Late Saturday night I posted about a symposium to be held this Thursday (March 7) starting a 6 PM. If you missed that announcement, you can find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/photos/a.129499733790134/2460064540733630/
One of the three presenters, Britt Yamamoto, has what I think is an interesting connection to Kumamoto. He came here as a young man and wound up studying with Dr. Yoshitaka TAKEKUMA (竹熊宜孝). Dr. Takekuma is a medical doctor who has put a lot of energy into improving health and wellness by promoting organic farming. One of Britt’s PowerPoint slides says that he lived with Dr. Takekuma in Shisui (slightly north of Kumamoto City) and “learned about Japanese organic farming and traditional Japanese health and wellness.” If you take a look at his profile on the following page, you can see that he has continued to combine organic farming with health studies and then added leadership programs for Japanese young people:
http://ileap.org/who-we-are/staff-board/britt-yamamoto/
I haven’t been able to find much about Dr. Takekuma in English but there’s plenty in Japanese. Here’s a page with a list of his many books:
http://www.takekuma.com/honshoukai.html
His one-page bio lists many television appearances. Apparently, he’s gotten a good deal of attention as the “farming doctor,” a physician who practices organic farming and has worked hard to convince others of the importance of healthful eating.
Here’s a page with more about him in Japanese:
http://www.ruralnet.or.jp/ouen/meibo/079.html
I’m eager to meet Britt and the other two speakers, whom I think will be equally interesting to listen to but whom I haven’t had time to post about yet.
If you are interested in hearing from and getting to meet Japanese American movers and shakers like Britt (you’re welcome to attend a reception after the talk), please come! Again, here’s the address of my previous post with the details:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/photos/a.129499733790134/2460064540733630/
– Kirk