The island’s second most populouscity is gearing up for its annualindustrial festival, planning toshare with everyone on the island

what Okinawa City has to offer.The 38th Okinawa City Sangyo

Festival, which most people appreciate asan Industrial Festival, takes place Saturdayand Sunday at Okinawa ComprehensiveAthletic Park gymnasium, and surroundingarea at Hiyagon 5-3-1 in Okinawa City.Admission is free for the festival, whichruns 10 a.m. ~ 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.~ 5 p.m. on Sunday. Visitors should planon using temporary parking spaces atAwase Fishing Port and free shuttle bussesto the festival.

Many Okinawa City vendors will beon hand, displaying a lot of local goodies

and specialties. Various handmade stores,Tatami and Sanshin stores will be there,while in the food area, people can try inter-national foods from a variety of restaurants.There’s a bit of everything being baked,boiled, cooked and grilled, including pas-

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Henoko base construction

Bats are swinging as teams prepare for season

By Bill Charles

From Ishigaki to Okinawa, peopleare beginning to hum the tune ‘takeme out to the ballgame’ as springtraining rolls toward the first exhi-

bition games less than a month from now.Thirteen professional baseball teams,

including four from Korea, will begingoing through spring training paces on

Okinawa Feb. 1st, preparing for a baseballseason that officially launches in March.Aside from players, coaches and managers,many of the mainland Japanese teams haveloyal fans that have flocked to the trainingsites to mix-and-mingle with their favoritestars, not to mention hordes of mediareporters who follow every move .of theirassigned teams and players.

Urasoe City is hosting the YakultSwallows, while the DeNA Yokohama BayStars are in Ginowan and the ChunichiDragons and its farm team in Chatan. TheHiroshima Carp are working out inOkinawa City, the Hanshin Tigers inGinoza, and the Hokkaido Nipppon HamFighters are in Nago. the Chiba LotteMariners are in Ishigaki, the Rakuten

Golden Eagles and its farm team are bothon Kume Island, and the Shonan Searex, aDeNA Yokohama Bay Stars farm team, isat Kadena Town.

Four Japanese professional teams—the Orix Buffaloes, Yomiuri Giants, SeibuLions and Softbank—have opened Springtraining camps in locations other than

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Baseball fans have something to look forward to as Japanese pro-baseball teams hold their spring training camps here. Yomiuri Giants, the most storied of Japanese pro teamswill take on Hiroshima Toyo Carp on Feb. 22 and on Rakuten Eagles on Feb. 22 at the Cellular Stadium in Onoyama Sports Park in Naha, tickets are available at FamilyMartconvenience stores.

Okinawa City showcases its products at industrial festival

Okinawa City businesses showcase their products and services this weekend.

2Japan Update Classifieds Jan. 22, 2015 - Jan. 28, 2015

A&W hosting custom car & hot rod show

Okinawa meets AmericanaSunday as A&W OkinawaMakiminato stages its 5thannual Drawing and Hot

Rod & Custom Car Day.The Drawing and Hot Rod &

Custom Car Day runs 10 a.m. ~ 6p.m., and is free. The event featuresmany old classic custom cars, motor-cycles, and live pinstripe painting byprofessional painters. A&W remem-bers the good old days, and wants to

share the nostalgia in both the oldcars and the car culture, which isingrained in Okinawans much morethan in other Japanese prefectures.Okinawa was under U.S. administra-tion from World War II to 1972, andOkinawans readily identify withmany things American.

The organizer, Isamu “ISM”Nakanishi, says that “ of courseOkinawa is a small island, butAmericans or other foreigners wholove hot rods or old custom cars willbe satisfied by this event, eventhough it is much smaller than thesame kind of shows in the U.S.Okinawans enjoy the cars, too, andeven though our A&W event size isnot so big, each customized car orpainting is good enough to watch.”

Nakanishi says he believes theA&W show is as good as those inAmerica, mainly because it is inOkinawa. His goal is “to make itlarger than larger with all kind ofnationalities participating”.

Finding A&W Makiminato justoff Highway 58 is easy. The map isat https://goo.gl/maps/IHb67

Baseball spring campsContinued from page 1Okinawa. The Orix Buffaloes in past years had springtraining drills on Miyako Island. Training was movedfrom Miyako Island to Miyazaki Prefecture last August25th. According to Ryuzo Setoyama, the general managerof the team, there are three reasons; a better facility, easi-ness of adjustment of schedules of practice games andattracting a large number of customers. The new campsite, Miyazaki Kiyotake Comprehensive Athletic Park,has a 5,500 capacity stadium and an indoor ground. Theyhave constructed another stadium the same size as currentone and a bull pen that ten people can practice in at atime. The Yomiuri Giants and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawksare also training in Miyazaki City, although the Giantsspend the lastter half of February at Cellular Stadium inNaha. Orix had had a camp since 1993. “We so muchappreciated Miyako Island for supporting us,’ said thegeneral manager Setoyama in Osaka.

Korean teams are soaking up Okinawa’s warmth astemperatures across the southern Korea peninsula are inthe sub-zero range. The LG Twins are in Ishikawa,Uruma City, the SK Wyverns are in Gushikawa, UrumaCity, The Samsung Lions are working out at Guam now,and will then open its second training camp in Okinawa.The Kia Tigers are training exclusively in Okinawa, whilefive other Korean pro teams – the Nexen Heroes, NCDinos, LG Twins, Doosan Bears and Lotte Giants—willtrain in Arizona.

Youngsters of all ages with aspirations of playingprofessional baseball are gathering daily at the trainingsites, hoping for a word, or a tip, or even a smile from thepro players. In the intimate Okinawa training setting,players often take their bento or noodles and sit in thestands during breaks, mixing and mingling with specta-tors.

The opening exhibition game is February 21st withthe Yomiuri Giants and the squaring off againstHiroshima Toyo Carp at 1 p.m. at Cellular Stadium inNaha City. The Hanshin Tigers and DeNa YokohamaBay Stars meet at 1 p.m. at Ginowan Baseball Stadiumnear the Convention Center.

On February 22nd the Giants take on the RakutenEagles at Cellular Stadium at 1 p.m., while the Tigers goagainst the Chunichi Dragons at Chatan Stadium at 1 p.m.A third game, also at 1 p.m., puts the Yakult Swallowsagainst the Nippon Ham Fighters at the Urasoe Stadium.

Makiminato A&W is the venue of the Drawing Hot Rod & Custom Car Day.

Okinawa City Industrial FestivalContinued from page 1tries, pizza and sweets at a coffee shop. As a special event, the localproducts exhibition and sale of Yamagata, Hokkaido, Nagano andAichi will take place. Visitors can also make things like glass,leather and wood goods in the hands-on booth.

There’s more than shopping, as events Saturday begin with kidsEisa at 9:45 a.m., and move to Okinawa folk and pops music byHikari at 2:20 p.m. Natchy is on stage at 3 p.m., Sakura Ishado, a15-year-old drummer, takes to the stage at 3:40 p.m., and the RyujinMabuya super hero show rounds out the afternoon at 4:20 p.m.

On Sunday, Kojya Shouryu Daiko is on the outdoor stage at10:30 a.m., followed by shishimai or lion dance at 11:00 a.m., and akids dance show at 1 p.m. Yoshimoto’s Okinawa comedy show is at1:40 p.m. and Sonda Eisa is at 2:50 p.m.

Foodcourt outdoors serves every imaginablekind of food from local restaurants.