Koorifuu

Well well well, I'm sure Asashosakari will post this in more detail, but the Oitekaze gang vastly impressed me. I had Noda and Ikarigata as favourites, but the Dai boys whooped them a new one. Poor Daiyusho ate a massive henka instead of joining them, though.

Having to follow Japanese laws & accomodating a foreigner whose tradition directly contradicts the traditional ozumo way are two very different matters, though. I'm not that confident it'll happen this time. He could always pull a Toprak Razgatlioglu, though - as soon as the others receive their celebratory bottle of champagne, LEG IT!

Ah yes, ex-sekitori TENshoho.

Am I the only one who thinks Onosato henkaed on the 2nd matta because he knew it was a matta? After Gonoyama's shove in the first, I think he half expected another one and was like 'Nope, you're not roughing me up again.'. He won so comfortably and so calmly that the possibility he was scared of facing Gonoyama head on doesn't feel right to me.

RE Futahaguro, it's impressive that he's almost as infamous in the puroresu world as he is in ozumo...

I might have to change my faux king profile picture to Onosato after what he just did to Gonoyama's second matta.

I like deriding those two as much as the next keyboard warrior, but FOR ONCE, I don't think there was any malice behind Tochimusashi's pull. It looked more like a desperate last ditch kubinage attempt to me.

Watch Shimanoumi win against Tsurugisho, Daiamami and Daishoho, then slot himself at J9 or something for Haru.

Very possibly no Kitanowaka either, so that's a bad omen for their statements towards the '2nd Grand Tournament to ever be held outside Japan'. That aside... what a bout between Kotokenryu and Tochimusashi. It got to a mizu-iri, then a very competitive torinaoshi, which ended with evil being vanquished!

Sickening loud snap coming from Nihonyanagi's knee today, followed by a full body crumble and a wheelchair exit. Not promising, especially when he was finally breaking through to the top of makushita.

What prize do I get?

Bittersweet if that's more events across Europe. Happy that you might get a chance closer to you, sad that I'll see fewer of you in London.

Definitely celeb material! He's still got a full head of hair on his kyokai profile picture, so the disease must've struck very recently. Hope he goes far.

On the plus side, my knowledge of hiragana has improved a lot these last few days, there's a bunch of characters I know now. Natto's absence forced my hand into watching Abema's footage and I end up associating the furigana to the rikishi.

"I'm going down... but you're coming with me."