[sumo] SFM Issue #11

[Lon Howard]

Issue #11 of Sumo Fan Magazine is now live at www.sumofanmag.com.   
Many articles are available in French and German, and some in Spanish.

The staff and contributors worked especially hard on this issue as I  
was unavailable much of the time, and I would like to publicly thank  
everyone.  Omedetou!

Here are some highlights:

Chris Gould’s final installment on Shinjinrui on Sumo – an in-depth  
probe on how Japan’s national sport can be made more popular and  
accessible to it’s own people.

Chris also provides a detailed and fascinating description of a  
typical training session at Shikoroyama-beya.

Joe Kuroda’s account of Dewagatake Bunjiro, one of sumo’s tragic  
historical figures.

An old-school vs. new-school Fan Debate on modernizing heya life –  
presented in a new format.

Eric Blair dives into the current yaocho furor.

For Amasumo fans, our Editor-in-Chief interviews Mark Kent, the UK’s  
only active heavyweight amateur sumotori – and as a bonus, check out  
the beginning of Mark Kent’s personal diary as he trains during this  
year for amateur sumo events throughout Europe.

A die-hard collector of sumo menko (sumo cards) describes how he  
became hooked on sumo, and on collecting this form of memorabilia.   
In later issues, he will ‘tell all’ about how to begin collecting  
them yourself.

Mark Buckton dispenses valuable pointers on how to make sure the sumo  
souvenirs you collect are the real deal.

Plus – all of our regular features – found nowhere else!

SFM reached a major milestone on Sunday:  50,000 individual hits  
(individuals, not page hits) since inception 616 days ago.  Thanks  
everyone, and enjoy!

Lon Howard
Shomishuu