The is a

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

club in Tokoro Town, Kitami City,

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...

Island, Japan. The club has about 40 teams, including a team .

Background

Island, Japan and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada became sister province in 1980. Then,

was introduced to Tokoro Town as an

outdoor recreation Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...

while farmers could not work in winter, and has been popular sport among people in Tokoro. In 1981, lessons are held by former world champion curler Wally Ursuliak. The administration of Tokoro Town, later Kitami City, built public indoor curling facility in 1988, which is rebuilt as ' in 2013. But major sponsor does not exist in Tokoro because it is a small local town. As the result, famous curlers born in Tokoro has gone to other prefectures in Japan.

Loco Solare

, also known as the , is a women's amateur

team established in July 2010 by Olympian curler

Mari Motohashi is a Japanese curler. Career Motohashi was a member of Team Aomori which represented Japan at two Winter Olympics (2006 and 2010). She threw second stones for Ayumi Onodera at the 2006 Winter Olympics, finishing 7th, and played second for Moe ...

. The team is based in, and all the members are from Kitami City. The team got bronze medals at

PyeongChang 2018 , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , wi ...

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

History

, who was an Olympian at Torino 2006 and at

Vancouver 2010 )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

as a member of

Team Aomori The Aomori Curling Club is a curling club in Aomori, Japan. It is best known as being the home of , a women's curling team that won six Japanese Curling Championships (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010) and represented Japan at four World Curli ...

, had also been one of such curlers. She thought why curlers born in Tokoro could not stay in the town. In the Summer of 2010, she asked two former curlers once retired,

Megumi Mabuchi is a Japanese feminine given name. In Japanese, the word megumi means "blessing; grace." Possible writings While the word megumi means blessing and can be written using that kanji, it may also be spelled using other kanji, such as the kanji fo ...

and

Akane Eda Akane (, ) is the Japanese word for 'deep red' (, ''Akane'', '' Rubia cordifolia'') and is associated with red (from the red dye made from its roots) and brilliant red. ''Akane'' (written in a variety of forms) is both a female Japanese give ...

, and two student curlers

Yurika Yoshida is a Japanese curler. She currently plays lead for Team Loco Solare, which is skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. The team won the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Career Yoshida was a membe ...

and

Yumi Suzuki is a Japanese curler. She currently plays second for Team Loco Solare, which is skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. The team won the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Career Suzuki was a memb ...

, to join her rink named "Loco Solare," also known as "LS Kitami." At the press conference in Tokyo on 16 August 2010, she announced leaving Japanese national representative

to establish her own rink in Tokoro. It was hard to find big sponsor in Kitami City, but small ones increased slowly. But in September 2013, Eda left the team because she could not kept the balance of curling and her work

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; the French female version of the word is pâtissière ), is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bi ...

. In June 2014, Sochi 2014 Olympian as alternate;

Chinami Yoshida is a Japanese curler. She currently plays third for Team Loco Solare, which is skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. The team won the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Career Yoshida began curl ...

joined the team. In the season of 2014–15, the team got their first winning prize at the

World Curling Tour The World Curling Tour (WCT) is a group of curling bonspiels featuring the best male, female, and mixed doubles curlers in the world. History The World Curling Tour was founded by former World Champion Ed Lukowich, with later assistance from John ...

event; Avonair Cash Spiel. In May 2015,

Satsuki Fujisawa is a Japanese curler from Kitami, Hokkaido. As a skip, she has won the Japanese national championship six times. Fujisawa skipped the bronze medal-winning Japanese team at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and the silver medal-winning team at t ...

joined the team. After Fujisawa became the member, Mabuchi retired from games, but the team got medals as Japanese representative in various tournaments every year. In 2015, while Motohashi had maternity leave,

Kotomi Ishizaki is a Japanese curler from Sapporo. Career She made her World Championship debut at the 2003 Winnipeg World Championships playing lead for Shinobu Aota's team from Japan. She would return to the world championships in 2004 with the same team. ...

appeared at Pacific-Asia Championships as alternate.

Olympics

In September 2017, this amateur team won the five set match at 2017 Japanese Olympic Curling Trials against team Chiaki Matsumura. At

, the team got bronze medals.

Members

Team

Grand Slam record

Former events

Other notable WCT record

records other than

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

References

External links

, a.k.a.
Official site (Google Translate)
Facebook: Team LocoSolare
(Google Translate)
NPO, {{Nihongo, Tokoro Curling Club, 常呂カーリング倶楽部
Official site (Google Translate, Nonprofit organization)
Advics Tokoro Curling Hall
Official site (Public curling hall owned by Ktami City)
2016 Swift Current WCC's introductory PDF (pages 1, 15)Team Satsuki Fujisawa
–

Grand Slam of Curling The Grand Slam of Curling (branded as the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling for sponsorship reasons) is a series of curling bonspiels that are a part of the annual World Curling Tour. Grand Slam events offer a purse of at least CAD$100,000, and fe ...

Curling in Japan Curling clubs established in 2010 2010 establishments in Japan