1997 Message Board



How are you? Your website is very interesting and moves along nicely. I am a horse racing fan. Horse racing would appear to be growing in significance in Japan - especially, since many Japanese are competing in North America, Europe and the Middle East. As well, many top horses have been bought for breeding purposes and taken to Japan. But, I cannot find much information about Horse Racing and Breeding in Japan. I am a Canadian who now works in Dubai. We have excellent racing in Canada and here in Dubai. Sheikh Mahktoum's Singspiel competed in your 1996 Japan Cup but was injured at the Breeder's Cup in California this year. Do you know of any English Language Horse Racing websites dealing with Japanese Horse Racing?
Harv

Dear Harv,
Nice to hear from you. As a matter of fact, it's the first time for me to hear from somebody in the Middle East. I do know of an English language page on Japanese horse racing you might like to visit.
http://www.alles.or.jp/~kmiwa
Hurrah for England's Pilsudski which won the Japan Cup.

Michiyo:
Thanks for the Japanese horse racing site...it was exactly what I was looking for. Yes, Pilsudski is pretty amazing... Pilsudski ran here in the Dubai World Cup last year but finished behind Singspiel who really ran an incredible race. We have three main sites for thoroughbreds and Arabian horse races...Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali, and Nad Al Sheba race course. Unfortunately for those of us who come from other parts of the world, there is no betting here...There are quite large crowds which attend. Thanks again for the website on Japanese racing. With your help, now I can keep track of some 'old friends'.
Harv

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I am a 22-year old Japanese student who is currently enrolled at univertiy in Germany. Although I enjoy my social life as well as academic pursuits in this foreign land to the greatest extent, I occasionally miss things that I had long been taking for granted in Japan: friends, food, old hang-outs, and, yes, sports. I appreciate your site as it keeps me in touch and updated with sports results and news in Japan. Thank you! With warm regards and admiration.

Akihiro Hayashi
University of Maryland
University College Schwaebisch Gmuend

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Hi Michiyo,
I've been visiting your excellent homepage for long! Let me tell you the process for my getting in your homepage. Actually, I'm used to watch women volleyball matches. Among those teams in the world, I would particularly follow the team U.S.A. Such being the case, you may possibly figure out the setter of the U.S.A team - Yoko Zetterlund. Yes, I love watching Yoko's performances with the result that i have been following her for almost 4 years thus far & that's the time she came to Hong Kong for participating a tournament. And I know she's right now in Japan for joining a professional league - really thanks to your reporting which let me know what Yoko's doing & going to do.

Best regards,
Jessie Wong

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Michiyo-san,
During this current Aki Basho I've done extensive searching on the web for daily results, and yours are posted sooner than any others I've found. Thank you for your effort to get the results quickly to us fans. I'm also happy to have discovered your other sports coverage. Your page is bookmarked under my "visit often" category.
Ray

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Ishida san, konnichi wa!
Watashi no namae wa Karen desu. Nihongo wo sukoshi dake hanashimasu. Ito Midori san ga suki desu. I am glad to have found your web page! I hope you will keep us all updated on Ms. Ito. I hope that at this time her health is good! I am from the USA. There are many fans of Midori here. We all want her to be happy and healthy! Thank you for making your web page available!
Karen Myatt from Illinois.

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DEAR MICHIYO
Hello! I enjoy your informations about sports. I live in Sheffield, ENGLAND and I'm studying English here. I want to know about Japanese sports, especially Professional Baseball and Horse racing. Your informations about baseball are very hot but you don't have a lot of informations. Although there are a lot of Horse racing information, yours is the only one which is written in English. Also, yours is the only one I can know about Japanese Horse racing. So could you renew them, please? And if you don't mind, could you tell me an address of another information about Japanese Horse racing? My favourite horse is Winning Ticket and I never forget the Nippon Derby he won. My favourite Pro-Baseball team is Nippon Ham Fighters.I expected them to win a lot of games this year but they are not so good. GO GO Fighters!!!
Best wishes,
Koji Hoshida from England

Koji-san,
I'm sorry I do not give the details of all the sports you like. This is pure volunteery work, so I can not use too much of my time on the pages. I concentrate on summarizing important occurrances in Japanese sports. There are a couple of sites on horse racing that I shall recommend to you.
http://www.k-ba.com/
http://www.nikkansports.com/news/horserace/hr-top.html
I have included the result of the Japan Derby in my sports page, so take a look at it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find other web site on Japanese horse racing in English. I'll try to remember to let you know if I run into one in the future.

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I am very interested in Sumo and am very happy to find a place I can get the latest information on the sport. Could you connect me to other fans of sumo I would love to get to know more about the sport. You can contact me at 71614.470@Compuserve.com
Thank you very much,
Tom McCanna

Michiyo's Note: Sumo fans, why not contact Tom! Also there's a sumo list you can be a part of. Look for the address on this page. If you know of any other sumo lists, please mail me the information. Thanks!

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hello:
my brother pitches for the lions his name is rob wishnevski and i'm trying to find out anything in the way of stats on the lions that i can send on to our parents.
thanks!
bill wishnevski


Dear Bill
Your brother Rob is playing under the name of Robert here in Japan. I guess your last name is too long to be written on the back of the uniform. Here's good news. Rob came on to relief the Seibu Lions from the 8th inning on Apr. 23 and won his 3rd save against the Orix Blue Wave. He hasn't lost any RBIs so far


Dear Michiyo
Thank you for the update on Robert. I sent the information to our parents. Its kind of funny using my brother's formal name instead of just Rob but I guess i'll get used to it.

yours truly
bill

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Hi Michiyo!
I read about your pages on the sumo mailing list, and decided to pay them a visit. Very nice. I've bookmarked it, and will visit often. The main reason I'm writing is because I was a devoted viewer of NHK's "Today's Japan". Unfortunately, it's no longer aired here. I always enjoyed your reports. You are so enthusiastic and fun. I miss seeing you, but now that I read that you're on shortwave, of course I'll be listening.

As for the sumo mailing list, it's just a forum for sumo fans to exchange information, kind of like a newsgroup. There are also a few contests on it during bashos. One, called the "Hoshitori" contest, involves picking a slate of 13 rikishi that you think will do well. You get points each day, based on the results of that days matches. Another contest is simply a pool. Each day, a bout is chosen, and everyone tries to guess the winner. Quite simple, you either win or you lose each day. So far, no one has gotten close to a 15-0 record. You could subscribe to the list as a daily "digest" if you wanted to see what it's like. That way, you only get one mailing per day. If you like to get alot of mail, you can subscribe so as to receive each message as it's sent in. The address is "Majordomo@brooks.statgen.ncsu.edu". Just put "subscribe dsumo" in the body of your message to subscribe to the daily digest, or "subscribe sumo" if you want to get the messages as they come in.

Dale

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Dear Michiyo-san.
Anata-no home page ii desu!
It's very good. Thank you for the information. I am an American journalist and I cover international volleyball often. I lived in Kyushu for one year from the summer of 1995 to 1996. I'm sorry to hear that Ohbayashi-san is retiring from playing. I'll miss watching her, and the Nihon-no teamu will not be as strong. Same for Saiki-san, although I'm sure she'll be even better as a beach player. She can use her strength and quickness and her great heart even more on the sand. She'll be much like Holly McPeak in California, as soon as Mika-san learns the outdoor shots. She'll need a couple of years to develop the skills -- and she'll need to pair up with a taller player who is a strong blocker. I was so glad to find your page, with such up-to-date information about the V-League. Thank you. Arrigato gozaimasu!
Glenn Scott

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Michiyo,
Your Sports Page website is by far the best site for Sports in Japan that I have ever seen! I'm always looking for Japanese sports sites in English, and now I need not look further. Your site covers everything! Keep up the great work!
Anthony

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My name is Arah Schuur and I am a travel writer in the United States. I am currently writing about Japanese baseball, and I wanted to know the addresses for the new Nagoya Dome and the Osaka Dome. Can you help me? I use your website all the time to keep up with the sumo news! I love sumo and especially the handsome Kyokudozan.
Arah Schuur


Dear Arah,
The addresses you request are as follows:
Nagoya Dome
1-1-1 Taikohminami
Higashi-ku,Nagoya-shi 461

Osaka Dome
3-2-1 Chiyohashi
Nishiku, Osaka-shi 550

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Subject: website
I enjoy your website very much. My wife and I just purchased a computer, partly because I need one to have internet access to so many Japanese baseball sources. I have found websites that provide daily scores and info, player registers, records, etc. As you know, some of this information is not available in English from any other sources. Since I have a long-term interest in Japanese baseball, I would be very happy if someone provided updates (and hopefully even interviews) with past stars. As you know, many colorful personalities have played Japanese baseball, and I know their statistics and accomplishments very well, but not much about: the details of their lives; their abilities that cannot be measured by statistics; their personalities; or their post-playing days lives. I also like sumo, and have the same interest in knowing more about past sumo stars. I know you must have a lot to do...this is just an idea. Thanks again for your website. By the way, I always enjoyed watching your "Today's Japan" program. Unfortunately, I do not think that it is broadcast in my area any more.

--Dan Johnson

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Subject: Boxing
Was very pleased to find your site as I am very interested in results from Japan. The only other site from Japan is Joey Koizum's in Japanese and I have not found a good translation program to help me understand it. I am interested in ALL Japanese results including weights and specifics, etc. Any help or direction you can give me would be appreciated. If any one needs information on Central and South American boxers I can help as I speak spanish and Surf the Latin American news regularly. Thank you and wish you good fortune.
Art Peyton

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Hi Michiyo,
Thank you for responding to my question. I just got back from Japan. I was there for about 3 weeks. I had a fun time attending 3 danpatsu-shiki (Kirishima, Kiraiho, and Kyokudozan), watching asa-geiko, visiting Kamakura, and eating lots of yakiniku and sushi! I always love visiting Japan!
I'm writing from Las Vegas (U.S.A). Have you ever been here? It is a very fun place with lots of gambling! I have one more sumo question: Do you know what the tournament allowance for each division is? (Not the championship, but what each rikishi gets for participating in the tournament for each division?) If you know the answer, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Yoroshiku,
Mina


Dear Mina,
Only those above the juryo division earns a salary. The juryo wrestler gets 820 thousand yen. The makuuchi wrestler, 1,036,000. Sanyaku earns 1,340,000. 1,859,000 goes to the ozeki, and 2,234,000 yen to the yokozuna.

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Hi Michiyo,
I really enjoy your homepage. Keep up the good work! What company do you work for? Are you a sports writer? Did you study English in America?
I have a couple of sumo questions for you. If you can, please answer them.

1. How much does the tournament champion receive?
2. How much does each sansho award receive?
3. Do you know the tournament allowance ($) for each division?

I wish I had found your page earlier.
Mina


Dear Mina,
First, let me answer your sumo questions.
1. The tournament champion receives 10 million yen.
2. Sansho winners receive 2 million yen each.
3. According to division:
jonokuchi- 100 thousand yen
jonidan - 200 thousand yen
sandanme - 300 thousand yen
makushita - 500 thousand yen
juryo - 2 million yen.

If you'd like to know more about me, click my name on my sports page.



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