Furuya

The most infamous wound in sumo may finally heal.

One of the rare danpatsu-shiki where the retiring rikishi doesn't look ridiculous in a suit afterwards. I guess a long career as a sekitori means you can afford a suit that fits.

The new era's name will be announced on Monday April 1st, which seems poor timing from my perspective, but probably not a Japanese one. :D

I briefly spotted some rikishi at Twin Ring Motegi on the MotoGP coverage today. I didn't get a long enough glimpse at the face to ID the one who was taking photos down at the pit wall. Did anyone happen to catch who it was?

Thanks! Got so caught up trying to read the hiragana I forgot to look at the kanji...

For someone still trying to get his head around Japanese, is the noumi part noo-mi (where the -nou- is a long -no-) or is it no-u-mi?

Amazing how when you look back at your results you see all the things you obviously misjudged, yet it never seems apparent before you hit the submit button.

In my town we are lucky to still have a population of koalas within the urban area, living in a local park, and even in the backyards of some houses. There is a large native fruit bat colony nearby and I often see them flying overhead in massive swarms near dusk, as they head for their roosting sites. You don't have to wander too far from town limits before wallabies become a real threat to your vehicle, especially around dawn and dusk.

Looking back, his day 8 match was a great contest. That 2nd win is coming at some point soon if he sticks it out. He's actually improving too much to quit now.

That was a terrible call from the gyoji. Clearly Takakeisho's win.

Poor Takekaze wasn't able to salvage his KK, but coming back from where he was to finish 7-8 and save his makuuchi basho streak was impressive.

Because I know its a matter of great interest to some of the sherming9 regulars, the macaron was gold this time.

It was almost like a eulogy.

What baffles me is that if any yokozuna would be allowed the time to have surgery, heal up and return it's the first Japanese one in almost 20 years. Especially after March basho when he was being deified for his efforts. Why wouldn't he have taken advantage of that?

At least he went forward at the tachi ai and tried to grab the mawashi. He has looked like he wants to grapple more at the last basho and now in this match so maybe he's gaining some confidence and a win is not far away?