Kumamoto International Archive

Archive of the Kumamoto International Facebook group, 2011–present.

Kirkland, I mean Kirk here with news of Costco's opening at 6 AM (!!) today:
https://rkk.jp/news/index.php?id=NS003202104011104180111

Kirk here. It's been 400 years since Kato Kiyomasa changed the first character of Kumamoto from 隈 (meaning "corner," "nook," or "recess") to 熊 (meaning "bear"). Now, Kumamoto is about to undergo another name change. In keeping with the growth of Kumamoto's photovoltaic industry and the new importance of Kumamoto as the home of the Self-Defense Force's electronic warfare unit, Governor Kabashima has announced that Kumamoto will be renamed "Voltomoto" (ヴォルト本) and that Kumamon will be replaced with a cute electric eel character called "Voltomon." "I think Kumamon fans may be shocked by Voltomon," chuckled Kabashima to the gaggle of scowling reporters. Then, the governor added, "No seriously. You gotta be careful. If you get too close to this mascot he'll shock you. It's his way of protecting himself from fans who cross the line, so to speak." Asked if his decision had anything to do with to Volkswagen's recent name change, the governor replied "Well, yah, but not just that. I'm also a big fan of our pro basketball team, the Volters, and thought this might be a way to 'spark' some interest in them. Hah, ha, ha."
Happy April 1st! ;)

Our friend Yoshiko Toyama took this stunning photo of an Aso peak, Nekodake. The peak, shown on the map at far right, had been thought to have formed after Aso went kablooee 90,000 years ago, creating the caldera. Turns out its rock is 150,000 years old, making it far older than the mountain we think of as "Aso" today, which formed after that eruption. If you're considering climbing it, its highest point, Tengu Peak, is a steep rock peak, apparently requiring rock climbing skills. - William

This is about a 400-year-old editic from Kumamoto's Tadaoki Hosokawa. The "no drinking" part sounds like pretty good advice for COVID-19, at least if you change it to "no bar hopping." And, of course, "no fighting" is a good rule of thumb in any age. ;) -- Kirk
NO DRINKING! NO FIGHTING! The laws of early Edo Japan to keep the peace
An early Edo period document stipulating the Hosokawa clan code of conduct for vassals dispatched on a national project to rebuild Sunpu Castle has been discovered by Kumamoto University researchers. The thirteen articles from the head of the Hosokawa clan, Tadaoki Hosokawa, delegate full authority....

Kirk with another reintroduction of the "Second-Hand Kumamoto" group.
I was prompted to post today because a friend asked about where he could get a small refrigerator. He knows about Kumamoto International but I thought he may not know about Second-Hand Kumamoto. As my friend is probably not the only person who doesn't know about the group, I thought I'd post about it.
By the way, if anyone has any favorite second-hand shops (besides, Second-Hand Kumamoto, that is), please post a little note in a comment. Also, if you happen to have a small refrigerator that you don't need, I know someone who will probably take it off your hands.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/secondhandkumamoto

Kirk here with a link to an English article on the cyberwarfare unit that William wrote about.
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force unveils new electronic warfare unit in Kumamoto - The Mainichi
KUMAMOTO -- A dedicated Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) electronic warfare unit officially entered service on March 29 with a ceremony at it

"In the aftermath of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, SoftBank sent communication relay equipment aloft on a balloon." -- Not known until today by Kirk
Major telecoms preparing array of ‘flying base stations’
https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/000726168
ソフトバンク、熊本地震で被災地のSoftBank携帯電話における通信速度制限を4月30日まで撤廃！基地局復旧に加え、気球による無線中継システムを災害に初導入
https://news.livedoor.com/article/image_detail/11426448/?img_id=10238008

To continue with Kirk's Armageddon theme, Kumanichi reports that Kumamoto will be the first site of Japan's planned electronic warfare corps (電子戦部隊, denshisen butai), soon to host a device designed to detect and interefere with enemy radio waves. Kengun is the headquarters of the GFS Western Army, in charge of defense of Kyushu, Okinawa, and all that lies between, so they figured they'd put it there. It's mobile, which is nice as Kengun is now likely a primary target should missiles fly. - William
https://kumanichi.com/news/id170796

Joe Tomei here, I've pinned Chuck's post to the top of the page. Also, with the other language versions, you will probably have to fill out the Japanese version, so you will want to use the translations give below as a guide.
Also, here are the designated medical facilities for adminstering the vaccine in Kumamoto prefecture
https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/search/city.html?id=430005
=========
Chuck Waterman here.
Just found a few pages with some seemingly very helpful information and preparation for those of us hoping to get the COVID19 vaccine here:
1. Downloadable English (and other language) versions of the Prevaccination Screening Questionnaire, Instructions for COVID-19 Vaccination, and an important Notice on CODID19 Vaccination:
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/vaccine_tagengo.html
2. Corona Vaccine Navi (in Japanese: use Google Translate to read it):
https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/
There are no vaccination sites listed yet - check back after April 12th....
In addition, the phone number for the Corona Vaccine Call Center at City Hall is 096-300-5577. Please don't call them to ask "When will I get my Vaccination Ticket?" yet, unless you are 65 or older or have one of the health conditions listed on the Notice. I'm expecting that the tickets for 65 and older won't start arriving until after April 12th from the information we heard on a phone call today. Hope that is helpful!
外国語の新型コロナワクチンの予診票等を掲載しています。

SL Hitoyoshi service to resume.
-- copying and pasting by Kirk
JR Kyushu to resume steam locomotive trips to support areas hit by deadly rain disaster - The Mainichi
KUMAMOTO -- Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) will resume operations of a steam locomotive on an alternative route from May 1, in a bid to support areas

Dear friends,
I hope I can be forgiven for posting something that has no direct relation to Kumamoto. I'd like to write a little about this article from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/10/cold-war-era-weapon-100bn-us-plan-to-build-new-nuclear-missile-sparks-concern
Today I was listening to a "Democracy Now" podcast from about a week ago. They were talking about US plans to develop a new, very expensive nuclear weapon (the one mentioned in the Guardian article). They were also talking about the UK's movements in a similar direction. I'm pretty much of a news junkie, both in regard to the US and Japan, but this was the first I'd heard of it. I searched in Japanese and finally, after some effort, found a Japanese article about the UKs strengthening of its nuclear arsenal and one more on US plans:
https://otakei.otakuma.net/archives/2020090908.html
But, it's the kind of news that you have to know about already in order to be able to find an article about it. For the Japanee article on U.S. plans, I needed to use GBSD, the abbreviation for "Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent," the name of the program, in order to find anything. If you do a Google search in English with Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent you can find articles about the program from fairly reputable sources. Major news services, however, seem to be mostly silent. Granted, there's a lot to report these day and this seems to have been developing over some time but I still can't help but scratch my head as to how this can be more-or-less public yet not be considered to be newsworthy. :) --Kirk
P.S. If "fake news" is fiction that gets lots of attention, what is real news that gets ignored for the most part? "Silent news"?
'Cold war-era weapon': $100bn US plan to build new nuclear missile sparks concern
Scientists say the GBSD project is outdated and the result of lobbying rather than a clear sense of what it will achieve

Kirk again. We're coming up on the 5th anniversary of the 2016 earthquakes. This announcement is about a commemorative event that will be held on the 15th of April via Zoom. A few of the participants should be familiar to regular readers of this page. The event will be in Japanese so I won't try to translate all of the details but I thought I'd just post this little notice for those of you who may be interested.

Kirk here. I used to maintain a page of Kumamoto-related links called, well, "Kumamoto Links":
http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/%7Emasden/links.html
Now, the page is extremely outdated (lots of "link rot," etc.) but I think that the "Language Tools" section toward the top is still useful. Recently, fellow Kumamoto International editor Tristan Vick introduced me to jisho.org. It combines some of the functionaly of Rikai (nearly instant lookup of words) and Hiragana Megane (automatic addition of furigana) in a way that works well on a smartphone. The video shows, as an example, how I used it to help read a few lines of the Wikipedia page on "熊本". I think this may be useful in language learning but also as a way of making sense of Japanese text that one needs to read (disaster notifications, emails, etc.) but finds difficult.
Another tool I should mention is the Google translate extension in the Chrome browser on a computer.
If those of you who are reading this could share what you know about other useful tools I'd really appreciate it.
Finally, thanks again to Tristan for the tip!!

As mentioned in the article, Kurokawa Onsen has been ranked no. 1 in past years but was no. 6 in 2020. Still, one of the country's best. -- Kirk
https://japantoday.com/category/features/travel/2020’s-most-popular-hot-springs-in-japan-as-ranked-by-japanese-travelers
2020’s most popular hot springs in Japan, as ranked by Japanese travelers
There’s nothing like a good soak in a nice, hot onsen (hot spring), especially in the cold months of winter. Luckily, onsen are everywhere in Japan, thanks to the volcanic activity that heats water under the ground. Many hot springs also have tourist areas built around them, which offer delicious....

Tsuetate Onsen, in northern Kumamoto, is famous for it's display of thousands of koinobori wind socks. The display was cancelled last year because of COVID-19 (I guess the koinobori don't fly well when masked ;) ) but is back this year and will continue until May.
-- Kirk
P.S. You can find a Japanese TV (RKK) report here:
https://rkk.jp/news/backno_page.php?id=NS003202103261605480111

Today, as the rain falls heavily over Kumamoto, I thought about this older video of mine. Forget yesterday's warm sunny day and the picnic under the cherry blossom - go out in the rain and think about the reason why the cherry blossom was adopted as the flower of the samurai! To only see cherry bl;ossom in the sunshine is just part of its story. Watching it in heavy rain is also a memorable experience.
Regards Douglas

Kumamon surprise!!
You might know the reason why Kumamon has lots fans, Kumamon is loved so much.
He is so nice to everyone, of course, adorable.
Once you met him, you might become his big fan because of his treat.
He encourages us, cheers us up always!
He gives us happy always!!ーAtsuko(๑˃ᴗ˂)و♡
ご主人から奥様へ日頃の感謝を伝えるサプライズ企画

Kirk had written recently regarding the earthquake risk in Kumamoto being relatively high. This is likely due to the Tatsudayama fault (立田山断層), which runs directly under Kumamoto City. Info about this fault is hard to find, but in a nutshell, it's one of a series of faults that stretch from Mt. Unzen to Mt. Aso. It last ruptured in 1882, resulting in a M6.3 earthquake, killing 20 people. Perhaps it is overdue. More can be found about the fascinating history of Mt. Kimpo (remember, it's a dormant volcano, meaning it could erupt again!) at the link - Japanese only, but Google Translate is your friend. - William
https://www.mifunemuseum.jp/kumamotogeo/kinpouzan.html

Kirk here. This kind of train is called "torokko" in Japanese. Apparently, the word has its roots in the English "truck." "Torokko ressha" is sometimes translated as "trolley" or "scenic train." I think that the design was originally intended to be for freight and that the trains tend to be of a older style that move slowly. At any rate, this says that the torokko ressha in Minami Aso is up and running again for the first time since the 2016 quakes.

Douglas here. On March 26th, Megumi and I drove to Seta shrine, in Ozu. We wanted to çapture a 360° photo of the cherry tree there. Although the shrine has a long history, the torii and the shrine building were erected after the 2016 earthquake destroyed the older structures. Of particular interest is the huge boulder that rests beside the new shrine building. This boulder was dislodged from the high cliff behind the shrine and crashed down during the earthquake, completely demolishing the old shrine. This is the first time to test upload 360° images here. We hope that it succeeds.