Blog#6: Sumo

    Hello, I'm Junsei Goseki. Today I want to introduce one of the Japanese cultures, Sumo.

Sumo is a popular international sport in Japan and it has history and tradition that is really being preserved as same style since it started.

    When you do Sumo, two people stand face to face in about 2meters distance, then you have to get your hand on the ground, taking forwarded-posture.

When a referee that called “Gyo-ji” in Sumo says ‘Miatte-Miatte, hakkeyo-I nokotta!’, you start fighting your competitor. You win if you take down your counterpart on the ground. You lose if you touch the ground by your hand, knee or part of your body. The only thing that you are allowed on the ground is your foot.

You can’t kick or punch your person though you can push or throw him out.

You have a limit in your field called “Dohyo”. It is written by Kanji like this: 土俵.

Sumo-field has “土” that means soil or mud and the Sumo wrestler have to fight there.

“俵” means bundles of straw. If you are beyond this “Dohyo” that limit your field, you lose.

So it means you’ll win when you push out your person out of “Dohyo”.

Sumo-wrestler have to wear “Mawashi”. It’s hard to explain what it is,,, it’s simply pant for the professional Sumo-wrestler. They rap cloth around their waist and hip.

So you can hold their “Mawashi” to throw him out.

    However, it’s not so easy to throw the body whose weight is over 150kg.

You need technique and also need to use your brain how to beat your person.

If you go push too much, they use your power and you get disadvantage.

Sumo is not a sport just like pushing people out, it’s a really intelligent sport.

    When you want to watch Sumo, you can go to the Ryogoku Kokugi-kan in Ryo-goku station.

    

    And this is my favorite film. It’s really funny and the story is about college students so good to watch. "Shiko-Hunjatta".

You also can know more about Sumo. There is an exchanged student in the film from British and we can know how foreign people think about Sumo. 

     I don't know about history of Sumo, so you can know about history here.

Sumo Wiki

Blog #6: Tripadvisor

Hi! I'm Saori Nakagawa. Let me introduce about one of my favorite social media.
It's called Tripadvisor.

Tripadvisor is a community for tourists. In this community, we share experiences of some trip that we've ever taken and help each other plan next trip.

For example, if you want to visit and stay somewhere you don't know well, you put the name of place into the page, and the list of many hotels, restaurants or most popular places there with reviews and rating that other users posted before are showed.

 It is sure that it helps you find comfortable, enjoyable places. In addition to it, you can also post photos and see ones of others. There are many nice photos in this community, so I think all of us, not only tourists, can enjoy this site. We can feel as if we went to some places where we have never visited  by seeing the experiences and photos. This site also used as app for free. I use it when I visit anywhere. If you want to experiment what you never have, I recommend you to visit this site. Get the truth, then go!

Link is here.

Blog#2: Takarazuka

Hello, I'm Kyoko. In this time I want to tell you about Takarazuka. On May 24, I went looking to a play of the snow class of Takarazuka with my friends. We could get the tickets for free because a teacher of European world's history asked her friend who belonged to fan club. Fortunately, the seats of tickets were S on the second floor! Thus we could look over whole of the stage from there. Though I watched their play in European world's class on DVD, the live play was quite different. Their performances were all wouderful such as play, song, dance and costume. Of course they were all women, but women who played men looked like real men in the meantime. I was very impressed in their performances, so I want to go looking their stage again in the near term.

Blog #5: Hotel Marques de Riscal

Hi! I'm Saori Nakagawa.
Let me introduce about one of the Frank O. Gahry's works, Hotel Marques de Riscal. The building is located in Elciego, in the Rioja region of Spain.

The hotel was built in 2006. As the name implies, the building is used as a hotel. The roof is called Gehry's wing. Do you know why the roof was colored like this? The area where Hotel Marques is located has been known for production of wine that good tastes, and the hotel also has winery. So, the roof was colored mixture of red and purple associated with a color of wine.

A view from the restaurant is very good. Not only people who stay at Hotel Marques but just visit the winery can enjoy lunch or dinner at the restaurant that is located the top floor of the hotel with enjoying their good tasting wine and the fantastic view. I want to visit and stay Hotel Marques sometime!

Link is here!

Blog#4: EMP Museum

Hello, this is Kyoko. I chose EMP Museum, Experience Music Project Museum, from many of  Franc Gehry's works because I was attracted by its shape when I looked at the picture.

This architecture is in Seattle, and was founded in 2000. This picture is its view from the Seattle Center. This museum is a place where you can see the history and exploration of popular music in the Pacific Northwest. For example, there are many exhibits of Jimi Hendrix. (He was a musician who brought musical evolution in Seattle.) Besides, you can also enjoy making your original music video and CD and trying real live.

At first, when I looked at the pictures of EMP Museum, I thought it was like building covered with clothes of white, red and blue. However, researching the architecture, I saw that it is wonderful buildhing for people who love music. There are many exhibits such as guitar and gallery of Jimi Hendrix, great musician in Seattle, so probably people who is fan of Jimi will also enjoy a lot. I'm interested in music, too, so I want to go there if I have a chance to visit Seattle.

If you want more information, check this URL.

homepage of EMP Museum: http://www.empmuseum.org/