Kumamoto International Archive

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

Here's a bit of history from last year that I failed to share at the time. The coal mine played an important role in Japan's industrial history and its story is the story of the positive and negative aspects of that history. During the war years, Korean and Chinese people were forced to work there and many did not survive. Here's a link to a Japanese-language article about memorials to those victims that can be found at Shohoji, a temple in Arao:
http://asianews.seesaa.net/article/450517107.html
-- Kirk
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201110/p2a/00m/0na/017000c
Cenotaph with names of 458 victims of Japan's 1963 coal mine explosion unveiled - The Mainichi
OMUTA, Fukuoka -- People including the families of victims of the 1963 deadly explosion at the Mikawa Pit of the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine attended a cer

Kirk here with news about Kumamoto's own Miyabi Onitsuka -- the snowboarder from Luther High School. I saw a report about this on Japanese TV last night.
The following Japan Times article says that she is the "first Japanese, male or female, to claim a world championships podium finish in the big air event." And she did it growing up in Kumamoto -- a nice place but not ideal for snowboarders. Amazing! Congratulations Miyabi!!
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2021/03/17/more-sports/winter-sports-more-sports/miyabi-onitsuka-bronze-world-championships/

Kirk here, with something from Kuma Visit. When the internet is working well, Google image search and machine translation services may be even more useful that a sheet of this type. On the other hand, disasters often take out electrical power and may even disturb internet service so, if you're worried about your ability to communicate in a pinch, printing something like this out and having it with you might be a good idea. If you have any special medical needs or other concerns you'd like to be able to convey in a disaster, it might also be good to have someone help you translate that into Japanese and print that out too in advance so you can point to it easily in an emergency.

Douglas here again. We have now added 2 new videos and 2 new 360º panoramas shot from our drone.
Just make sure you scan the skies and look for the "drone" buttons.
<iframe width="100%" height="640" style="width: 100%; height: 640px; border: none; max-width: 100%;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="xr-spatial-tracking; gyroscope; accelerometer" scrolling="no" src="https://kuula.co/share/collection/7Pt2j?fs=1&vr=1&zoom=1&sd=1&initload=0&thumbs=1&info=0&logo=1"></iframe>
Takahashi Inari Jinja
Virtual Tour | 高橋稲荷神社 | Opening image wide

Hi! This post doesn't seem to be getting many eyeballs. So, if any of you have some spare eyeballs, please lend them to this posts for a minute or two. ;) Chuck is looking for people interest in part-time jobs. -- Kirk
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/5063172343756157

Hi! We had an earthquake on the 14th. It was a M4 and the shindo was also 4 (as I'll explain in a minute, the two are different) which is enough to make you think "Oh ***! What's about to happen?" but not enough to cause significant damage. I felt it right away but had some trouble finding the relevant information. It seems that the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) has reorganized its website. Now that I've pretty much figured things out, I thought I'd share the link with you all. For both English and Japanese, I recommend starting with the following page:
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/index.html?lang=en
Notice that you can easily select the language you prefer from a large number (including, of course, Japanese) using the dropdown menu on the upper right of the page. Then, when you see the event that looks (judging by time and epicenter) like the one you felt, click on it to get the kind of map I'm showing with this post.
Each map has a link to a nice explanation about shindo, the JMA's seismic intensity scale. It's good to take a look at that before you actually feel a strong earthquake so that you'll know how to interpret the information right away.
Note that magnitude is a measure of the total amount of energy released. It's a very important measure for scholars but I think that shindo (how bad the shaking was) is what ordinary folks like us need to know -- even though people in our home countries may not be familiar with the system of measure.
-- Kirk

NHK aired this beautiful video of Aso the other day and I didn't realize it was three years old, but I suppose Aso hasn't changed much in the interim. It explains the purpose of the field burning (noyaki －野焼): this kills the saplings but leaves the roots of the grass, which immediately rebounds. Without this, Aso would be covered with forest. It's a beautiful video to send to your family and friends; I suppose it was taken by drone. - William
阿蘇～1000年続く草原と共に～
http://web-japan.org/

Kumanichi mentioned that the cherry blossoms at the Ichifusa Dam in Mizukamimura (水上村の市房ダム湖畔) have started to blossom. It's a bit of a drive but looks worth the trip. The Net provides the photo. - William

"Nightingale" in Japanese is ウグイス, but you'll better impress your friends if you memorize the kanji, 鶯, which they likely do not know. Their chicks are trying to figure out this whole "flying" thing at the moment, along with "eating." What Japanese in the know do is to spike a mikan half in a location where you'd like them to gather, for example, outside your window, where you can hang a string of mikan halves on a, uh, string. - William

Kirk here. Something that happened last year was mentioned in a more recent article:
"Last year, the National Sanatorium Kikuchi Keifuen in Koshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, admitted that not less than 389 residents who died there were anatomized over more than half a century."
If you are interested in the sad history of the confinement and abuse of Hansen's disease patient's in Kumamoto and Japan, please check out the following links:
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14204848
Search for "Keifuen":
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=Keifuen
Search for "Hansen's"
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=Hansen%27s
Sanatorium re-examining past dissection cases for properness : The Asahi Shimbun
SETOUCHI, Okayama Prefecture--For 60 years, leprosy patients may have been improperly dissected at a

Joe Tomei here, hearing that a few folks are coming to Kumamoto from April, so this is a thread for suggestions and information. Here's a few things, if I'm wrong, please let me know and I'll edit and if you have anything to add, drop it in the comments and I'll move it up here.
-I think a lot of official services (juminhyo, koseki) are available online IF you have your My Number card
-almost everything is handled at the various ward offices
https://www.kurunavi.jp/en/municipality/43.html
-visas are handled at the Dai 2 Godochosha (map in Japanese here http://houmukyoku.moj.go.jp/kumamoto/table/shikyokutou/all/honkyokutouki.html)
-public transport in Kumamoto city is a bit complicated, though they are merging the 5(!) public transport companies in April because of the decline in passengers due to corona
https://www.sankei.com/region/news/200128/rgn2001280022-n1.html
Any other useful hints? Drop them in the comments!
熊本のバス５社が共同経営へ　運転手不足、人口減…「単独で生き残れぬ」
熊本県を拠点とする熊本都市バスや九州産交バスなど事業者５社が２７日、熊本都市圏で路線バス事業を共同経営することで合意したと発表した。乗客減や運転手不足の対応策と…

Kirk here with a link to a presentation, conducted in Japanese, by Prof. Hari Devkota.
https://www.kumamoto-if.or.jp/kiji003599/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1PE89T0z5oCwmQ4r7m8CLl7t6TyJvkc-cA46puCF88HhrkN4QPW4FcMpU
Hari is a very accomplished person. Today I enjoyed rereading some the posts he has made as an editor of this page. You can find some of them here:
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=Hari
In addition to contributing to this page and to intercultural understanding in Kumamoto, Hari has also conducted research on how matcha can relieve anxiety in mice:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/2887214404685306
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/2832931773446903
Of course, this research is serious and important but I can't help smiling when I think about mice consuming matcha and chilling out. :)

Here is the article about an English-speaking salon, HISAKI FUJITAKE in Kurokami, Chuo-ku Kumamoto City.
When we move to a new place, it always takes time to find the right hair salon, especially if we are in abroad.
The owner and hair dresser, Mr. Fujitake, used to work in London for 3 years as a top stylist, involving in some shows, magazines and also attending celebrity hairs.
At his salon, you can also donate your hair to an organization for making medical wigs to children if you have enough length. One of my friends donated her hair before and I wrote about the process in the article.
Check the article below and I hope you will have a nice conversation and relaxing time with Fujitake-san!
- Chieko
Official website of HISAKI FUJITAKE
http://www.hisaki-fujitake.com/index.html

March 11 marked the 10th anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake and accompanying tsunami which took the lives of almost 16,000. While Kumamoto does not face the threat of a plate-thrust induced tsunami, it does face a threat from a different cause: the Mt. Fugen volcano on Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture.
On May 21, 1792, volcanic activity on Mt. Fugen caused a massive landslide of 340 million cubic meters to tumble into Ariake Sea, resulting in a tsunami reaching 22 meters in Kumamoto; a "bathtub effect" of energy reflected back at Shimabara, which, due to its more abrupt shoreline inclination, created a tsunami as massive as 57 meters. These killed some 5,000 in Kumamoto and 10,000 in Shimabara. Remnants of this disaster can be seen in the numerous islets off Shimabara known as Tsukumojima (九十九島). The disaster is known as the "Shimabara Taihen Higo Meiwaku" (島原大変肥後迷惑), which can be translated as "Disastrous for Shimabara, Troublesome for Higo," somewhat downplaying the latter - waters would have ebbed up Kamitori.
Such an event is unlikely to reoccur in our lifetimes, but don't turn your back on Mt. Fugen - its last major eruption, pictured below, was as recent as 1991. - William

A job posting from Greg Howes is below:
Freedom English School is looking for one or more experienced native-English-speaking instructors to teach English to 1st Grade Junior High School students at a number of Kumamoto Seminar cram school branches from mid-April.
The lessons are fifty minutes long, starting at 20:10 on Friday and/or Wednesday evenings. Depending on the branch and lesson scheduling, the English instructor will either teach the lesson individually, or in a team-teaching format with a Japanese English teacher.
The lesson format and materials have been planned to provide the students with conversation-based reinforcement of language the students learn at school, and are part of a wider cram school English curriculum.
The branches are as follows.
Jozan
Nagamine
Mashiki
Shimizu
The payment will be ￥4000 per lesson, plus travel expenses. If they wish, it may be possible for one teacher to teach up to four lessons per month.
If you would like more information, please contact Greg Howes, at [email protected],

Okoshiki Beach is a great place for photographers if you get the timing right. For previous posts on Kumamoto International about this spot, click on the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=Okoshiki
Kirk
https://www.facebook.com/KUMANICHIs/posts/3750393805047944

Kirk had written about the Aso Ohashi bridge opening. Kumamon seems quite excited about it, if this video is any indication. - William
新阿蘇大橋開通記念！　くまモン動画配信中！

Kirk here with an article about the bridge opening:
New Aso Bridge opens, replacing one knocked out by 2016 quakes : The Asahi Shimbun
MINAMI-ASO, Kumamoto Prefecture--Five years after a series of earthquakes took out the Aso Ohashi br

Kirk here. Yesterday, Atsuko wrote about the following tragedy:
"Last November, a 21-year-old Vietnamese trainee was arrested for leaving the bodies of her baby twins in a cardboard box after giving birth in her dormitory in the town of Ashikita, Kumamoto Prefecture. 'I thought I would be forced to return to Vietnam if the company found out I was pregnant,' police quoted her saying."
The following article also quotes Mr. Nakashima of Kumustaka:
"'The supervising entities are required to inform trainees of their rights but "they are not doing enough,' said Shinichiro Nakashima, head of Kumustaka, a Kumamoto-based nongovernment organization to support immigrants and other foreign workers."
Fear of deportation weighs on pregnant foreign workers in Japan
Unaware of legal rights, some desperate trainees abandon their newborns

Good morning!
Here is the article about Tori-no-koduka Park (or Men-no-ishi observatory) in Minamiaso Village. There are two main attractions there. One is its amazing scenery of southern Aso and the other is Men-no-ishi stone, which fell down after the earthquake but still people enjoy it with different view.
Yesterday, “New Aso Ohashi bridge” was opened to traffic. There used to be Aso Ohashi bridge but it collapsed after the earthquake in 2016. This good news of the bridge is a great hope for people in Kumamoto and makes us feel that we are moving forward.
It seems like it will be sunny this weekend and some of you may be thinking of going for a drive to Minamiaso area to use the new bridge. In this article, I have introduced some other places in Minamiaso area so that you can make a fruitful plan.
Check the article below and enjoy southern Aso at most!
- Chieko
Tori-no-koduka Park (鳥の小塚公園) in Minamiaso Village ~ Untapped place for the great view of southern Aso ~ | Untapped Kumamoto
When it comes to the great view of Aso, which places do you come up with? Maybe Daikambo (大観峰), Sensuikyo Gorge (仙酔峡) or Mt. Tawara Observatory (俵山展望所)? I have introduced those places and all the plac