Mongolians are dominating professional sumo even more decisively than the Hawaiians did back in the 1990s. It almost seems too easy the way they overpower their Japanese counterparts, and in almost all their cases the challenge has been more than just physical.
Yokozuna Hakuho is this week's main guest on the talk show "Jinsei ga Kawaru Ippun no Fukai-i Hanashi" ("Profoundly Satisfying Stories About a Life-changing Minute"; Nihon TV, Mon., 8:54 p.m.), where he talks openly about arriving in Japan when he was a small, skinny 15-year-old who suffered from acute homesickness. He was prepared to quit at almost any moment during his brutal training, but one incident completely turned him around and gave him the confidence to continue. A former stablemate corroborates this previously undisclosed story.
D enjiro Yonemura's professional title is Science Producer, which means he's made a tidy living as a TV personality who specializes in explaining scientific phenomena in an entertaining and enlightening way. This week he is the host of a two-hour special called "Denjiro no Daijikken" ("Denjiro's Big Experiments"; TV Tokyo, Tues., 7 p.m.).