Firstly, the always fantastic Grand Sumo Preview program airs over the next 24 hours on NHK World. Make a point to watch it, as it’s always interesting, and features friend of Tachiai, John Gunning. I am curious which rikishi gets the special coverage this time, and if Raja is further abused in training. Details of when it airs here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/
But reviewing their schedule for the start of competition – it seems that The Great Sumo Cat of the Kokugikan has heard our cries for sumo from afar, and has used his considerable might and influence: NHK World will be broadcasting live on Day 1 for at least a subset of the Makuuchi matches. Yes, it’s the middle of the night. But for a group of hard-core fans like myself, it’s no bother at all. Tune in to NHK World and show them how much we love sumo, if you can. Sure it’s the middle of the night in the US, but think of the thrill of getting to watch Tochinoshin rock up against Takakeisho live, as it happens!
Yes, Tachiai is celebrating, this is a glorious upgrade for sumo fans. With apologies to my employers, I am going to be short on sleep for a bit.
There goes my sleep cycle…
One day though. As I’ve gotten older, waking up at 3 has gotten easier than going to bed at 3. Caffeine tolerance at lifetime highs while alcohol tolerance back to high school levels.
Just checked the NHK World schedule and it happens right at the Daylight Savings time shift here in the US Central Time Zone. That will be a little crazy. It will begin at what was 2am but it now 3am.
Oh Nice! I am going to give it a try this weekend. 3am Central time here is going to be interesting. But I want to support it
doesn’t look like we will see The Boss Live
The timing is great in Australia! A 7:10pm start on Sunday, and we have a Monday public holiday… nice!
Incredible news!!!!!
Would have been brilliant if I were going to be on the west coast as usual….. 1am? no problem!!! But as it seems like many folks here it’ll be a 3am start from Texas ….
Re: Sumo Preview – can’t wait – though I hope they don’t jinx the featured rikishi again!!!!
8.10am here in the UK.
Live sumo over breakfast! Ureshiiii!
“Sorry I was late for Mass, Father. Forgot to set the alarm.”
I’ve managed to catch the live stream (in Japanese) for the the last few basho, from the east coast of the US. My sleep schedule has not exactly normalized since. Should NHK manage to offer more than day 1 coverage, be wary, any and all local friends… be wary.
Still.. great news.
NHK World is the only reason I know about sumo, so it’s great to see them step up to deliver more and deeper sumo coverage to the non-bilingual anglophone world. They should consider working the DVR-ability angle (using overnight hours to air niche or special event programming that can be set to automatically record) more since they basically just repeat 6-hr blocks. Or online-only, whatever works. Excited for this.
So as it turns out, it’s just the last 15 minutes of the Makuuchi action. I might even be able to sneak a looksee during work.
Hey guys — the NHK World link is broken. Looks like it got pasted twice accidentally.
ex:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/
Thank you – it’s been fixed
“NHK WORLD broadcasts GRAND SUMO March Tournament Day 1 action live for the very first time. ”
YES!
Thank you for the heads-up. I will be programming my DVR, just incase I can’t wake up in time.
I’m excited about this! I am currently a “program monitor” for NHK World which means they ask me for feedback about various shows. I reviewed one of the day’s coverage from the November basho & the January preview show. I basically begged them to show more (*)…now I get to assess this live coverage as well. Really hope it’s a good ‘cast and I can provide positive/constructive comments on it. And beg for more. :D
(*) – not that I think I swayed them by myself or anything, lol.
That’s pretty exciting! They may not get much input on programming this early in the morning so it will be interesting to see how much of a bump they get.