Fil-Japanese sumo champ, parents arrive in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino-Japanese sumo champion Takayasu Akira and his parents arrived in the country yesterday.

Akira – who stands at 6’1” and weighs around 326 pounds – said they are flying to Cebu, his mother’s hometown, for a vacation.

“That’s where I grew up. I started working, delivering drinking water to my neighbors to earn a few centavos to help my mother, who was then separated from my father,” Eiji Akira, he said.

Bebelita Bernadas said it was her 24-year-old son’s first vacation in the Philippines.

“He’s that big because he has a large appetite. We had a restaurant in Japan from 1991 to 2007,” she said.