Yaochozuna

Ghost? Vampire? Kami? Masked Kuchisake-onna? There she is again.

Mesmerising Ghost Feeding off rikishi pain This time it's Enho

Heh, one can be only so much Japanese when, at heart, one is in fact deeply Slavic

If you come to the Czech provincial mountain town of Jilemnice, what do you expect? Skis? Snowboards? Hiking? Wrong. Partially right. But also ... Hotel Sumó with supposedly the biggest rikishi statue in the world They are somehow connected to the Czech Sumou Union.

The Dark Mod. Captures wonderfully the atmosphere of the old Thief series, is freeee and has a nice community around it. From even older ones for example The Longest Journey or Syberia. Those were the days...

Well, I'm certainly no sumo expert but I couldn't help but notice two things. First, how skillful a technician Shoudai was/is. His real trouble seemed his tachiai. Either he survived it and then was able to give trouble to a lot of opponents, or not and then he got blasted out. I still don't understand how he was able to fix this as he's still coming pretty high but somehow the whole thing has startet working for him. And second, I remember how, during degeiko, I often read about one or another yokozuna practicing with him. That was also telling a lot about his potential. They must have had a reason for doing it. And, vice versa, this probably helped him gain more experience, skill, etc. All in all, I'm really glad for him.

I was going to recommend the Czech TV comedy series Comeback but I wasn't able to find any English subtitles for it Nevertheless, I could offer another recommendation. There is an animated silent slapstick TV series Pat & Mat (alternative name A je to = And done). Youtube is full of it and no subtitles are necessary. The episodes are short and originally meant for kids but it follows some basic slapstick rules that are universal and, as a result, adults tend to find the series quite entertaining.

Tochinoshin after the famous close encounter with Kasugano's golf club, if I remember correctly.

At the risk of being like a snob jumping on a bandwagon I have to say Hakuho. The guy is pure fascination, albeit slightly (and at times not so slightly) villaineous one. My close nr. 2 would be Harumafuji, with the two sometimes alternating. From the past ones Futabayama, but that's based just on what I've heard or read.

23 year old "youngster" Aminishiki, underage fledgeling Ama about to "take a beating in Makushita", Midorifuji (just not the current one)... There is a point where simple necromancy becomes the noble discipline of palaeontology. I think we are way beyond that here. Amazing.

Heh, I'd never heard about Linkola until MH's album Fascinator was released But Štorm tends to write songs about all kinds of weirdos, including Camille Flammarion or Nicolae Guță. I don't know much about typography but I did read his Eseje o typografii and it was a pleasant read.

Moderation of my first post took some time so you may have overlook my Kratzenian two pence...

So, after years of lurking I've decided to surface. I'm a Czech from Prague (but not a special fan of Takanoyama), I like Harumafuji (who doesn't?), I admire Hakuho (who doesn't?) My interest in sumo was awaken by those famous EuroSport broadcasts years ago and since then I have stopped and restarted watching sumo several times. I don't consider myself a well of knowledge so I'll probably keep my way of peaceful reading and not speaking much. Ahoj

This topic made me register. So hi to everyone from Prague, Czechia :-) I used to listen quite a lot to Finnish music during my folk metal phase a couple of years ago. Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow to name a few. And not just folkmetal or metal in general. Well, Kotoroiwa, if you like Nightwish, how about The Gathering? Their album Mandylion charmed me a long time ago. They are Dutch, however, so I¨ll proceed to Czech music. You probably know Master's Hammer. They used to be quite influential back in the early 90s. But do you know about their comeback? And do you know that they have a song about Pentti Linkola (may he rest in peace): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kBQPwZmzM The trouble with Master's Hammer is of course their stubborn use of Czech. But man, are those lyrics good. Franta Štorm is in his professional life a typographer (an internationally famous one) and for some time he was teaching at a university. His playful approach to language with lots of archaisms taken from books in which he studies the scripts is pure delight. Speaking of unusual metal. Workoholic Lord Morbivod and his many bands: Umbrtka (work, dirt, industry, greyness, more dirt and more work; and work); Stíny plamenů (sewer system in West-Bohemian Plzeň and the mythological beings inhabiting it), War for War (war, mining), Trollech (trolls, gnomes, folk tales) and others. Research for yourself, the man is insanely prolific. What else? Silent Stream of Godless Elegy comes to mind. Not that all albums are good (or to may taste at least) but Relic Dances is worth a try. A fine fusion of Moravian folklore music and metal. You do have Apocalyptica over there, don't you? Well, we have Tara Fuki. Not metal, but they do play cellos and, curiously, they sing in Polish, not in Czech. And if you like your dose of classical music from time to time, try to find anything sung by the Armenian soprano Lusine Zakaryan. She was a goddess and no less.