[7][8] She made a three-month visit to rural Japan, where she stayed on a farm and saw her first sumo match on television during the March tournament of 1968.
[9] She saw her first live sumo match in January 1974 and began to regularly attend tournaments in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
[12] She was hired for her specialist knowledge to complement NHK's play-by-play commentators, who were more familiar with baseball broadcasts.
[4] In 2017, she celebrated her 25th year commentating for NHK, and she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for her contribution to sumo.
[8] Simmons hoped to write the definitive English-language book on sumo, despite how vast the subject is, but this venture was never completed.
[7] She went bungee jumping in Australia at age 68 and as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity helped dig foundations for homes in Mongolia on her 71st birthday.