Day 13
14 Days Romance Valentine's Day
Book Blitz Event
Big In Japan
by Jennifer Griffith
Buck Cooper can’t remember when he became socially
invisible—probably when he hit 300 pounds. Now he’s working a dead end job,
getting no notice from his boss and no love from the cute secretary he pines
for.
But when he gets shanghaied to Tokyo, all of that changes for
the mild-mannered Buck—because this blond Texan is about to go sumo!
Peek inside the secret world of sumo, and cheer for Buck as he
fights his way through the ranks— against bullies of incredible size—to win the
heart of the girl he loves.
Snippet
“I
don’t get it. How do you win?” Buck reached into Hiro’s proffered peanut bag.
Not peanuts—they were some kind of peanut-shaped rice cracker, shiny, tasted
like soy and sushi. They could grow on him.
“It
is simple.” Hiro sat up straighter. “There is the ring.” He pointed to the
stage area. It was about three feet high and about fifteen feet square. On it
was painted a ring with two parallel lines of paint inside, a few feet apart.
From above, the ring looked like a giant electrical outlet.
“Each
man tries to push his opponent out of the ring, or make him touch the ground
with any part of his body other than the bottom of his foot.”
Okay.
Simple.
“So,
the big guys face the big guys, and the medium guys face the medium guys?” Buck
asked this and remembered there wasn’t a single medium guy in the pack.
“There
are no weight classes. Every wrestler competes against every other wrestler in
his level, no matter their weight. Sure, the heavier guys have an advantage,
even when they are strong to start with. That is why they eat so much chanko nabe.”
“What’s
that?” It sounded like Campbell’s Chunky Soup. Or blowing chunks.
“Thick
soup with meat and cabbage and eggs and bean sprouts. Very filling. Special
sumo food.”
The
truth lay somewhere in the middle.
“Is
it good?” Buck’s stomach growled when he heard about the soup. It had been a
while since the fish hot dogs.
A
man of incredible energy started shouting through the loudspeaker. Hiro
translated.
“The comic sumo
is starting. It sounds like…they will do three skits. The first two are
traditional, like I explained. The third will have a surprise guest star.” Hiro
sounded dismayed. “They will be selecting a member of the audience.” He frowned
and huffed in irritation. “If it is a woman, I am sorry, Buck. I will have to
leave.”
Hiro,
defender of tradition. Buck couldn’t afford to be a purist. He was just
wrapping his head around it all.
It
began.
The
slapstick skit needed no words. The small man approached the massive sumo
wrestler with a cocky attitude and got trounced. In the second play, two
ancient sumo wrestlers went at each other with decrepit vigor and then
simultaneously fell backwards onto the floor into deep sleep.
Buck
laughed along with the audience. The guys’ wrinkles-a-flapping made Buck
chuckle. Hiro looked up at him and gave a broad smile. Buck liked this kid.
“Someday,
Buck, I want to be a sumo commentator. Did I tell you this already? It’s my
life-dream!”
The
lights suddenly snapped off, leaving Buck in inky darkness, wondering whether
he had his own “life-dream.” The loudspeaker’s voice rumbled, with a drum roll
of Japanese ilk bumping behind it. Buck had no understanding of the words, but
he knew they were introducing the guest wrestler. Who could it be? Some
international star even Buck would recognize? He let his mind wander through
faces of possible celebrities as his eyes followed the moving spotlight from
one section to another in the arena.
When
the spotlight came to a stop, it was shining directly into Buck’s eyes. His
hand flew to shade them.
“It’s
you, Buck!”
Giveaway
Author bio
Jennifer Griffith is a wife and a mother of five, and
although she’s never seen a Jennifer Griffith is a wife and a mother of five,
and writes all manner of romantic comedy--her husband supplies the romance, and
the kids supply the comedy. She lives in Arizona now, but in college she lived
in Japan for almost two years. At 5'1" tall, she never once sumo wrestled.
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