Joe Tomei here. Two useful things I found from a blog. First is a nice detailed explanation of how to renew your US passport by mail if you are living in Japan. http://farfromhome.ducsu.com/blog/49/how-to-renewing-us-passport-while-in-japan.html
Not a Kumamoto thing, but came across this on the same blog: http://www.fujisan3776.com/index_en.html
which lets you get a certificate if you climb Mt. Fuji. The blogger has a photo of the certificate here http://imageshack.us/a/img571/5476/5vl3.jpg and the blog post is here http://farfromhome.ducsu.com/blog/59/mia-but-not-gone.html
