William Sometimes Kumamon appears in Santa gear; sometimes not. Best get your camera ready.
2022-12-26 16:41 JST 2022 William Sometimes Kumamon appears in Santa gear; sometimes not. Best get your camera ready. ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 22 · Comments: 2 · Shares: 0 ← 2022-12-25 11:27 JST 2022-12-27 11:57 JST → Around this time … 2022-12-29 22:02 JSTKumamoto-i's self-appointed chief escape room correspondent Fiona here, with an end of year treasure hunt. After the Christmas Quest raised over 15,000 yen for Team Tonakai, Tom Taniguchi has set one final puzzle for Kumamoto residents. Good luck! 2022-12-29 19:23 JSTKirk here with number 2 in our retrospective countdown. This one got 3,314 views.https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid024EFq19GuLBfLAuA7gAkThyGMNgZ8mYWdA3HEgazwFV2Sd8BDfMn9pG83QZGTfwJZlTim Cook on Twitter 2022-12-28 10:31 JSTKirk here with number 3 in my little end-of-year countdown. This post from William about the history of Tsuruya Department Store got 3,164 views:https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02qoad1viadFe6vxLveM79tnUuG2BfA1Xsd2qQmHyoBhpw9YtSgiqeonCcsByxf8XDl 2022-12-27 16:40 JSTKirk here reporting that 2022 has not been a good year for Mr. IDE Nobuo. Just a few years ago (2019) he was made head of the Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly:https://idenobuo.jp/about/But yesterday he resigned in disgrace after allegedly (according to drive recorder) threatening to kill a taxi driver for making a wrong turn:Kumamoto prefectural assembly member allegedly threatens to kill taxi driverhttps://japantoday.com/category/crime/kumamoto-prefectural-assembly-member-allegedly-threatens-to-kill-taxi-driverThis is the same man who was caught on camera violating rules against smoking and drinking at a Koshien high school baseball game:Local assemblyman caught violating smoking ban at Japan high school baseball gamehttps://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220910/p2a/00m/0na/016000cI read in a Japanese language news article that he had resigned. I think it's appropriate for him to do so but I can't help but feel sad for him and his family; it must be hard to fall so far, so quickly.And, though Ide's failures are more obvious and make better media fodder than the missteps of others in the prefectural assembly, I'm not convinced that they are the worst. I'm even more concerned by the cozy relations between members and the Moonies (Unification Church). I'll write more about that some other day. 2022-12-27 11:57 JSTKirk here with number 4 in our countdown to 2023. This was posted by Hari and got 3,090 views. Thanks Hari!https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid032un8cUac5hfj7GHYuTfTH47W5fGp732LckPoWwQwMnwWAGqZnBMF9QiA9c8A5DZl 2022-12-26 16:41 JSTWilliam Sometimes Kumamon appears in Santa gear; sometimes … (this post) 2022-12-25 11:27 JSTMerry Christmas! Atsuko here.Are you enjoying winter? I went skating yesterday for the first time in three years at the Aqua Dome in Kumamoto City. Yes, I went there before the Corona Commotion.Before corona started spreading. there was a free day on the first day it opened, and I used to go there every year, but the free day seems to have disappeared since Corona. There were times when the ice rink was not open during the years when regulations were strict, but I think it was just the comfortable number of people.The fee is 1400 yen for adults, 1000 yen for junior high and high school students, 800 yen for elementary school students and younger, and 400 yen for rental shoes. If one adult goes, the fee for elementary school students is halved to 400 yen.Don't forget to bring gloves and socks.Knit caps are available if you have them.Helmets can be rented for free.Hoping you also enjoy skating!!ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧ 2022-12-25 11:23 JSTKirk here with post number 5 in terms of "reach" (number of views) this year. Actually, I just deleted it by mistake so I'm posting this without an image. The original image was a map of evacuation notices but I don't want to disturb anyone on Christmas with such an image. By the way, though I accidentally erased the post, I have a record of the text so I'll append that to the end of this post.The post about evacuation warnings that I erased got 3,036 views and was published on September 18th. This year we had our share (or a bit more than our share?) of typhoon and heavy rain warnings. If I hadn't been posting information to this page, I probably wouldn't have given the ambiguities of the "everyone must evacuate" notices a second thought. But, the care and feeding of this venue forced me to look into it. This post was from September 18th. Just for the record, I'll append the links and dates of other posts on the topic of "Do you REALLY need to evacuate?" Bottomline: "Must evacuate" messages cannot be taken at face value; you need to evaluate them in the context of the particular area you live in, the building type, and where you live in that building. September 5 (1)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02JqQAHi2tNSo6HLLBqTqepgJb6VwTtGU9S6BKgBjLa4FzNQ6roYKMCUfxT1SVuhMNlSeptember 5 (2)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02R41eJvAhr7f7Scb3wEpVHneidQm4H9SedXqfUZuo85GjiEv4jAJRTFi9kK2zgCtClSeptember 5 (3)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0Dj7aD6LV8sDuUiv5x1XNQbwJU6FwV7qT1fJtHK2U7afh19E2vKt3okcWsiVHctudlSeptember 17 (1)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02PpUj8wBDvkdyf1nHwEuJwo2cXSQm32NUa4LXk769itLBx7X89x84hdECfnXieFu8lSeptember 17 (2)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0zYRYLnnPGAHVQkw5KMMyQTvfGBkFYQYpq1x4WavTwcRdYiPc56cNLXDsRecHP92elSeptember 18 (1)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02UirwxgWMQBfskBjawjG9UxqkUWkwq4MzvR3QcHMzvYzzok2ZyK3uHw6aQQ8ZZzGtlSeptember 18 (2)https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02t2Srz8kEk97HiciKuYaj9PHkUNJ4UB1H7oPGj5uvrhWszj82mwHcXfmjoSozbpx5lSeptember 19https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0m16QbQV3Meut22BHGS39ttEqGHFtg7FPwaiFxmwtHcfjT6mZBVvp7N6dAucpJiHKlSeptember 22https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02Wy9deTuUwpJX2LFuYyNZK6ETzSvKXh3yykp3Sa56bip8fzNG7gXeBrYhTaBWrREBlP.S. Here's the text of the post, from September 18th, that I erased by mistake:Kirk again. I didn't plan to post a lot today but I found another resource that I think is useful. Here's the URL: https://portal.bousai.pref.kumamoto.jp/ What you see will be in Japanese but you can select a Google translate option at the top of the page. In the screenshot I've appended to this image, the purple areas are level 4 ("Everyone evacuates from hazardous places") and red areas are level 3 ("The elderly and others evacuate from hazardous places"). You can also use the map to locate shelters (evacuation sites; hinanjo) near you. For more information on the 5-level evacuation warnings, see the following: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0DdVLZRKzVF3HXGFrxqDnHV63KYwbF327noiad5QeVScyJvVwS2vegbZVGdJXCiB3l 2022-12-24 19:31 JSTKirk here. I'm not trying to advertise KFC but, even though I've lived in Japan a long time, I just learned today that there's a strong association of KFC with the Christmas holiday in this country. My wife mentioned the long lines she saw at the KFC in Kengun today "because it's Christmas eve." My first reaction was "what does Christmas eve have to do with KFC?" The answer is in the following article:How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japanhttps://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/kfc-christmas-tradition-japan/index.html--- start quote ---Christmas was, and still is, a secular holiday in Japan -- a country where less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian -- and in the 1970s many people didn't have established family Christmas traditions. That's where KFC came in. The company launched its "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign in 1974 and the first iteration of the party buckets soon followed. Some reports say that Takeshi Okawara, who managed the country's first KFC and later became CEO of KFC Japan, falsely marketed fried chicken as a traditional American Christmas food to drum up sales. But according to KFC Japan, Okawara went to a Christmas party dressed as Santa. When the kids loved it, he saw a business opportunity.--- end quote ---Regardless of which holidays you celebrate and how you celebrate them, I hope all enjoy a happy, healthy holiday season.How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japan 2022-12-24 16:56 JSTKirk here with number 6 on our countdown to 2023. This post from Liz got 2,704 views. https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02iLn7naWEJPDEZn4X84EX9kPHLiNW6z892i8suUGmhv1QMTw9qyWMcR2SNF9i16ofl 2022-12-24 08:37 JSTWilliam Kumamoto received an unfortunate mention in Japan Today: "In 2020 in Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan, a Vietnamese trainee, who feared being dismissed or compelled to return home, gave birth to stillborn twins and was charged with abandoning the bodies. She was given a suspended sentence but is appealing it to the Supreme Court."One would hope the burst in economic activity accompanying the start of TSMC and related facilities will result in more thorough scrutiny of how non-Japanese workers are treated.Quarter of trainees in Japan told to return home if pregnant: survey
