Here's a video introduction to Kumamoto for rugby fans. -- Kirk
2018-12-18 10:59 JST 2018 Here's a video introduction to Kumamoto for rugby fans. -- Kirk Rugby World Cup Japan city guide - Kumamoto | RugbyPassThe next stop on our Japanese Rugby Wolrd Cup host city guide is Kumamoto on the southern island of Kyushu. https://www.rugbypass.com/news/rugby-world-cup-japan-city-gu … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 18 · Comments: 1 · Shares: 6 ← 2018-12-17 15:49 JST 2018-12-18 13:44 JST → Around this time … 2018-12-19 23:32 JSTUrban Dictionary defines "creepshot" as "A picture taken, generally of a woman, without her knowledge or consent." https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=creepshotI 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.-- Kirkhttps://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/20181219/tro18121917280007-n1.htmlhttp://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/15763306/ 2018-12-19 20:58 JSTLafcadio 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 2018-12-19 11:03 JSTHere's some news about a new Kumamoto-Korea connection.-- KirkT'way adds routes to link Daegu with Hanoi, Kumamoto 2018-12-18 21:51 JSTOlivia here,Perhaps some 町 goers (machi goers; city goers) are familiar with Kumamoto own Bubble tea.KUMAMOTO Milk TeaCombination 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。 2018-12-18 13:44 JSTA 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 2018-12-18 10:59 JSTHere's a video introduction to Kumamoto for rugby fans.Rugby World Cup Japan city guide - Kumamoto | RugbyPass (this post) 2018-12-17 15:49 JSTThis 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 2018-12-17 06:52 JSTAcid 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 2018-12-16 22:30 JSTThis 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.-- KirkLuffy of ‘One Piece’ goes ashore in heart of Kumamoto：The Asahi Shimbun 2018-12-16 21:24 JSTSouth-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 2018-12-16 09:45 JSTOur 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. - WilliamKumamoto Castle, Kyushu.
