First Date With Sumo

by Chris Gould

In the late 1980s, five-year-old Chris Gould became hooked on the ancient Japanese sport of sumo via Channel Four television in the UK. In 2006, made his first trip to Los Angeles in April 2006 to take in the US Sumo Open.

What he saw took him aback! Far from witnessing mere overweight darts players, he was confronted with an array of German judo champions, Norwegian soccer players, Los Angeles policemen, Hollywood scriptwriters and university lecturers - all vying with a Bulgarian wrestling champion, an ex-professional sumo wrestler from Hawaii and the Japanese 1996 World Amateur champion for gold medals.

The second half of the book sees Chris travel to Japan, ready to compare amateur sumo with the professional version, Japan's national sport. The mystery, the ceremony, the grace, the elegance, and the sheer strength of the top professional sumo wrestlers is laid bare for all to see, from the closest possible quarters - with photos to prove it.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2011

About the author

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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name


Author of the first - and hopefully definitive - ebook guide to the 1966 Batman TV series.

I've loved writing since childhood - especially adventure stories. At 14, I joined my local paper for work experience and loved it, even getting invited back. At 20, I did work experience at a number of national and local newspapers, being employed as a weekend football reporter for the UK's Daily Telegraph while still at university. Having moved to Japan in 2008, I now write on Japanese, French and popular culture for a number of publications, and love releasing ebooks / as well as reviewing books on Goodreads!