So I've been watching a lot of sumo recently, because watching the Japanese broadcast in kagawa last summer showed me how it is way more awesome than I had previously known. Problem is up until recently I could only watch ten minute clips on youtube.

Anyways i discovered recently that the entire makuuchi broadcast is available at pirate bay for every day of all recent tournaments.

And I noticed something... my internal Japanese dialogue started using a lot of teineigo.

Now I did have a couple weeks of work with a Japanese company not long ago, but more than that this the sumo had a huge effect i think.

And it made me reflect on the poverty of native media sources that actually use teineigo, other than news and some office doramas.

Ya! Sports! But I hate baseball, so never really considered this. Anyway, if you enjoy
American football or boxing, you'll probably like sumo... and all jpnese learner's can probably benefit from a good injection of teineigo (you know, the way people actually talk with each other if they aren't family/friends).

wtf no one cares? Is this what happens to jocks after high school?

I actually was wondering did you just search sumo? or something special.

I've never been a sports fan, but I find sumo especially uninteresting. It's just a few seconds of slapping and grabbing and then it's over. And it seems strange to me that the whole match is decided by a single ringout/touchdown. At least they could make the matches best 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5.

dtcamero Wrote:...

I never found sumo partically interesting, but I had the opportunity to go see it once. It was in February (or March?), so it wasn't one of the "main" matches where rank is decided. It was kind of an exhibition. I guess it is more for money.

I thought it was really cool going to see it. The crowd really gets in to it. Some of the matches are really interesting.

I think sumo has the same bad things that baseball and American football have. The interesting parts are REALLY interesting, but there are just so many boring times when nothing is happening.

I would consider going and seeing it again if some of the time between matches would be cut out.

dtcamera, I really recommend you go and see it live. You'll probably really enjoy it.

well, the sumo tournaments occur every 2 months, and have the following names:
january- hatsu basho 初場所
march- haru basho 春場所
may- natsu basho 夏場所
july- nagoya basho　名古屋場所
september- aki basho　秋場所
november- kyuushuu basho (spelling might be dif in romaji) 九州場所

and you search in the following format:
sumo haru basho 2013
and all the days of that tournament will come up... not every tournament is uploaded but at least the last year or so.

jimmy I appreciate your sentiment, but that is what a real fight is like, often over quickly... which i guess might be why it rings true... now mind you there will be several matches that go on for a minute or more also, but yes the ones that end super quickly are a little anticlimactic.

the beauty of watching on video versus live may be to skip the 'commercials' inbetween matches perhaps...? I think that stuff is interesting tho... each wrestler has his own warmup style... there's the leg stretching and the salt throwing and all the ritual which is really beautiful and old feeling... so that kinda fills the time better than anything I ever found in baseball, for example.

moreover as for the 'best of 3' wish...each wrestler wrestles 15 times every tournament, so it's kinda like best of 15 really. they all get to go up there a lot by the end.

thanks partner, I actually do have tickets for the 14th day of the next may tournament! if you're in america you basically have to wait for the third day tickets go on sale before you can buy... which sucks! but I did get decent tickets. Next time I'm going to make sure to have a japanese friend wait in line the day tickets go on sale so I can get better ones.

dtcamero Wrote:well, the sumo tournaments occur every 2 months, and have the following names:
january- hatsu basho 初場所
march- haru basho 春場所
may- natsu basho 夏場所
july- nagoya basho　名古屋場所
september- aki basho　秋場所
november- kyuushuu basho (spelling might be dif in romaji) 九州場所

I guess I saw it in February, then.

dtcamero Wrote:the beauty of watching on video versus live may be to skip the 'commercials' inbetween matches perhaps...? I think that stuff is interesting tho... each wrestler has his own warmup style... there's the leg stretching and the salt throwing and all the ritual which is really beautiful and old feeling... so that kinda fills the time better than anything I ever found in baseball, for example.

I don't really know that much about it, but when I went to see it they divided the wrestlers into two groups (this might not be how they do it normally). There was like a "pro" group and and "amateur" group. I actually thought the amateur group was much more fun to watch than the pro group because their matches generally lasted longer.

There was also this one cool guy that would go crazy during the salt-throwing ritual. He would shout really loud and wail on his stomach. He didn't just throw salt in the ring, but he threw it hard enough to cover the first row of spectators in salt. The crowd would go crazy when he did this stuff too. It was really fun to watch. He wasn't particularly that good, but he was definitely a crowd favorite.

I hope you have a good time when you go see it!

I thought you lived in Japan?

ya I think I know the guy you're talking about... he retired recently if it's him.

sumo goes on all day starting from 8 or 9 I believe, but you have all these beginner guys who are not fat going first. ya sometimes they are more interesting because you'll get a few big muscley guys fighting, which is different from the fat guys.

I used to think they could prob beat the fat guys but later saw that when that does occasionally happen, the fat guys always win,... which of course is why all the best guys are fat. they are strong too, but that weight really helps apparently in pushing ppl.

one should note tho that as an exception, one of the 2 current yokozunas is actually not that big at all. harumafuji is a little portly, but not much (hakuhou isn't really that fat either, just big) but he's pretty short and small. just super strong and quick... and super skillful which is fun to watch.

I don't live in japan, but stayed there for three months last summer and managed to swing another 3 months this summer... leaving may 15!