Amerika kara kimasu

I'm back in Osaka after a two-week hiatus back home. It was great to see friends and family and eat some extremely tasty, fat-rich, nutrient-poor food. One of the highlights was a trip to DC for the American Astronomical Society meeting, not because of that, but because the hotel was 1 1/2 blocks from the National Zoo. We spent a sunny Sunday morning watching the baby panda frolick.

Not much has changed here in my absence, although the weather is a bit warmer. Northwestern Honshu continued to get clobbered with record snowfall over the holidays, with some places in Niigata prefecture getting over 10 feet of snow. Now the warm weather and rain is causing avalanche warnings. Osaka, Tokyo and other Pacific coast areas have been unaffected.

I have returned in the midst of the January sumo basho, which enters its eighth day (of fifteen) today. Grand Champion Asashoryu suffered an early defeat, but has rebounded to a 6-1 record. Shin-ozeki Kotooshu also struggled with an opening round upset loss, but has so far compiled a 5-2 record in his debut at the Champion level. Both rikishi trail a pair of undefeated wrestlers, ozeki Tochiazuma and maegashira 11 Hokutoriki, as they face a challenging second week.