warusawa 23 Posted January 7, 2011 (edited) Kind greetings to all. I registered at Sumoforum.net today. I live in the US, but travel to Japan on business and pleasure quite often (three times in 2010). In November 2010, my vacation trip coincided with the first live sumo tournament I had a chance to watch (on TV, not in person). So we (me and wife) arrive at the Kanazawa JR Station and head straight to the Tourist Information Center. We ask the guy about how to get to our ryokan, etc. So far so good. But I did not think our ryokan would have a TV, so I ask the guy where we can watch the sumo tournament on TV in town. I had a sports bar in mind (not realizing that there is really no such thing in Japan). He goes: "Sumo? You want to watch sumo???" He was startled to say the least. The long line of tourists behind us is starting to get pissed because they have more urgent matters to talk to the Tourist info guy about. He suggested going to a restaurant which has a TV and asking to change the channel to NHK. Good luck with that, I thought, a couple of gaijins not speaking a lick of Japanese barging in and demanding sumo coverage in a restaurant. Luckily, our ryokan had a TV in our room, and the rest is history. I am looking forward to learning more about this great sport, and also how to catch it on the Internet live! Warusawa Edited January 7, 2011 by warusawa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Washuyama 662 Posted January 7, 2011 Welcome and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. I've been a sumo fan for 36 years (lived in Japan twice) and the folks here have sumo knowledge that leave me in awe!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Asojima 2,874 Posted January 8, 2011 Welcome to the forum. Many people here will be more than happy to help you discover the joys of sumo. To view the matches live on Windows Media Player or an equivalent, use this link. Real Player and other players will also work with this link. The latter one is an mms: link which is supposedly no longer supported by WMP 11. The links will return a connection error message in the player until the video is activated each night by the Sumo Association. This may happen sometime between 2PM and 4PM Japan Standard Time (JST). Start times vary greatly between bashos and between days of each basho. Once activated, the video will remain available until after the final match of the day. An alert post is normally posted on the forum within minutes of activation on each day. If you have TVJapan available on a cable or satelite service, you can also watch the NHK broadcast live and, in some areas, with an English sound track. Other internet viewing options may become available during the basho. Most are pirated captures of the NHK signal, and they tend to come and go as they get discovered. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warusawa 23 Posted January 9, 2011 Welcome to the forum. Many people here will be more than happy to help you discover the joys of sumo.To view the matches live on Windows Media Player or an equivalent, use this link. Real Player and other players will also work with this link. The latter one is an mms: link which is supposedly no longer supported by WMP 11. The links will return a connection error message in the player until the video is activated each night by the Sumo Association. This may happen sometime between 2PM and 4PM Japan Standard Time (JST). Start times vary greatly between bashos and between days of each basho. Once activated, the video will remain available until after the final match of the day. An alert post is normally posted on the forum within minutes of activation on each day. If you have TVJapan available on a cable or satelite service, you can also watch the NHK broadcast live and, in some areas, with an English sound track. Other internet viewing options may become available during the basho. Most are pirated captures of the NHK signal, and they tend to come and go as they get discovered. Thanks for the welcome and info. Watched the last seven makuuchi bouts last night on Asojima's link. Very cool. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warusawa 23 Posted January 13, 2011 I have a few general (and maybe mundane) questions to ask about sumo. What is the best sub-forum to ask these questions? I don't want to clutter the honbasho forum which has some amazing info... :-) warusawa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Asojima 2,874 Posted January 13, 2011 I have a few general (and maybe mundane) questions to ask about sumo.What is the best sub-forum to ask these questions? The Ozumo Discussions is best for general sumo questions. Use Honbasho for questions/comments about the current basho. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fujisan 537 Posted January 24, 2011 Hi Warusawa and a late welcome to the forum from me.....(Busy with the basho) Chuck in your salt (Sign of approval...) and join the fray..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
