Here are some images from today’s Asahi Shimbun. Most of the article is about the role that the Kumamoto City International Center has played (and is continuing to play) in the recovery. One point that I found to be interesting is that the facility was not originally designated as a shelter in the event of a disaster. Rather, the original plan was for the staff of the center to introduce travelers and foreign residents to other shelters. However, after the earthquake, evacuees tended to move in opposite direction – from other shelters to the International Center – because individual centers were only able to present information in Japanese. The article also mentions tomorrow’s consultation event:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/1032185160188249 https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/1031471000259665
Finally, Kumamoto International is introduced! It says that since the earthquake we have posted over 400 messages and that one has been seen by about 50,000 people. The post with about 50,000 views was this one, by Sara, which introduced a map that showed where one could get food and goods:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/1019250848148347
One sign that things are getting back to normal is that the number of people viewing the page has fallen off a lot. As you can see in the image from this page’s “insights” (only viewable by editors) we jumped up to over 50,000 views per day immediately after the quake. We are still not completely back to normal but things are definitely quieting down.
I’ll write again to express my thanks to the editors who have helped (and are continuing to help) to make the page work so well. I really appreciate everyone’s cooperation and support!
– Kirk