I live for Sumo, no question.

Everyone tells me that my dreams of being a Sumo wrestler are the stupidest things they’ve ever heard.

But I’ve wanted to do it ever since I participated in the foreign exchange program at my school and got to go to Japan for six months last year.

My name is John Bloom, my and I’m not going to apologize for loving Sumo, like I did before.

And when Sam texted me and told me I had to be true to myself and live my dream I took that as divine intervention. Yes I’m a bigger guy, no, I’m not your traditional hero but I like it that way.

I like to surprise people.

I decided I would take all of the money that I have been saving to get my own apartment and use it for a plane ticket back to Japan. Using what was left over for sumo classes.

It took a few months, working on my language skills; trying out for several semi-professional heyas, or stables, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity I was excepted into one. I won a lot of my matches, and eventually I was contacted by a fledgling heya in the US. They wanted me to help train the new recruits. Of course that would mean that I would have to leave my group.

I went back-and-forth on it for a while measuring the pros and cons of everything. Finally with a very heavy heart, I decided it was time to go back home. But not before my friends and I had one last outing as a team. We decided that we would use the location of the last event that I was going to be a part of, in the Shinjuku region of Japan as a backdrop for our last hurrah together, at least for a while. We found tall, bright sunflowers. We decided it would be fun to put on our gear and interspersed ourselves within the flowers. But who would hold the camera? All of my friends wanted to be in the shot, Considering I didn’t know when I would see them next, I agreed to hold the camera. In the end it was a good decision because I was glad my entire heya was in the picture, as they have all become my family.Maybe one day I’ll elaborate more on them but for now I will leave you with the image of grown men In sumo gear just enjoying a summers day in a field of towering sunflowers!さようなら [Sayonara]