Joe Tomei here with a post by Jason Morgan from his Kumamoto.guru blog. Enjoy!
2021-08-12 18:32 JST 2021 Joe Tomei here with a post by Jason Morgan from his Kumamoto.guru blog. Enjoy! ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 6 · Comments: 13 · Shares: 0 ← 2021-08-12 14:36 JST 2021-08-12 19:36 JST → Around this time … 2021-08-13 22:49 JSTKirk here with news about COVID-19. Kumamoto hit a new record today: 207 new cases in a single day. The image is from the following NHK page:https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/coronavirus/data/I heard on RKK that most of the new cases in Kumamoto are of the Delta strain. That report can be found here:https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a5c792c5434398b1f3e25bc07c75cacec588d04bSpeaking of the Delta strain, there was some important national news today that may come to affect Kumamoto. The following Japan Times article has the following headline:First Japan case involving lambda COVID-19 variant linked to Olympicshttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/08/13/national/lambda-olympic-case/It's beginning to look like warnings about holding the olympics in the middle of a pandemic were correct. Here's a quote from another article:"Some scientists have warned that the [Lambda] strain could be more transmissible than the Delta variant."https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/lambda-variant/ 2021-08-13 22:10 JSTKirk with another update on the rain. The images are from the following TKU video (click on the click to view the Japanese video; it includes reports on several different kinds of damage). I heard on RKK that the rain loosened the earth that the roots were clinging to and that that led to the tree's collapse. If the tree had fallen in a slightly different direction, it would have damage the walls shown in the second picture. Those walls were severely damaged in the 2016 earthquake and repairs on them had just ended.https://www.tku.co.jp/news/?news_id=20210813-00000007 2021-08-13 12:29 JSTKirk here with a little video (in Japanese) about some damage (roads washed out, water outages, etc.) in Amakusa. My impression of the overall situation in Kumamoto is that the rain has taken many rivers close to flood level but, for now, most levees are holding.熊本 川増水で道路崩落のおそれ 断水も 2021-08-13 10:19 JSTJoe Tomei here, I'm not sure how many people are thinking of going out of country and considering trying to return, but I thought I would pass this group on, it was recommended to me by a friend (though I am pretty much staying inside the borders) Any Kumamoto related information, please feel free to put in the comments. 2021-08-12 19:36 JSTKirk again. Lot's of rain. Apparently, Yamaga got a month's worth today. I'm sharing a few screenshots from videos that local TV stations have put up:https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d4b2adcc630a96f91dd7eeffb13e123290d8d245https://rkk.jp/news/index.php?id=NS003202108121759250111The one on top is from FNN, which is Teribi Kumamoto locally. The image is from Nankan-machi. The other two are from RKK. The red car is in Chuo-ku of Kumamoto City and the white car is in Yamaga. The thing about the rain is that it's not over. We are expected to get more of the same until tomorrow so things could get worse. Take care!P.S. On TV I saw people wading through ankle-deep water in Shimotori, a covered arcade that rarely floods! 2021-08-12 18:32 JSTJoe Tomei here with a post by Jason Morgan from his … (this post) 2021-08-12 14:36 JSTKirk here with one more point about the rain and evacution notices. The notices come as images from which the text cannot easily be copied and pasted. If you can read the Japanese, good for you, but if not, you're forced to find a workaround or suffer the anxiety of having received a very loud, heart-stopping message that seems bad but that you can't read.One workaround is to put the Google translate app on your phone, take a screenshot of the annoying alert, open up Google translate, select the screenshot and then get it translated -- not exactly something you appreciate being forced to do in an emergency -- but a possibility. (The image shows how a warning that I just got comes out.)I'm not about the extent to which this is an iPhone issue or an issue with how local governments send out warning, or both.Carlton McCycle said that he can get the same warnings on LINE and then use LINE's translate function. I checked on my app but the only message I was able to find from Kumamoto City was slightly different.I'd be interested to know if others out there find this as irritating as I do and if you have other workarounds. 2021-08-12 14:13 JSTKirk here with a follow-up on the rain. I just got an extremely loud and (for me) rather annoying notice on my phone that elderly people in Mashiki need to evacuate (I don't even live in Mashiki, though I'm not too terrible far away). At any rate, the rain is coming down quite hard and I suspect (though I haven't had a chance to check) that river levels are rising.When we have heavy rain and I'm wondering how likely it is to continue over the next hour or so, I often check Yahoo!'s "zoom radar" page:https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/It not only shows the current situation but how things have changed in the last hour or so and what is predicted for the coming hour. 2021-08-11 23:50 JSTKirk here with the weather and some COVID-19 news. The first colorful image is from the following page:https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#10/32.692/130.672/&elem=all&contents=warning&lang=enIt's calm outside now but more rain is predicted for the coming days. NHK was saying that the conditions are right in many parts of Japan for extreme amounts of rain. They mentioned Kumamoto in this regard in their national broadcast. Evacuations have been called for in some parts of Amakusa and the elderly in many areas have been encouraged to evacuate.If you're new to this evacuation business, let me point out that a lot depends on your particular location. If you are in an area which is at elevated risk for landslides or in a flood plain, you should probably think seriously about moving to someplace safer. In my case, however, I live in an area that is higher than most of the land around us (we even have "yama" in our name), so I can't imagine any amount of rain making us evacuate. So, study up on your particular area.Also, please be aware that you can't depend on me or other Kumamoto International editors for timely warnings. We do what we can but, since we're doing this as volunteers, we can't always just drop everything and send out warnings at the first sign of trouble.Finally, Kumamoto set a new record for new COVID-19 cases today with 181. There's a video about that (from which I took the second colorful screenshot) here:https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/f678b2b1c58e3e15d5d3c7695fc0d082d16bbda7 2021-08-11 00:02 JSTChuck Waterman here: I highly recommend Rendaiji Clinic to anyone who needs to get PCR tested and get the results back the same day.https://goo.gl/maps/KrcUfGaKfrcNmh4z5I arrived this morning just before 9 AM, let them copy my passport, filled out information on an uncomplicated form, got my PCR nasal stick up the nose and was out of there within 30 minutes!I had to go back at 6PM to pick up my results, but - hey, same day is same day! 33,300 is a little expensive, but that includesA) the testB) getting a bilingual test results form andC) getting it processed and given to you the same day you are tested.蓮台寺クリニック · 3 Chome-4-3 Rendaiji, Nishi Ward, Kumamoto, 860-0055, Japan 2021-08-10 21:36 JSTJoe Tomei here with something that our intrepid Atsuko Kumabe found, which is the upcoming mandatory bicycle insurance for the prefecture!https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/54/85371.htmlUnfortunately, the page is in Japanese, but to briefly summarize, bicyclists will be required to be insured from 1 Oct of this year. The website uses automatic web translation or you can paste the link into google translate.A second page here (unfortunately also only in Japanese)https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/54/51723.htmllists insurance providers as well. This is rather important, if you don't have insurance and have an accident where someone is hurt, you will be liable for damages. My wife tells me that the insurance was recommended for both my daughters when they started JHS. At this point, as I am not a bicycle rider, so I need to crowdsource from all of you recommendations and help to get such insurance. I recall when I first came to Gakuen, one of the exchange students had an accident on a bicycle that was not covered by insurance. I don't remember the details, but I do recall appeals made to the faculty for donations because of the amount the student would have been liable. The webpage gives two incidents that required 95 and 92 million yen respectively. So if you have any information, please drop it in the comments or send it as a DM to the page. Thanks in advance.「自転車保険」に加入しましょう - 熊本県ホームページ