Kakuryu on Twitter, FB

[Seiyashi 4,108]

Great to know - I'll certainly check out buysumotickets. Access to jungyo and danpatsu is certainly a very big plus in my book.

Sept 30 - if that is 2023, it might be Chiyootori's.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Seiyashi

[sumojoann 1,268]

9 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

Great to know - I'll certainly check out buysumotickets. Access to jungyo and danpatsu is certainly a very big plus in my book.

Sept 30 - if that is 2023, it might be Chiyootori's.

If I recall correctly, it's Sept 30 of this year.  Aren't there several danpatsu that had to be postponed due to Covid?  It's probably one of those.

buysumotickets.com is fantastic!  Jeff knows that my husband used to go the the Nagoya basho every year so he would always contact us when he was about to start taking pre-orders.  He never just waited for us to contact him.  If you have a question, they usually answer right away, sometimes in less than an hour!  100% accuracy in all my tickets.  I've only been to one basho (Sept 2014), but I bought 8 tickets for me and 3 for my husband.  Jeff will try his best to get you the seats you want but if he can't, he asks you ahead of time to tell him your priorities -- do you want to downgrade to a lesser seat on the same day OR do you want him to try another day?  He's very detail oriented.  I can't say enough good things about him.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

I know Kotoshōgiku and Sōkokurai are 1st and 2nd Oct, but not 30 Sep?

Edited July 4, 2022 by Seiyashi

[rhyen 1,846]

1 hour ago, sumojoann said:

I agree with you that you can wing it but only if, like you said, you've been to Japan before and are familiar with getting around and have a flexible schedule.  But for someone like Yamanashi who has never been to Japan before, a lot of pre-planning is essential, as you mentioned, in order to have a dream holiday.  Even booking a hotel requires pre-planning, especially if you want to stay in a budget hotel close to the Kokugikan during a basho.  I can certainly understand that you like to wing it and can generally be successful at it.  I must admit that I'm the pre-planning type as is my husband, even though we've been to Japan several times.  We don't want to risk missing out and then being disappointed.  Before the pandemic, there were occasions when an entire Toyoko Inn (business hotel) was booked by a Chinese travel agency so no rooms were available even 6 months ahead of time!

Regarding buysumotickets.com, even before the pandemic, Jeff began offering to help customers obtain tickets to baseball & soccer/football events.  He is now offering tickets to NJPW and other pro wrestling events.  He has always, or at least for a long time, offered tickets to danpatsu-shiki as well as jungyo events.  I looked at his site just now & he's offering tickets to a Sept 30 danpatsu-shiki event.  He's also offering tickets to what I think are jungyo events in Aug in several cities, and also tickets to the annual sumo charity event in Feb 2023.  A Japanese friend of mine (lives in Japan) buys his ticket to the basho from buysumotickets.com because it's so convenient.  I'm sure it's been tough to keep afloat during the pandemic, but by diversifying, he's managed to stay in business.  Plus he's honest and 100% reliable.  A thought just occurred to me.  Another crucial factor that I'm sure has helped his business is the fact that he ships tickets to people's homes and businesses.  By using his services, the Japanese wouldn't have to go anywhere (and be exposed to Covid) to purchase their tickets -- just wait for them to come in the mail.

Regarding the food, yes, you're right about being able to find good affordable food at and around train stations.  And as you of course know, there's a JR train station very close to the Kokugikan with a street right around the corner with numerous little inexpensive places to eat.  Also a couple of convenience stores.  Even a multi-story McDonald's (try their teriyaki burger.  It's good!).  That's great that you have a friend who could give you a list of good places to eat.  Can't beat that!

Now if Japan would just open up to tourists .................................

 

For FITs, not this year. 
 

Japan doesn’t have a nationwide tracking/tracing app for COVID like  South Korea or Singapore. All contact tracing is done manually.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

3 minutes ago, rhyen said:

For FITs, not this year. 
 

Japan doesn’t have a nationwide tracking/tracing app for COVID like  South Korea or Singapore. All contact tracing is done manually.

Bollocks. No good results from the test tours even with the strict chaperoning, then?

[rhyen 1,846]

The whole point of the tour group is to “bubble” the tourists so that they don’t mix too much with the general populace and infect the elderly (bus transportation vs public transportation, etc).

[sumojoann 1,268]

7 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I know Kotoshōgiku and Sōkokurai are 1st and 2nd Oct, but not 30 Sep?

Did Aminishiki ever get his danpatsu?

[themistyseas 242]

On 03/07/2022 at 07:21, Seiyashi said:

I mean yes, ozumo is only on about a quarter of the year, but surely a danpatsu is just a much rarer event. Only when the two are classed together as just generically sumo does the part about increasing your chances of seeing sumo make sense. That said, it does suggest that to the "casual buyers" of danpatsu tickets they don't see the distinction or in a sense appreciate the full import of it, at least not at first.

 

11 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Do they also happen to provide tickets for danpatsu shiki, or is that too niche a sideline to bother with?

Sorry I buried the lede a bit in the Tachiai post, but you've just connected the dots there. To bring it back to Kakuryu, basically there's a little bit of a hole in danpatsushiki marketing. It's an intentional hole, because obviously the casual cultural "fan" who will usually struggle to understand a day of sumo will certainly be lost on what exactly the intai-zumo event will entail. However, it does widen the gap for when a foreign fan/cultural consumer can experience sumo, because of course it's not like most (normal) people plan their trips to Japan only in the middle two weeks of odd numbered months (unless you are a sociopath who went to five basho in 2019 and I definitely wouldn't know anyone like that).

So from the interview I did for the site, I learned danpatsushiki was a big event for tourist tickets. In the "before times," honbasho tickets were completely sold out almost all of the time as you mention, unless you get the same day tickets at 5am. Danpatsushiki is one of the few events that actually requires them to set up additional marketing venues to be able to sell the place out and get the fullest benefit to the rikishi and his family. My own reading into this is that during a basho, especially during moments of extreme popularity (ie Kisenosato promotion era), it was a question of how many tickets would actually be available on the secondary market through a broker. For these retirement events, it seems there is much more stock available and the stables are probably much more open to working directly with third parties who can help them fill it out, given all of the effort they take both in physical and (per the post topic) digital marketing. Maybe Kakuyu has suddenly discovered an overwhelming desire to tweet, but I would imagine it's even more important now for them to find ways to shift tickets without tourism (whether they like it or not).

If you're just a fan reaching out to a ticket broker, you might not understand that it's hard to get a ticket for sumo on senshuraku or what the final weekend of a sumo tournament is, but it stands to reason if there's an event a couple days later at Kokugikan that many more tickets are available for, and it might come with souvenirs, then there are more tourists who will go "oh ok i'll go see sumo that day instead."

[sumojoann 1,268]

7 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I know Kotoshōgiku and Sōkokurai are 1st and 2nd Oct, but not 30 Sep?

I sent an email to Jeff at buysumotickets.com regarding which wrestler is retiring on Sept 30 & he said Kotoshogiku.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

4 hours ago, sumojoann said:

I sent an email to Jeff at buysumotickets.com regarding which wrestler is retiring on Sept 30 & he said Kotoshogiku.

Ah. Might be a time zone difference thing...?

[Seiyashi 4,108]

5 hours ago, sumojoann said:

Did Aminishiki ever get his danpatsu?

Yes, 29 May this year. I commend this thread to your attention 

[Stupidface 34]

On 02/07/2022 at 10:45, sumojoann said:

Yes, I agree that adding your country access code (prefix) is not unusual.  However, when you are inside Japan, I believe you always dial a zero before the telephone number, at least in the larger cities.  When you call from outside Japan, you drop the zero before the telephone number.  In this case, I'm referring to the zero in front of the 3.  The telephone number as shown on Facebook has dropped the zero (before the 3), leading me to conclude that either whoever set up this Facebook page is expecting to receive calls from outside Japan or not expecting to receive calls from within Japan.  OR, a mistake was made & the zero was accidentally left off the Facebook page.  (I'm a retired AT&T employee with 27 years of service.  Please excuse my focus on such details!). 

In any case, the key tip-off that the Facebook account was NOT set up by Kakuryu himself is "event planner" listed next to his name at the top.  Like you, Stupidface, I would like to hire him for my next "event!" lol  But yours would be higher priority than mine!

Aww you're too sweet, I'll let you know how he turns out! 

[Asashosakari 19,682]

On 05/07/2022 at 07:15, Seiyashi said:

Ah. Might be a time zone difference thing...?

Yeah, with one's device set to a time zone of UTC-2 or lower, the BuySumoTickets site inexplicably changes the displayed event dates in their Sumo Special Events section.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Asashosakari

[Seiyashi 4,108]

6 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

Yeah, with one's device set to a time zone of UTC-2 or lower, the BuySumoTickets site inexplicably changes the displayed event dates in their Sumo Special Events section.

It makes sense for digital events where you do need to account for other time zones, but it doesn't make that much sense for physical events where attendees would be on one time zone anyway. 

[BuySumoTickets 27]

Sorry, I screwed up with the date for Kotoshogiku! His ceremony is on October 1st. I've got the flyer in front of me now. I don't know who would be on September 30th, but they've never had a ceremony at the Kokugikan on a Friday in my time dealing with these, so if there is one it would probably be for a lower-tier rikishi at a hotel or something. I wanted to come here and apologise personally for any confusion that my incorrect response to Joann caused. I'm embarrassed about that.

Nobody has requested tickets for Kotoshogiku's event yet because of the border situation, so my brain isn't as sharp about dates as it normally would have been. When the border opens, I should be back to my old self and ready to answer questions about these more correctly.

Apologies again.

Edited July 17, 2022 by BuySumoTickets

[sumojoann 1,268]

5 minutes ago, BuySumoTickets said:

Sorry, I screwed up with the date for Kotoshogiku! His ceremony is on October 1st. I've got the flyer in front of me now. I don't know who would be on September 30th, but they've never had a ceremony at the Kokugikan on a Friday in my time dealing with these, so if there is one it would probably be for a lower-tier rikishi at a hotel or something. I wanted to come here and apologise personally for any confusion that my incorrect response to Joann caused. I'm embarrassed about that.

Nobody has requested tickets for the event yet because of the border situation, so my brain isn't as sharp about dates as it normally would have been. When the border opens, I should be back to my old self and ready to answer questions about these more correctly.

Apologies again.

Please don't feel bad.  In all the years I've known you, this is the first time I'm aware of any mistakes you've made.  You're very reliable.  Thanks so much for the correction.

[BuySumoTickets 27]

On 07/07/2022 at 12:58, Seiyashi said:

It makes sense for digital events where you do need to account for other time zones, but it doesn't make that much sense for physical events where attendees would be on one time zone anyway. 

You and Asashosakari were right about this, there was a time zone issue with the site. Thanks for pointing it out. The content management system that we use to feed data to the site was assigning a time zone to our dates, even though we couldn't see that, then it was getting adjusted to the user's location. I think that I've convinced it to not do that anymore, but if you ever notice anything strange like that again, please feel free to send a comment with our contact form.

The website is fairly new and is still a work in progress. We have built it ourselves from scratch during the pandemic and are still tinkering with it, so it still hasn't seen its first full workout that it would get when the border is open and site traffic is at a normal level. I'm sure that there will be many other bugs found over time, but that is the life of a web developer.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

2 minutes ago, BuySumoTickets said:

You and Asashosakari were right about this, there was a time zone issue with the site. Thanks for pointing it out. The content management system that we use to feed data to the site was assigning a time zone to our dates, even though we couldn't see that, then it was getting adjusted to the user's location. I think that I've convinced it to not do that anymore, but if you ever notice anything strange like that again, please feel free to send a comment with our contact form.

The website is fairly new and is still a work in progress. We have built it ourselves from scratch during the pandemic and are still tinkering with it, so it still hasn't seen its first full workout that it would get when the border is open and site traffic is at a normal level. I'm sure that there will be many other bugs found over time, but that is the life of a web developer.

Out of reacts for the day, but please take a few for being open and upfront! And yes, being in the process of trying to build a website myself, I can definitely appreciate that there's a lot of gotchas under the hood.

[BuySumoTickets 27]

12 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Out of reacts for the day, but please take a few for being open and upfront! And yes, being in the process of trying to build a website myself, I can definitely appreciate that there's a lot of gotchas under the hood.

Thanks very much. I find that most people appreciate some openness and honesty, as well as admission when an error has been made. In this case, the time zone problem wasn't caught before now because, well, all of our customers are in Japan at the moment, so nobody noticed. It's one of those things that we might only find once we start to get international customers again. I only started learning web development to give me something to do during the pandemic, so still a whole lot to learn and mistakes will be made.

Good luck with yours!