With the Spring Basho less than two weeks away now, sumo fans might be forgiven for thinking something is amiss given the lack of any real news coming out of Osaka.
The vast majority of rikishi have been in their temporary lodgings for about a week now, and most continue to plug away, quietly preparing themselves for the upcoming tourney.
Not suprisingly the media attention is focused on the two yokozuna: Hakuho and Asashoryu. The former has, as always, started slowly with a less-than-strenuous series of morning practice sessions thus far, although he always intensifies in the days before the action kicks off, with several days of full-on training against other top rankers. Hakuho, in this way, is old school. He prefers to let his sumo do the talking. With eight of nine career top-flight championships coming in the last two years, his modus operandi is perhaps one that his juniors should imitate.