Sumo in Nagoya

Hello,
I will be in Tokyo during my honeymoon in July. On Thursday 23rd, we have tickets to see Sumo Wrestling in Nagoya. What would your advice be on how we should manage our day; what time should we leave Tokyo, will we be able to see Nagoya, how long will the wrestling last, etc?
We will be returning to Tokyo on the same day.
Thank you in advance, and PS. I love your website!

Hi Vincenzo,

Could you give us a bit more info like how you intend to travel to Nagoya as the various different methods by train vary quite a bit in time to get there.
Also, what time is the match?

I would give a generic reply like Leave Tokyo very early and get back quite late =)

I just had the experience of Sumo here in Tokyo. It begins at 8am with the low level sumos and continues until 7pm (maybe later depending). You can bring your own food and beverages, which i suggest as it was a limited choice at the stadium. We arrived at noon and stayed about six hours in order to see the parade of high level sumos, the dance of the champions, and the high level bouts. It was a wonderful experience.
In regards to getting to Nagoya, I cannot help you but the tournaments are an all day thing. I believe you can leave the stadium and come back one time only. It's really up to you what time you want to arrive. Here at the Tokyo Tournament, 2 'o clock was probably the perfect time to arrive (starting at 8am might be too much sumo).

It starts early in the day, which can be of interest to people who are not familiar with sumo and its wrestlers. Fights follow each other at fast pace with no or few rituals in between, so you have the opportunity to see lots of bouts. But these are all low ranked wrestlers. Most spectators do not arrive before around 3pm.

From around 3pm, the high ranked "professional wrestlers" start to compete. There are more rituals between bouts including "ring entering ceremonies" of whole divisions of wrestlers.

From 4pm to 6pm, the highest division of wrestlers is performing. You should not miss these two hours.

The schedule of the last day is a 30 minutes ahead of the other 14 days because the victory ceremonies are held after the bouts.

Is it highly recommended to get the daily tickets in advance before going to Japan, or there is no problem to get tickets right there before entering? (talking about weekday). - me too travelling to Japan in July and interested in Nagoya Sumo event.

On weekdays, it is no problem at all to get same day tickets at the gate for balcony seats and possibly for some box seats in the back rows. But for better box seats, I recommend to make advance reservations.

Thanks Uji, that is interesting. I don't have any interest in Sumo so had no idea how the events work :)