2026-04-06 14:08 JST 2026 ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 0 · Comments: 0 · Shares: 0 ← 2026-04-06 12:13 JST 2026-04-07 16:06 JST → Around this time … 2026-04-12 15:22 JSTA notable consequence of the quakes was that stores quickly ran out of food. With the roads and railroads damaged, it was up to the SDF to bring in food.Inspired by this, a man has developed an instant meal that requires neither water nor cooking and can be stored for up to three years. Read about it here: - WilliamFukuoka materials firm develops ready-to-eat risotto inspired by Kumamoto quake relief - The Mainichi 2026-04-12 12:33 JSTKirk here. Here's something related to the upcoming earthquake anniversary.Kumamoto Castle hosts panel exhibition marking 10 years since quakes 2026-04-10 17:43 JSTFrom the book club , this message seems to have gotten overlooked , but here it is , hopefully better late than never: Annnnnnd, another Book Club postIt's me again Kuma Friends, your friendly neighborhood book club leader (Megan)! This month, Kumabon is reading “Wade in the Water” by Nyani Nkrumah.The discussion will be at a restaurant downtown (we're hoping for Happy Hour at Ni no Ni!) on Saturday, April 25th at 5:30 pm. If you're interested, please use the QR code to join our Line group and get more information.As always, even if you haven’t finished the book (or maybe haven’t even started it yet!), join us anyways as we’re a close group that loves to chat. Books for the months of May-September will be announced in the Line group as well, so even if this book doesn't interest you, maybe the next one will! Hope to see you there! 2026-04-08 10:16 JSTJoe Tomei here. I'm in the process of reducing my library and in doing that, support the Tonokai project. Here's the detailsI've started on an online catalogue herehttps://www.librarything.com/catalog/eibeigakka/allcollectionsand if you see a book that you are interested in, please let me know. I'm going to ask for ¥100 (or more if you want to donate more) for each book, which will go to the Tonoka project. I'm planning on organizing one evening a month for the book swap, which I hope will take place at the end of the month at Kumamoto Gakuen University, though I'm still negotiating about that. I'm still in the process of getting all the books up, and after that, I hope to start tagging them, so I'll post periodic updates. Thanks in advance!!! 2026-04-07 16:06 JSTThis hike is for the more seriously-minded. First, hike to the top of Mt Kinpo, and then descend by its rear.The views of Ariake Sea are beautiful, and you pass through a labyrinth of citrus fields (mostly mikan, but also grapes and pears). If you continue along the multitude of farm roads (which has sightseeing treasures), you'll arrive at the seaport of Kawachi. From there, you can take a bus back.It's a full day hike, so leave early in the morning. There are few shops en route, so bring your own supplies. - William 2026-04-06 14:08 JSTPost (this post) 2026-04-06 12:13 JSTThis is an ideal time of year for hikes. A good day hike is to Hanaokayama 花岡山, the hill behind the train station. You can take JR or the city tram to a somewhat proximate location and walk up a whole lotta steps past cherry trees to the peak. Note along the route many old inns that were used as leprosy hospitals in the 1920s. It was also a site from which the Kagoshima army bombarded Kumamoto Castle, and there are graveyards dating from that era. Reading the tombstones is interesting. At the peak is a stupa gifted to Kumamoto by Prime Minster Nehru of India. If you go by car, the night view of Kumamoto is unsurpassed. - William 2026-04-06 11:02 JSTKirk here. The "follows" (likes + follows, actually) of the page recently passed the 6,000 mark. Thanks to everyone (editors and readers) for participating.I went for quite a long time without posting much. The reasons were that I had become rather disappointed in the Facebook platform (i.e. what Cory Doctorow has termed en***tification) and also found that I was spending too much time on the page and not able to do other things. Recently, I've been feeding news to the page in a way that I think will be more sustainable. What follows is for nerds like me. If you don't have any particular interest in how the sausage is made, so to speak, please feel free to stop reading here.I have two RSS feeds for Google news alerts: "Kumamoto" and "熊本 + 外国人". I use RSS for other things and so I check my feeds on my app (Vienna on my Mac) every day. A problem I have is that I get a lot of false positives. "Kumamoto" might snag flight reports, for example, and "熊本" + "外国人" often includes articles about Kumamoto where "gaikokujin" only appears in a side bar so the article isn't really about 外国人 in 熊本. Wading through all of these false positives took a lot of time and wasn't really sustainable in the long run.Fortunately, I've found a solution that I'm quite happy with. I've made a little app for myself that uses Python scripting and AI (via API) to sort through everything for me. I'm not able to program in Python but Claude helps me -- so-called "vibe coding." Now, I just double click on a little app and the script is invoked. It checks the unread items in my RSS app, uses Python to mechanically sort items into "include" and "exclude" categories, then uses AI (Claude API) to check stuff that can't be sorted mechanically. The result is data presented to me in the form of a web page with a small number of "included" items at the top and a much longer list of excluded items below it.It works remarkably well. I can now check in less than a minute what used to take me much longer to sort through. So, I should be able to keep feeding news to the page and also get other work done. ;) 2026-04-05 08:58 JSTKirk here. I saw something on TV about this local product but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.Crystal clear soy sauce from Japan's Kumamoto a global hit, tops 1.6 million bottles sold - The Mainichi 2026-04-04 08:49 JSTKirk here with an article about the 2016 quakes.How Kumamoto Survivors Are Keeping Earthquake Lessons Alive | JAPAN Forward 2026-04-03 12:02 JSTKirk here with something from my news feed.Kumamoto Official Suspended for Watching Porn at Work
