of Japan and is almost 2000 years old.  If you’ve ever wondered what this sport is all about as I have, here’s a good explanation.  https://journals.worldnomads.com/picslyrics/story/71599/Netherlands/Sumo-wrestling-explained-do-you-know-how-to-Sumo  This was a tournament of the highest ranking Sumo wrestlers in the world.  Of the 40 participants 25 were from Japan, 8 from Mongolia, and the rest from China, Georgia, Russian, Egypt and Brazil.

It seemed like the entire tournament consisted of several minutes of ritualized moves and then 1-3 seconds of actual wrestling.  Then it was on to the next duo.

So now we can say we’ve been to a Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo.