🗒️Saya-sama heads to America (again) and developed a glutinous addiction

By LaserPH

「沙弥様が史上最大の悪夢を魅せてやるよ！」 (Saya-sama Ga Shijō Saidai No Akumu O Misete Yaru Yo!!) is bi-weekly column of professional wrestler Saya Kamitani published within the Weekly Pro-Wrestling (週刊プロレス / Shūkan Puroresu) magazine. I've done a couple of threads in the past on Bluesky going over these since it started, but never made actual blog posts about them.

So here I am now.

Column #26 is titled 「アメリカ遠征」(Amerika Ensei) which means "Expedition / Excursion to America". This was published on June, 24, 2026 in issue no.2416.

Previously, she flew out with a group as part of the American Dream 2024 tour during Mania Week in Philadelphia that also included an ROH appearance as part of the STARDOM showcase match for Supercard of Honor.

This time around, Saya-sama travelled to America around New York City & Philadelphia for weekend MLW (Major League Wrestling) bookings from the 11th of June to the 13th with her fellow H.A.T.E. comrade Rina, coming for the first time. Just the two of them, but Sumie Sakai who has helped a ton of Japanese wrestlers in America was there to accompany them.

Since the MLW tape has not been publicly distributed out yet (they are deadass 4 months behind on MLW Fusion as of right now), she's not allowed to talk about her matches she's had there yet and instead going to share the other things she did.

As soon as they arrived, they wandered around Times Square. She was completely overwhelmed by the amount of large bright screens and many people around them were having a great time. She's usually more introverted, but the surroundings made her feel more outgoing. An atmosphere that she hadn't experienced back home.

Back in Japan, she would usually wear hats or masks in order to not get spotted in public, but they didn't need to in the US which was a big relief. With that said, some kid actually spotted her at the airport in Japan who caught her off guard and shouted, "I WATCH YOU ALL THE TIME!!" (this was a secret to the readers 👁️ oh well).

Another place she got to visit and gladly bought a bunch of goodies from was M&M's World which she saw on TikTok and described it as one-of-a-kind.

She then encountered a new favorite. It was Dunkin' Donuts (also known as Dunkin'). A massive American fast-food chain with over 9000 stores.

Saya-sama tried a croissant sandwich that contained meat, egg, and cheese and was hooked. According to the description, it sounds like she had the sausage & egg croissant sandwich. I honestly thought it was just gonna look normal lol. On her last day, she had bought 4 of them damn sandwiches.

She also took a trip to Popeyes (American fast-food chain that specializes in fried chicken sandwiches) and the thing that caught her attention was the fried pickles. Praised it for being innovative as she was amazed by its unique taste.

The only caveat to her American food experience were the breads being harder and quite large in size compared to the softer ones made in Japan, so her jaw started to hurt from chewing.

Another observation she had was the difference in the way takeaways were served. The server in Japan would neatly fold the bag closed and hand it to you with both hands. However in America, they put the burger in the bag, leave it unopened, then casually serve it to you with one hand. You will probably get ridiculed over such a small thing in Japan, but she actually liked the carelessness of it all.

One evening after the show, she was glad to be able to have open discussions with Sumie-san & Rina about the state of wrestling all over the world and their own aspirations.

And that's basically everything she could share from her recent US tour.

Since Rina had to go to Mexico for a short-tour in CMLL (whose side I'll try get on to soon 👁️), Saya-sama had to return home alone. She had to transfer flights after it got cancelled and had to deal with other bullshit, before managing to fly back home safely. She slept like a log on the return flight after all that hassle.

Not everyone gets to go overseas in their lifetime, so having a chance like as a professional wrestler and as a person was quite a massive opportunity for her. This trip is now logged as a joyful memory in her current chapter.