Kirk here with another Kumamoto-related news item. This is very positive development, I think:
2022-10-27 22:01 JST 2022 Kirk here with another Kumamoto-related news item. This is very positive development, I think: Tokyo to get 1st ‘baby hatch’ for unwanted newborns in ’24 | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and AnalysisDrawing on the success of the “baby hatch” system pioneered by Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto for unwanted newborns, plans are in the works to open the first one in Tokyo. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14737683?utm_id=97758_v0_ … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 10 · Comments: 0 · Shares: 0 ← 2022-10-27 13:04 JST 2022-10-28 11:28 JST → Around this time … 2022-10-29 15:22 JSTWilliam If you've no plans for Sunday, you could do worse than to visit the Kumamoto Products Fair (Kumamoto Busan Fair, くまもと物産フェア), which will be held in the square fronting Kumamoto Station. 113 entrants will be selling and giving out free samples of food and other Kumamoto specialties totaling 520 items. ("うまかもん" is Kumamoto dialect for "delicious" and "よか品" that for "good stuff.)This is the 27th time this fair has been held but the first time in three years due to, well, you know.うまかもん、よか品…一堂に くまもと物産フェア開幕 熊本駅前など2会場で30日まで｜熊本日日新聞社 2022-10-28 20:15 JSTWilliam If any of our readers are aware of or plan on holding an event, please PM us so that we may clue in the wider community .It's cosmos (the flower, not the TV show) season. A wonderful place to appreciate them is the Kumamoto Zoological and Botanical Garden ("the zoo"). While there, note the abundance of springs. A main reason why the zoo was built where it is is precisely this: free water for the hippos. And ride the Ferris wheel. And go in the House of Glass (separately and try to find one another). If you're lucky and an elephant wanders over, you can pat him.https://www.ezooko.jp/imgkiji/pub/Default.aspx?c_id=31 2022-10-28 20:10 JSTKirk here with a reminder:https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02DbsaQd1YdPhqbEtm7iBZ99Yvsj6eHd1LBMrYmH2LZzVpaHngqoPTdJdwzy4wSS5el 2022-10-28 17:01 JSTWilliam The BOJ has raised its inflation expectation from 2.3 to 2.9 percent, partly due to the weak yen. One way to avoid this is to buy locally produced foods, and one way to do that is to shop at smaller markets, which tend to source locally. We often shop at Iwanaga, a delightful lil' spot in Oe on Meigobashi Street. If you have a favorite small market, please share.Tasaki market is Kumamoto's main wholesale market. If you haven't visited, you should. Arriving very early (before 5:00) allows viewing of the fish market, with massive maguro being pared down to size (pay attention to the knives). There is also a basashi shop with windows from which one can watch huge hunks of horse carved into saleable size. Though primarily wholesale, most food is also available for purchase at wholesale prices. Not only a unique experience, it is a way to stretch your yen. Their most excellent website: https://kumamoto-tasaki-ichiba.co.jp/The market is a rather long walk from the tram's Tasaki station, but there is plenty of free parking. 2022-10-28 11:28 JST(Douglas here) The following link is to an article on BBC News. Although it is not Kumamoto specific, it is an interesting description of something that affects us all in Japan - Kumamoto included.Sliding yen: What is happening to the Japanese currency? 2022-10-27 22:01 JSTKirk here with another Kumamoto-related news item. This is …Tokyo to get 1st ‘baby hatch’ for unwanted newborns in ’24 | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis (this post) 2022-10-27 13:04 JSTKirk with some news about some really horrible behavior on the part of an "educator" that seems to have led to the suicide of a boy in Kumamoto three years ago:--- start quote ---The report noted that his sixth-grade elementary school teacher berated students in a loud voice, beat them about the head and verbally abused them, calling them “stupid” and "idiot” on a daily basis.--- end quote ---Later in the article we learn that the "teacher continues to work at another school." Amazing!https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14751634If you are interesting in this issue, please be sure to check out an image that I will add to a comment to this post.Panel: Boy’s suicide linked to abuse by former 6th-grade teacher | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis 2022-10-27 11:17 JSTKirk here. I posted about this the other day but that article I referenced was in Japanese. This article is in English so I'm posting again.Post based on Japanese-language article:https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0C46ruYbfRKkMGPRt2rTLXvbfHwVyHBV98eFxSzW5iZdct2XtgqSBiPcbUcrA5adRlEnglish-language articlehttps://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20221026-66982/ 2022-10-26 20:32 JSTWilliam My liberal arts college forced me to take a laboratory science class, so I took the easiest: Geology. Turns out I'm glad I did. Sometimes one encounters a rock (or many) which shouldn't be there. In Maine, they were mostly moraines, which are piles of rocks, the tail ends of long vanished glaciers. In Kumamoto, they tend to be astonishingly large boulders of granite, intrusive igneous rock which Aso burped up over unimaginable distances in ancient eruptions. (Keep your eyes open: they are scattered throughout the city.) Ancient people not versed in geology attributed their existence to the divine - hence, the Shinto stuff.One such is in Aso Ōmikami Ashiato Megami Ishi Park, Minamiaso Village (阿蘇大御神足跡女神石 - which literally means "Goddess Stone in the Footsteps of the Great Deity Aso Omikami). Kumanichi reports on a bit of lichen growing in a circle on the rock which resembles, if one is colorblind, the Japanese flag, or Hinomaru. Take care in distinguishing between moss (苔, koke), which is a plant - it lives by photosynthesis; and lichen (地衣, chi'i - a beautiful word which literally means "earth's clothing"), which is a symbiotic relationship between a fungus (tough but cannot photosynthesize) and an alga (weak but can photosynthesize and by whose byproducts - algae farts - the fungus lives).Anyway, on this immense megalith, a lichen in the shape of the Hinomaru may be found. Have yourself a field day.https://kumanichi.com/articles/835161 2022-10-26 12:20 JSTKirk here with a link to an article about the retirement of the SL Hitoyoshi. The steam engine that is currently pulling the train is 100 years old now. If you'd like to take one last ride (or your first ride) you have until March.Personally, I can appreciate that affection that many people feel for old coal-burning steam engines. Part of me shares that sentiment. Still, another part of me is somewhat uncomfortable with environmental impact of even one coal-burning engine and the message that sends to the kids who ride it. So, while I'm sorry to see it go I think that perhaps it's time to move away from this particular engine type.JR九州「SL人吉」再来年3月ごろめどに運行終了へ 老朽化などで | NHK 2022-10-25 18:39 JSTKirk here reporting that the Kumanichi kindly printed my request that they refrain from calling us "YOU" and just use a straight-forward "外国人" (gaikokujin) if it's necessary to refer to our identity as foreigners. Thanks Kumanichi!Here's a link to the original post from Atsuko:https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02FMYc4N7KaZvK38zHX9jPMSR32sxm4PadjAQ7SJyb1qikH2RiiZ1FgW1g4VXp2cwjlP.S. They featured my little letter prominently at the top of the page and didn't cut anything! :)
