Good morning! It’s Wednesday and I’ve been enjoying a very restful week so far! It couldn’t have come at a better time since I’m now able to rest my body and finally get rid of this stubborn cold virus! I only have a couple of meetings today before we go back into the studio tonight to record our weekly Sunday radio show for Radio-I in Nagoya so I plan to take it real slow.
I was invited by my good friend, Wayne Miyao, to have lunch with him and Jesse Kuhaulua, also known as Takamiyama, who was the first foreigner to attain a rank of sekiwake, or junior champion in Japan’s tradition-rich sport of sumo – a very, very big accomplishment and honor! Upon his retirement from the sport, his sumo name was changed to Azumazeki, and he was allowed to own his own “stable” and recruit and train new sumo wrestlers. One of his sekitori was a kid from Hawai’i named Chad Rowan, who, as Akebono, went on to become the first foreign-born yokozuna, or grand champion in the history of Japan sumo.
The boys & I had met Jesse during one of our performances in Yokohama a couple of years ago and although he’s retired and older now, he still has a bone-crunching grip! I thought my fingers were going to break when we shook hands!
Aloha, “D”