Sunday, March 23, 2008

 

Senshuuraku

Mwaha! Had an old-fashioned sleepover in the Casa Shinsai last night, for the sake of making it early to the Namba prefectural gymnasium and snapping up one of the few remaining tickets for today: the last day of action in the spring sumo tournament.

Unfortunately, what with alcohol and horror (of the film variety and otherwise) we slept in a wee bit later than anticipated and when we got to the gym the line was right round the corner. We were numbers 242 and 243 in a line of people queueing for an official ticket allocation of 240.

But we got tickets anyway. And now I'm chilling out in the net cafe before the action kicks off.

So, today the two yokozuna will fight for the grand prize. As with the New Year tournament, both are level (two losses each) so the winner of today's bout gets the cookie jar, one-shot deal.

Highlights!



Ama's opponent, Asasekiryu, loses his hinkaku and has a good old tug on Ama's topknot. Ama throws him down.

The Mongolians in general are a pretty slippery bunch: here's a juryo (Endsleigh) match that I was lucky enough to see on TV the other day. The victor (Hakuba) is another Mongolian with some pretty unorthodox moves (as per the action replay of the previous day's fight which is the first piece of action on this video). His opponent didn't seem too happy about it, either:



More Mongolian tomfoolery as Aminishiki earns himself a victory over yokozuna Hakuho which lacks not for bathos. No points for fair play here.



Next:



Minanosato, standing in for Asashoryu, has one to forget during the bow-twirling ceremony that concludes the day's action, accidentally letting go of the bow and sending it flying. As Asa's representative, this kind of slapstick doesn't reflect too well on the big man himself. Plus, Asa isn't well-known for his sunny disposition, so he probably beat the hapless Minanosato around the head and neck with the bow back in the changing room.

Asa lost his next two fights after this; don't disrespect the bow!

***

Right, time to head off to the gym! Go Asa!

EDIT:
Aminishiki is not Mongolian. He's from Aomori, home of apples and self-styled final resting place of Jesus Christ. Apologies to Aminishiki and Aomori.

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Comments:
Yaaa!...There should be rules against what Aminishiki did. Zannen, Hakuho. I didn't like the hair-pulling either.
 
I wanted to get a video of Asasekiryu (the hair-tugger) in action against Hakuho. When the tassles on his belt came lose, he tried to stuff them up Hakuho's nose. The latter was not amused and slammed him to the floor pretty emphatically.
 
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