GenkiDesuKa comments

I love the Vuvuzela, I love the Nippon chant.

Unbelievable that this guy became a Yokozuna and Konishiki didn't.

That there has only been two yokozuna promoted in the past 10 years, and one of them was Asashoryu, shows much more structural problems in sumo. You can't seperate the way Asashoryu has acted with the other hazing problems in sumo. If you think its okay for the Yokozuna to act the bully in the raised ring, how do you expect other rising stars in the sumo world to act.

The way this is solved is through a more formal training system as I believe has been proposed by Takanohana in the past, as opposed to the apprenticeship system in place today. Either that, or require rikishi to be "drafted" out of college. The latter is more of an american model, but, some sort of radical change is neccessary in training is needed

Other changes that are needed is my priennal complaint that matches should be in prime time as opposed to 4-6. Maybe they should take away one of the basho in Tokyo (or Nagoya or Fukuoka where they have trouble selling out) and have one of the honbasho in the countryside once a year. That would help both increase interest in sumo and tourism for that city, I would think.

Shows of emotion are quite common in college sumo, and that is pretty popular, isn't it!

In any case, there are two things that need to happen to make sumo more popular. 1st, show bouts in prime time. At the very least, the last weekend and especially senshuraku should be in prime time. Who in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, or Fukuoka is able to get to a stadium at 4-6 in the afternoon or watch it on TV. You are at work, in juku, or maybe on a train. 2nd, a Japanese rikishi needs to challenge to become a yokozuna. I have been following sumo on and off since 1998, and not one Japanese rikishi has even made a decent challenge for yokozuna. How much more popular is Wimbledon is in the UK when a someone like Andy Murray challenges for the championship. I am a big Musashimaru fan. I remember once cheering for Musashimaru, someone else cheered for Takanohana, and we kept getting louder until some guy said "ryoho gambate," and everyone had a good laugh .. and I also remember people walking out after a Takanohana bout before the Moose's big match, so I know it goes both ways. But, without a Japanese yokozuna, it just won't be as exciting.

Just by putting it on later at night in prime time would bring more excitement, bring in new fans, and perhaps get people more interested. Sumo needs to look at these kinds of structural problems, as opposed to hoping that people are watching sumo because they expect to see a train wreck to occur.

I remember when they came out with cable TV Long long ago. They said since you were paying for content

at one time, people said they would never pay for tv, and then cable tv came along, and people paid.

people do pay for news: think about bloomberg. in any case, if people aren't willing to pay for it, it probably isn't valuable in the first place. perhaps it always has been, but news in general has become a form of cheap entertainment.

Sailwind:

Thanks for bring this to our attention. I am a strong supporter of health care reform with a mandate, but it seems obvious that americans living abroad should not have to buy american insurance if they already have insurance abroad. although at the moment I am not living abroad, i plan to write my senators and congressperson to support language in the final health care bill that exempts us citizens living abroad from any mandate.

Thanks again,

Great accomplishment! But can the guy not make a comment in English? Just a few words?

I think if Matsui or Ichiro or someone of their stature said anything in English, that would immediately become the headline in every tabloid, and they would have to explain what they said, how they said it, etc., for a long time afterwards. From all I hear, Ichiro speaks English fine but you never see him speak it in public. Matsui seemed to understand the general questions being asked of him, but it would be more trouble than its worth to speak in English.

Also, I never knew Matsui was a Hanshin fan. That makes me feel better about liking a guy whose only two professional teams have been the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers. There is no way Matsui does not end his career at Yomiuri, though. Yomiuri doesn't advertise at Yankee stadium thinking Matsui is going to leave the Giants organization when he comes back to Japan.

To anyone who doesn't think it is important:

“I have long wished to win the prize, as I’m a big fan of jeans,” Hatoyama said.

People who don't like this award are just not fans of jeans.

Didn't Kusanagi win this award a few years back?

slow day on JT

Actually, the yearly announcement of the year's best jeanist is a highlight of reading this website.

The best way to get to Narita for most people is by bus.

You should read this book -- or see the video.

http://tinyurl.com/cxqbqq

maybe everyone should see the movie before making judgements on its content:

Director Lu Chuan: Over three years and after extensive research, I underwent a tremendous shift in perspective, so the final version is radically different in storyline and point of view. At first, I concentrated on representing the Rape of Nanking, but gradually I wanted to explore the laws of nature governing war and how they give rise to massacres. ... It is not about how frightening the Japanese were, but how frightening human nature can be.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/interviews_profiles/e3ic4a58d9493b16774646ac957b2cf0185

no hard data as to what is actually happening in classrooms and results of current curriculum, only Lots of opinions as to what is happening with Japanese English education and classrooms. opinion and ideology as opposed to fact wins out -- students lose.

The article states that this might be normal in the NFL, but, in fact, too much celebration after a touchdown gets your team a penalty and the individual player can be fined.

If you are interested in watching rikishi celebrate after a win, you should watch college sumo. There is a lot of emotion there. I'm sure that's what makes it so popular.

The biggest problem with sumo that it is on from 4pm to 6pm every day, when most people are at work or school. It should be on later in the day, from 6 to 8 or even 7 to 9. That one move would fill up the stands and increase viewership at home.

How to get a permit to protest

http://www.ehow.com/how_2075225_get-permit-protest.html

in the United States.

So, Kyokushuzan asks the Sumo Association to cancel the tour, Asashoryu says please don't, and the Sumo Association decides to go ahead with the tour, therefore we should all comment that the Japanese are out to get Asashoryu because he's not Japanese??

I was at the Kokugikan when he clinched his yusho that would promote himself to Yokozuna, and I thought he was great at the time. However, over the years he has proved himself to be unworthy as Yokozuna. As this incident should prove to anyone who hasn't been paying attention, he is just as unpopular with his fellow Mongolians as he is with anyone in Japan.

This is not to say that people don't want to see a Japanese yokozuna. But, there hasn't been a Japanese yokozuna since Wakanohana (and a worthy Japanese Yokozuna since Takanohana) but the dislike felt by everyone for Asa goes far beyond this reason.

It is too bad it is closing, but the age of old style department stores is coming to an end, as the steep decline in sales shows. However, I hope someone (the city?) pressures the new owners to keep the building rather than tear it down.

The Olympics in Chicago will be a nice way to end the final glorious year of an Obama administration. And, since Spain had the Olympics in 1992, and Japan had the winter olympics in 1998, so you can't really make the argument that the US had it too many times, otherwise you have to go with Rio.

In any case, all four are good choices, so, wherever 2016 ends up, it should be a good year. Of course, the Olympics are diminishing in importance, as well, so it might not be such a big deal at the time, either.

It seems the long time community members don't like the direction or attention akihabara has been getting, or the kind of people who are attracted to the place these days. The first place I wanted to go to when I first came to Tokyo in 1997 was Akihabara. However, it seems the place has been getting more red-district like since the maid cafe boom. I'm sure people who have been in Akihabara for many years are a little worried that someone would drive all the way from Shizuoka to target the place, but that seems to be the feather that broke the camel's back, so to speak, as opposed to the event that first got people thinking about closing down the streets on the weekend.

The article is about how the neighborhood is changing from a place where "otaku" in the best sense of the word -- people who become really committed to one thing, in akihabara's case, electronics and computers and so on -- to a shady red light type of district like kabuki-cho. it seems pretty easy to figure out. And, the side of the station where akiba yodobashi camera could basically be on the other side of the world when compared to the akihabara of small shops, narrow passageways, and former pedestrian paradise of electric town akihabara.

It is Jack's world.