12th March 2023 - Day 1 Haru 2023
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Sumo is back for another tournament. We are back in Osaka for this 
one. I must admit, this one creeped up on me and I was not feeling the 
excitement in the build up. However, there is much to be excited 
about. 

Terunofuji remains kyujo and so is not fighting. This is expected 
although he has been training again. There has been lots of noise 
around him taking part in the Jungyo (travelling show case) after the 
basho. Sounds promising and hopefully he is not suffering too much. 

The disgraced former Ozeki, Asanoyama is back fighting in Makuuchi 
after dropping down a fair few divisions. Oh wait, he is just 
visiting. Yes, his previous efforts to get out of Juryo last basho had 
failed. However, he did get a win today so hopefully he will be back 
into the top division. 

There are some new faces in the top division as well. The most 
interesting being Hokuseiho. He is the tallest sekitori at 204cm or 
6ft 8in. A recruit from the former Hakuho, he has shown great promise. 
He started as Maezumo in Haru 2020 and got the yusho for the remaining 
3 basho which were held that year. 2021 and 2022 felt a bit off with a 
spot of yo-yoing between Makushita and Juryo. The first bout of his 
Makuuchi career went well with a win over Mitoryu. The others are 
Kinbozan, Bushozan and Daishoho. 

The other key story lines are around who will get promoted next. We 
have Kiribayama, Abi, Hoshoryu, Wakatakakage and Takakeisho all 
looking to continue their Ozeki runs or get the second yusho for a 
Yokozuna promotion. Well, I suspect all of these runs may be at risk. 
All of them ended up losing their bouts today. Tobizaru had a blinder 
of a match against Takakeisho. It was pretty impressive. At the 
tachiai, Takakeisho has control and pushes Tobizaru back to the bales. 
However, Tobizaru jumps to the right and pushes down on Takakeisho's 
back. This leads to the giant hamster on his knees with a look of 
shock on his face. It was a great use of Takakeisho's momentum and the 
result of some quick thinking. 

We shall have a fun tournament! I am expecting lots of drama and 
surprising results.