There were a couple of items on the sumo calendar over the past week. The first item was the Kickoff of Konishiki’s Sumo+Sushi tour in the United States! He hosted several shows over the weekend in New York City and will stay there for next weekend as well. Due to the success, several shows have been added there, next weekend. From NYC, the troupe will head down to DC for shows June 28-30, Nashville on July 12-14 and up to Chicago on July 19-21. Click here to re-read my rundown of last year’s experience. Getting up on the dohyo was absolutely amazing, as was my sudden barrel roll across it. I was probably very lucky their dais was not made of Arakita clay.

Some of you may be questioning whether this is news worthy. Well, aside from the fact that Konishiki is bringing a sumo experience to the States, this event includes real sumo wrestlers. To me, that is news worthy of itself. While the participation of former Makuuchi wrestlers Takagenji and Daikiho’s was announced ahead of time, Otani’s role was a surprise. He may have been a last-minute stand-in for Chiyonoshin but others from last year’s crew (including Tooyama) are not on this tour. Thanks to Chanko_Mattun on Twitter for the screen grab above because Otani’s appearance over here seems to have made the news over there, too.

And back in Japan, the Kyokai participated in another PR event. In last week’s update, we saw the Fukuoka PR event. This time, five wrestlers (Atamifuji, Midorifuji, Abi, Onosato, and Tobizaru) traveled over to Nagoya for a Sports-themed expo of sorts. Watch the entire two-hour show here on the Kyokai’s YouTube channel.

This event was shared with the Dolphins basketball team. I kind of think a chance was missed here for a three-on-three tournament with the fans or h-o-r-s-e with the pros. If you ever watch a sumo “match day” from the start, you will recognize the Radio Taiso routine here. There was a bit of a shoot-around but the big event was the dance off that featured Atamifuji and Midorifuji busting a move…without music. The video here doesn’t have rights to the music, so you don’t hear the music here. Wow, the Kyokai takes this rights stuff seriously, no?