Although baseball is “America’s sport”, players from Japan like Ichiro and Matsui are trickling into the lineups and making their country proud. Likewise, even though sumo wrestling is “Japan’s sport”, the current top athletes, Hakuhou and Asashouryu, are from Mongolia. There’s even a sumo wrestler from Bulgaria, Kotoushu, whose boyish smile (and cute bottom) won the hearts of many women in Japan. One advantage these players have over Japanese wrestlers is size. In sumo, there’s a height minimum of 5’8” (which some Japanese wrestlers overcame with scalp implants, to “pad” the tops of their heads an inch or so higher), and no weight restrictions…generally, the bigger, the better. A few years ago there were two wrestlers from Hawaii, the enormous Konishiki, and Akebono, who became the #1 athlete at the time…and let me tell you, when it comes to size, it’s hard to beat the Hawaiians. To fatten up, the typical sumo wrestler diet is chanko-nabe, a simmered stew, eaten with unbelievable amounts of rice. Chanko-nabe isn’t intrinsically fattening, and neither is rice. However, if you eat about a gallon of it, along with about 10 cups of rice, you’re bound to get a little tubby. Nowadays, if you take a stroll through Tokyo’s Ryogoku district, the sumo epicenter of Japan, you’ll find many chanko-nabe restaurants started by former sumo wrestlers. It’s obviously not diet food, but at least you can tell your friends you literally ate like a sumo wrestler while in Japan.

Back at home, if you crave some chanko-nabe (a reasonable serving, please) along with a steaming bowl of rice, try the Zojirushi RIZO rice cooker. Japan’s leading manufacturer of rice cookers, it makes preparing a delicious fluffy bowl of rice as simple as pushing a button. The RIZO brand, crafted by internationally renowned minimalist designer Toshiyuki Kita, is a sleek, modern shape which features three settings: steam, sushi rice and risotto. It couldn’t be simpler…add the rice, water, push a button, and a microcomputer chip regulates the cooking temperature and time to ensure a perfect bowl of rice. In addition to being high-tech, the RIZO rice cooker is easy to clean and comes with a nonstick rice spatula, spatula stand, measuring cup and steaming plate for vegetables. It makes rice preparation so easy and delicious, you can enjoy healthy Japanese food every day at home. Your taste buds and waistline will thank you…but unless you’re considering a future in sumo wrestling, try to keep it under 30 bowls per day.