Andy and Bruce get together for a 30 minute discussion on banzuke published today, for the upcoming July tournament in Nagoya. We cover the highlights, who we think is ready, and the absolute mad scramble from May’s ranking sheet.
Andy and Bruce get together for a 30 minute discussion on banzuke published today, for the upcoming July tournament in Nagoya. We cover the highlights, who we think is ready, and the absolute mad scramble from May’s ranking sheet.
/Waves “hello”/
Yes, a proper shout out for manfully slaying the banzuke dragon.
Nice one guys – an enjoyable listen! Good little shout for Enho too following the recent discussion.
Yeah, Enho is quite a great find, and I am grateful that you dug him out of the weeds for us all to watch.
Thanks for the great podcast as always guys!
I am so happy Kotoshogiku did not retire, I love how much he gives every fight and the way the crowd responds to his salt throwing.
With regards to Ura, I think he will fight the same way – variety and unpredictability, mixed with agility and good strength. It may take some time to find his feet but I think he will surprise people with how well he does this basho, especially as he should have a slightly easier schedule at M4.
Happy to say I have secured tickets for 2 days of sumo action at Nagoya, feeling very lucky!
Have a great time in Nagoya – the one thing I have heard is that it gets really warm and swampy in the Nagoya venue, so be prepared! Which days did you get tickets for?
After my opportunity to watch Natsu, I have an entirely new appreciation of sumo, I hope you have a great time.
Ura is going to be facing a significant test this time. I think all sumo fans are eager to see how he handles the top guns of the sumo world. But let’s be honest – he is a young, up and coming rikishi with a bright future. If we take his prior experience in Juryo as an indicator, he is going to have quite a bit of trouble with this new level of sumo, and will drop down the banzuke for a while. But some time in the next year or two, he will work out the basics of how to handle someone like Takayasu or Terunofuji, and it will be non-stop awesome for a good long time.
Frankly, I can’t wait to see Ura vs Yoshikaze. Yoshikaze already spends a good amount of time coaching sumo, so I consider any bouts that Ura gets with him to be post-grad level training.
I have tickets for 13 and 14 July! Very excited. And thanks for the Nagoya tips, much appreciated!
Bruce, can I ask what time the makuuchi fights usually finished?
Just as I need to plan my travel afterwards!
Also I think you make good points about Ura, just trying to be as optimistic as possible!
Makuuchi finishes by 6:00 PM without exception – it seems so that they don’t impact the NHK nightly national news. Odd, but that’s how it goes.
Good luck and enjoy!
Nagoya food is punctuated by miso, particularly a very rich, “red” miso (akamiso): histumabushi is Nagoya style unagi; tebasaki is chicken wings; miso-katsu is fried pork cutlet with miso paste (very good); tenmusu is shrimp tempura in a rice ball (musubi). Apparently there is a special local spaghetti.
Seikai no yamachan is a chain restaurant that has tebasaki, among other things.
The train station had a Club Harie baum kuhen bakery. Baum kuhen is a multi-layer cake, originally from Germany, that is awesome. You’ve probably had it already. Those are awesome.
I had a great time at Nagoya castle (which is right next to the sumo venue) and the Toyoda Museum.
This is fantastic, many thanks for this Andy, I’ll be sure to check these out!
I was only in Nagoya very fleetingly last May, and for anyone else going to Nagoya, I stumbled by chance into a small restaurant called Syachi Ichi (next to Fushimi subway station, one stop from Nagoya station), which served the most incredible Prawn Tempura Curry Udon I’ve ever had.
Enjoyable podcast again, thanks. :)
For anyone else wondering about Tobizaru, he’s sekitori mainstay Hidenoumi’s younger brother. Built and fights a bit like Ishiura, so should be an interesting addition to juryo.
Awesome podcast! Work has been hell this week and I only just got a chance to see it.
Have you followed One and only on YouTube? He is amazing at getting the lower ranked matches that we don’t often get to see. He nearly always has Shunba in there ( I’m a huge fan of his), as well as Orora and others.
Any plans on uploading an audio version to itunes?