Kotoku

The guitar kind that is... My R9 Gibson Les Paul... sounds as good as it looks.<IMG SRC="http://a.im.craigslist.org/hk/55/S1kXFmTPG4nOAtMbe8byBemIK9zB.jpg">

[Well look at it this way, it's great incentive to improve the Japanese-language ability. Channel 6 news is -- on the whole -- much better anyway, although the weekend weather girl on NHK is really terrific!

See, my creds are now in total shambles. English football, thank you! I am admittedly very late to the game, and only know about it from talking to Bill Benfield and a few other friends in Tokyo. I do have a couple of buddies who are huge Chelsea fans. And they do spring for the occasional pint, while explaining all of the rules and concepts in the game. J-League is unwatchable for me, but I do enjoy the Japanese national teams matches. Rugby and Soccer Your football( :- )) just have not caught on in the U-S. It has been 17 years since I followed any American sports, although I'm still a sucker for the 49ers in American football. I enjoy Sumo, K-1 and boxing in that order. What amazes me about English football, and the game in general as played in Great Britian and on the Continent, is the power. I still get frustrated watching the dribbly passes that go no where, probably the same as you watching a ground-out in baseball. But the way the teams attack each other in Europe, the guys running like hell up the sides and the overall flow of the game behind the ball, is really amazing! It may be old hat to you, but as an absolute neophyte, I really get goggle-eyed watching. Now if we could only dump the off-side rule... oh yeah, and a team penalized with the loss of a red-carded player gets to return to full strength if the opposing team scores! -L- Tq

I have not seen any matches since January 15th, but there sure are a lot of rikishi with losing records. Seems like a few diamonds in a wide patch of rough this basho...

That's incredible Kin...

Wow, that's a relief, despite now losing my already miniscule creds regarding British football...-L- But I was under the impression that the gentleman who owns the Tampa Bay American football eam had purchased a controlling interest in Chelsea. I knew about the Russion guy... okay now I got it... it's the othr way around damn american = Manchester United, damn Russian = Chelsea. Still, perhaps I should root for Doncaster... -L- Thanks for the correction.

I am a huge fan of Asashoryu and what he is about both on and off the dohyo. Unfortunately accidents happen, new rikishi arrive and things just flat-out change. I don't see Asashoryu being focused enough to get continuous zensho for more than two tournaments. He needs to take some time off to re-energize. He is also not that big. It would just take one mistake picking someone up, and then it is chronic knee/shoulder/back problems from there on out... I hope it never happens, but no doubt there's a kid somewhere who is going to come up and be Asa's nemesis. When is the big question. In the meantime, his sumo is a thing of beauty. Can you imagine Chiyonofiji with his toku ii waza hidari-maimitsu against Asashoryu with his morozashi double-inside grip? It would make for some pretty great tachiai...

In the past, mono ii was often driven by rivalries between ichimon, which seems to have waned. I think the judging system in Sumo is supurb. They had instant replay, way before American sports...

I'm not a fan of Chiyo's sumo, and I know he used to really upset his oyakata by not working more on yotsu, but there is one thing I deeply admire about him. From the beginning, he has copied to the smallest detail, the moves of his mentor on the dohyo before and after the match. His salt pitch, the way he has his hair done, his expression after each match is virtually identical to Chiyonofuji in his prime. I went to Kokonoe Beya many times, just to hang there and watch morning practice. The oyakata and his wife were always extremely kind to me, for which I was hugely grateful. During practice, the ozeki was a horrible example for the deshi; he was merciless in his hazing. I'd watch him stuff sand in the mouths of out-of-breath jonokuchi kids til they puked. That is what he is about, IMHO. But he seems to deeply admire Kokonoe oyakata, and if you have a chance to watch some old tapes, you will see where he got his hon-basho manners. I just wish he'd not be so generous with the tape on his hands and fingers -- looks kind of silly to my eyes.

The one-day tourneys are almost all hana-zumo, especially overseas jungyo. The above post has it right -- come to Tokyo for one of the three hon basho. The kokogikan is a terrific place to watch sumo, eat good food, drink nihonshu and take naps... plus shitamachi is my favorite place in Tokyo.

I have absoulutely no idea who this guy is. I posted what I thought was a straight-up comment on Asashoryu and get all of this baloney. I love Japan, have lived there with my Japanese wife and her mom for 16 years. Whoever you are, you need to chill out...

Wow...the bile and bilge...-L- This is a Japanese site? Hmmmm... coulda fooled me, looks like English from where I sit. Kawauchi has a job 100% soley because of Glenn and myself. He'd still be arbiting -- now that's a pretty cool gerund -- his skinny butt off at Fuji if it wasn't for that program,but I digress. Soooooooo... we have here an unhappy camper named adachi-swomething who must be part of what's left of the English broadcasts... and a nasty one at that. I stand 100% behind what I posted, and I'm not gonna waste bandwidth splitting hairs with you. But really, you need to get a grip. Your personal attack on me makes you look pretty foolish... Yours for better tachiai and colder beer...

I have absolutely no understanding about what you are talking about. Would you care to elaborate? As for the (un)happy faces inserted into my thread, that's pretty interesting too. Firmly in the 21st Century, just like Annette and Bobby...

I think there are some misconceptions about sumo in this thread. First, keiko is never pretty. Any time you go to asa geiko in Tokyo, you will see far worse than what the yokozuna did. In the not-too-recent-past, young deshi would die form heart attacks on the keikoba. There hasn't been one in the past 10 years or so, but there was one in the judo world a few weeks past. Takamisakari... he has a great outside grip, but he has gotten too far into the clown routine. What was natural and appealing in the beginning is now just foolish. There are very few Japanese rikishi worth squat these days, so I think that the yokozuna was doing the koenkai a HUGE favour in reiminding everyone that sumo should be deadly serious. This kawai -- "cute" -- crap that permeates Japanese culture from top to bottom these days masks incompotence of appalling proportions. Last week, the friggin' Haneda airport control tower went out of biz for hours, because someone frogot it was running on backup batteries. The government is still spending yen like drunken sailors, and it seems a pol resigns every week or worse, kills himself, because of some discovered venality or stupidity. Sumo is or should be pure... a winner and a loser after a confrontation. That is sumo, pure and simple. Unfortunately, between the Waka-Taka circus, a bunch of "spiritless" sumo by the worst ozeki crew in recent memory and a dreary collection of foreigners -- the Mongols excepted -- who need to shave more and get some manners, and you have a particularly ugly situation at hon basho... I wrote this somewhere else: My romanji is awful, so beware of the speling...-L- If you go to asa geiko long enough, you will see some guys getting the snot kicked out of them, literally. I never really enjoyed that part, it was even worse than having to sit there under Kawauchi's baleful gaze... But I have to tell you, I was really disappointed in the level of sumo the past two-and-a-half years I was in Tokyo. Now that I am back in my California home, I don't think I'l miss the basho like I used to. The rikishi of these days -- the Japanese ones anyway -- are just awful. Their technique stinks, they have no fighting spirit and they are too fat. What is the fun of sitting through four minutes of shikari, only to see some idiot side-step and let their equally lazy opponent fall on his face. I know, we have all discussed the relative value of henka before, but that's not what fans want to see. They want action, and if they don't get it at kokogikan, then they'll watch K-1, and screw sumo. And the tremendous drop in sumo's popularity reflects the pure garbage the association is letting pass on the dohyo. There was a Japanese movie a few years ago. The star was the same actor who beat Tom Cruise senseless in "Last Samurai." The movie -- Tasugari Sebei -- and I apologize again if the romanji sucks, was about the end of the shogunate. Samurai had become salarymen. There was only one guy in their "office" who could fight, and he ended up doing their dirty work. He was poor, and a widower, but he still "had it." This is one of the best movies I have seen period, so don't miss it. I love Asashoryu's sumo cause he doesn't take the easy road. He kicks butt, period. Like most Japanese fans, I could care less about all the gimracks around the dohyo. Hey they New York Yankees, uniforms have one less pinstrip compared to the 1949 version. Not really, but would you care? Not me, I want to see a cracking good baseball game, and when I watch sumo, I want to see technique, bravery, resourcefulness and finality. Who has the most kensho, or who is the oldest yobidashi means zip if the real product is sucking eggs. I think Asashoryu -- as the sole yokozuna with no one else in sight -- should publicly smack around every one of those lazy blobs in public, starting with Miyabiyama and Chiyotaikai. Just beat them til they puke. Either they start acting like rikishi instead of matadors or get out and let some other guys have a crack at it. Otherwise sumo is doomed... YMMV Asashoryu is a true yokozuna coming from an equally honorable tradition of sumo. IMHO, you would have to go back to Kitanoumi to find a rikishi who could beat him better than 50% of the time, and even that might a stretch...

He has lost once this year, right? I think he is the most "human" yokozuna to come along in a long time, and he is in sharp contrast to Waka/Taka and Chad... plus he could kick all of their butts...

I can't understand the red skin and atrophied biceps. I think he is working on losing weight, period. Maybe if he got into the weightroom afterwards, he would shape up. He is still a very young man.

Fratricide is never pretty.