Eikokurai

That’s Asanoyama?

Unfortunately foreigners in China are getting a taste of it too now. I've had people swerve to avoid me on the street, get up off their seat if I sit beside them on the subway (or they avoid empty seats near me) and overheard people in shops pointing out my presence as a warning to others. Twitter is full of similar stories to mine. Foreigners being denied entry to malls, banks, etc. They think of the virus as a Western problem now so anyone who looks Western is a potential carrier of the virus, which makes no sense as the border controls are well known. For several weeks now anyone arriving in the country has had to quarantine, so any foreigner seen on the street clearly didn't just arrive and has approval to be out. As for your friend, are you sure she was asked to quarantine because of her ethnicity and not just because she'd returned from Milan? My British coworkers at our Swiss office had to do the same after a business trip to Milan.

I’ve read that Asashoryu can get by on his English. “Go home” isn’t that advanced and the Japanese for coronavirus is just a katakana pronunciation of the English word. It’s also likely he was traveling with a translator in Hawaii who may have clarified what was said for him. This article mentions his English ability as of 7-8 years ago (third paragraph): https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2012/10/24/an-ex-sumo-wrestler-returns-to-mongolia/#d1eb4fe86ee6

True. Odd place to visit if you hate Asians though.

In Hawaii?! If any US state depends on Asian tourism, it’s that one. It also has a substantial homegrown Asian community, the largest relative to its overall population. You’d think Hawaii would be more tolerant.

I suppose whether the basho happens may be out of the Kyokai’s hands anyway, even if it’s feasible to hold it. If there are laws in place against any sort of gathering that could be enough to make it impossible, given the numbers of people needed to put on even a stripped-down basho.

Tokyo? Oh dear. Better keep the rikishi indoors and strangers outside. Nobody who doesn’t live in heya should be attending keiko, fan clubs and journalists included. Take every measure possible to limit contact with the outside and it may just be possible to put on the May basho. Most heya are near the venue and those further away can be driven so that reduces risk and sumo is quite a closed world in many ways already so it’s fortunate in that sense. Rikishi don’t go out and about over town mixing with the general public on a daily basis. They only need a few extra precautions to effectively isolate the entire Kyokai without actually having to change their lifestyles drastically.

In days gone by, an aging Yokozuna would often retire after a loss or two against their unofficial successor. Perhaps Hakuho is both laying down the gauntlet to Asanoyama and letting everyone know where his own new benchmark is. i.e. When the day comes that Asanoyama gets the better of him, he will step aside.

Why would Asashoryu want to come back to sumo in that capacity? Isn’t he a very successful multi-millionaire businessman now? Seems like a step down.

No masks? No social distancing? What is this?! Jokes aside, congrats to Asanoyama on a thoroughly deserved promotion. I only hope he doesn’t have to wait until 2021 to make his Ozeki debut.

Confirmed then. Olympics cancelled. Guess we’re stuck with Hakuho for another year.

You’re telling me. My friends and I were joking that we survived Part 1, now it’s our families turn to survive the sequel. (Part 3 of the trilogy deals with the aftermath and shows the origins of the virus.) Throughout February my family were worrying about me in China and now it’s completely flipped.

They handed the Emperor’s Cup to Hakuho and said “tournament over!”

Just hearing on the BBC radio now that Abe has told the Diet the games will likely have to be postponed.

That’s a problem that extends far beyond the Olympics. Service industries here in China, which have already suffered from lack of custom over the past two months, are hit the worst. Cinemas aren’t open and few would want to go to them anyway, some restaurants are open but not at full capacity, trains run half empty, and so on. People are getting more confident about being outside, but enough are still cautious about crowds that it’s going to have an impact for a while yet I’m sure. Service industries also can’t recover missed trade. A factory can catch up with production to a certain extent but people don’t suddenly see ten times as many movies or eat more meals to make up for those they’ve missed. That revenue is just gone. It will recover - the “victory” propaganda is starting to work on people, as I said - but I expect at least another month of dipping toes in the water, by which time it may be too late for many service businesses unless they get help. Japan needs to keep an eye on this too. SMEs rely on the Olympics for a boost in trade. If hotels and restaurants don’t get the bookings they anticipated, the no-Olympics economic knock on effect will be much worse than simply throwing away the investments the Japanese government has already made. Anyway, this might be moving us a little off topic.