Atten: Kumamon fans! -- Kirk
2019-05-21 17:55 JST 2019 Atten: Kumamon fans! -- Kirk Adorable mascot bear Kumamon stars on the most popular new license plate in JapanKumamoto’s goodwill ambassador is even more popular than Mt. Fuji! https://soranews24.com/2019/05/02/adorable-mascot-bear-kumam … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 31 · Comments: 3 · Shares: 4 ← 2019-05-21 09:15 JST 2019-05-22 09:40 JST → Around this time … 2019-05-24 06:56 JSTHello friends. How do you call an adhesive bandage? If you call it リバテープ,Ribateipu, you are really Kumamoto people. Local Kumamoto people call it リバテープ because the name is named by the company in Kumamoto, at Ueki. I learned the reason after I brought up adult, HAHA. Lots of Kumamoto citizen call it Ribateipu so other prefecture people can't find out what we mean especially for Kumamoto earthquake emergency volunteer. But it became good memories and stories also.ーAtsuko(*Ü*)http://www.libatape.jp/english/ 2019-05-23 17:41 JSTIn this post, I'd like to tell you all about an opportunity to try out the kind of flexibility training equipment that is purported to have contributed to baseball legend Ichiro's athletic longevity. A new facility is now in the Tsuruya Department Store building. It's a membership-based service but right now it's possible to try it out for free.First, let me introduce the relevant information about the facility in Tsuruya. Then I'll introduce some links to English-language pages about what makes the equipment special and why it might be good for ordinary folks like us.The facility is called "World Wing Kumamoto" and it opens officially on June 12th:https://worldwing-kumamoto.jpUntil then, you can arrange to try the equipment out for free, with the guidance of a coach.I got the image of the Wall Street Journal article about Ichiro's secret gym here:https://superichirocrazy.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/flexibility-is-my-weapon/You can see a video from Japanese TV of Ichiro training with the equipment here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=H8KdXTBLjAgHere's an article with some explanation in English:https://calltothepen.com/2017/03/04/miami-marlins-ichiro-brought-secret-gym-spring-training/"The “secret gym” equipment Ichiro uses comes from a Japanese company, World Wing Enterprise, that specializes in advanced training concepts. They usually provide their equipment to organizations, not individuals, but they made an exception for Ichiro because he’s basically a rock star in Japan."And this page has more videos and English explanation:The Unorthodox Training Behind Ichiro's Unparalleled Longevityhttps://www.stack.com/a/the-unorthodox-training-behind-ichiros-unparalleled-longevity"If you look closely at the machines, you'll notice they're all adorned with the letters 'BMLT.' The concept originated with Yasushi Koyama, a Japanese fitness expert. Koyama founded World Wing Enterprise as a training facility in 1981. In 1994, he published the theory that would become known as BMLT. The theory is based in part on the idea that athletes should get more flexible as they train, not less. Koyama believes that many athletes make the mistake of using too much weight and too little range of motion in their training, resulting in hard, tight muscles and limited flexibility and mobility. According to a patent filed by Koyama for a World Wing training apparatus, traditional strength training machines are often built on the principles of 'ending movement load training.'"But the equipment seems to be good for ordinary folks too -- not just elite athletes. Here's a link to a summary of an academic paper:A unique form of light-load training improves steadiness and performance on some functional tasks in older adults.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22493975I've never tried the equipment myself. I'd like to but I don't want to have to go downtown to exercise so I think I'll stick with more current routine. The introduction I saw on local TV, however, seemed interesting. -- KIrk 2019-05-23 09:47 JST"Fujitsu Laboratories and Kumamoto University have announced the development of technology to easily create the training data necessary to apply AI to time-series data, such as those from accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors."-- KirkFujitsu develops automatic labelling technology to accelerate AI 2019-05-22 16:50 JSTHi! Masden Kirk Steward here with some thoughts on the cultural integrity of names. As you can see from the images of my Japanese IDs, the Japanese government has determined that the correct, official way to write our names is in Japanese order (family name followed by given names), without a comma to shown a change in order. I have been told that I must "sign" my name in this order, in English, in order to complete a cell phone agreement. I protested but ultimately complied because I wanted the phone. As you can imagine, I felt a bit irritated but had forgotten about the issue until I saw today's news: Kono to ask foreign media to switch order of Japanese nameshttps://japantoday.com/category/politics/foreign-minister-to-ask-media-to-switch-order-of-japanese-names"As an example, Kono said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's name should be written as 'Abe Shinzo,' in line with other Asian leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae In."As one who would like have the cultural integrity of my own name respected, I'm sympathetic to this position. OK, Mr. Kono, have it your way. But first, please do the following:* Formally sign your request 太郎河野 in Japanese -- the cultural equivalent of what Japanese policy has forced me to do* Apologize, on behalf of the Japanese government, for not respecting the cultural integrity of non-Japanese names* Make an adjustment to current practiceIf for example, individuals could choose to place a comma after a family name on an ID, that would be an improvement in my view. Or, IDs could have separate boxes for "Family name" and "Given names". It would also be nice to publish something on an official Japanese website about not forcing people to sign names in the order they appear on a Japanese ID.Yours truly,Masden Kirk Steward -- NOT!!!P.S. One more point: The Japanese government forces us to opt in if we want our names written In Japanese. That may be OK but after going to the trouble of opting in once, I forgot to opt in again when I got my next card -- even though the new card was a new version of the old card and I was required to submit the old one at the same time I submitted the new one. So, now I have no official indication of how to write my name in Japanese -- which I had specifically requested earlier. :(End of rant 2019-05-22 09:40 JSTHere's something that's not specific to Kumamoto but that I hope will be of interest to those interested in the English language -- either as a teacher or as a student. I recently got a question about the difference between something that "made me who I am today" and something that "made me what I am today." My first reaction was that the two expressions are pretty much the same. Instead of trusting my instincts as a native speaker, however, I decided to go on line with the student and use Google to search for the two phrases. As your may know, on the Google search engine, if you put a phrase inside quotation marks Google will narrow your search to that exact phrase. Well, searching for "made me what I am today" and "made me who I am today" led to the following page:https://www.englishforums.com/English/ThePersonThatIAmToday/bkqgdl/post.htmWhat was REALLY interesting to me, was the link to this page:https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=made+me+who+I+am%2Cmade+me+what+I+am&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmade%20me%20who%20I%20am%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmade%20me%20what%20I%20am%3B%2Cc0Apparently, you can search Google's corpus of books to see when phrases came to be used and which phrases have been more popular over the decades. Personally, I thought this was really cool and, potentially a great tool for students of the English language. If, for example, a student is considering two ways of expressing something in a paper, this tool can be used to see which of the two collocations has been and is more popular.-- Kirk 2019-05-21 17:55 JSTAtten: Kumamon fans!Adorable mascot bear Kumamon stars on the most popular new license plate in Japan (this post) 2019-05-21 09:15 JST"Among forest-rich Kyūshū, Kumamoto Prefecture stands out for its wealth of venerable trees. Topping this list is Jakushinsan no kusu, an ancient camphor that presents an aesthetically pleasing balance above and beyond all others. A typhoon in 1991 broke numerous branches and caused other damage, however, the tree has made a vigorous recovery. In an astounding display of vitality, most of its wounds have healed and its foliage continues to thicken."The web page includes a Google map, showing the exact location. I recently saw a TV show called Binotsubo (美の壺) that introduced huge, ancient trees that can be found all over Japan. Kumamoto's Jakushinsan no kusu was introduced early in the program and I was amazed to learn that the tree is estimated to be 800 years old! https://www4.nhk.or.jp/tsubo/x/2019-05-12/31/33694/2418282/andhttps://見逃したテレビドラマを見る方法.xyz/美の壺/巨樹/I've visited the tree and it truly is something to see. If you have a car, it's not all that far from Kumamoto City. Or, if you are a cyclist, you can take Kumamoto's cycling road to get there from Kumamoto City. It's not exactly on the cycling road but that path will take you to the vicinity. For more about the cycling road see the following:https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/162730370534887-- Kirkhttps://www.nippon.com/en/views/b05301/japan’s-ancient-giants-the-onset-of-early-summer.htmlJapan’s Ancient Giants: The Onset of Early Summer 2019-05-20 18:11 JSTA few minutes ago, I posted about Yahoo's weather radar. Here's the link again:https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/I thought I'd post this little video to show you how the animation works. Notice that after 6 PM or so (current time) the Japanese characters for "prediction" are added. Well, time to go get that coffee . . ;)-- Kirk 2019-05-20 17:54 JSTHere's a little tip for those of you who are interested in avoiding getting caught in the rain (cyclists and pedestrians, in particular). Yahoo has a site that lets you check to see how the rain clouds have been moving and how they are predicted to move in the coming hour or so. https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/It may not be 100% accurate (nothing in the weather world is) but I've found it to be much better than guessing. In my case, the radar forecast led me to decide to get on my bike and go buy more coffee at 6:30. :)-- Kirk 2019-05-20 12:15 JSTNearly 20 years ago (it will be 20 years this October), this forum started as a mailing list. Personally, since moving to Facebook, I've neglected the mailing list for many years now, but it's still up and running. Recently, a few mailing list participants have been exchanging information about places that cater to vegetarians and vegans. In that thread Mr. Yagi of the Kumamoto City International Center has posted several jpgs from the "Kumamoto City Vegetarian Guide Map":https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13552By the way, when I started the mailing list in 1999, Mr. Yagi was extremely supportive and helpful. He encouraged me to put a flier up in the International Center to let more people know about the new list. Thanks again, Mr. Yagi. Kumamoto International now has nearly 4,000 likes. We owe a big portion of our success to your early help.Getting back to vegetarian and vegan restaurants, another response to the inquiry came from J. D. Marlandhttps://www.happycow.net/asia/japan/kumamoto/and Jerry Conrad recommended a curry shop called "Yagi" (probably not related to Mr. Yagi of the International Center).You can see the entire thread of posts here:https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messagesI think these are good leads but not exhaustive. In fact, I can think of one place that hasn't been mentioned yet. When I have more time, I'll try to post that as a comment. Any other recommendations will be welcome in comments to this post. Or, of course, you can join the mailing list and participate there. Thanks!-- Kirk 2019-05-16 19:41 JSTThe Honolulu Star-Advertiser is a great source of information about Kumamoto -- in this case at least. ;)-- KirkKurokawa Onsen: Eat, sleep, bathe, repeat
