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Around noon, it is finally time to eat. Meals in the stable are called chanko, and generally consist of a common pot of stew with bowls of rice. Chanko meals are nutritionally charged with meat, fish and vegetables to help wrestlers put on weight. Food from the pot goes down with lots of rice—two to five large bowls of it per person. Each rikishi puts away several times what an ordinary person eats. In fact, eating a lot is an important part of the training regime.
Kotofubuki, a jonidan wrestler, says, "Mealtime is the most enjoyable time of the day, because that's when we all have a chance to chat and joke."
It was Kotofubuki's turn to go to the nearby supermarket to buy food for the chanko-nabe meal after the training session, while the others had time off. Kotofubuki began training after graduating from junior high.
That was 11 years ago. He is from Osaka, and is 26 years old.
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The "young fellows" decide on the daily menu and make the meal, keeping a careful record of the ingredients to make sure that the food provides a nutritional balance over time.
After eating, they nap until 4 p.m. Sleeping after a tiring workout and a meal also helps them gain weight. After the nap they clean the stable and prepare supper—another chanko meal served at around 6. Then they are free to go out. But most of them watch TV or chat in their rooms (the "young fellows" sleep 10 to a room, their seniors have private rooms). Lights-out is at 10:30, and staying up late is forbidden because the next day's practice comes early.
In this way, the wrestlers prepare for the competitive world of sumo, and receive discipline in the rigors of life. They are following sumo-do, the Way of Sumo. 
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