Kumamoto International Archive

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

Japanese for whatever reason love running; they also love team sports. Thus, the "ekiden" - a long-distance relay - was invented. Premier is the Hakone Ekiden (箱根駅伝), a two-day race from Tokyo to Hakone in Kanagawa and back whose teams consist of university students of five legs each held on 1/2 and 1/3. It is broadcast in its entirety, so prepare your kotatsu and mikan.
The race was founded in 1920 by man named Kanakuri Shizo (金栗四三 ), born in 1891 in Nagomi, a village in northern Kumamoto, but who is often associated with Tamana, where he attended school. He is best known as the Father of the Japanese Marathon (日本マラソンの父, as seen in the photo below), and he has a fascinating story.
Having set a marathon world record of 2:32:45, Kanakuri was selected as one of the only two athletes that Japan could afford to send to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. His journey, requiring a ferry and the trans-Siberian railroad, left him so exhausted that he dropped out of his race, being cared for by a farming family before returning to Japan without notifying race officials due to embarrassment. However, in 1967, he was contacted by Swedish Television and offered the opportunity to complete his run. He accepted and completed the marathon in 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds, which remains the longest marathon time in history. Kanakuri remarked, "It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren." His story is a lesson of eternal persistence.
The popular NHK program held from 8:00 PM Sundays, "Taiga Drama", will take up his story from January, and in celebration, Kumamoto has emblazoned his figure on the free shuttle busses which circle the castle. And if you want to impress your Japanese friends, remind them that the "KK" of "KK Wing" stands for "KanaKuri."- William
金栗大河ドラマに合わせラッピングバス　来月１２日から無料で - 熊本日日新聞｜ This kiji is
来月１２日から玉名市内を無料で循環する、金栗四三などを描いたラッピングバス＝玉名市　熊本県玉名市ゆかりのマラソンランナー金栗四三を描く来年のＮＨＫ大河ドラマ「いだてん」の放映に合わせ、市内を無料で循環...

Coming to the Contemporary Art Museum . . .
-- Kirk
Takashi Murakami Explores Traditional Japanese Art Movements in "Bubblewrap" Show
Practices that spurred his 'Superflat' practice.

Welcome to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year! The good news is that daylight will from now extend (tomorrow's daylight will be two seconds longer than today's - not a lot, but you take what you can get); the bad news is the extension will initially accumulate in the evening, leaving mornings dark and frigid. And it will get colder. But we've turned a corner. - William
Sun & moon times today, Kumamoto, Japan
Time for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset in Kumamoto – Japan. Dawn and dusk (twilight) times and Sun and Moon position. Takes into account Daylight Saving Time (DST).

A student of mine brought this year-old news to my attention. Some 80% of Japanese igusa (the rush used to make tatami) is grown in Yatsushiro. However, a combination of igusa imports from China and a drop in demand for tatami as Japanese increasingly opt for wooden floors has put local growers on the mat, so to say.
A growing option is alternative uses for the grass. One some entrepreneurial locals baked up is edible chopsticks. Apparently, they're crunchy and make a good dessert. Mainichi has more, including ordering info for those behind on Christmas shopping. - William
Done with dinner? Have your chopsticks for dessert - The Mainichi
KUMAMOTO -- Who needs to worry about wasteful disposable chopsticks when you can eat them once you're done? With pairs of edible chopsticks developed

I've been catching up on news recently and realized, belatedly, that the Dalai Lama was in Kyushu. Sorry I couldn't give you a heads up in advance:
"The Dalai Lama will perform a religious ceremony Thursday in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka for the victims of a deadly earthquake that hit Kumamoto in 2016 and this year's series of deadly natural disasters in western and northern Japan."
-- Kirk
Dalai Lama urges China's "approach that corresponds to reality" over Tibet issues
The Dalai Lama urges the Chinese government to take a realistic approach toward Tibet during a speech in Tokyo.

Kumamoto has an unfortunate history of false convictions for murder. The first, and most famous, to be reversed was the death sentence of MENDA Sakae. Details about Mr. Menda's case can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakae_Menda
Mr. Menda is still alive and I think he is living in Omuta City, just north of Kumamoto Prefecture. Here's the address of a lengthy article in The Indepedent about his ordeal:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-spent-34-years-on-japans-death-row-1787340.html
I'm glad that Mr. Miyata (pictured) is likely to be exonerated, though it has taken far to long to get to this point.
-- Kirk
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201812200053.html
Court expected to acquit man who served 13 years for murder：The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--A man who served 13 years in prison over the murder of his friend in 1985 will likely be a

Joe Tomei here, I'd like to pass this on to the list, it is a workshop on performance/improvisation for teaching. It will be conducted in Japanese, but there are a number of people whose Japanese is good enough and I think that it would be great for improving your Japanese as well as getting to know some of the Japanese teachers of English in town. If you do go, please feel free to share a report here.

The latest edition of YOKA is available for your perusal -- or, you can just "read" it, if you prefer. :)
The following URL contains links to this and earlier editions of the journal, which is publish in pdf format:
http://kumamotojet.com/shin/index.php/the-yoka/
-- Kirk

Urban Dictionary defines "creepshot" as "A picture taken, generally of a woman, without her knowledge or consent."
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=creepshot
I looked this up to try to figure out how best to translate "tousatsu" (盗撮), the crime for which Associate Professor Tohru Nakamura of Kumamoto University (mathematics) has been arrested, into English.
Now, if you search for "盗撮" on Google, articles about Prof. Nakamura's arrest come up first. One article has the ultra creepy phrase "I liked little girls" (「小さい子が好きだった」) in the headline.
Nakamura has been accused of surreptitiously recording a smartphone video in an onsen facility of a little girl who was with her father. According to the media reports, the video was recorded in the men's changing room, after the little girl had taken her clothes off in preparation for bathing.
When the police investigated they found many pictures of young girls on Nakamura's computers and, apparently, the mathematician has admitted to a certain fondness for little girls.
-- Kirk
https://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/20181219/tro18121917280007-n1.html
http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/15763306/
　大阪府警浪速署は１９日、大阪市の温泉施設で女児を盗撮したとして、府迷惑防止条例違反などの疑いで熊本大大学院先端科学研究部、准教授の男（４２）＝神奈川県鎌倉市＝を書類送検した。「小さい子が好きだった。...

Lafcadio Hearn was your typical English-Irish-Greek mixture: that is, his affinity for Edgar Allen Poe came from actually living the life of a Poe character (he spent much time smelling of a barn, and even worse: a stint in New Orleans). He was a lifelong wanderer and eventually washed up on Japanese shores, marrying a Japanese woman, Koizumi Setsu, and fathering a son, Kazuo. His lifelong talent at polyglot literature lent him unique ability to describe Japan, then inscrutable to most Westerners. One such book, available free at Gutenberg, is "Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan" - http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8130/pg8130-images.html - which he finished during the three years he spent teaching English in Kumamoto (1891-1894), but, of course, he's most famous for his collection of Japanese folktales, Kwaidan - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1210/1210-h/1210-h.htm .
An entertaining Facebook site, Yokai Attack!, posted a user's photo of Hearn's New Orleans residence. Search and you'll find a scattering of residences he used during his time in our town. - William

Here's some news about a new Kumamoto-Korea connection.
-- Kirk
T'way adds routes to link Daegu with Hanoi, Kumamoto
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) -- T'way Air Co., a South Korean budget carrier, said Thursday it has added new routes linking Daegu to Hanoi, Vietnam, and Kumamoto, Japan, as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen its f...

Olivia here,
Perhaps some 町 goers (machi goers; city goers) are familiar with Kumamoto own Bubble tea.
KUMAMOTO Milk Tea
Combination of Kyoto famous 宇治茶 (うじちゃ) (Uji Cha) and Kumamoto’s own らくのうマザース (RakunoU milk, the one that most supermarkets sell), this brand has its shop at Carino, second floor in Shimotori.
It’s famous among students and sweet drinks lovers.
I tried Milk Kurozato (Japanese black sugar) Pearl drink. There was no tea in it. The milk amount was tremendous.
I wish to try the green tea with pearls for my next visit.
If anyone has tried other flavours, please feel free to share your feedback in the comments 😃
I am sharing my own Facebook page in the link too where I wish to share more interesting finds while I am in Kumamoto.
https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Personal-Blog/Kumamoto-and-Beyond-699941546778813/
この間友達が教えてくれたKUMAMOTO MILK TEA。
台湾で人気のパールミルク茶のお店が熊本にも出来ました。少しネットで調べたところ、今年の5月にはオープンしていたようです。夕方は学生さんでいっぱい！行列ができる人気店です。
ミルクとパール、黒糖のコンビネーションを頼みました。ミルク感たっぷりでした😅
今度行くときには宇治茶入りを頼んでみたいと思います。

A note from the Kumamoto International Desk of Thatched Rooves (merged with that of Thatched Roofs due to spelling disagreements). Kumanichi reports that Kumamoto has scored another internal export market: thatch. A cooperative in Aso, Greenstalk, has begun supplying thatch to customers centered in Kansai. Apparently, a unit of thatch is called a "sheaf" of a determined weight of 0.00666666667 short tonnes (or tuns, or tons), which I don't understand either, but seems to be 6.67 kilograms. Some industrious people in Aso raked up 20 tonnes (or tuns, or tons) - 20,000 kilograms - of thatch for what are likely very heavy Kansai rooves (or roofs). Word has it that 150 sheathes make a tonne (or tun, or ton), so that would be about 3,000 sheaths (or sheaves). It seems that one tonne (or tun, or ton) covers about 4 squares, or 37 square metres, of long straw thatching, so this works out to about 740 square meters of rooving (or roofing). And Aso is 20 tunnes (or tuns, or tons) lighter. - William
阿蘇のカヤ商品化へ　関西中心に屋根ふき替え需要見込む - 熊本日日新聞｜ This kiji is
カヤの商品化に向け、刈り取ったカヤを束ねる作業を体験するボランティアたち＝１７日、阿蘇市　公益財団法人阿蘇グリーンストック（阿蘇市）は、関西を中心とするかやぶき屋根のふき替え需要を見込み、阿蘇地域のカ...

Here's a video introduction to Kumamoto for rugby fans.
-- Kirk
Rugby World Cup Japan city guide - Kumamoto | RugbyPass
The next stop on our Japanese Rugby Wolrd Cup host city guide is Kumamoto on the southern island of Kyushu.

This was national news for Japan a couple weeks ago. Since it's a national tradition, I guess it's not surprising that it's practiced here too:
"In this video from Kumamoto, on the southwestern island of Kyushu, a man dressed as a namahage enters a home during setsubun, traditionally the day before the start of spring and now observed each year on February 3.
In some parts of Kumamoto, a namahage visits the household, terrifying the young children. Part of the setsubun tradition all over Japan involves children throwing roasted soybeans at a family member wearing an ogre mask, but in Kumamoto children can throw beans at someone wearing the full ogre costume from head to toe, appearing to be the “real thing”."
Personally, I have mixed feelings. Generally speaking, I'm glad to see traditional culture valued and preserved. On the other hand, the kids seem to be truly terrified by these encounters and that gives me pause.
Yours truly,
Conflicted in Kumamoto (otherwise known as "Kirk)
Terrifying folk rituals from Japan added to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list · Global Voices
The demons enter homes to scare children until being placated with sake. In other variations of the ritual, the demons will chase children through the streets to scare them.

Acid Mothers Temple is playing at Navaro this Thursday 12/20. Navaro is located near the Kamitori shopping arcade.If you are into psychedelic,space rock or Kraut influenced Japanese rock then these guys are definitely for you. They have been around the world quite often and probably have a bigger foreign draw than a domestic one. You can find more info on their Facebook page. Here is a live video of them playing in Mexico City.
Acid Mothers Temple Boiler Room x NRMAL Live Set
→ AUDIO HERE: http://blrrm.tv/5Vp2NF → SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL: http://blrrm.tv/YouTube → And go to boilerroom.tv for the best of underground music: videos,...

This is somewhat old news by now, but, since we don't seem to have covered it here on this page, I'll go ahead.
First, here's a little blurb from the article:
"The statue of Luffy, raising his fist into the air, was erected to support post-quake reconstruction and also to celebrate the prefectural people’s honor award given to Eiichiro Oda, the author of "One Piece," who is from Kumamoto."
I happened to job by well after dark on the weekend the statue was installed, even at night, quite a few people were there to admire it.
-- Kirk
Luffy of ‘One Piece’ goes ashore in heart of Kumamoto：The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--Luffy, of the Straw Hat Pirates gang, has sailed back to the hometown of his creator, offe

South-eastern Kyushu was a convenient place for Europeans to surreptitously slip into Japan at a time when entering in an obvious manner would ensure you'd never leave. The Amakusa archipelago was an obvious place for such landings, and in the mid-16th century, a Portuguese doctor by the name of Luís de Almeida arrived to bring what what was then modern medicine and along with it Christianity. One might imagine how the locals conflated the scientific method and this new religion.
Time went on, and the Christians were driven underground in the mid 17th c., and then they were allowed to practice openly again in from 1873, and the locals immediately erected a small church which was later enlarged with the help of some French guys in 1880 to become the present Sakitsu Church (崎津教会). The area surrounding the church is called the Sakitsu Shuraku (﨑津集落), which in its entirety is a World Heritage Site. "Shuraku" is an interesting term as it is similar to "village"(村) but might be better translated as "commune." Most locals' ancestry traces back to time immemorial, and they tend not to be shy in sharing this.
Kumanichi reports that the commune received their first snowfall of the season today. The article also reports that the weather is cold, a fact I can judge by how far out of the futon my dog thrusts his nose. I would recommend waiting til spring for a visit - but visit you must. - William

Our friend Stuart Iles had attatched in a recent post comments section a most excellent article he had written about Kumamoto Castle, and, afraid some would miss it, I have linked to it below. - William
Kumamoto Castle, Kyushu.
Kumamoto Castle is still one of the most impressive castles in Japan. It is one of the big three which also includes Osaka castle and Nagoya castle. Feudal lord Kato Kiyomasa (we will learn more a…

Important to understand Kumamoto Castle is its evolution. When Kato Kiomasa was gifted the fief, a castle already existed called Chiba-Jo. This was a much smaller fortification built during the Onin Era (a decade of violence from around 1467 to 1477, when two claiments for emperor ripped the country apart). At that time, the center of power was in Kikuchi, and the Kikuchi clan ordered that a fortificaton be built to protect Fujisaki Shrine, which was then where the baseball stadium is currently located. Kato built on this to create what we consider the castle today.
During the Seinan War, the area of the Chiba Castle began to be used for administrative purposes; it was later handed off for facilities of NHK and JT (Japan Tabacco). However, as Kumanichi points out, only 56 of the casle's maximum extant of 98 hectares are recognized. As these companies have vacated their premises,Kumamoto is intent on restoring this ancient section of the castle. The first step is to obtain reckognition of national historic significance; the second is to obtain funding from the central government for restoration.
I often jog around the more far-flung edges of the castle and enjoy their primitive state and quietness. Both my children were born on rainy spring mornings alongside ancient castle walls which remain unprotected. The maximum extent of the castle, indicated by blue lines and including Chiba Jo, can be seen at the link. This project, though quite long-term, is of great historical importance. - William
【熊本城のいま】千葉城　中世の「隈本城」か - 熊本日日新聞｜ This kiji is
千葉城地区の熊本西年金事務所。敷地内に「宮本武蔵の旧居跡」の標柱がある。年金事務所の写真奥が旧ＮＨＫ熊本放送会館　熊本城の旧城域の東側に位置する千葉城地区。熊本市は６日、この地区について今後国の特別史...