Marunouchi Trip Overview
This 4 hours morning private walking tour focus on Ryogoku, a town of Sumo and Edo culture. Ryogoku has a permanent Sumo stadium, Ryogoku Kokugikan, so that 5 or 6 out of 43 Sumo stables (as of March 2017) are dotted around there. You get basic knowledge of Sumo, including finding some Sumo stables (no practice observation). Ryogoku has also the Sumida Hokusai Museum and the Edo-Tokyo Museum where you can step into the Edo culture world. The tour fee includes these two museums admission fees (about 1000yen). Edo NOREN, a facility next to Ryogoku Station, will also show you traditional Japanese foods as a culture along with the real size Dohyo (Sumo ring).
Additional Info
Duration: 4 hours
Starts: Marunouchi, Japan
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
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What to Expect When Visiting Marunouchi, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
This 4 hours morning private walking tour focus on Ryogoku, a town of Sumo and Edo culture. Ryogoku has a permanent Sumo stadium, Ryogoku Kokugikan, so that 5 or 6 out of 43 Sumo stables (as of March 2017) are dotted around there. You get basic knowledge of Sumo, including finding some Sumo stables (no practice observation). Ryogoku has also the Sumida Hokusai Museum and the Edo-Tokyo Museum where you can step into the Edo culture world. The tour fee includes these two museums admission fees (about 1000yen). Edo NOREN, a facility next to Ryogoku Station, will also show you traditional Japanese foods as a culture along with the real size Dohyo (Sumo ring).
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Ryogoku Station Gallery, 1-3-7 Yokoami, Sumida 130-0015 Tokyo Prefecture
The guide will meet you at your hotel at 8:30am and take you to Ryogoku by getting on a JR train. JR Ryogoku Satiation is really a station of a sumo town. You may be surprised to find a lot of Sumo relating displays inside the station.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Ekoin Temple, 2-8-10 Ryogoku, Sumida 130-0026 Tokyo Prefecture
Outside of the station, along the Kokugikan-Dori Street, you can see some miniature stone statues of Yokozuna (highest rank Sumo wrestlers). You can learn the stylized formation of “Dohyoiri” from the statues. At the south end of the Street, a temple “Eko-in” is located. Current style of Sumo tournaments was established in Edo era and authorized open-air Sumo tournaments were mostly held in this temple. The temple is closely related with Sumo, which you learn in the tour.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: The Sumida Hokusai Museum, 2-7-2 Kamezawa, Sumida 130-0014 Tokyo Prefecture
Then, we may pass by some Sumo stables, depending on how much you are interested in. If lucky enough, you can listen to the voices of hard practicing from such stables. (1)
Ukiyoe (wood block printing) is one of most typical culture developed in Edo, which also gave a significant impact on the western arts, especially to the Impressionist too. Especially, Hokusai Katsushika is famous and popular with its Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series. Hokusai was born in Sumida ward, where Ryogoku is located, and spent most of his life until the age of 90 in Sumida. We visit the museum to see its unique displays. (30 minutes only for ordinary exhibition, Closed on Monday)
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: Kyu Yasuda Garden, 1-12-1 Yokoami, Sumida 130-0015 Tokyo Prefecture
After about 15 minutes walking, we drop in a typical Japanese garden, Former Yasuda Garden, where you can learn how feudal lords enjoy strolling in a garden. (20 minutes)
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Sumo Museum, 1-3-28 Yokoami 1F Kokugikan, Sumida 130-0015 Tokyo Prefecture
The most remarkable spot in Ryogoku is, of course, Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo stadium). We drop in the Sumo Museum in the Kokugikan, if open, to view the sumo match video and observe the pictures of all Yokozuna (2).
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Ryogoku Edo Noren, 1-3-20 Yokoami, Sumida 130-0015 Tokyo Prefecture
If time allows and you are not too tired, we get into Edo NOREN to view the real size Dohyo as well as getting fundamental information about Sumo here. You can also get to know Japanese traditional foods there.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Edo-Tokyo Museum, 1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida 130-0015 Tokyo Prefecture
One of fantastic museums in Tokyo is the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The first view will start crossing the real width with a half-length old Nihonbashi bridge as if you step into the Edo world. You can observe and experience what Edo people did in their daily life. The museum has so many exhibition, so if the tour time is not enough, you can stay there longer with the enough advice how to get back to your hotel from there. (Closed on Monday)
*See Additional information for (1) and (2)
Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes
