A lighter view of the castle's current appearance. -- Kirk
2018-09-04 17:26 JST 2018 A lighter view of the castle's current appearance. -- Kirk Who knew that Kumamoto Castle was a Transformer hiding in plain sight all this time?Kumamoto Castle may be more than meets the eye. https://soranews24.com/2018/09/01/who-knew-that-kumamoto-cas … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 43 · Comments: 1 · Shares: 4 ← 2018-09-03 19:57 JST 2018-09-05 14:18 JST → Around this time … 2018-09-07 09:00 JST100 bottles of beer on the wall... Joe Tomei with Friday Funky places, and today, a map I picked up of Craft Beer places in Kumamoto. Some of them have been on FFP, but others not. Even though I've not been to all of them, I've added them to the FFP map athttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1qUH94Bac7Hr939b7_8gtvebaJZffGRsX&usp=sharing 2018-09-06 15:35 JSTBad news for Hokkaido. :( -- KirkEarthquake buries homes under landslides in Hokkaido, Japan 2018-09-06 09:06 JSTThere was a M6.7 quake in Hokkaido this morning which has caused a large landslide, widespread destruction, and some death. Geologists are saying that it was caused by the Ishikari Fault - an area called the Ishikari Lowland (石狩低地; see image - the epicenter, Ishikari City, is shown by a star), which is where the eastern side of Hokkaido is sliding under the western side. The geology is apparently similar to that in Mashiki.Our thoughts go out to our Hokkaido friends. We hope that this is not a foreshock. Off of the east coast of Hokkaido is the Chishima Trench, which has potential for an earthquake the size of that which struck Tohoku. This link provides an English-language article regarding that. - Williamhttp://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201712190028.html 2018-09-05 14:18 JSTThe name origin of Shiranui (不知火), a town located on the southern side of the Uto Peninsula facing Yatsushiro Sea (and prone to disastrous tidal surges), has long piqued my interest (image below with Yatsushiro in the background). Seriously: it literally means "Don't Know Fire." But I finally looked it up, and the story is more interesting than I'd thought - it would be better translated as "Mysterious Fire." The cause involves fishing methods and meteorology. A sea fishing fire (or, in modern times, a really bright lightbulb), used to attract fish during night fishing, is called an "isaribi" (漁火, shown below). The temperature difference between Yatsushiro Sea's wide, warm tidelands and a cool night atmosphere creates a difference in density which acts like a lens, causing the light to diffract in a way that makes the number of lights appear more numerous than the actual, so those observing from shore are, like, "Hey?! What's that light!" - and, hence, 不知火.I mention this because Kumanich reports that Family Mart's 1,565 Taiwan franchises will begin selling a Kumamon-branded soft ice cream dubbed "不知火." Next time you're in Taiwan, give it a try. - Williamhttps://this.kiji.is/409594576460383329?c=92619697908483575 2018-09-05 14:29 JSTThe governor is scheduled to speak at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, on the 7th.Japanese governor, alumnus to speak at UNL’s Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance 2018-09-04 17:26 JSTA lighter view of the castle's current appearance. -- KirkWho knew that Kumamoto Castle was a Transformer hiding in plain sight all this time? (this post) 2018-09-03 19:57 JSTMy favorite site for tracking tropic storms (including typhoons) is http://www.tropicalstormrisk.comThis image shows that Jebi (curiously cute name for a monstrous storm system!) is expected to miss Kumamoto by quite a bit. Even so, folks on the eastern side of the prefecture (Aso, etc.) have almost at 50/50 chance of experiencing tropical storm winds (63-118 kilometers per hour or 39-73 miles per hour).Until recently, Jebi was the strongest storm on earth -- a super typhoon (category 5) with winds as high as 170 mph (273 kmh):https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1011932/Typhoon-Jebi-path-update-Will-STRONGEST-STORM-of-2018-strike-Japan-with-DIRECT-HITEven if it doesn't cause us too much trouble here, it may do nasty things in prefectures to our east. As always, take care!-- Kirk 2018-09-03 16:24 JSTProgress!-- KirkKumamoto Castle on course for full recovery, reopening 2021：The Asahi Shimbun 2018-09-02 21:17 JSTAn Irish father and Greek mother would probably leave anyone with a bit of a lyrical legacy, but Lafacadio Hearn took it to 11. He was particularly well-known for translating Japanese traditional horror stories and also spent many years living in Kumamoto - sort of a Japan-residing Irish-Greek Edgar Allan Poe, if that is imanginable. I am reminded of this as my wife attended a seminar on his work this evening. Much of his writing is available for free on Gutenberg.org - William http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=lafcadio+hearnBooks: lafcadio hearn (sorted by popularity) 2018-09-02 14:28 JSTThere is a very cool organization in Tokyo called "Playground of Hope":https://poh.ngo/en/"Playground of Hope is a Tokyo-registered non-profit organization that works towards providing children in at-risk communities such as children’s homes and disaster zones with access to essential outdoor play equipment."They recently came to Mashiki and made a lot of children very happy with a brand new set of playground equipment.I don't think there's been any coverage of this in English but you can see the segment broadcast on NHK (which prompted me to post this) at the following address:https://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/kumamoto/20180828/5000003342.htmlAnother cool thing about the ground is that key members are obviously expats, just like many readers of this page. Here's a link to their Facebook page, where you'll find many posts in English:https://www.facebook.com/playgroundofhope/-- Kirk益城町の保育園に大型遊具を寄贈｜NHK 熊本県のニュース 2018-09-01 13:41 JSTA note from the Kumamoto International Dodge a Bullet Desk: Typhoon Jebi (which is a variation of the name Jeb in English and Hebrew, the latter of which is really good at describing cataclysms) is expected to pound the area between Kyoto and Tokyo from September 3. It's the strongest storm the Earth has generated yet in 2018. Its unusual trajectory will bring it north of the Japanese archipelago, and as Axios notes, "it could impart enough energy to the North Pacific jet stream to alter the weather pattern across thousands of miles, all the way to the United States." A good reminder of how close Japan and the US are. - WilliamSuper Typhoon Jebi is the strongest storm so far this year
