日本相扑选手用上iPad 改善沟通状况

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

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。

The Japan Sumo Association is distributing（分配，散布） 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 wrestler¹ 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 gadget²（小玩意，小配件） .

The iPad was chosen because the sumo（相扑） association believed the device was big enough to cater³ to（迎合） wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports.

Sumo officials decided⁴ to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals（丑闻，耻辱） over wrestlers' ties with gangsters⁵ and illegal gambling⁶, match-fixing and brutal⁷ hazing⁸（欺侮，戏弄） of apprentices⁹（学徒，生手） .

The sport's authorities faced loud public criticism for their clumsy（笨拙的） efforts to investigate the scandals, in part due to insufficient¹⁰ 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.