Tsuchinoninjin

Some of the tea houses are still operating, maybe that’s one of the ways. Gonna be expensive though…

My personal experience in kyuushuu’24 (so take it or leave it) was that most individuals arriving to nearby masu were very clearly introducing themselves to their seat mates for the very first time. Mid Juryo was ok, but a couple matches into makuuchi there was enough mixed masu that there was a socially awkward atmosphere permeating the festivities, which I have never felt before in any situation in Japan. Two specific instances was one masu ended up being mixed gender and the guys were trying to make it into an impromptu goukon. The other was one guy brought a ridiculous amount of shopping bags mid makuuchi, and the couple that had been there since makushita were obviously exasperated. On the flip side the average age in these masu was really low which is good for sumo. NSK is also trying the carrot. For a lot of the seats you got playmoney to use in the oyakata shop when the tickets were delivered. But this doesn’t really solve the problem because people WANT to buy tickets direct, they all just get sniped quick. A lot of ticketed events in Japan have gone to a lotto system, NSK has the fan club fee. Not sure what’s best but the fee could be a net negative if the scalpers can easily recoup Yokozuna tier fee and people who actually want to go aren’t interested in paying a priority fee. Tickets are also quite cheap compared to a lot of things, especially a sports event that gets 20% tv viewership share (not that I’m complaining…)

Akio is always going to stick to his personal connections I suppose. I don’t think BMW is going to appeal much — only to the ji-sans who drive around wearing fingerless gloves.

The YDC said some unhappy things, which made many other people unhappy. Then even more people became unhappy due to those people. I don’t know what this feeling is, but it feels comfortable or right. Terunofuji has a lot of friends and it always showed.

This is a YouTube “feature” that is automatically done these days. Very annoying if watching videos in various languages. Apparently they strongly believe people can only learn one language.

Two months to return from open ACL surgery, yeah ok. I’m also selling a bridge to Oitekaze oyakata. Should have just fixed it properly the first time. It’s such a ridiculous premise that I’m fairly convinced this is for QoL improvement for a post retirement plan. He’s done on the dohyo.

This is pretty common in Asia, I notice it both for Japan and China. Especially China, sometimes half the actors will have VA dubs for their speaking lines. Especially if the actor doesn’t speak the capital dialect/pronunciation. I guess nobody reports on it because it is normal.

https://www.nikkansports.com/m/battle/sumo/news/202506060001822_m.html Something something akio-San maybe is or is not going to be involved with ama sumo soon along with Hakuho . Maybe we will see a strong Toyota corporate team? Is the sponsorship of parade car already done and dusted? I wonder if NSK thought they just be dealing with a paper cult like Takanohana and maybe aren’t ready for this kind of back blast.

Coming up on 2 decades now and I have to say my experience has been quite different! Been able to carve out a few new operational pillars and a good chunk of opportunities (inversely proportional to sumo games participation though …)

One under appreciated aspect is a dai yokozunas koenkai is full of powerful outside-NSK people and I doubt the NSK has good feelings towards trying to integrate that cadre of people with existing supporters while trying to maintain status quo. I was really hoping it was going to work out. I suppose he should have established the heya in the mountains of Nikko, I’m appreciating the benefits of public facing oyakata putting their heya in the middle of nowhere now.

It might be just a practical thing, with fewer low rankers around it becomes a pain to get all the tsukebito stuff setup just for it to be somewhat pointless a couple months later and set up the tsukebito for ANOTHER new guy. Along with individual room and other perks… Returnees can easily restart the framework that was previously set up for them. Of course this could all be eased a bit by introducing a quarter step of perks and pay in makushita joi

As long as there hasn’t been a recent gambling scandal in the NSK, we are ok

What happened to Aonishiki’s skin? It looks like he fell off a motorcycle or something.

Sanyaku and joi scores are reminiscent of the 6 ozeki days

I want to complain to no one about how ironic it is that I watch so little sumo when I’m in Japan compared to being elsewhere. There’s never a tv available at nomikai