Kumamoto International Archive

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

(Fiona) One of the things I enjoyed most on my recent trip to the UK was the chance to go to a pub quiz. Even in my small hometown there's probably a quiz happening at one pub or another on every day of the week. There used to be a monthly quiz night in Kumamoto too that ran for several years at Cafe Lafcadio on Monday nights. When that stopped I tried to organise quiz nights myself, but as with running an escape room, I ran into the problem of not knowing many people who are interested in such activities. When the pandemic hit I switched from in-person quiz nights to hosting quizzes on Zoom/YouTube instead, but it's a lot more fun to meet up and enjoy a quiz together over a few drinks. When Covid numbers start to go down I'd like to organise another quiz and would like to find people who are keen to get involved. I usually use my school in Higashi-ku for game nights etc as it can fit up to ten people, but if anyone has a larger place available downtown that would be great. If you're interested in being a quizmaster, joining as a player, or are keen to take part in games nights or possible future escape rooms, please leave a message in the comments or contact me via the Kumamoto-i inbox.

Kirk here with some information about Munetaka Murakami, formerly of Kyushu Gakuin High School:
"Twenty-two-year-old Munetaka Murakami's season home run total entered some rarified air Friday when he became the youngest Japan-born player to hit 50 and the first since Hideki Matsui did it in 2002."
Munetaka Murakami's assault on baseball record book taking Japan by storm
Twenty-two-year-old Munetaka Murakami's season home run total entered some rarified air on Sept. 2 when he became the youngest Japan-born player to hit 50 and the first since Hideki Matsui did it in 2002.

Kirk here. William just posted about some disaster response equipment that Uki City has acquired. Fortunately, it looks like they won't need to use it right away because TropicalStorm.com is predicting that we won't get a direct hit. Still, you never know; the rains could be quite heavy. Judging from the projections on TropicalStorm.com I would guess that the wind and rain would be at their worst for those of us in Kumamoto around Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, but I could be off quite a bit.
I got an e-mail from the Kumamoto International Foundation with a link to the JMA (Japan Meterological Agency):
https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#4/39.3/135.132/&elem=root&typhoon=all&contents=typhoon&lang=en
I almost never share links to the English side of the JMA site because they publish their times in UTC. The only reason for that I can imagine for this is that they are more interested in making the page easy to understand for their meteorologist buddies in other countries than in helping foreigners who actually live in Japan. :( At any rate, if you look at the JMA site, you have add 9 hours to every time you see.

William Uki City sits at the north-eastern edge of Yatsushiro Sea. The shape of the sea and its orientation act as a funnel to create very large tidal surges which have numerous times overwhelmed the sea walls, destroyed houses, and taken lives. Kumanichi reports on some new equipment the city has acquired for disaster response. Some of the vehicles are breathtaking. Many photos and a Youtube video are at the link.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/778317

William Yushima is a small island between Misumi and the Shimabara peninsula which is famous for cats. Kumanichi reports on a particular cat named "Rosu", an" 8-year-old male who is also known as "Boss Cat" (aren't they all). Apparently, he has gone missing, which has left the island denizens distraught.
The island is accessible in 15 minutes by ferry from Misumi; the ferry fare is apparently negotiable. If you like cats, it sounds like a pleasant day trip, and if you stumble across Rosu, let them know. Youtube intro to Rosu and Kumanichi article: (it's nice to live in a town where the major news story is a lost cat):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHWSpjdESM&t=1s
https://kumanichi.com/articles/778250

William Kumanichi introduces dog trainer Mayumi Mitsuki and her Belgian Shepherd, San, who appears to be a very happy pup. Such working dogs are bred to please. Owning a dog is a commitment that many non-Japanese are not equipped to undertake (my whippet, Devo, lived for 15 years.). However, those who feel prepared to offer a pup a forever home, please consult with the Kumamoto Animal Shelter (熊本動物愛護センター) to find a good match;
https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/doubutuaigo/default.aspx
https://kumanichi.com/articles/777182

Kirk with some medical news: "An investigation has been launched into a medical equipment employee who is suspected of setting a timer to X-ray equipment at a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture so that it would stop working and require a repair service."
Worker allegedly sabotaged X-ray machine to net a costly repair | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
An investigation has been launched into a medical equipment employee who is suspected of setting a timer to X-ray equipment at a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture so that it would stop working and require a repair service.

Carlton. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but according to the tropical storm risk website, we’ve got a serious situation developing, so it would be prudent to start doing basic emergency preparations for the typhoon seemingly headed our way at high strength.
The TSR website is known to exaggerate toward worst case scenarios but its 96 hour projection of location and movement of the typhoon now well south of us is disconcerting. If it holds true, we, and northwest Kyushu, may be on the wrong side of a Category 4 storm:

Kirk here confessing to having been duped. The student who won the award I posted about on the following page was engaged in an activity I think is very laudable -- collecting signatures to abolish nuclear weapons.
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0eLRbtyrTUaGD1io2xxXnRGYUqFKjXtfAPuxM6LXJtvZTzmad7tGHvdTLAEVV6MMhl
It turns out, though, that the organization that gives out this award is a Moonie group. They're trying to hide their tracks so the web page currently says "we're taking a break" (ホームページは休止しております) but I was able to use the Wayback Machine to see what they're hiding. One thing I found was the e-mail address of the group:
[email protected]
UPF stands for Universal Peace Federation and it is now widely understood to be an organization associated with the Unification Church.
Indeed, the website still displays pictures of Hak Ja Han, the current leader of the organization:
http://3752906peace.org/custom4.html
Actually, the Moonies who tried to hide this page didn't do a complete job. If you try to access from the following top page, everything connecting them to the Moonies is nicely hidden:
http://3752906peace.org/
But, what they didn't realize was that Google still remembered the URLs of pages they erased the links to (but which they left on the server). Ha! Gotcha! ;)
I found the site because I've learned the names of some important Moonies in Kumamoto and searching for their names brought me to the site.
But, I have to admit that I was duped -- just like a lot of other people. In April, when I first posted about the award, I had no idea that anything with "peace" in the title might be associated with the Moonies. But, like many people in Japan, I'm not quite so gullible now.
P.S. This is my second version of this post. I thoughtlessly allowed the picture and name of an innocent student to be associated with the post the first time I made it. That was another mistake on my part. Sorry. The picture is a screenshot from the following page:
http://3752906peace.org/custom4.html
Hak Ja Han, the current leader of the cult, is on the left.

William Not directly Kumamoto-related; however, living here requires knowledge of local units of measurement (trust me: I built most of the furniture in my house - twice). Length, weight, distance, volume: Wikipedia is your friend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement

Kirk here introducing a podcast that I think anyone living in Japan (including, of course, Kumamoto) will be able to appreciate. It's about the Netflex show "My First Errand," which is the Japanese show "Hajimete no otsukai" (はじめてのおつかい). One thing I'm enjoying as I listen to this (I still haven't gotten through the who thing) is the appreciation of how the physical configuration of residential streets, shops, and narrow streets, makes it easier and generally safer for kids to get around in than is the case in more car-centric American cities.
First Errand - 99% Invisible
Back in March, Netflix picked up a long running Japanese TV program based on a children’s book from the 1970s. The show is called Old Enough, but the name of the original Japanese program translates to My First Errand. Because in each episode, a child runs an errand for the very first time. Episod...

William This has nothing to do with Kumamoto, but it does regard foreigners living here. My home town of Costa Mesa consists primarily of immigrants from South America and Southeast Asia, and they are integrated (mostly - the Trumpists hate them).
I've lived in Kumamoto longer than most people have been alive, but I am and will forever remain a "gaijin." That's life. Get used to it - and laugh if you can.
Man or Muppet | The Muppets (2011) | The Muppets
Streaming Now on Disney+ – Sign Up at https://disneyplus.com/In this emotional duet, Walter and Jason Segel show the delicate balance of being a Muppet or a ...

William A reader had asked how to best climb Mt Kimpo, and I had recommended the following routes. If driving, the road which passes by Honmyoji Temple is gorgeous (tunnel effect by roadside elms; stop by the temple your way up - free parking), but it's a terrible road for hiking. Ishigami Dori (石上通り - Google it - streetcar station 段山町駅) has most zero traffic, is more direct, and offers a few temples and some springs from which one can drink en route. It is a long (start early and expect to be home by evening) but gorgeous autumn hike, and historical: it was here that the stones of Kumamoto Castle were quarried. Quarrying continues, as evidenced by the number of shops selling tombstones in the area.
Mt Kimpo is a hunk of solid granite, but at its periphery, its weight does squeeze out a bit of water, which you'll see on your walk. Bring a bottle.

William Poking around a bit, I stumbled across this video (much like I stumbled across Kumamoto). If you tell your parents that you're moving to, say, Paris or London, that's something they can imagine - but Kumamoto? This will help. (Clearly an LP - the cracking sound brings back memories of vinyl.)

Kirk here with another installment in my series of posts on the Unification Church and Kumamoto.
The issue of how deeply the Unification Church (the former Toitsu Kyokai; 旧統一教会) has infused itself into Japanese society is huge -- the rot runs deep. I'm sure that many books will be written on this topic in the coming years. I can't take on a research project of that scope so I'm trying to limit myself to what I can learn about the UC in Kumamoto. I've been impressed with the work of SUZUKI Eito so I've been mining his Twitter feed and blog for Kumamoto-related leads. The postcard I posted about the other day was one bit of information that I found on his blog:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid023qFs3bupvFd2zguj68VzyUEpSP7mL7mzgLNFsarv4fNkvT8pJmLtsEMQwvCxY8cAl
In today's post, I'd like to look at the following tweet by Mr. Suzuki regarding an event held at Sojo University last year:
https://twitter.com/cult_and_fraud/status/1562639325811970048
In it, Suzuki says that "it is often pointed out" that this "College Summit for Peace" project is associated with Moonie student groups such as CARP (Collegiate Association for the Research of Principals). That intrigued me but I wanted to verify it before posting here. Here's what I found out in a nutshell: Yes, it's almost certain that he tevent at Sojo University had Moonie connections but, unlike the tunnel project that the university's president was involved with, the Moonie connections are so well hidden that I find it difficult to blame President Nakayama for being taken in.
Now for the details regarding how I came to that conclusion.
First, a little about CARP. On the English-language CARP website, the connection between Sun Myung Moon and the organization is immediately obvious:
https://www.carplife.org
The first thing you see on this site is a picture of Sun Myung Moon and the following quote: "Before I hope to master the universe, I must first master myself."
In Japan, CARP's Moonie connections are known but tend to be hidden. The following article (with video) is about how the CARP "club" at Kyushu University ("Kyudai CARP") has been working to turn students in the UC members/believers:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/02f0b3a41064bba6ea791126424277ca3406b55f
An article (in English) in the Asahi Shimbun explains how CARP works as follows:
--- start quote ---
"A middle-aged man showed up, describing himself as a “lecturer.”
He showed a picture of an elderly man and said: “This is Sun Myung Moon. He is a messiah.”
Before the winter break, the then freshman had been told that the name of the circle was CARP, for Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles.
He said he had no idea that CARP was connected to the Unification Church until the evening meeting when the picture of the organization’s founder was shown.
--- end quote ---
Ex-member: Church used close-knit circle to lure followers
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14705839
Kyoto University Press has issued a warning to all students regarding the CARP club associated with Kyodai:
https://www.kyoto-up.org/genri
By the way, Kumamoto University has a CARP club but I'm not aware of any problems that have been reported regarding this group:
https://www.pinterest.jp/kumadaicarp/
So, CARP's connections to the Moonies are clear. But can a connection between the "College Summit for Peace" and CARP be confirmed? As I wrote above, I think the answer is "yes" but connecting the dots is more difficult. Let me try to walk you through it.
First, College Summit for Peace is a national series of events that have been held at Japan's most prestigious universities -- from Tokyo University on down. All of the websites have the same logo, which looks very professional. The main website of the organization can be viewed here:
https://www.college-summit.org/
If one looks at the "contact" page, the only human being listed is a senior at Keio University named Kitano Takahiro (北野嵩大). The student has his own webpage that looks completely innocuous -- no Moonie connections. But he also has a Facebook page and one of the groups his page says he likes is Keio CARP:
https://www.facebook.com/keiocarp
In addition to this evidence of the connection between "College Summit for Peace" and CARP (and by extension the Moonies), there is other more indirect evidence. Suzuki warns there is a history of using events (online and off) that focus on SDGs (sustainable development goals) as ways of making initial contacts that may later lead to individual recruitment.
https://www.mbs.jp/news/feature/kansai/article/2022/08/090320.shtml
(By the way, this page has a video of Suzuki speaking on this topic on TV that I recommend watching.)
Indeed, most if not all of the "College Summit for Peace" events listed on the organization's main website deal with SDGs. And, SDGs are identified as a major topic of concern on CARPs official website:
https://worldcarp.jp/activity
And, the event at Sojo University also focuses on SDGs.
Another bit on indirect evidence that something is fishy about "College Summit for Peace" is that the high quality of the web design and video production over multiple websites bespeaks organizational power and financial resources that must go way beyond the individual students identified as the "representative" (代表) on each website. None of the websites identify "adult" (non-student) support or any external organization. I find it inconceivable that individual students who happen to be interested in SDGs could build a unified, nation-wide movement like this without substantial assistance (or, indeed, direction) from an external organization with deep pockets.
So, after spending a chunk of time looking into this, I would agree with Suzuki Eito: All indications are that the event held last year at Sojo University did indeed have Moonie backing. I don't know if it led to individual students being recruited. If that happened, there would not be any record of it unless a student was willing to come forward as a victim. People who participated in the event who politely decline subsequent invitations would probably never have any reason to suspect that the Moonies were behind it; only those who were sucked in quite deeply would become aware of what was really going on. And, by that time there's a good chance that the sophisticated mind-control techniques Suzuki has described and been warning about would have begun to take hold.
So, that's what I've been able to find so far. Currently, the only thing I'm aware of that has come out about the specific event at Sojo University is the single tweet by Suzuki. I'll be watching to see if major media outlets pick this up.

William Adoption may be preferable to other methods when a pregnancy is unplanned. (Disclaimer: I was adopted.) A question is the extent to which a birth mother has over information regarding her adopted child. In my case, I was given the option of contacting my birth mother but did not do so; my sister, who was also adopted, did. Not much came of it.
Kumanichi reports that "the government is working to urge hospitals to explain to mothers their right to know the origin of their unborn child"(生まれてくる子どもの出自を知る権利を母親に説明するよう病院に求める方向で国が作成を進めていること) Strange phrasing: I guess what is meant is that birth mothers who put their children up for adoption will be provided information regarding who adopted the child and what type of environment they are being raised in.
As an adoptee, I don't think this is a good idea. The onus should be on the adoptee as to whether contact with the birth mother should be conducted, not vice-versa. I've had my chance and passed it by - I saw no reason.
Kumanichi article:
子どもの「出自知る権利」母親に説明　内密出産のガイドライン方針｜熊本日日新聞社
　病院の一部関係者にのみ身元を明かして出産する「内密出産」のガイドライン（指針）に関し、生まれてくる子どもの出自を知る権利を母親に説明するよう病院に求める方向で国が作成を進めていることが29日、分かった....

Mt Kimpo, as we've mentioned, is a DORMANT volcano. There are two ways to hike it (and you should do both): sarusuberi (which means "monkey slips" as the trail cuts straight up the eastern side of the mountain) and the road, which I recommend: it winds completely round the mountain, so the views change drastically. As a volcano, Kimpo has a caldera, which is clearly visible during the hike, as is the volcano Unzen across Ariake Sea in Nagasaki.
The road has concrete edging on which moss grows. Popular is to create "moss art." Our friend Victoria Yoshimura has provided a few lovely photos with her children. Go to enjoy - or to create art yourself. You're in Ghibili land. More photos at the link kindly provided by Victoria: https://tinyurl.com/2s3ryz9b
Update: This is not Mt Kimpo but in Miyazaki. The location can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8bve7v However, Mt Kimpo has similar art.

Kirk here. If you see (or saw) U.S. military personnel in Kumamoto, it's probably because of this:
https://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2022082800233
"The U.S. Army launched two Javelin missiles." Yikes!!!
GSDF, U.S. Army Start Joint Exercises in Japan - JIJI PRESS

William The Fujisaki Hachiman Shrine festival is the main festival in Kumamoto and will be held this year on 9/18 after a multi-year furlough due to corona. Known officially as the Autumn Festival (aki kisetsu reidaisai, 秋季節例大祭), it involves numerous horses paraded from the shrine down the shopping streets to the castle and back. The shrine website credits it with a history of over 1,000 years; however, it's commonly known as "Boshita Matsuri" (or simply "Boshita," which means "Destroy" - this derives from Katō Kiyomasa's invasion of Korea (1592–1598) during which he infamously killed a tiger). Participants once chanted "Boshiita! Boshita! Hora boshita!" which means "Destroyed! Destroyed! Completely destroyed!" until wiser heads decided that was not the image Kumamoto wanted to present; today, the meaningless "Dokai!" ('Sup?) is chanted instead.
Early risers should head to the shrine no later than 5:00 AM (4:00 is better) to watch the preparations. This is much more interesting than the procession itself and offers a wealth of photographic opportunities. Then you can return home and go back to sleep. You may also see horses paraded around town before the festival: they are visiting houses of donors. (It's not cheap to rent a big horse.) Images: Kiyomasa doing his boshita thing with a tiger; the wrong end of a horse to be on.
Official shrine site: https://fujisakigu.or.jp/reisai/index.html
Pro Tip: Do NOT get behind a horse.

Kirk here. Sorry to be stuck on my anti-Moonie one-note samba but, well, lets just say "the Devil is making me do it." (I have no doubt that any Moonies that might be aware of my posts view me as Satan. ;) )
At any rate, I've been learning a lot from SUZUKI Eito, a journalist who has been documenting the influence of the Moonies in Japan for a long time. Recently, he's been appearing on TV quite frequently.
In this blog post from 2013, Mr. Suzuki shares a copy of a postcard he came into the possession of that tells single men where they can find a bride. Of course, it's a Moonie ploy to bring people into the organization and squeeze significant amounts of cash out of them. The resolution of the image isn't very good but it's possible to make out that the return address is 六田 of Tamana.
The blog entry contains a transcript of a long but amusing conversation Suzuki had with the Moonie who answered the phone. It ends with his comparison of this card with the kinds of cards being distributed in Korea.
Just yesterday, Hodo Tokushu (TBS) focused on what has happened to the Japanese women who have gotten roped into these kinds of marriages. The idea that an organization would help lonely people find an nice partner might seem OK but all reports I've seen indicate that the reality is much, much darker.
http://dailycult.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_14.html
熊本で配布された勧誘ハガキの裏面統一教会（世界基督教統一神霊協会／統一協会）が、結婚できない独身者などをターゲットにした勧誘ハガキを配布し、毎月“お見合いパーティ”を開いていたことが判った。これは、....