I think I may have found the sport for me. While Japan’s national sport is most definitely baseball, with soccer a close second, sumo is one of the oldest sports in Japan, dating back 1500 years, with origins in the Shinto religion.

I went to my first sumo wrestling tournament in Osaka in March. I initially went for the novelty of it—who wants to see very large men in very large loincloths? I do!—and I left the tournament with newfound respect for the sport, as well as my own pick for my favorite sumo wrestler (everyone needs a favorite sumo wrestler).

Each year, there are six major sumo tournaments in Japan. The Osaka Grand Tournament lasts for 15 days, with prizes awarded on the last day. I went on the second-to-last day. The matches are held from 8:30 AM to 6:00PM, and you can show up at any time, until the doors close at 5PM. It’s a family event, and you can bring your own food to snack on.

Here we come to Sumo 101. The basics:

Sumo wrestlers wrestle on a platform called the dohyo, which is made of clay and covered with sand. A roof that resembles a Shinto shrine hangs over the dohyo. On top of the dohyo is a low circle of rice-straw bales, which form the wrestling ring. The object of the match is to either force the opponent to step outside of the straw circle, or to force him to touch any part of his body, besides the bottom of his feet, to the ground inside the circle.

Each day of a tournament, the lowest-ranking sumo wrestlers wrestle first, with the highest-ranking one, the yokozuna, wrestling at the end of the day. There is currently one yokozuna, a Mongolian wrestler named Hakuho. (Note: Until recently, there were two yokozuna, but the other yokozuna, Asashoryu, retired in February after a scandalous drunken brawl.)

As you might expect from a 1500-year-old sport, there are a lot of rituals to sumo. Here’s how a basic match works:

1) Before each match, the referee, who wears a traditional samurai-style kimono, calls off the names of the wrestlers. He actually sings their names, in a very drawn-out, old-school way, so drawn-out that it was often hard for me to understand which names he was calling.

2) After the wrestlers come to the dohyo, they rinse their mouths with water, to purify themselves. They also lift their legs up high on each side, and stamp down their feet. This is supposed to help drive evil spirits from the dohyo. It’s really quite amazing to see this in person—they are so big, but they do this ritual with such flexibility.

3) The last main ritual that wrestlers do before the match is to throw a handful of salt onto the dohyo. This ritual is reserved just for higher-ranking wrestlers, and it's done to purify the ring. Apparently, the more salt they throw, the more confidence they show against their opponent.

(Note: I saw one wrestler practically throw a huge fistful of salt towards his opponent’s face, which prompted my fellow companions and I to exclaim things like, “Damn, someone's feeling feisty!”)

4) After the initial rituals, the wrestlers face off in the middle of the ring. They squat and glare at each other, then leave their positions to throw more salt. They do this a few more times, building excitement in the audience (and, I’m sure, adrenaline in themselves), until they both finally feel ready to wrestle.

Then, they wrestle.

5) The most surprising thing to me about the actual wrestling is how fast it is. Just a lot of slapping and grappling, and it’s usually over in seconds—maybe a minute or two at the most.

It’s very satisfying, how quick the matches are, and what a simple sport it is—not in terms of skill, of course, but in terms of the lack of tools or complex rules. It’s really just two big men, trying to knock each other down.

My favorite sumo wrestler? His name is Baruto. At 6 feet, 6 inches tall, Baruto is ginormous. He towered over his opponent in the match that I saw (here he is, the big fellow on the left).

Young Baruto is 25-years-old and comes from Estonia. He won the match that I saw that day, of course. His overall score by the end of the Osaka Grand Tournament was 14-1, and he did so well that, after the tournament, he was promoted to the ozeki rank, which is the second-highest sumo rank after the yokozuna level.

I know how to pick them, don’t I?