Lumpia-loving half-Pinoy wrestler making waves in Japan

A half-Filipino, half-Japanese sumo wrestler is scheduled to arrive in the Philippines next week to visit his relatives in the Visayas.

Towering at 6'1" and weighing close to 300 lbs., Akira Takayasu, 24, will arrive on Monday with his mother Bebelita, and will proceed to Cebu and Bohol to meet his grandmother for the first time. He will be in the country for four days.

In his youth, Takayasu played baseball, but eventually entered the Naruto—now Tagonoura—beya (wrestling stable) to train as a rikishi or sumo wrestler. He made his debut in 2005, and in 2011 entered the Makuuchi division, which encompasses the top six ranks in sumo.

Takayasu, one of Tagonoura's two rikishis under Makuuchi, is currently ranked 8th West Maegashira after reaching the higher rank of Komusubi in September 2013.

According to an episode of GMA News' "Brigada" in 2013, Bebelita, Takayasu's Filipino mother, was born in Davao but was raised in Bohol. She left for Manila to work, and met Takayasu's father, Eiji, through a cousin.

Eiji reportedly proposed to Bebelita on his second visit to the Philippines, and they were married at his third visit. The couple then moved to Japan in 1984, and eventually started a Filipino restaurant there. Akira is the youngest of their two children.

In the "Brigada" episode, Takayasu lamented how constant practice has kept him away from his family.

"Simula noong sumali ako, nawalan na ako ng oras sa sarili ko at sa kanila," he said in Japanese. "Hindi na rin ako nakakauwi sa amin."

Takayasu, who had never been to the Philippines, also said his parents' restaurant introduced him to Filipino food.

"Hindi pa ako nakakapunta sa Pilipinas kahit isang beses," he said in Japanese. "Pero may restaurant ang mga magulang ko so nakakakain ako ng pagkaing Pinoy."

He specifically named kaldereta, palabok, lumpia and bihon as among his favorites. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News