By SEIJI IWATA/ Staff Writer
November 19, 2023 at 13:30 JST
Minato stable wrestlers at morning practice in front of customers at an Italian eatery in Hisayama, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Nov. 18 (Soichiro Yamamoto)
Breakfast and sumo might seem to be an unlikely combination, but that is what is being served up at a quirky Italian restaurant only for the duration of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
A glass partition separates the temporary training hall of the Minato sumo stable from chicchi richi, a breakfast-only Italian joint run by a local farmer who grows Italian vegetables in Hisayama, Fukuoka Prefecture.
This allows patrons to watch in amazement while they are eating as towering sumo wrestlers clad in “mawashi” loincloths clash with each other during morning practice sessions.
The Kyushu tournament will end on Nov. 26, so visitors still have time to savor this unusual scene.
Some customers turn up with no idea about what they are about to encounter.
Konosuke Ogawa, 12, from Fukutsu in the same prefecture, was amazed at the agility and speed of the wrestlers moving around the ring.
“It is a wonder that such a world exists behind the glass of a fashionable store,” said the sixth grader.
Akitoba, 24, a wrestler of the Minato stable, said: “At first, I was puzzled. But I thought I was going to look good, so I got into the spirit of it.”
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