so my weeb ass is finally going to Japan. Main things me and my partner want to do are Ghlibi museum and theme park, see the life size Gundam, and go to a baseball game. We'll be mostly in Tokyo and Kyoto and then the Ghibli theme park in Nagoya. We like all the nerd shit so we'll be in Shibuya, Shinkuk and Akihabara, and maybe do some fancy stuff in Ginza.
Depending on when you're there you could go watch live sumo! The next tournament will be in the Kokugikan in Toyko starting on the 12th. It's pretty fun to watch and in the long form you get to see a lot of cool ritual practice and brightly colored traditional clothing and stuff.
Pretty fun time to watch too, we're seeing a real changing of the guard, Lotta new faces rising in the ranks and ousting longstanding top rankers.
Hakkiyoi!
Took my suggestion. It’s shaping up to be a great basho too! Doing my best to not nerd out on sumo right now, but I definitely recommend it. Sumo is an awesome sport and still culturally important. I know when I go, I’m 100% going to visit the Kokugikan.
I’ll nerd out in here
It’s going to be a super exciting basho. It’ll be very interesting to see if Takerufuji can keep up his immense effort at Maegashira 6 since he won’t be able to bottom feed for the first week of the tournament. Onosato being bumped up to sanyaku status is exciting if you’re able to ignore his recent warning for his deplorable conduct. Asanoyama being back in sanyaku is exciting, but the man is injured again and will probably not be at full power. Daiesho finds himself out of sanyaku for the first time in a VERY long time and that sucks. He’ll be put through the winter week 1, so I hope he can persevere. Hoshoryu looking very strong right now and is going to be strong at the top of the active banzuke as I expect Terunofuji to not participate in any meaningful way since he reported a decent bit of discomfort in practice this week. Kotozakura taking up his grandfather’s shikona this basho is exciting. He’s my fav and I really hope he gets his first to level yusho. I’ve been rooting for him for years and it makes me happy af to see him as an ozeki let alone O1w ffs. Enho may actually be participating for the first time since he was practically paralyzed last year. I honestly wish he would retire, but he needs just one more basho in sekitori to have a chance at elder stock. Nabatame is looking to barge his way into sekitori this tournament sitting at Makushita 2w. Love the man and I hope he succeeds. Juryo is going to be super exciting as a lot of talent is starting to beat each other up in that rank. My bet remains on Wakatakakage taking the Juryo sushi, but I think that’s an ice cold take. Should be fine now that he has managed to get a full 15 but basho in after his return from injury. Shirokuma is always fun to watch and easily had my favorite shikona out of all active sekitori.
This is going to be a super exciting 15 days and I can’t wait for it. But enough about that, I only have a passing interest in the sport :3
I'm super excited for Hoshoryu and Kotozakura, they both seem like they obviously have Yokozuna in their future and it's great to see the consistency out of both of them. I've grown a soft spot for Keisho over the last year so I'm glad he's holding on. Now that there's all this competition at the top it's easy to overlook him but he did all of us a real service being a consistent quality Ozeki when there were basically none around.
I was happy for Takerufuji, and I'm glad we're seeing all this new talent rising, but I really hope some of the guys at the top get their shot at the rope soon, which is gonna mean these one-off Maegashira yusho have to stop, at least for a while.
My usual faves were Endo and Kotoeko, who both appear to be on their way out. Guess I'll need new faves.