Andreas

Tochinowaka got into the juryo playoff. He lost, but will have his Makuuchi debut next basho. He was slower than Aran and YMY to get there, but as predicted, YMY already fell down due to health problems. Im still sure Tochinowakas career is a lot more promising than Arans. If (When) Tochinowaka reaches the Joi, he will get a nice do-beya advantage, since he wont face Tochinoshin and Tochiozan.

Tochinowaka had a major breakthrough (in my opinion) with a fine 11-4 in Juryo. He was stuck in upper Makushita for quite a while, and his promotion to makushita was kind of lucky (he wouldnt have been promoted without the betting scandal) but he seems to have adapted to Juryo very well now and will hopefully get to Makuuchi soon.

Well, those two motorcycle clubs arent officially rated as criminal yet...

Cases where people are known to be members of a criminal organization but cant be put into jail because lack of proof arent confined to Japan. For example, in Germany, the "Hells Angels" and "Bandidos", two motorcycle clubs, have been discussed in the media recently. Its known theyre into organized crime, and most of their members are known, but you cant put them into jail just for membership. Still, its easily understandable why the sumo kyokai wouldnt want any dealings with those kind of organizations.

I doubt that this is a new phenomenon... people with gread job perspectives arent looking into sumo unless theyre very successful at amateur sumo already.

As posted in this forum before, Ororas weight is the result of a chronic medical condition, so its actually rather sad. One reason why he joined sumo is that medical treatment in Japan is better than in his home town...

In my timezone, the first post was at april first, 0:10... seems somebody just couldnt wait. Punishments like this were discussed in soccer here recently (because of fan violence, soccer matches had to be held without audience).

Hey, we are all very thankful for Your "Rikishi Speakishi"! Jonosuke only posting rikishi talk on weekends has left a big gap, and Youre filling in perfectly. If this "hopefully" is not about self-doubts and quality but about avoiding conflict with Your wife, I can understand, though ;)

It could probably be translated as "my opponent has long ARMS so its difficult to grab his mawashi". The Japanese word "te" is mostly translated as hand, but can actually refer to a bigger area (up to the ellbow?) than the English (or German) word "hand".

Since Hakuho was the first one to beat him, they cant accuse him of not having been in the yusho race. I think they should promote him even if he lost his last 2 bouts, but I doubt that he will lose both of them...

Kotooshu commenting after a loss? That would be an argument for the bout being staged after all ;)

You dont need 2 hands on the mawashi for a yorikiri win...

I mentally dubbed Kaio "the yokozuna of hearts" since he is the great old man of the current active rikishi... if it was possible, Id make him "yokozuna h.c." after his retirement.

all foreigners in one heya? youre aware that wrestlers of one heya dont face each other except in a kettei-sen? foreigners would monopolize all the upper ranks...

How do they do that? Open them? (Being unsure...) Rubber gloves...