Kirk here with a link to an English article on the cyberwarfare unit that William wrote about.
2021-03-31 09:47 JST 2021 Kirk here with a link to an English article on the cyberwarfare unit that William wrote about. Japan Ground Self-Defense Force unveils new electronic warfare unit in Kumamoto - The MainichiKUMAMOTO -- A dedicated Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) electronic warfare unit officially entered service on March 29 with a ceremony at it https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210330/p2a/00m/0na/01 … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 2 · Comments: 0 · Shares: 0 ← 2021-03-30 17:18 JST 2021-03-31 18:26 JST → Around this time … 2021-04-01 21:00 JSTKirkland, I mean Kirk here with news of Costco's opening at 6 AM (!!) today:https://rkk.jp/news/index.php?id=NS003202104011104180111 2021-04-01 14:39 JSTKirk here. It's been 400 years since Kato Kiyomasa changed the first character of Kumamoto from 隈 (meaning "corner," "nook," or "recess") to 熊 (meaning "bear"). Now, Kumamoto is about to undergo another name change. In keeping with the growth of Kumamoto's photovoltaic industry and the new importance of Kumamoto as the home of the Self-Defense Force's electronic warfare unit, Governor Kabashima has announced that Kumamoto will be renamed "Voltomoto" (ヴォルト本) and that Kumamon will be replaced with a cute electric eel character called "Voltomon." "I think Kumamon fans may be shocked by Voltomon," chuckled Kabashima to the gaggle of scowling reporters. Then, the governor added, "No seriously. You gotta be careful. If you get too close to this mascot he'll shock you. It's his way of protecting himself from fans who cross the line, so to speak." Asked if his decision had anything to do with to Volkswagen's recent name change, the governor replied "Well, yah, but not just that. I'm also a big fan of our pro basketball team, the Volters, and thought this might be a way to 'spark' some interest in them. Hah, ha, ha." Happy April 1st! ;) 2021-04-01 12:59 JSTOur friend Yoshiko Toyama took this stunning photo of an Aso peak, Nekodake. The peak, shown on the map at far right, had been thought to have formed after Aso went kablooee 90,000 years ago, creating the caldera. Turns out its rock is 150,000 years old, making it far older than the mountain we think of as "Aso" today, which formed after that eruption. If you're considering climbing it, its highest point, Tengu Peak, is a steep rock peak, apparently requiring rock climbing skills. - William 2021-04-01 11:31 JSTThis is about a 400-year-old editic from Kumamoto's Tadaoki Hosokawa. The "no drinking" part sounds like pretty good advice for COVID-19, at least if you change it to "no bar hopping." And, of course, "no fighting" is a good rule of thumb in any age. ;) -- KirkNO DRINKING! NO FIGHTING! The laws of early Edo Japan to keep the peace 2021-03-31 18:26 JSTKirk with another reintroduction of the "Second-Hand Kumamoto" group. I was prompted to post today because a friend asked about where he could get a small refrigerator. He knows about Kumamoto International but I thought he may not know about Second-Hand Kumamoto. As my friend is probably not the only person who doesn't know about the group, I thought I'd post about it.By the way, if anyone has any favorite second-hand shops (besides, Second-Hand Kumamoto, that is), please post a little note in a comment. Also, if you happen to have a small refrigerator that you don't need, I know someone who will probably take it off your hands.https://www.facebook.com/groups/secondhandkumamoto 2021-03-31 09:47 JSTKirk here with a link to an English article on the …Japan Ground Self-Defense Force unveils new electronic warfare unit in Kumamoto - The Mainichi (this post) 2021-03-30 17:18 JST"In the aftermath of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, SoftBank sent communication relay equipment aloft on a balloon." -- Not known until today by KirkMajor telecoms preparing array of ‘flying base stations’https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/000726168ソフトバンク、熊本地震で被災地のSoftBank携帯電話における通信速度制限を4月30日まで撤廃！基地局復旧に加え、気球による無線中継システムを災害に初導入https://news.livedoor.com/article/image_detail/11426448/?img_id=10238008 2021-03-30 14:50 JSTTo continue with Kirk's Armageddon theme, Kumanichi reports that Kumamoto will be the first site of Japan's planned electronic warfare corps (電子戦部隊, denshisen butai), soon to host a device designed to detect and interefere with enemy radio waves. Kengun is the headquarters of the GFS Western Army, in charge of defense of Kyushu, Okinawa, and all that lies between, so they figured they'd put it there. It's mobile, which is nice as Kengun is now likely a primary target should missiles fly. - Williamhttps://kumanichi.com/news/id170796 2021-03-30 10:59 JSTJoe Tomei here, I've pinned Chuck's post to the top of the page. Also, with the other language versions, you will probably have to fill out the Japanese version, so you will want to use the translations give below as a guide. Also, here are the designated medical facilities for adminstering the vaccine in Kumamoto prefecturehttps://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/search/city.html?id=430005=========Chuck Waterman here.Just found a few pages with some seemingly very helpful information and preparation for those of us hoping to get the COVID19 vaccine here:1. Downloadable English (and other language) versions of the Prevaccination Screening Questionnaire, Instructions for COVID-19 Vaccination, and an important Notice on CODID19 Vaccination:https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/vaccine_tagengo.html2. Corona Vaccine Navi (in Japanese: use Google Translate to read it):https://v-sys.mhlw.go.jp/There are no vaccination sites listed yet - check back after April 12th.... In addition, the phone number for the Corona Vaccine Call Center at City Hall is 096-300-5577. Please don't call them to ask "When will I get my Vaccination Ticket?" yet, unless you are 65 or older or have one of the health conditions listed on the Notice. I'm expecting that the tickets for 65 and older won't start arriving until after April 12th from the information we heard on a phone call today. Hope that is helpful! 2021-03-30 08:57 JSTSL Hitoyoshi service to resume.-- copying and pasting by KirkJR Kyushu to resume steam locomotive trips to support areas hit by deadly rain disaster - The Mainichi 2021-03-29 23:01 JSTDear friends,I hope I can be forgiven for posting something that has no direct relation to Kumamoto. I'd like to write a little about this article from the Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/10/cold-war-era-weapon-100bn-us-plan-to-build-new-nuclear-missile-sparks-concernToday I was listening to a "Democracy Now" podcast from about a week ago. They were talking about US plans to develop a new, very expensive nuclear weapon (the one mentioned in the Guardian article). They were also talking about the UK's movements in a similar direction. I'm pretty much of a news junkie, both in regard to the US and Japan, but this was the first I'd heard of it. I searched in Japanese and finally, after some effort, found a Japanese article about the UKs strengthening of its nuclear arsenal and one more on US plans:https://otakei.otakuma.net/archives/2020090908.htmlBut, it's the kind of news that you have to know about already in order to be able to find an article about it. For the Japanee article on U.S. plans, I needed to use GBSD, the abbreviation for "Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent," the name of the program, in order to find anything. If you do a Google search in English with Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent you can find articles about the program from fairly reputable sources. Major news services, however, seem to be mostly silent. Granted, there's a lot to report these day and this seems to have been developing over some time but I still can't help but scratch my head as to how this can be more-or-less public yet not be considered to be newsworthy. :) --KirkP.S. If "fake news" is fiction that gets lots of attention, what is real news that gets ignored for the most part? "Silent news"?'Cold war-era weapon': $100bn US plan to build new nuclear missile sparks concern
