Finished translating day two of the Tokyo Princess Cup! This show was on July 17. The recap is here.
Only one of the matches made it into the recap: the main event, Rika Tatsumi vs Kamiyu.
I’ll admit, I was on Rika’s side for this, but mainly because I have an ulterior motive: I really want her to face Mizuki 
. I don’t think I’ve seen them have a singles match since I started watching TJPW, and with Rika’s crush on her and all… It would just be interesting, I think, haha. (I’m also rooting for Mizuki to take the entire thing. I don’t care that she’s already won twice, and fairly recently. It’s her time!! 
)
In any case, Rika vs Kamiyu surprisingly felt very close. Kamiyu has really raised her stock this year, I think. But unfortunately for her, it was still not enough.
Rika’s comments on the mic were a little confusing to me. She said: “かみーゆ（上福）、執念深くて何度も立ち上がってくるから、負けてられないと思って…。負けたかみーゆの分まで勝ち進もうとは思いません。私は勝手に背負ったりしない。私は私の道を突き進みます.” I think her first sentence basically means: "Kamiyu (Kamifuku) is so tenacious; she gets back up over and over again, so I thought she couldn’t be defeated… "
The second one was where I ran into real trouble. Here’s how I translated the rest of the paragraph: “I don’t intend to advance and win on behalf of Kamiyu, who lost. I’m not going to carry her on my back. I’m going to forge my own path.”
Mostly the かみーゆの分まで part was confusing to me . At first I thought she meant that she didn’t just intend to advance until Kamiyu, but then that didn’t really make sense with the rest of what she was saying. I wasn’t super confident on the next sentence, either, which didn’t help.
Backstage, Rika said (here’s the twitter video) that in a tournament, you never know what’s going to happen. She couldn’t lose her first match, so she attacked Kamiyu mercilessly. Somehow, she managed to get this important win, so she will keep building on it. If she keeps winning and advancing, she’ll be able to face even stronger opponents, and she’s really looking forward to it, but her feelings are already acting up. She says she’s the kind of person who gets more fired up the more frightening her opponent is, so she’s awfully looking forward to it. This is the year that she’s going to hoist up the trophy!
Kamiyu said that Rika’s level is still high. She had a title match recently, and Kamiyu thought she was very strong. Kamiyu said: “トーナメントは1回戦で負けちゃうことが多いけど、昔のゆきを考えてみたの.” I struggled with this, but ended up going with: “I’ve lost in the first round of tournaments loads of times, but I started thinking about the old Yuki.”
The next quote from her is really funny, so I’m going to include the full thing (from the tweet): “昔はリカさんが高いところからケツを落っことしてくる技がめっちゃ怖くて。尻から逃げがちの自分がいたんだけど、今日はあの尻を受けた上で頑張りたいなって思って。尻から逃げてた自分が尻に立ち向かう人になってて、そこはよかったなって思う.”
Here was my translation attempt:
I used to be so scared of Rika-san’s technique of attacking with her ass from a high place. I was inclined to run away from her butt, but today I thought I’d tough it out and receive that butt. I’ve gone from being someone who runs away from the butt to being someone who faces it head-on, and I’m glad about that.
I got a bit lost with her last line in the recap. She said: “負けちゃったんで、海行って気合入れて、来年の夏に備えようと思います.” I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the middle part of the sentence. Was she saying: “I lost, so I’m going to channel my fighting spirit and go to the beach and prepare for next summer”? It would be a very Kamiyu thing to say .
For the other tournament matches, Arisu Endo lost to Miu Watanabe. Arisu said that she couldn’t surpass her performance last year, but she did the best that she could do, showing her best self now, so she has no regrets. If she has another chance next year, she’s going to do her best to win and advance to the next round.
Miu said that no matter who advances (Shoko or Mizuki), they’re both so strong. Then she said: “でも自分がすごい思ってるのは、私たちの世代が先輩たちを超えていける夏にしないとなって.” I think this says: “But what I really want is for this to be the summer where my generation surpasses our senpais.”? Then she says that she won her first match this time, so she hopes to surpass her senpais and get results.
Kaya Toribami lost to Yuka Sakazaki. Kaya’s whole comment was another one I wasn’t quite sure on. She said: “今回正直勝てるかっていったら厳しいカードではあったので、勝ち負けよりも、ちょっとでもユカさんに本気を出してもらえるような技を出してもらえるようにって、負けない気持ちで頑張った.”
Here was my attempt:
To be honest, it would be tough to win that match, so win or lose, I tried my best to show a serious effort against Yuka-san and fight as if I wasn’t going to lose.
Yuka said that losing the wonderful tag belts shocked her to the core, and she was trying to forget about it. A tournament is the perfect thing to help you forget, so she’s ging to try to release her frustration here.
The other match that actually felt like it could go either way was Yuki Aino vs Nao Kakuta. I was pleased to see Nao get the win, though I was sad for Yuki because she sure has had a rough year…
Yuki said that she wanted to challenge Shoko for the belt again, so it’s really pathetic that she lost the first match. She can’t reverse what she already lost, so she will create another opportunity to challenge on her own.
Nao said that today she kept her mind calm and was determined to advance past the first round, so she’s happy to have won. The interviewer asks what if Miyu wins, and it’s the same matchup as last year (Miyu eliminated Nao in the first round). Nao says that climbing is not the only way to get over a tall wall, you can also smash it down, or slip through to reach the other side.
And that’s it for that show!
Miyu’s actually about to have a very interesting week ahead of her, because it was just announced on AEW today that she’s going to be facing Thunder Rosa for the AEW belt next Wednesday. I think she’s also hosting a wrestling seminar with Konosuke Takeshita at an indie event this weekend? (Ace and ace…)
Obviously, what’s going to happen is Miyu is going to beat Thunder Rosa and come back to TJPW to finish up her TPC as AEW champ . Here’s how Nao Kakuta not only gets her win back, but gets an AEW title shot and then goes on to become AEW champ—
If all goes as planned, I’ll be back tomorrow after translating the third show from last weekend!