Sadogatake Trip to Israel Chronicles

[Kintamayama 45,132]

Sometimes, unbelievable things happen to you. Sometimes, these things are "once in a lifetime " things. As a sumo maniac (like most of us here..), a magical dream is being realized. Forgive me for going totally overboard. I have no control over the feelings that are overwhelming me. I sound idiotic. I am not me.

They arrived. 13 rikishi and others, all together about 40 people. I got to meet them at the plane's door. The 19 hour flight did nothing to their easy-going and friendly demeanor. Led by Sadogatake Oyakata with his new hairstyle (kept it pretty long..), one by one they disembarked. Osh was first off, Mickey behind him, and Kotoshougiku, then the lower rankers. Ex-Kotozakura was last. After the long flight, they patiently stood and had their pictures taken for at least 15 minutes. I managed to chat with Ex-Kotozakura about the weather. I told Osh that we call him Osh. He actually smiled (his parents are arriving within the hour..).. I told Mickey we were going to be interviewed together on TV on Monday on a talk show . I spoke to Kotokanyuu-he came with his wife and two small kids. Kotoshougiku was simply surprised that a native knew who he was. I had a leisurely hour to walk and talk with them and take pictures, which I hope to post tomorrow.

I am having difficulty describing how much fun I had.

And this is going to last for five days..

Edited June 4, 2006 by Kintamayama

[Phoenix 0]

OH, I am SO jealous!! I can't wait to hear and see more! Take lots and lots of pictures!

[Mark Buckton 1]

good on you Moti - enjoy it.

Looking forward to the pics.

19 hours on a plane though - how many propellers - one at the sharp end?

[Kintamayama 45,132]

19 hours on a plane though - how many propellers - one at the sharp end?

11 hours to Paris, then 5 hours to here, 3 hours in transit. No direct flights between Tokyo ands Tel-Aviv, I'm afraid.

[Fay 1,677]

Enjoy it (Applauding...)

And please I need to see the new haircut of Sadogatake Oyakata ;-)

[hoshidango 0]

Contrats Kintamayama on this! Now I look forward to a sumo wrestler from Israel in the future.

[Asojima 2,874]

Now I look forward to a sumo wrestler from Israel in the future.

16 or 17 years unless Kinta is a better chaperone than I think he will be. (Applauding...)

[Kintamayama 45,132]

Enjoy it (Applauding...)

And please I need to see the new haircut of Sadogatake Oyakata ;-)

Your wish is my command..

[Kintamayama 45,132]

The rest of the photos at:

http://photos.yahoo.com/motidi

Sorry for the quality-I wasn't close to my full mental capacity. Actually, I was around 7 years old for an hour.

[Jonosuke 28]

I understand that Kotooshu forgot to leave the heya without his passport and had to sweat it out in the airline crew waiting lounge while a heya manager went back to pick it up. He got it only 10 minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave from Narita.

Being an ozeki though he should have had a comfortable flight as he must have gotton an elite business class seat.

Sometimes it's strange to see a group of rikishis walking around at the Narita airport. When I was leaving there last week, I saw a bunch of Takasago Beya rikishis flyiing to Mongolia. It's weird to see them as they are dressed exactly like they were just going for another bout at the Kokugikan.

Edited June 4, 2006 by Jonosuke

[Fay 1,677]

Enjoy it (Applauding...)

And please I need to see the new haircut of Sadogatake Oyakata ;-)

Your wish is my command..

aaaaaaaaah, perfect. Thank you so much for the pics, I understand this feeling of a 7 year old kid .. ;-)

Sadogatake Oyakata looks great ... well nobody would expect me to say something else (In love...)

and my sweet Kotoshogiku .....

[Jakusotsu 5,969]

Are they scheduled to attend a Sixties concert? That would be the perfect occasion to totally wet Yourself. (Applauding...)

[Jejima 1,385]

I understand that Kotooshu forgot to leave the heya without his passport and had to sweat it out in the airline crew waiting lounge while a heya manager went back to pick it up. He got it only 10 minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave from Narita.

quote unquote. Is this some kind of farce? (Applauding...)

[Kintamayama 45,132]

Are they scheduled to attend a Sixties concert? That would be the perfect occasion to totally wet Yourself. (Applauding...)

Nope, one week of Sumo only..

[_the_mind_ 0]

i noticed in a couple of the pictures Kotomitsuki had a lady hanging onto him, is that his wife/girlfriend? i didnt know he was married (if she is that)

[Jonosuke 28]

Japanese media are now reporting fragments of Sadogatake Beya's Israel tour. Such as Kotooshu meeting up with his parents (obviously they are a step or two behind Moti) and saying he was really pleased to see his parents once again and he already realized what he has been looking forward to.

While an Israel tourism official is saying they are trying to loosen the tourist requirements to ease more tourists from Japan to come over to Israel as the tour is a part of their efforts to bring in more tourist yen but Kotomitsuki throwing a bit of cold water by commenting, "there is definitely an image of being in a dangerous place (because of the Palestina conflict)".

[Phoenix 0]

Japanese media are now reporting fragments of Sadogatake Beya's Israel tour. Such as Kotooshu meeting up with his parents (obviously they are a step or two behind Moti) and saying he was really pleased to see his parents once again and he already realized what he has been looking forward to.

Maybe this is what he needs to get the spark going. Hopefully his knee and ankle are much stronger now or will be by the next basho.

[Kintamayama 45,132]

Day 1- Hot, very hot. And humid. 10 am-producers' meeting and friendly chat with the heya's administrators.

General mingling in the lobby of the Hilton, a lot of people coming up and taking pictures.

Noon-Press conference with the Minister of Tourism. He asks me what to say in Japanese at the end of the conference. Guess what I suggested.. (Ganbare, Sadogatake Beya..) which was received very well by the Japanese press. On the whole, a surprising number of reporters were there, and it went on longer than scheduled, with Osh giving the minister a yukata (Osh size..). The Minister is , well, dimunitive, and was swamped by it and disappeared in its folds.

Then, suddenly-a power failure. We haven't had that in a long time-it was very hot, everyone turned on their air cinditioners, and something gave-all Tel-Aviv was without power for a while. Imagine the rikishi, 30 degrees C and 60% humidity AND no air-con...

Then, food. We went to a famous Israeli restaurant, where local food (hummus and mountains of meat..) were served. Everyone ate everything, and another power failure didn't ruin everyone's good spirits. Kotoyutaka and Kotootori are the resident jesters, and they were doing all sorts of stuff, most of them of the "you had to be there" genre. Osh proceeded to enter the bar area and posed for pictures. He is in a fantastic mood, his parents being here and all. I'll post the pics of Osh the bartender soon. After that, they were supposed to take a tour of Tel-Aviv, but they asked to go shopping, so we went to a mall. The mall, of course, went crazy at the site of these guys, and pictures, pictures, pictures.

In the evening, the Ministry of Tourism held a dinner for them at the hotel, on a balcony overlooking the beach. The whole heya was spotted gawking at the incredible sunset.

Big meeting over the dohyo-building-not much time for them to build it and worried faces can be seen.

Then, Shiratama Oyakata, who is a very big, imposing man, came over and whispered in my ear "21:45, room 941-meeting!!" Huh?

That's when I got to be part of the inner workings of a jungyo. "You will be doing the play-by plays, meaning explaining the kimarites, doing the dohyo-iri announcing, etc. like Konishiki did in Vegas!! ", I was ordered. Scary.. They gave me a script, with the order of keiko moves and kimarites they will be showing, and the torikumi. It will be a 12- man knock out tournament, with the top three will have a tomoe-sen.

I got to argue about what 5 kimarites should be shown. They went with "safe" ones, so as not to injure anyone unnecessarily. I opted for an ipponzeoi, which had them all laughing..

As for the keiko moves, the usual shiko-chirichouzu-matawari stuff. I suggested they do teppo with Osh as the pole, but they politely declined. (No I didn't, I lie..)

At 23:00, we finished, whereby they went down to the Japanese restaurant in the lobby for some night snack onigiris, and I went home to die. This morning at 6 am, I left home for a TV interview on the morning news. In three hours we'll be leaving for Jerusalem. At 5, a special taxi will take Mickey, Kotomisen and a yet undecided rikishi with me to a very popular live TV show, where the rikishi will show some moves while Yatzpan, who is the show host, will probably attempt to make fun of Mickey and Sumo, and I will probably jump all over him and be forcibly removed from the premises by some bouncer.

Edited June 5, 2006 by Kintamayama

[Kintamayama 45,132]

Osh behind the bar:

Kotoshougiku gets some awesome shades:

Minister of tourism Itzhak Herzog between the mountains, wearing his new yukata..:

I'll post the others later-gotta run..

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Making a Jumbo Gesture for Better Ties With Japan

A team of Japan's - and the world's - top sumo wrestlers, led by sumo legend and master Kotonowaka, is in Israel for a week-long tour of the country under the banner of "Fellowship and Peace."

"The State of Israel has waited a long time for an opportunity to host such a prestigious and respectable club, from one of the oldest and most noble fields of sport in the world," said Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog at a press conference yesterday to welcome the delegation.

--->the title links to the rest of the article<---

[Fay 1,677]

A handsome man can't be defaced by anything, even by this dior sunglasses ;-)

I hope, Moti, you got a picture of Kotomisen too ... :-D

[Kintamayama 45,132]

A handsome man can't be defaced by anything, even by this dior sunglasses ;-)

I hope, Moti, you got a picture of Kotomisen too ... :-D

I just had dinner with him, together with Kotomitsuki and Kotoyutaka, just the four of us..

More later.

[Fay 1,677]

A handsome man can't be defaced by anything, even by this dior sunglasses ;-)

I hope, Moti, you got a picture of Kotomisen too ... :-D

I just had dinner with him, together with Kotomitsuki and Kotoyutaka, just the four of us..

More later.

that's great, I'm looking forward to it (Eating...)

[ilovesumo 12]

Dinner with Rikishi...

Hope you can eat much ;-)

[Mark Buckton 1]

A handsome man can't be defaced by anything, even by this dior sunglasses :-D

I hope, Moti, you got a picture of Kotomisen too ... ;-)

I just had dinner with him, together with Kotomitsuki and Kotoyutaka, just the four of us..

More later.

candles? soft lights? the accidental touching of shoe and zori under the table? (Eating...) Or something 'more' ;-)