Sumo Tournament

Today is the beginning of the March Sumo tournament.  Another battle awaits the Mongolian Yokozuna rank rivals Hakuho and Asashoryu.  Asashoryu is reigning grand champion, Hakuho the only man who has bested him recently and champion of 2 tournaments last year wants to take his spot.

Since moving to Japan the frequent Sumo tournaments have been one of my favorite things to watch on TV.  I mainly watch the top division, known as Makuuchi (behind the curtain due to the original usage that top ranked wrestlers sat in an area behind a curtain) because the other televised matches can get a bit stale, those with lower ranked fighters

Of course Asashoryu is steamrolling with 4 wins and no losses as of this writing.  15 wins is a perfect record, anything under 8-7 and a wrestler might get demoted.

I am especially excited to see Yamamotoyama (his name means "Mountain, REAL MOUNTAIN") he is the largest Japanese born sumo at 550 pounds.  Very fun to watch him squash a smaller opponent.