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[SPORT] Sumo Yokohama Tournament 13th October, 2013

A one-day Sumo tournament is held every year in Yokohama since 5 years ago. And the 6th Yokohama Tournament is held on 13th October.

Date: Sunday, 13th October, 2013
Place: Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan (Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium)
5min walk from JR Kannai or Yokohama Subway Isezaki Chojamachi


大きな地図で見る

Schedule:
8:00- Open practice
9:00-10:00 Communication with sumo wresters (shaking hands, signature, photo...free of charge at 1F Lobby)
10:00- Wampaku Sumo (kids' sumo)
11:00- Tournament of the lower rank wrestlers (幕下 Makushita)
12:00- Tournament of the middle rank wrestlers (十両 Jyuryo)
13:30- Entrance of the higher rank wrestlers (幕内 Makuuchi) and the top wrestlers (横綱 Yokozuna)
14:00- Tournament of the higher rank and the top
15:00 End

Tickets available at major ticketing agents (Pia, e-plus, Lawson etc...)
1F seats 10,000-13,000 Yen/person
2F 5,000-8,000 Yen/Person
Children under 3 is free.

Website (in Japanese)

<***What is Sumo?***>
Sumo wrestling is a traditional Japanese sport by men.
Two sumo wrestlers (力士 rikishi) fight on Dohyo (土俵) ring. If one steps out of Dohyo or puts a hand on the ground, he loses.
The wresters are divided into two groups in each tournament (which usually lasts for 14 days): East (東 higashi) and West (西 nishi).
If a wrester wins, he gets one white star (白星 shiroboshi) and if he loses, he gets a black star (黒星 kuroboshi) and the one who gets the most white stars wins the tournament. If a lower rank wrestler beats a top wrester (横綱 Yokozuna), it is called a "gold star (金星 kinboshi)".

The wresters belong to a team called "Room (部屋 heya)" and practice under a coach（親方 oyakata) of the room. Sometimes the ring names of wresters in a same team share a same kanji. There are many wresters from foreign countries but the number of them in each room is limited now.

There are women sumo nowadays but the professional sumo doesn't allow any women in the ring.

You can also refer the official website of Nihon Sumo Kyokai

[EVENT] Tsurumi Summer Holiday Festival, Saturday 20th July, 2013

Place: Salvia Hall, Trusumi-ku

Date: Saturday 20th July, 2013, 10:00-17:00

Contents: Japanese Speech contest by foreigners, international food booths, playground etc...

More info in English is available at Tsurumi International Lounge website. Here

Temporary Child Care Service in Yokohama-city

Some of the child care center have the temporary service.
This is for gardians cannot manage to take care of their children for temporary job,job-traring,hospital stays and having child-rearing anxiety.
Garian(s) can use the service even if they don't have a regular job(s).

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxpbWN5aW5mb3xneDoyMGQ1OTViYjZhNTc0NDBi

[EVENT] Events in the Three-Day Weekend 13-15 July, 2013

This is a brief list of events going on during the three-day weekend around Yokohama.

-Yakumo Shrine Reitaisai Festival (Omachi, Kamakura)

13rd July
9:30~ Ceremony
13:00~Festival
19:00~ Portable Shrine
Website (English)

-Hanabi (Fireworks) Symphonia 

13-14, 27 July, 10-17 August 20:30~
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
Website (The news in Japanese, but they have English page for general info)

-Sankeien Early Morning Lotus Observing

13-15, 20&21, 27&28 July, 3&4, 10&11 August 6:00~
Sankeien
Website (Japanese)

-Special Exhibition Mammoth YUKA

13 July-16 September 9:00-17:00
Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall A
Ticket: Adult 2200 (pre-sale 1800), Elementary & Junior High students 1200(pre-sale 900)
*Pre-sale tickets by 12 July.
Website (Japanese)

-Yamate Bluff 18 Salon Concert

14 July 14:00~
Free entrance

Website (Japanese)

-Yokohama Noh Theater, Kyogendo

14 July, 14:00~
Ticket: 2000 yen
Website (English)

-Enoshima Tenno Sai Festival

14 July 9:30~
Portable Shrine
From Enoshima to Katase beach
Website (Japanese, general info in English)

-Kawasaki Daishi Summer Festival 

Samba Carnival
15 July
1) 15:00~15:30,  2) 17:00~18:00
13:30~ Samba workshop for kids in front of Kawasaki Daishi station
Flyer (in Japanese)

-Hakone Miyagino Suwa Shrine Shishimai (Lion Dance)

14-15 July

Website (Japanese, general info in English)

The dance starts on 14th 18:30~ and 19:00~

The main festival is on 15th 

13:00~ Ceremony

14:00~Dance

Bus from Hakone Yumoto, get off at Miyagino, 5 min on foot

[SHOP] Kimono Shop Hirota-ya in Hodogaya

The Kimono is a Japan's traditional costume. I this article, I would like to introduce my favorite kimono shop along with some facts about the kimono. 

Hirotaya is on route 201, 5 minutes walk from Sotetsu Line Tennocho station to the JR Hodogaya station direction. It was established more than 80 years ago and registered as a "Museum at the corner of street", which is a project with Hodogaya ward. 

Entrance.


















I visited there to buy a new Yukata. The yukata price was from 2980 Yen and majority was 6800 Yen.
The Yukata（浴衣/ゆかた） is a casual clothes for summer, which used to be a kind of bath robe or a night dress. It is still used for that purpose, as you can see in that yukatas are offered at Onsen Ryokan (a traditional style hotel with hot spring).
Popular patterns are generally summer flowers, such as morning glory, balloon flower, dianthus etc...

People used to wear a yukata without an undershirt or an underskirt but as the material is very light and it shows through a little, people often wear an underwear for yukata (ゆかた下 yukata-shita).
Other thing you need to wear a yukata are Obi belt （帯/おび）and some koshi-himo cords（腰紐/こしひも).






















This register has been used for nearly 80 years!! There are much antique furniture in this shop.
These cloths behind it (反物/たんもの) are for made-to-order kimonos. There are various types of kimonos. The popular one is called Furisode(振り袖/ふりそで), with long sleeves, colorful and gorgeous patterns. It is for unmarried (young) women and people often wear at the coming of age day (20 years old) and weddings. Married women wear short-sleeved kimonos.


















The shop sells all the necessities for wearing a kimono: shoes, bags, socks, cords collars etc...
These kimono shops usually serve kimono cleaning, stain removal, size adjustment, repair, family emblem print and so on.

Shop Information:
Hirota ya
2-163 Iwama-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama
045-333-0529
(Toll Free: 0120-41-5529)

[LIFE] How To Maintain Your Air Conditioner

One of my friends told me that her air conditioner didn't produce enough cool wind, so I asked her if she had cleaned it up.

Yes, air conditioners need cleaning. And the first thing you should check when you have problem with your air condoner is if it's cleaned or not.

There are various models and the latest ones don't require cleaning but they do it by themselves.

 For example, this is one of our air conditioner. It's  a DAIKIN 2012 model and they don't require cleaning often. It automatically cleans the dust or dries up inside if we set it (Yes, we must set it using a remote).

フィルター掃除: Filter Cleaning
内部クリーン: Inside Cleaning (reduce molds and bad smell by drying)
The spec guide advises that "Filter Cleaning" should be done everyday.

 When I open the front panel, it looks like this. If they need cleaning (the streamer unit, the dust box and the dust brush), they let us know by blinking each lamp.

 This is another one which is rather old (Mitsubishi).

 We can see the filters and they need to be cleaned once a month using a vacuum cleaner. These filters are removable, so please get them off and vacuum.

If they're really dirty/oily, you can prepare a warm water with some drops of neutral detergent in a bucket soak, rinse and dry.
CAUTION: Please don't put back the wet filters to the air conditioner!

Inside, we can see it's dirty but can't reach... in this case, we need to call the professional...

Air conditioner cleaning (エアコンクリーニング）costs about 8000~12000yen per machine. Discount available for the second and more machines at the same time. The easiest way is to ask 家電量販店 household electrical appliance retailer such as Yodobashi, Bic, Kojima, Yamada etc... where you bought the conditioner (if possible).  The leading house cleaning company Duskin also offers air conditioner cleaning.

*Please note that these are just two examples. There are various models and each of them has different way of maintaining... Please have someone to translate the specification guide of your air conditioner.

After the earthquake, we are asked to save electricity. The government recommend that we set the temperature of air conditioner to 28 degrees C or use an electric fan (or a circulator) if possible. And switching off the air conditioner often doesn't save electricity, because it uses a lot of energy to boot. But we should keep the room temperature at about 28 C for our health!!

Here I embed the Electricity Usage Status gadget by TEPCO.