Andreas

Tochinowaka got into the juryo playoff. He lost, but will have his Makuuchi debut next basho. He was slower than Aran and YMY to get there, but as predicted, YMY already fell down due to health problems. Im still sure Tochinowakas career is a lot more promising than Arans. If (When) Tochinowaka reaches the Joi, he will get a nice do-beya advantage, since he wont face Tochinoshin and Tochiozan.

Tochinowaka had a major breakthrough (in my opinion) with a fine 11-4 in Juryo. He was stuck in upper Makushita for quite a while, and his promotion to makushita was kind of lucky (he wouldnt have been promoted without the betting scandal) but he seems to have adapted to Juryo very well now and will hopefully get to Makuuchi soon.

Well, those two motorcycle clubs arent officially rated as criminal yet...

Cases where people are known to be members of a criminal organization but cant be put into jail because lack of proof arent confined to Japan. For example, in Germany, the "Hells Angels" and "Bandidos", two motorcycle clubs, have been discussed in the media recently. Its known theyre into organized crime, and most of their members are known, but you cant put them into jail just for membership. Still, its easily understandable why the sumo kyokai wouldnt want any dealings with those kind of organizations.

I doubt that this is a new phenomenon... people with gread job perspectives arent looking into sumo unless theyre very successful at amateur sumo already.

As posted in this forum before, Ororas weight is the result of a chronic medical condition, so its actually rather sad. One reason why he joined sumo is that medical treatment in Japan is better than in his home town...

In my timezone, the first post was at april first, 0:10... seems somebody just couldnt wait. Punishments like this were discussed in soccer here recently (because of fan violence, soccer matches had to be held without audience).

Hey, we are all very thankful for Your "Rikishi Speakishi"! Jonosuke only posting rikishi talk on weekends has left a big gap, and Youre filling in perfectly. If this "hopefully" is not about self-doubts and quality but about avoiding conflict with Your wife, I can understand, though ;)

It could probably be translated as "my opponent has long ARMS so its difficult to grab his mawashi". The Japanese word "te" is mostly translated as hand, but can actually refer to a bigger area (up to the ellbow?) than the English (or German) word "hand".

Since Hakuho was the first one to beat him, they cant accuse him of not having been in the yusho race. I think they should promote him even if he lost his last 2 bouts, but I doubt that he will lose both of them...

Kotooshu commenting after a loss? That would be an argument for the bout being staged after all ;)

You dont need 2 hands on the mawashi for a yorikiri win...

I mentally dubbed Kaio "the yokozuna of hearts" since he is the great old man of the current active rikishi... if it was possible, Id make him "yokozuna h.c." after his retirement.

all foreigners in one heya? youre aware that wrestlers of one heya dont face each other except in a kettei-sen? foreigners would monopolize all the upper ranks...

How do they do that? Open them? (Being unsure...) Rubber gloves...

I doubt he will enter any MMA anytime soon. 1. It would be improper to enter such an event before the danpatsu shiki 2. Asashoryu is proud... he wouldnt want to lose the way Akebono did, and he doesnt need money as despearately. 3. I think (just speculation) that Asashoryu is aware of the special and different training needed for MMA (boxing, kickboxing, brasilian jiu-jitsu etc.) that he didnt have. He wouldnt want to enter a sport where he knows he couldnt be the best. I might see him entering some mongolian wrestling or judo competitions, though, although not as main profession. Its more likely to see him in business, politics and/or entertainment.

Allowing him to intai is actually the old japanese punishment strategy of allowing ritual suicide instead of hanging. Honor intact, offender dead. Of course, in the current case, doing it this way has advantages for both parties. The sumo world avoids an even bigger scandal, and Asashoryu has been washed "clean" by his "voluntary" intai, meaning there will be no further punishments. He can keep the money, and have a danpatsu shiki. I hope he can maintain dignity and superficial amity to the kyokai until after the ceremony, I think he deserves a big farewell party as a great

Jakusotsu and me just wanted to critizise the standpoint that raising other mens kids is a moral problem. There is nothing morally wrong with that. Which doesnt change the fact that the decision of having and/or raising children is a very personal one, that can only be made between a man and a woman. Nobody can blame You (or Takamisakari) for not wanting to raise other mens children, after all its hard to be a good father if You got bad feelings about this, but Shibata-Gumi sounded like its generally not ok to raise other mens children, which is wrong in my opinion. As I said before, the base for a good relationship is trust, and I think Takamisakaris relationship was canceled because he had the feeling he couldnt trust her.

Two of my male relatives are "raising other mens kids". In both cases, theyre the "more real" father, with no contact to the biological father. I think that when somebody is a proper "social" father, biological facts dont really matter, and the love between him and the kids will be the same or even more. In Takamisakaris case, a "shy guy" like him would be better off with a woman he feels comfortable with, a more traditional housewife type. Trust and acceptance of the other as he or she is are, of course, the base for any deeper relationship, and having a lot of illusions about the partner, which will almost certainly be shattered, certainly wont help this. It will either end in a break-up or in a kind of awkward relationship where both are unhappy for a while.

its a low-ranker, preferably a shindeshi, whose career You follow no matter what happens to him. Of course Youll hope for him to become a sekitori. No need to adopt a rikishi who is sekitori already or a makushita tsukedashi, because the infos about them will be readily available to everybody anyway. I think its a good way to give some attention to lower ranked rikishi and their career developments.

Tochinowaka, former Ri, went 5-2 from Makushita 11, thus he could (should?) surpass his career high of Makushita 7 next basho. With 5-2, 6-1, 5-2 in his last three basho, he is back on track on his way to sekitori after an 1-3-3 at his career high rank(keiko injury, he started in mid-basho and managed only one win) followed by a 4-3 and an 1-6. Next basho he should be in striking range for a Juryo promotion, so gambatte, Tochinowaka!

Maybe Takanohana is changing... dont underestimate peoples ability to grow up. My favourite example for this come from music, a german gangster rapper who changed from his "bad boy" image to social criticism after getting older and having a family of his own. Heck, even Robbie Williams is settling down!

Now that Chiyo retired, he finally taught his best buddy how to do this tawara dancing trick!

Well, the ad says "even though he got more compact, the power is the same" this size would be favourable for attacks from below ;)

Id expect more than half of them to come form the capital, even though its half of the poplation living there, since its more likely that citizens of the capital will have the money and connections to sent their kids to Japan (several Mongolian sumo wrestlers went to Japanese high schools.)