Kumamoto International Archive

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

Hi! Masden Kirk Steward here with some thoughts on the cultural integrity of names. As you can see from the images of my Japanese IDs, the Japanese government has determined that the correct, official way to write our names is in Japanese order (family name followed by given names), without a comma to shown a change in order. I have been told that I must "sign" my name in this order, in English, in order to complete a cell phone agreement. I protested but ultimately complied because I wanted the phone.
As you can imagine, I felt a bit irritated but had forgotten about the issue until I saw today's news:
Kono to ask foreign media to switch order of Japanese names
https://japantoday.com/category/politics/foreign-minister-to-ask-media-to-switch-order-of-japanese-names
"As an example, Kono said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's name should be written as 'Abe Shinzo,' in line with other Asian leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae In."
As one who would like have the cultural integrity of my own name respected, I'm sympathetic to this position. OK, Mr. Kono, have it your way. But first, please do the following:
* Formally sign your request 太郎河野 in Japanese -- the cultural equivalent of what Japanese policy has forced me to do
* Apologize, on behalf of the Japanese government, for not respecting the cultural integrity of non-Japanese names
* Make an adjustment to current practice
If for example, individuals could choose to place a comma after a family name on an ID, that would be an improvement in my view. Or, IDs could have separate boxes for "Family name" and "Given names". It would also be nice to publish something on an official Japanese website about not forcing people to sign names in the order they appear on a Japanese ID.
Yours truly,
Masden Kirk Steward -- NOT!!!
P.S. One more point: The Japanese government forces us to opt in if we want our names written In Japanese. That may be OK but after going to the trouble of opting in once, I forgot to opt in again when I got my next card -- even though the new card was a new version of the old card and I was required to submit the old one at the same time I submitted the new one. So, now I have no official indication of how to write my name in Japanese -- which I had specifically requested earlier. :(
End of rant

Here's something that's not specific to Kumamoto but that I hope will be of interest to those interested in the English language -- either as a teacher or as a student. I recently got a question about the difference between something that "made me who I am today" and something that "made me what I am today." My first reaction was that the two expressions are pretty much the same. Instead of trusting my instincts as a native speaker, however, I decided to go on line with the student and use Google to search for the two phrases. As your may know, on the Google search engine, if you put a phrase inside quotation marks Google will narrow your search to that exact phrase. Well, searching for "made me what I am today" and "made me who I am today" led to the following page:
https://www.englishforums.com/English/ThePersonThatIAmToday/bkqgdl/post.htm
What was REALLY interesting to me, was the link to this page:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=made+me+who+I+am%2Cmade+me+what+I+am&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmade%20me%20who%20I%20am%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmade%20me%20what%20I%20am%3B%2Cc0
Apparently, you can search Google's corpus of books to see when phrases came to be used and which phrases have been more popular over the decades. Personally, I thought this was really cool and, potentially a great tool for students of the English language. If, for example, a student is considering two ways of expressing something in a paper, this tool can be used to see which of the two collocations has been and is more popular.
-- Kirk

Atten: Kumamon fans!
-- Kirk
Adorable mascot bear Kumamon stars on the most popular new license plate in Japan
Kumamoto’s goodwill ambassador is even more popular than Mt. Fuji!

"Among forest-rich Kyūshū, Kumamoto Prefecture stands out for its wealth of venerable trees. Topping this list is Jakushinsan no kusu, an ancient camphor that presents an aesthetically pleasing balance above and beyond all others. A typhoon in 1991 broke numerous branches and caused other damage, however, the tree has made a vigorous recovery. In an astounding display of vitality, most of its wounds have healed and its foliage continues to thicken."
The web page includes a Google map, showing the exact location. I recently saw a TV show called Binotsubo (美の壺) that introduced huge, ancient trees that can be found all over Japan. Kumamoto's Jakushinsan no kusu was introduced early in the program and I was amazed to learn that the tree is estimated to be 800 years old!
https://www4.nhk.or.jp/tsubo/x/2019-05-12/31/33694/2418282/
and
https://見逃したテレビドラマを見る方法.xyz/美の壺/巨樹/
I've visited the tree and it truly is something to see. If you have a car, it's not all that far from Kumamoto City. Or, if you are a cyclist, you can take Kumamoto's cycling road to get there from Kumamoto City. It's not exactly on the cycling road but that path will take you to the vicinity. For more about the cycling road see the following:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/162730370534887
-- Kirk
https://www.nippon.com/en/views/b05301/japan’s-ancient-giants-the-onset-of-early-summer.html
Japan’s Ancient Giants: The Onset of Early Summer
The Jōmon Sugi on Yakushima is Japan’s best-known giant of the forest. Around the country, however, there are numerous famous old-growth trees of varying species that present their own unique characteristics. In this installment of the series we look at three trees garbed in the lush, verdant fol...

A few minutes ago, I posted about Yahoo's weather radar. Here's the link again:
https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/
I thought I'd post this little video to show you how the animation works. Notice that after 6 PM or so (current time) the Japanese characters for "prediction" are added. Well, time to go get that coffee . . ;)
-- Kirk

Here's a little tip for those of you who are interested in avoiding getting caught in the rain (cyclists and pedestrians, in particular). Yahoo has a site that lets you check to see how the rain clouds have been moving and how they are predicted to move in the coming hour or so.
https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/
It may not be 100% accurate (nothing in the weather world is) but I've found it to be much better than guessing. In my case, the radar forecast led me to decide to get on my bike and go buy more coffee at 6:30. :)
-- Kirk

Nearly 20 years ago (it will be 20 years this October), this forum started as a mailing list. Personally, since moving to Facebook, I've neglected the mailing list for many years now, but it's still up and running. Recently, a few mailing list participants have been exchanging information about places that cater to vegetarians and vegans. In that thread Mr. Yagi of the Kumamoto City International Center has posted several jpgs from the "Kumamoto City Vegetarian Guide Map":
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13552
By the way, when I started the mailing list in 1999, Mr. Yagi was extremely supportive and helpful. He encouraged me to put a flier up in the International Center to let more people know about the new list. Thanks again, Mr. Yagi. Kumamoto International now has nearly 4,000 likes. We owe a big portion of our success to your early help.
Getting back to vegetarian and vegan restaurants, another response to the inquiry came from J. D. Marland
https://www.happycow.net/asia/japan/kumamoto/
and Jerry Conrad recommended a curry shop called "Yagi" (probably not related to Mr. Yagi of the International Center).
You can see the entire thread of posts here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages
I think these are good leads but not exhaustive. In fact, I can think of one place that hasn't been mentioned yet. When I have more time, I'll try to post that as a comment. Any other recommendations will be welcome in comments to this post. Or, of course, you can join the mailing list and participate there. Thanks!
-- Kirk

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is a great source of information about Kumamoto -- in this case at least. ;)
-- Kirk
Kurokawa Onsen: Eat, sleep, bathe, repeat
KUROKAWA ONSEN, KUMAMOTO >> Rolling mists fill the valley as we descend from Mount Aso to Kurokawa Onsen, a riverside town in the depths of Kumamoto Prefecture.

Hi! I'd like to ask if anyone out there can tell me about how to find information about internship opportunities for non-Japanese that may be available. I received an inquiry and here are some details:
* Native speaker of English
* Experience studying in Japan (Kumamoto) with some knowledge of Japanese (though not necessarily fluent)
* Studying electrical engineering
* Tech savvy
* Would be willing to teach English or do other language related work if he/she could also be involved in work related to electrical engineering
* Hoping to do internship in the fall of this year
My guess is that there must be quite a few companies that would be willing to take on such a student as an intern. However, I'm not sure how to go about the "match making" between company and student. If any of you have any ideas about how to do this or what opportunities might be available, please let me know. If I receive any private replies, or replies addressed to Kumamoto International that are not visible on this page, I'll post summaries here. I imagine that there must be quite a lot of people who are interested in internship possibilities, as well as companies that would like to accept such interns.
-- Kirk

About a month ago, William posted about rules related to garbage disposal:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/photos/a.129499733790134/2553223608084389/
That led to a discussion in which the following question came up: "Does Japan do their own recycling or do they ship it to China?" I couldn't find a good answer but responded with a posted about Japan's surprisingly low recycling rates:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/2565431110196972?tn=-R
Well, NHK came to the rescue and answered the question about whether Japan does its own recycling or sends it to China. And the answer is that, so far, they've been sending it to China but that China is now refusing to accept such garbage. The NHK program explained that in 2017 both the U.S. and Japan were major exporters of recyclable (?) plastics to China: 1,670,000 tons from the U.S. and 1,430,000 tons from Japan. So, the U.S. sent a larger total amount of plastic trash to China but, on a per capita basis, Japan was actually a bigger exporter. Japan is closer to China so that might account for part of the reason that Japan's per capita rate was higher. Still, whatever the reasons, that's a lot of plastic trash.
The point of the NHK program was that both the U.S. and Japan are going to have to learn to reduce their production of plastic trash and learn how to recycle it themselves.
Let's all carry cloth bags to stores so we don't need plastic ones.
-- Kirk
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20190512/k10011913361000.html
プラスチックごみ輸出入規制で日米は対応に苦慮 | NHKニュース
リサイクルに向かない汚れたプラスチックごみの輸出入を規制する新たな国際ルールが10日定められ、国をまたいだごみの移動が一…

Tristan Vick here.
I have to renew my passport in a year. Always a pain. But necessary.
At the same time, I have to renew my daughter's passport and get my boys first-time passports too.
The thing is though, the government wants to make it as difficult as possible to obtain.
The boys can't get an American passport without a Social Security Number. Makes sense. But they can't get a Social Security number without a Consular Report of Birth.
So, this requires 3 separate trips to the U.S. Consulate. Before this, however, I need to have an entire checklist of TRANSLATED documents from the ORIGINAL Japanese documents.
So, I have to go the City Ward Office and obtain the Japanese documents and then translate them all so I can take them to the U.S. Consulate or Embassy.
Each of these trips requires a notary to prove that the Japanese documents came with a translation and that all the documents required were presented.
Notaries only work on Thursdays at the Consulate. So, I can't just take any day off I like, but it has to be Thursday specifically.
Now, the cost is ridiculous. Here's the cost breakdown according to the U.S. Embassy in Japan:
Adult Passport renewal: $145
Child (under 16) passport renewal: $115
Report of Birth: $100
Notarial Seal: $50 (If needed)
So, let's do the math for me and my three children.
Me: $145 (no notary needed)
Daughter: $115
Son 1: $115 + $100 RoB
Son 2: $115 + $100 RoB
That's $690 USD and that doesn't even factor in the fact that we have to travel across the country to a different city separate times. Multiply $50 for gas money x3 = $150 and lunch for the kids while we're in town with is $50 and that's an additional $200.
Now, the Japanese documents each cost approximately $30 USD. So I need a:
1. Marriage certificate
2. Birth certificate
3. Acceptance of Birth certificate
4. Family Register
(Divorce is the only document I don't need —also if you have any of these documents on hand you are already saving lots)
So, that's an additional $30 x4. Another $120.
So, now we're looking at $1,010 USD just to get my kids passports.
UPDATE:
There are some folks who’ve rightly pointed out you don’t necessarily need the notary for the applications (only if one parent can’t make it) and you can fill out and file all the forms at once, saving a few steps.
So maybe save a few hours and a few hundred dollars. But the cost is still substantial.
Also, as Joe Tomei pointed out, you must book the appointment ahead of time online. They no longer accept same day phone call registration or walk-ins.
Here's the U.S. Consulate / Embassy website for more:
https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/

San is a 10-year old lion. Kuriya is a 5-year old lioness. They live at Kumamoto Zoo and apparently have become smitten as they have produced three cubs. The cubs have not been sexed yet because the mother would maul to bits any volunteer who would volunteer to sex them. They will be sequestered until weaned; only then will we know.
Warning: the below photo is deadly both in cuteness and actual deadliness. - William

Hello international friends. It's nice weather today. I've recommended many workshops in Kumamoto before.
I work at Kawashiri elementary school now. Kawashiri has lots traditional buildings and shops and places, like shrine, temple, Japanese sweet shop, 刃物 cutlery shop, and 瑞鷹 ZUIYOU (famous Sake maker), 銭湯sentou(traditional spa) ,,,more. Now, 3rd grade students study about their school's, their town environment as social subject. You also might see lots students go around the town to see, to search with line this week.
Even in 30 munites walk, you can find many interesting, historical places.
If you are afraid where you should go, you may go to 工芸会館 Kougeiaikan at first. It also tells and shows many traditional products.
During your short trip, you might see lots local trains and Sinkansen easily.
I hope you enjoy the small traditional town!!ーAtsuko(Ü)
It's a map of Kawashiri. https://www.zuiyo.co.jp/KAWASHIRI/INDEX.html
This is URL.
For friends who want to try to taste ZUIYOU SAKE, SHOTYU.
https://www.japanhoppers.com/ja/kyushu_okinawa/kumamoto/kanko/2340/

Headline: English skills of students in Kumamoto even worse than you thought!
" . . . Mainichi Shimbun . . . found that 13 institutions would accept A1-level English test results for admission . . . The schools are: Obihiro . . . and Kumamoto University."
I wanted to try to find out where A1 is on the TOEFL scale and found this:
---- start quote ----
There are no TOEFL score comparisons for the A-level. This is because this is a very “basic” level, and speakers at this level are probably just starting their language-learning journey. 🙂
---- end quote ----
https://magoosh.com/toefl/2015/how-to-compare-the-toefl-and-cefr/
Under the old system, universities made their own tests. That made it much easier for those of us at universities to hide the extent we had lowered our standards.
-- Kirk
P.S. Here's the address of the Japanese version of the article:
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20190507/k00/00m/040/242000c
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190508/p2a/00m/0na/024000c
13 nat'l universities to allow applicants with rock-bottom private English test level - The Mainichi
TOKYO -- At least 13 of Japan's 82 national universities will accept applications from admissions candidates with junior high school-level scores on p

This image from weather.jp gives us a clearer idea of how big yesterday's earthquake was:
https://weathernews.jp/s/topics/201905/100848quake/
It says the quake was M 6.3 which explains why it felt so strong even though the epicenter was fairly far away. M 6.3 is a big release of energy. Perhaps the distance explains why it seemed to sway in Kumamoto instead of lurch.
The Japan Meteorology Agency (JMA) has pretty much the same information (in English) on the following page:
https://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/6/20190509235307493-10084852.html

-- Kirk

Kawaramachi is stepping up it’s game(sorta). The space above Out of Step Cafe will have an event on June 1st.That place is called Helping Hand Cats(sorta). That event looks like a mixture of jazz and indie folk/pop.Tonite at Jogglejog we have a free show with Okura Ken and Handa Masayuki. Both of these dudes play some good folk/pop and rock. After their individual sets they will do a Beatles set. Okura Ken also teaches Ukulele once a month at Out of Step. It’s about 2500 yen for an hour of instruction with a drink and treat from Out of Step. If you don’t a have a Ukulele. I can provide a tenor or a soprano Ukulele free of charge for you to join the lesson. Jay Onyskin

This is old news -- at least news that we've already discussed here but NATURE has just published a short piece on it. -- Kirk
Deadly Japanese earthquake study retracted over false data
The paper is the third study about the 2016 Kuamamoto earthquake to be retracted.

This article from NHK assures as that yesterday's quake was not a major disaster. Nonetheless, I found being reminded of the Sendai nuclear power plant (located just south of Kumamoto) a little disconcerting. "Don't worry. The big bad nuclear monster is still inside the box. We probably won't need to evacuate any time soon." Er, thanks. I feel better now . . . I think.
-- Kirk
No major damage in Miyazaki quake- News - NHK WORLD - English
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern Japan on Friday morning.

Kumamoto's deployment of 'One Piece' heroes is old news on this page and I doubt that this newesh article (May 9th) presents any information that hasn't already been shared here. On the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to share two observations:
1) I occasionally jog by the statue (I live nearby) and, regardless of the time of day or night, I have NEVER seen Luffy without a contingent of reverent admirers. Of course, I recognize that there probably are occasions when Luffy can enjoy a moment of solitude and rest his weary right arm -- but I haven't seen it yet. He's one popular guy!
2) Any post having to do with One Piece gets lots of eyeballs on this page (we employ a professional eyeball counter -- in fact, he's counting your eyeballs right now!!!!). Again, One Piece is very popular.
-- Kirk
‘One Piece’ pirate gang deployed to Kumamoto to buoy recovery：The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--Statues of pirates from the popular manga “One Piece” will be erected to demonstrate their

Hi, international friends. We, YWCA Kumamoto will have a bazaar tomorrow afternoon.
We will also have an Onigiri making workshop from 10 to 12.
You can enjoy chatting and interacting, and buying cheaper households there.
Please check the details.
Please come and join us freely. ーAtsuko(Ü)
https://m.facebook.com/events/295229201390464?acontext=%7B"ref"%3A"98"%2C"action_history"%3A"null"%7D&aref=98
YWCA is next to KUMADAI. Beside of KUMADAI pool.Please make sure the place. You can know the place in the YWCA facebook page.