Yesterday, Kokonoe oyakata proudly treated his deshi to yakiniku, after all his sekitori won their bouts.

I guess too much grilled chicken is not good for you on the eve of a basho. Today he was left with only two winning sekitori – Chiyotaryu and Chiyootori.

No chicken has been served at Isegahama, but they seem to be eating a lot of crow. Takarafuji and Homarefuji winning. All the rest, including one lonely Yokozuna and one soon-to-be-sekiwake former kaiju, were beaten.

モニターにかぶりつく横綱、見たことない。「悔しい」コメントがあったとゆーので明日からまた神速相撲が見られることを期待します。
#sumo pic.twitter.com/NffK2vw0C0

— ハルタ (@727236) September 13, 2017

Oguruma is not faring much better with only Yago in the white. Yoshikaze beaten by Kotoshogiku. Bruce, dear, next time please don’t make promises that apply to the entire Tachiai team, right? If I walk into my office doing hip pumps, I’ll probably not only get fired, but arrested as well.

Let’s see if I can make any intelligible sumo remarks.

I liked Ishiura’s bout. Chiyomaru weighs about three times as he, so he pushed him out by springing into his chest several times.

Mitakeumi was not expecting an injured Tamawashi to take a Harumafuji-style flying leap at him. Not ready, not recovered in time.

Goeido is not making the crowds happy, and I predict he is going to see a drop in the amount of kenshokin he earns. Of course, it has to be said that he is not stupid. He needs to get out of kadoban, and unlike Terunofuji, I think he already realized that the joi is full of murderous youngsters so he is grabbing every W he can.

Harumafuji… he was dead the moment Hokutofuji grabbed a hold of his left arm. And my gut tells me that tomorrow he is going to go 2-3 against tho Ono-show, and really regret that matta thing from yesterday. Imagine if the one Yokozuna left standing finds himself make-koshi and intai at the end of this freak basho? [shudder]

BTW, Yokozuna’s comment:

It’s frustrating [to lose] despite knowing that I absolutely must change direction.

As for Terunofuji, this is how he looked on day 1:

And that face of his expresses exactly what I feel about his Sumo in this tournament. Of course, he is not being disgusting on purpose. It’s just how it turns out when you haven’t practiced sumo in months, you have no muscle in your body, you don’t know where your center of gravity is at any point in time, and you look like a whale caught on dry land.

Damn, why is it that whenever I pick a favorite team or athlete, they pick exactly that time to look horrible and get demoted? (True story, I got two soccer teams relegated to the second league when I was a kid this way).

Terunofuji’s comment:

I was really left in the dust. Now a kachi-koshi is all I can try for. I’ll do my best until the end.

…which I must say is not much like him.