sumojoann

Willkommen, Takaguntha! We are glad you decided to join the Forum. There are so many knowledgeable people here, you are bound to learn something new every day, as I have.

Yes.

For everyone's safety, why not tell Aoiyama to "neuter those hooters!" (I may be skating on thin ice here,,,,,,)

Making visitors have a vasectomy or tubal ligation seems kind of extreme to just be able to watch keiko. I mean, just how much mingling are the visitors allowed to have with the rikishi??

I am among many who will miss Cal. In a recent e-mail, he wrote the following -- "Next time you're feeling down, remember that life is all about perspective. I have a friend who has sex 2-3 times a day, exercises twice a day, reads two books a week, yet every day he complains about how much he hates prison!" RIP, my friend.....

I'm serious about that watch. If you magnify the first picture as much as possible, you will see that the face of the watch is covered by some weird design. No matter if it has hands or is LED, I don't see how he could read it. The design looks like tentacles!

Notice the classy little Louis Vuitton bag he's carrying (more visible in last photo). I can't figure out how he is supposed to tell the time on that watch!!

You know me too well! Ha ha!! However, I'm getting worried. See's Candy hasn't sent me a confirming e-mail or a tracking number indicating they'll be delivering tomorrow (Friday). So I may be going into withdrawal .........

The See's Candy shipment doesn't arrive til tomorrow (Friday)!! They send it by 2-Day Air.

Haha!! I knew what you meant! Besides living on Sumo Forum, do you still live in California (if you don't mind my asking)? Ordering See's online is easy. They charge only a flat shipping charge of $6.95 & they protect the candy from the heat (hopefully). They ship it 2-day air. Now internationally is another story. Several years ago, we had See's ship candy to friends in Japan and some of my relatives in New Zealand. The cost to ship ONE POUND was something like $50-$75USD (NOT INCLUDING THE CANDY!!). So that was a one-time thing.

Thank you, everyone, for your Happy Birthday wishes. My husband told me to order as much See's Candy online as I wanted and that would be his present to me. See's Candy is a California company and is my favorite American chocolate. It's never a good idea to give me carte blanche to order anything, much less chocolate. So I finished up the Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Bar I was eating and ordered the following --- One pound EACH of Assorted Chocolates, Toffee-ettes, Awesome Dark Chocolate Walnut Bars, Dark Chocolate Raspberry Creams and a Custom Box of half Dark Chocolate Scotchmallows and half Milk Chocolate Almond Caramels. They will be shared with friends and family, of course! (Limit one piece! lol) This is not really expensive chocolate compared to some. It runs $25-$30USD/pound (about 24 pieces per box). See's has stores in some cities on the West Coast of the US. When there used to be a store here in Houston, Texas, they always gave each customer a free piece of chocolate. One time we discovered that See's had a store in Tokyo!!! It was in Harajuku (don't know if it's still there). They offered us a free chocolate but then proceeded to cut it in HALF while telling us that they sold their chocolate BY THE PIECE FOR THREE HUNDRED YEN (about $3.00 USD)!!!! When I was hoping to meet Hakuho in 2014, I almost brought over a one-pound box of See's from home to give to him as a gift. But I decided on a t-shirt instead since it was lighter to carry. Later I found out he has a sweet tooth so I regretted the t-shirt. Thank you for sharing your secret, Fujisan. What a nice story!

One last thing --- I found the following information on one of Kintamayama's threads. This training regimen is very interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tochiazuma has a personal trainer - the trainer of super- featherweight boxing champion Kouji Arizawa, Furukawa Yoshikazu(??). The regimen includes running 4 kilometers of mountain trails a day, climbing 201 stairs, up and down, up and down, while wearing special socks fit for his exercise shoes. "It's really intense. But it will increase my power of endurance. Till now, I did physical strength training stuff that made me stronger, but since 10 days ago, fatigue has made me weak", he said. All morning, he went for degeiko at Musashigawa. In the afternoon he did some "repeated leaping"(反復跳び). It seems he is really going all out and almost abusing his body. Last Nagoya Basho, he was injured in his left shoulder, then his left ring finger. In the past year, he was kadoban thrice. He finally showed a semblance of a comeback with his 10 wins last basho. Now, he feels that in Kyushu, where he clinched the Ozeki berth two years ago, he can begin his tsuna (Yokozuna) run.

That's true. There are many mountainous areas in Japan, just not in this picture.

I contacted the Director of USA Sumo, Andrew Freund, on his direct line 1-310-617-9641 (a different tel #) and explained your situation. He told me he grew up in Columbia, MD. He said offhand he didn't know of a club or organizer in your general area. However, their organization receives numerous calls from all over the US asking for the very same information. He offered to try to help you find someone. He told me that you could either call him at the above tel # OR e-mail him at director@usasumo.com (either way is fine) and he can look through some of the names of the people who have called asking for help. Maybe he could find someone and then match you up. I recommend you follow up on this. I don't know Andrew either but he's always glad to help. Wishing you good luck in your quest! '

Here is a photo of Mitakeumi posted by Kintamayama. The description indicated he was doing "mountain training", keiko in the outdoors. I don't see any mountains --- looks kind of flat to me! (See description below). Mitakeumi did some "mountain training" (keiko in the outdoors) with the "young guys", as the report says. There is an airfield close by where light aircraft and helicopters were buzzing around. Mitakeumi enjoyed that, so much so that he decided to "handle" one.