Yosakoi 2009- Numazu Shizuoka

Well, it is that time again for dancers from far and wide to travel to Numazu for the traditional Yosakoi dance competition. The streets of Numazu, Shizuoka will be filled with dancers competing for the title of best Yosakoi performance.

Yosakoi is a traditional set of dance steps generally carried out in unison by a large group. However, these dances sequences are only a starting point for each dancing teams chorography and ultimately performances can vary greatly. Be sure to check out the college and highschool performances because their divergences are often the most creative.

The dancers’ costume grounds itself in various traditional festival garb of Japan and then deviates to many modern colourful extremes.

This festival is not one to miss.

Yosakoi! Yosakoi! Sore sore sore sore!

Numazu Summer Festival – Numazu Natsu Matsuri

It’s festival season time again and the big event in July for Numazu is the Summer Festival (Natsu Matsuri). This massive event runs on the 25^th and  26^th of July. Festivals are generally seen as a socially accepted time for Japanese to let their hair down and cast their conservatism to the wind. The Numazu Summer Festival is no different in this regard.

Numazu’s south side comes alive with row after row and street after street of food and other festival stalls. Elaborate shrines shouldered by chanting locals wearing traditional garb and broad smiles. Just be careful not to look too enthusiastic or you might find yourself being drawn into help shoulder one of the shrines. Drums beat their tattoo up and down the street competing with dancing groups belting out songs and vendors selling their wares.

I also hear on good authority that many of our younger male foreigners like nothing more than to enjoy the sights of pretty women dressed in noble summer kimono’s (known as Yukatas), as they sip cool drinks from the comfort of a café.

Each night ends with a fireworks extravaganza along the crowded Kano River, where your free to walk under and around them to get the best view.

Check it out and catch a glimpse of the inner party animal inside every Japanese person and one of the biggest festivals in Numazu.

Directions: from the south side of the station wander aimlessly through the shoulder to should streets of stalls. If the stalls start to thin out turn around and head towards the music.

Speak EZ Numazu -”Spazz if you want to!”

The Aun Crew are back again at Speak EZ for another pumping good time. If you are after some good music, good company and great drinks then head down to Speak EZ this Saturday night. Spazz on! 

“Spazz if you want to!” on Saturday, June 6 at 9:00pm.

Event: Spazz if you want to!
      “Aun Crew Presents: Spazz if you want to! A monthly dance/ electronic music night at Speak EZ”
What: Club Party
Host: Traffikin Beatz
Start Time: Saturday, June 6 at 9:00pm
End Time: Sunday, June 7 at 5:00am
Where: Speak EZ

Spazz if you want to! Numazu Dance and Electronica

If you are up for a night of rock’n dance and electronica may I suggest that you get yourself over to the SpeakEZ.

Local Numazu group, The Aun Crew are performing, “Spazz if you want to” for their ninth run at SpeakEZ. Their funky house, techno and, drum and bass will have you on the hitting the floor in no time. Entry is free and the drinks flowing.

Event: Spazz if you want to!
“Aun Crew Presents: Spazz if you want to! A monthly dance/ electronic music night at Speak EZ”
What: Club Party
Host: Speak EZ
Start Time: Saturday, May 2 at 9:00pm
End Time: Sunday, May 3 at 5:00am
Where: Speak EZ To find out how to get there check out the map here

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=170295170653&mid=5f7d39G3d9d45a4G73e1c6G7

WorldSkills – Numazu

There it is just 6 more days until the start of the WorldSkills competition, held in Numazu. This event will pit country against country in test of Trade skills.

The four day event will commence on the 14th November with an opening ceromony. Competitions will follow from the 15th November, running over 4 days.

The competition starts at 9:00am and closes to the public at 4:00pm over the 4 days. All events run over the entire time of the competition. There is no chance you will miss out on seeing your favourite skill in action. Events are open to the public and are absolutely free.

A shuttle bus service will run from the station to the competition site by Kadoike Pond during the competition.

 For more information on the event check out the below links.

 www.worldskills.org

http://www.skillsfestival2007.or.jp/en/index.html

Press Release: http://www.skillsfestival2007.or.jp/en/news/pressrelease0827.pdf

http://www.gokigen-numazu.com/

Cheers

Scott Garbie.

November Events – Numazu

There is a lot going on this month. Apart from the usual celebrations, this year Numazu is coming out in high form to show the WorldSkill Competitors and Visitors are good time. For the rest of us this makes for a prime time to visit Numazu.

From the 14th of November to the 21st you can visit the WorldSkills competitions around Kadoike pond. Competetors from all around the road pit their trade skills against each other in such things as computer skills, metal work, cooking and even hair dressing. This has been pitted as a big event for Numazu and certainly worth a visit.

Numazu’s famous street dancing, Yosakoi Tokaido 2007, will also be held this weekend in downtown Numazu (South side). This event was big last year, with many people coming down from all over Japan. I remember sipping a beer and enjoying the dancing and music from my window sill. Yep lording over the masses.

Winter Stage will also be held this month on the 17 November. From what I understand, this event will be held on the Kano River, south Numazu. This looks to be a great night of fireworks, music and fun.

There is a lot more going on this month, but I don’t want to steal too much of the glory from the Numazu Newsletter-English Edition. You will just have to click here and see for yourself.

Check out my map link for locations.

Numazu Summer Festival – Natsu Matsuri

The Numazu Summer Festival (Natsu Matsuri) is coming around again. This big event floods the streets on the south side of Numazu in a three day event filled with endless parades, deja vu stalls, excellent music, gorgeous yukatas and ends each night with a huge display of fireworks over the Kano river. Living so close to the center of town means that some of the parades actually passed by our very windows last year. During the previous years Summer Festival we were fortunate enough to sit on our windowsill and watched the parades go by. The dancers in their immaculately dressed quasi traditional garb are an awe inspiring sight. The huge floats born on the shoulders of cheering sweat sodden participants with balancing beauties precariously positioned on top of gorgeously crafted woodwork, are to sure infuse you with energy and excitement.

We couldn’t just sit on our windowsill all day. There was so much else to see.

On every street at every time there is something different to keep you well entertained throughout the day and well into the night to finally enjoy the fireworks.

I am sure that these few pictures from last years event will tempt you enough to pay a visit.

When 27, 28 and 29th of July.

Location South side of Numazu Station flowing down the main streets and along the Kano River.

Numazu movie times

I have recently received a number of searches to this blog regarding Numazu movie times. Numazu cinema times depend on the cinema you choose. On the north side there is the recently opened Cinema Sunshine in the Bivi complex. You can access the Cinema Sunshine times here http://www.cinemasunshine.co.jp/numazu/maeuri.html. On the south side the Joyland group had two cinema locations. You can access the Joyland movie times here http://www.joyland.jp/cinema/index.html. On one occasion I have found the Joyland cinema times not corresponding with the actual showing. However, this is probably once out of a total of about 10 visits.

Both websites are in Japanese and you will need to translate them. I recommend either to copy and past the url (web address) into a search engine like google and once the site comes up click the [translate page] link. Alternatively you can use a free translation program like AltaVista’s Babel Fish. You can copy and paste the url in there, select Japanese to English and then click “Translate”.

At different times both Joyland and Cinema Sunshine have both Japanese dubbed and English with subtitle editions of movies. So far there is no English subtitles for Japanese movies, but what do you expect eh?

When looking for an English speaking movie once you have translated page look for “subtitle super edition”. The humorously translated “Japanese blowing substitution edition” is the Japanese dubbed version. This is easy to see in the Cinema Sunshine edition but you may have to do a bit of copy-translate for the Joyland page.

Happy viewing

Scott Garbie