The city of Yokohama is going to offer medical subsidy for all the infants and children under high school age (0 to 9th graders) from August 2023. Basically medical expense for children of those ages will be free.   *Now (until the end of July, 2023), if the income of the caregiver of a child (over 3 years old) surpasses the income limit of the subsidy system, they lose the certificate.  For those who don't have or have lost the right to use the medical subsidy certificate for children of the city of Yokohama need to reapply to receive the new certificate.  Those who are subject ..read more

 If you have children under 15 and receive Child Allowance, you are supposed to turn in Jido Teate, Genkyo Todoke (児童手当・特例給付現況届) , Child Allowance Present Condition form by the end of June in order to continue to receive the allowance for another year.   Haven't received it yet? If you have children under 15 and have not received the envelop, you might need to check if your registration was properly done when you moved in to Yokohama.  In the envelop, you find: 1) A white one-sided sheet (how to fill in the form) 2) A white sheet with your name and address on (the ..read more

  Red Brick Warehouse Christmas Market 2020 December 4th to December 25th 11:00-21:00 (Last entry by 20:30) Their official page has opened: https://www.yokohama-akarenga.jp/christmas/ This year, they need to limit the number of visitors so you will need a reservation ticket to enter. Weekdays: Admission free / Re-entry accepted / for 60 minutes each time Weekends and Dec.23rd to 25th: 300 yen (free for elementary school children and younger but need to be accompanied by adult(s)) , for 60 minutes each time and no re-entry  Even though you get the ticket you may need to w ..read more

  Hodogaya International Lounge's foreign mothers' gathering "Piccolo" has been closed since March but finally it will reopen in September 2020. But there are some changes: -The gathering is reduced to once a month. -You need to sign up each time. -The number of families is limited to 10 (basically a child and the caretaker in each "family") and up to 5 local Japanese families among them.  <HOW TO SIGN UP> Call or email to Hodogaya International Lounge and give them your name, your child's name and your phone number. It's first-come-first-served basis and the sign-up must be m ..read more

You may have already received a yellow envelop from the city; it's the season of the Jido Teate, Genkyo Todoke (児童手当・特例給付現況届) , Child Allowance Present Condition form to continue to receive the allowance for another year.   Haven't received it yet? If you have children under 15 and have not received the envelop, you might need to check if your registration was properly done when you moved in to Yokohama.  In the envelop, you find: 1) A white one-sided sheet (how to fill in the form) 2) A white sheet with your name and address on (the child allowance present condition f ..read more

There is some information provided by YOKE about COVID-19 in Japan. Multilingual information by CLAIR http://www.clair.or.jp/j/multiculture/tool_library/tools/114526.html?fbclid=IwAR2_sMGjg7vd14mQF-ZeaZTNkqfaXEOQBkORz2TKmSqhTT_7JB-FM1ymdhE Click the orange button to download the files (a folder that contains all the files in Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Burmese, Portuguese, Vietnamese, French, Tagalog, Nepali, German, Thai, Spanish, Indonesian, Easy Japanese will be downloaded) Japan Visitor Hotline http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/news08_000311.html (press release in Japanese ..read more

On the day before Setsubun, we got together to make Oni masks and Carnival masks. First we watched videos on Setsubun and Carnival (in English) and then started to paint and decorate the masks!  Each child got two white masks: a round one and a cat one. With paints, pens, stickers and masking tapes, children decorated their masks. Then they ate roasted soy beans, as many as their age according to the tradition, and went out for bean throwing. Daddies put on the oni mask their kids made and played the role of Oni demon. Children threw the beans to drive away bad luck that Oni represen ..read more

*This event is now fully booked. You will be put in the waiting list and we will let you know when someone cancels.  A daddies' group based in Nishi ward, Kyoiku-kai and IMCY are going to hold a co-event in February to celebrate Setsubun and Carnival. Kids are going to make two festival masks. If the weather is okay, we are going to enjoy bean-throwing, which is one of the Setsubun traditions,  in the park nearby.   Date: Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 (10AM~) Venue: Tobe Community House Fee: 500 yen/family Please read through the flyer and SIGN UP to join.  See the P ..read more

Some of you might have received this letter from the city of Yokohama. This is an announcement for the visual and audio checkup for three-year-old children (turning four this before next April). It says from this fiscal year (or school year/ from April to March in Japan),  they pulled down the target age from four to three, so if you have a four-year-old(s) and a three-year-old(s), you receive the letter for both (or all) of them this year.  If your child(ren) is already enrolled in a school (nursery or kindergarten), you will receive the checkup questionnaire sheet through your s ..read more

On a fine day in early June, some IMCY members attended a demo session by Music Together Allegro at their Center Kita classroom.  It's only a few-minute walk from the Yokohama Municipal Subway station (Yokohama History Museum side).   The Music Together program is a world-wide music program for kids (age 0-5 years old) and caregivers. http://musictogetherallegro.com Center Kita is the only classroom where the lesson is conducted all in English. In other classrooms, both English and Japanese are used so you don't have to worry even if you don't speak much Japanese.  Egg sh ..read more