日本相撲選手手指太粗 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.

日本有關組織日前向相撲選手們分發了蘋果iPad，以解決他們手指太粗，沒法用普通手機進行交流的問題。

日本相撲協會從本週起開始向該國的51個相撲俱樂部和協會高級官員分發60個iPad，以改善他們彼此間的溝通交流狀況。

相撲協會主席放駒說：“感覺挺好用的，發電子郵件很方便。”

這位62歲的前相撲選手坦稱，儘管他能看收到的手機短信，但他不知道該如何回覆，而且他平時也不怎麼用電腦。

但在評價蘋果公司的iPad時，他說，“一玩起來就忘記了時間”。

據報道，日本相撲協會之所以給選手們發iPad是因爲iPad的按鍵比手機按鍵大，適合相撲運動員粗壯的手指。

日本相撲界最近傳出了相撲選手與犯罪團伙勾結、非法賭博、操縱比賽以及粗暴欺凌學徒等醜聞。爲此，相撲協會的官員們決定嘗試高科技，給相撲選手們發iPad，作爲改變這項古老運動的業內風氣的一項舉措。

日本相撲協會因爲在調查這些醜聞事件時行動不力而遭到公衆的強烈批評。其中一部分原因就是相撲協會的高級官員之間信息溝通不暢。

相撲協會一般用傳真和電話來溝通，所以有時無法將緊急信息及時傳達給協會官員和俱樂部主席。

協會發言人二所關說：“如果我們給每個俱樂部發一個iPad，我們應該就能隨時取得聯繫了。”

Vocabulary:

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

cater to: 滿足……的需求

mend one's way: 改變作風，改邪歸正，改正錯誤

match-fixing: 內定比賽結果，非法操縱比賽

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