The Chiba Lotte Marines‘ fans love Bobby Valentine. If you look at the Marines’ record with Valentine at the helm it isn’t very impressive. This year they finished out of playoff contention with a record of just 62 wins and 77 losses. They have won their league (of six teams) just once in Valentine’s six years.

Valentine is done with managing the Marines despite the fans efforts (including signing petitions) to keep him around. Look for Bobby to be in front of a camera next year or maybe managing in the Majors. If the Marines improve next year (and it seems like they have nowhere to go but up) the fans will likely forget him soon.

But he is getting a nice send off, despite his mediocrity.

Posted on October 7th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: baseball, people. Comments Off on Bobby Valentine

As promised, today I have some photos of beer girls for you. These girls trot around the stadium with a smile on their face and a keg of beer on their back.

I have been to three different stadiums now and the beer girl situation is very different at each. At the Lions’ games there are almost as many selling whiskey as selling beer. Whiskey was not available from the mobile vendors at the Marines’ or Swallows’ games.

Posted on October 7th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: baseball, beer, people, Tokyo. Comments: 3

The flag to the left is for 山本山 (Yamamotoyama) the largest Japanese sumo wrestler ever. Many sumo wrestlers have mountain (yama) in their name, but Yamamotoyama has it in his name twice–he’s that big. His other name is 龍太 (dragon fat), very fitting. Weighing in at almost 600 lbs. he is hard to miss.

Entering the day I saw him he had four wins and just one loss. But on this day he was a pushover for his much smaller opponent.

During the September 2009 tournament he was easily defeated every time I saw him (once in person and three times on TV). Maybe I’m just bad luck or something as he ended the tournament with a decent record of 9-6. On the days I witnessed his bouts he seemed to need much more strength to eventually be able to contend with the best.

Speaking of strength and the best… perhaps the greatest sumo rikishi ever was Chiyonofuji. I saw him win in person back in 1988 and followed him until his retirement a few years later. He was incredible. Even though he was smaller than nearly all of his opponents he seemed several times more powerful than them all.

He is now doing commentary for NHK during their live coverage of the tournaments. It seems wrong somehow to hear Chiyonofuji talk about his secrets, strategies, and successes. To me, it seems like he should be above sumo at this point, living in a castle somewhere like the emperor. I suppose it would be like hearing Babe Ruth do color commentary for Fox Sports, just not right. Legends, somehow, shouldn’t appear before the public.

Posted on October 5th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: people, sumo, yamamotoyama. Comments: 3

These two makuuchi (top division of 42) wrestlers (Toyonoshima (豊ノ島) on the left and Takamisakari (高見盛)) are an instant away from smashing into each other. The referee stands between them with his gunbai. You can also see one of the five shinpan (judges) to the left of the referee in this picture. Don’t miss the expressions on the faces in the crowd either.

One thing I hadn’t noticed when I first witnessed sumo in person 21 years ago, nor have I seen on the NHK broadcasts of sumo, is that the higher ranking sumo wrestlers each have their own special cushion to sit on while waiting for their bout. Most are brightly colored and feature the sumo’s theme. For instance, the wrestler with this orange pillow (武州山 隆士, Bushuyama) may also wear an orange kimono into the stadium (pictures of the top sumo wrestlers entering the stadium forthcoming) and may also have an orange, embroidered apron (keshomawashi) to wear during the ring-entering ceremony before his matches.

It seemed a bit silly to see the colorful seat cushions trotted in and out on a continual basis.

The advertising between matches was also somewhat ridiculous. You sort of miss it on TV as NHK usually switches to commentators or have writing over the ads featuring the upcoming wrestlers’ names and records. You can’t miss it in person though. The ad for Ozeki Sake before the ozeki matches seemed somewhat clever and brought a smile to my face, but ads for McDonalds and one for a place to have your pet cared for are very much out of place. The ads are walked around the ring, sometimes after the wrestlers are already in the ring, and can actually prevent the sumo guys from getting into the ring or back to their corner.

I understand the sponsored bouts feature more prize money due to the advertising; the money is presented to the winning wrestler in an envelope on the gunbai immediately after victory. I’ll show you a photo of that performance in a future blog entry.

Posted on October 1st, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, people, sumo, Tokyo. Comments: 1

After a break of “just” 21 years I finally had the chance to see sumo in person again earlier this month. I was extremely excited, especially after watching it on NHK the prior evenings. I went on the sixth day of the fifteen-day tournament, arriving at 8 a.m. to be sure I could get a ticket. As it turned out, I probably didn’t need to arrive so early as there were many empty seats. Should you ever attend, do get there at 8 (or earlier) to purchase the cheap (2,100 yen) tickets on a weekend or you may not get in. I went on a Friday, early in the tournament, so those may be the main reasons it wasn’t crowded.

The above sumo wrestler (力士 or rikishi) is 将司昂親 (Masatsukasa Koshin). He was 5-0 going into day six. His spectacular salt toss (most 力士 don’t throw nearly as much) was supposed to purify the ring. On this evening it did not work well for him, and he fell to 5-1.

The day started out as a beautiful, mostly blue-sky day. The banners/flags of the sumo stars out front looked wonderful, and until about 8:30 a.m. a drummer (who was more than a bit off beat) worked the drum up in this tower. I was enchanted and ready for action. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to continue this high for 10 straight hours until the top wrestlers performed.

The flag on the far left is that of 白鵬翔 (Hakuho Sho), the most recent tournament winner. He is Mongolian and one of only two current 横綱 (Yokozuna, the top rank in sumo). On this night Hakuho lost his first bout of the current tournament to a guy who had zero wins and five losses in the first five days. It was shocking to say the least. Spectators picked up their seat cushions and hurled them in Hakuho’s direction, an incredible sight.

I was alone, or I could have had pictures taken with many of the sumo dudes, but I did take this one, self portrait four hours into the day.

Posted on September 29th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: flag, japan pictures, people, signs, sumo. Comments: 3