08/11/01 20:42:37
Right after graduating from high school, Konishiki came to Japan
for the first time. He wanted to be a sumo wrestler, and he was surprised
because everything was different.He entered the sumo world and
faced many difficulties.
One of them was speaking Japanese. He studied by himself with a travel guide
book."I thought that I could speak basic Japanese after one year, but when I
spoke to someone outside the sumo-beya , they could not understand me.
Because I used a lot of sumo terms,"he says , smiling.
Life in the sumo-beya was much harder than learning the language.
"If you have a difficult problem at the work place, at least
you can go home at the end of the day.But we had to spend 24 hours
together at the sumo-beya," says Konishiki.The young wrestler's
day started from early morning training.It was unbelievably
busy with cleaning ,meal preparations , as well as assisting
the older sumo wrestlers with training and washing their clothes.