日本相扑选手手指太粗 用上iPad

Japanese sumo wrestlers have been given iPads to communicate because their fingers are too fat to use a standard mobile phone.

The Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among all the 51 training stables and top association officials from this week to help improve communication.

"It seems rather easy to use," association chief Hanaregoma. "Sending emails was very easy."

The 62-year-old former wrestler admitted that while he can read incoming text messages on his mobile phone, he does not know how to write replies and does not usually use a computer.

But "time flies if you play with this", he said of the Apple gadget.

The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater to wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports.

Sumo officials decided to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals over wrestlers' ties with gangsters and illegal gambling, match-fixing and brutal hazing of apprentices.

The sport's authorities faced loud public criticism for their clumsy efforts to investigate the scandals, in part due to insufficient sharing of information among sumo leaders.

With a reliance on faxes and phone calls, the sumo association has occasionally failed to distribute urgent messages to its officers and stable masters.

"If we place this (iPad) in all the stables, we should be able to contact them anytime," the association's spokesman Nishonoseki has said.

日本有关组织日前向相扑选手们分发了苹果iPad，以解决他们手指太粗，没法用普通手机进行交流的问题。

日本相扑协会从本周起开始向该国的51个相扑俱乐部和协会高级官员分发60个iPad，以改善他们彼此间的沟通交流状况。

相扑协会主席放驹说：“感觉挺好用的，发电子邮件很方便。”

这位62岁的前相扑选手坦称，尽管他能看收到的手机短信，但他不知道该如何回复，而且他平时也不怎么用电脑。

但在评价苹果公司的iPad时，他说，“一玩起来就忘记了时间”。

据报道，日本相扑协会之所以给选手们发iPad是因为iPad的按键比手机按键大，适合相扑运动员粗壮的手指。

日本相扑界最近传出了相扑选手与犯罪团伙勾结、非法赌博、操纵比赛以及粗暴欺凌学徒等丑闻。为此，相扑协会的官员们决定尝试高科技，给相扑选手们发iPad，作为改变这项古老运动的业内风气的一项举措。

日本相扑协会因为在调查这些丑闻事件时行动不力而遭到公众的强烈批评。其中一部分原因就是相扑协会的高级官员之间信息沟通不畅。

相扑协会一般用传真和电话来沟通，所以有时无法将紧急信息及时传达给协会官员和俱乐部主席。

协会发言人二所关说：“如果我们给每个俱乐部发一个iPad，我们应该就能随时取得联系了。”

Vocabulary:

sumo: a Japanese style of wrestling, in which the competitors are extremely large（相扑）

cater to: 满足……的需求

mend one's way: 改变作风，改邪归正，改正错误

match-fixing: 内定比赛结果，非法操纵比赛

haze: to play tricks on somebody, especially a new student, or to give them very unpleasant things to do（戏弄，欺凌）