Posts

Kirk here with a clam scam update. When I posted about this issue earlier, I wrote that "this was all a well-known secret until TBS quite publicly spilled the beans":
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/6817247441681963
(If you missed it, this post contains a link to the original expose video [in Japanese] that lit the fuse of the current controversy.)
This article is confirmation of the "well-known secret" aspect of the current scandal.
Many years ago I read a book by a guy named Karel van Wolferen called "The Enigma of Japanese Power." One of the things he wrote was that people in the media are often well aware of issues that are not being reported but, for whatever reason, they agree not to report about these matters to the general public. Then, when some event or some brave media outlet brings some such matter to the attention of the public, a media frenzy ensues where everyone reports on it as though they are learning about it for the first time.
In this sense, I'm interested in this issue as much for what it says about the media (and, or course, government) in Japan as for what it teaches us about food safety and the environment.
Kumamoto fishermen knew of fake 'Japanese clam' imports for decades - The Mainichi
KUMAMOTO -- Local fishermen here say that it was long and widely known that Chinese and South Korean littleneck clams were being imported and sold in

William When Kato Kiyomasa was summoned from his native Aichi prefecture to become Lord of Kumamoto, he took umbrage at its kanji - 隈本 - which literally means "foot of the hinterlands," so rewrote it with a homonym, 熊本, which means "origin of bears," despite the fact that no bears live in Kumamoto. But at least that gave rise to Kumamon.
A reference of relative bear sizes, none of which live in Kumamoto:

William Pyroclastic flow (火砕流-かさいりゅう) is something you don't want to notice, because if you notice it, you'll likely be soon dead. Think about the charcoal from your barbecue spreading over a few hundred kilometers.
I'm not saying it's gonna happen soon, but I'm not saying that it's not, either. But when it does, there's really nothing you can do. Just ask the people from Pompei.

William It's February, the saddest month of the year but, on the bright side, is also the shortest. Of botanical note in this blighted month is the tsubaki (camellia, or 椿 or 山茶花 or 玉椿 - tsubaki, or sazanka - the central one: "mountain tea flower," is nice - yes: the leaves infused in water are drinkable). Their splayed flowers give access to birds to drink their nectar, necessary as bees hibernate during this time, so pollenization is an issue. The "Higo tsubaki" is world-recognized as a particular strain. A garden just below Ninomaru Park at the castle is devoted to the plant. Now is the time to visit.
https://castle.kumamoto-guide.jp/galleries/detail/789
https://flower-k.at.webry.info/200701/article_19.html

William As Jay Onyskin has done, do.

William I found a meteorite. Seriously: It is a meteorite. What should I do with it?

Carlton. Today marks the acceptance for the 3rd tranche of reservations for Covid booster shots in Kumamoto. Those eligible will be age 65 or older who received their 2nd shots before July 21, 2021 or those under 65 who got their 2nd jabs up to and including June 27, '21. If you have not received a "ticket" or voucher from the government authorizing you to get a shot you are out of luck to the best of my knowledge.
I was part of the 2nd group and, after going on-line at the vaccination website last week, made a reservation and received my shot 4 days ago. It was a Pfizer dose, equal in volume to the first 2 shots, and I have had no side effects to date apart from the temporary sore shoulder where I was stabbed by the needle.
The clinic I went to was entirely unbusy and probably only doled out about a dozen shots for that day. That seems to be the case for all the small clinics and hospitals involved in this project. Kumamoto continues its steady and measured pace of distribution.
I heard that there may be a or a few mass vaccination sites with Moderna medication opening from February 14 in order to speed up the process. I hope so since I imagine many people are getting rather impatient.

William How the Kumamoto Clamshell Scam unfolds is interesting to observe. As suspected, clams originating in other Asian countries are temporarily planted in Ariake sea and when harvested are then claimed to originate from that area.
As a Californian, I can understand the dilemma. California makes excellent sparkling wine that cannot be termed "Champagne" is it is not from the Champagne region of France; thus, it is termed "sparkling wine" or "cava" though it is really the same thing (and saves you money!) So the question is: when is a clam from Ariake termed to be actually from Ariake, and how much is that distinguishment worth? (The graph regarding who flows what to whom reminds me of the meth flow from my home state - just a reminder that it could be quite worse.)
https://kumanichi.com/articles/549507

William A magical point arises when the westward setting sun alights the westward facing windows with majestic goldenness. Our friend Kubota-san has provided us with such an image (but you really had to be there!)

William A "gomaki" (護摩木) is not something you're likely to confront in everyday life: it's that little stick upon which Shinto priests inscribe prayers and promptly burn in the belief that said prayer will take the express elevator to heaven (but at least you don't have to swallow it, as Catholics must do with the offering).
Aso Shrine in Ichinomiyamachi yesterday conducted this festival. Questions of belief are irrelevant here. What is is the tradition of ancestors and subsequent respect.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/549326

Fiona here with a recommendation for a really good pizza place in Kikuyo. Horikawa Pizza serves authentic Italian pizza (the chef trained in Naples) and offers indoor and outdoor seating as well as takeaway service. It's open for lunch (11am to 3pm) and dinner (6pm to 9pm), closed on Tuesdays. There's ample parking and it's also close to Sanrigi station.
https://horikawapizza.com/

William Tomochi （砥用) might be considered a "town" were it not in perpetual peril of sliding down the hill into Midori Kawa, which knives through as a river does impatient with better places to go. Tomochi embodies that kind of feeling akin to when you've tilted your chair back to the point where you're going to fall backwards but somehow don't and retain that position for a thousand years. Tomochi is more of a thing of the mind than it is an address. There is, to say, no "there" there, a land in which the concept of "flat" remains completely foreign, more of a concept than a location. My wife's maternal side hails from Yabe, a basin offering bounteous agricultural opportunities, and Yabe people have long looked down on her paternal side's Tomochi people, both literally and figuratively (and Yabe people have long learned to figurate everything). Tomochi is, though, a hidden treasure, harboring many stone bridges and trailheads of paths heading out to Kyushu hinterlands more hinterlandish than itself. Buses headed out that way depart from Kotsu Center. Spring, when the trees are blossoming, is a nice time to visit. (My wife's mother was said to have remarked every time she saw the "aka bus" heading out of town how lonely she was for her homeland.)　http://misato.town/footpath.html?id=6perpetuall

Kirk here with a little note on the Winter Olympics. I'll be following Kumamoto's own Miyabi Onitsuka -- the amazing snowboarder this southern prefecture has produced. Her first event is tomorrow (Saturday). See the attached images for the schedule.
Here's a blurb about her:
--- start quote ---
Took up snowboarding when she was five at an indoor practice field (Alts Bandai Snow Park), in Fukuoka City, Japan, winning her first domestic competition in the first grade. Signed her first sponsorship deal at seven. In 2017, she begged the park operators (Hoshino Resorts), to make a world-class training slope where she could base herself - and they did, calling it "Miyabi Park." (nitrosnowboards.com; olympics.com, 22 Nov 2021)
--- end quote
Source: https://olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/snowboard/athlete-profile-n1043812-miyabi-onitsuka.htm

William A note from the Kumamoto International Desk of Kanji At Which Even Native Japanese Through Hands: This is the year of the tiger. One would think it would simply be rendered 虎、but we aren't so lucky. A kanji often used is lifted from the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten of around 1005-07 AD: "寅," pronounced the same, "tora." Impress your friends with this knowledge.
https://japanknowledge.com/articles/blognihongo/entry.html?entryid=491

William Kato Kiyomasa was not the type on whose pointy end one would want to end up on, as his famous feud with Ishida Mitsunari portrays. A notable adventure of his was to invade Korea in 1598, where he reputably killed a tiger; he'd apparently planned to bring its meat back to his sovereign, Hideyoshi, but ate it on the spot as food was short. (Legend has it that Hideyoshi had hoped both would die there, thus eliminating a couple who threatened his new shogunate.)
Kato Shrine, next to the castle, would like to remind us of the good parts of this story in this, the Year of the Tiger, by erecting a tigerish façade suitable for photographs. Just hope you don't meet the real Kato in person: He'd run you through before giving a thought about breakfast.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/548192

Kirk here with a follow-up to William's posts about what this Asahi article is calling Kumamoto's "clam scam." It's a fascinating, and also rather disturbing, issue in a number of ways. For quite a long time now, imported live clams have been given a quick bath in Kumamoto's waters both to reinvigorated them and, more importantly, to make it possible to stamp them, illegally, as "produced in Kumamoto." Recently, TBS's Hodo Tokushuu did an exposé on the issue. You can watch it on the web (though it is in Japanese):
https://www.tbs.co.jp/houtoku/archive/20220122_2.html
Hodo Tokushu (報道特集) is a very good-quality news program that features mini-documentaries ("tokushuu") of over 20 minutes each. I'm a fan and I happened to see the Kumamoto clam exposé when it was first broadcast. One interesting thing is that this was all a well-known secret until TBS quite publicly spilled the beans. By that I mean that anyone who knew anything about Kumamoto's clam (asari) industry knew that clam production had declined precipitously in previous decades but could also see that lots and lots clams were being sold throughout Japan with the "produced in Kumamoto" (熊本産) label. The discrepancy between production numbers and sales numbers was an obvious red flag but, for the most part, most media outlets and politicians chose not to see what was going on.
In its recent exposé, however, Hodo Tokushu laid everything out in the open -- the emperor, er, make that "Kumamoto's oyster industry," has no clothes! Faced with a lot of obviously naked oysters politicians and media that have heretofore been complicit in the "hear no evil, see no evil" approach to the problem are suddenly indignant.
That's my main point for this post. It's true that it's a very serious issue but a separate scandal that, as far as I can tell, isn't being talked about is why government and the media have pretended not to see this for so long. In a way, that's an even bigger scandal than what people in Kumamoto have done to try to make a living selling imported clams.
I'll write about another important aspect of this issue some other day.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14538401
Clam scam delivers economic blow to Kumamoto | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
The figure for the clam harvest in Kumamoto Prefecture, which is renowned for producing some of the nation’s plumpest and tastiest “asari,” simply didn’t add up, prompting an investigation by the central government into false labeling.

William There is a cat. And a door. What could go wrong? (says no one with knowledge of cats).
A cat at Kumamoto Station has learned his presence will open doors due to the door's automatic sensor, so the staff shut down the automatic function and has asked patrons to do things manually.
This brings one paws.
Kumamoto has a long history with cats. Just Google 吾輩は猫である (Wagahainekodearu - Natsume Soseki novel; he was famous for sleeping in so many sites in Kumamoto there's probably one near you).
https://kumanichi.com/articles/547192

William In the midst of studying about Ariake Sea, this stunning photo arose. More later about its ecology, ecosystem, economy, and history.

William We have launched the Facebook page KumaBiblioPhilia, a place for Kumamoto residents to share books. Please have a look. https://www.facebook.com/groups/526074871977069/?multi_permalinks=526079305309959&notif_id=1643702165734341&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

Kirk here with another COVID-19 update. The number of new infections annouced today is 1092, up from yesterday but not a new high. Yesterday was the last day of January so the Kumanichi publised the folllowing graph with monthly totals. It makes the differences between earlier flavors of COVID, Delta (August), and now Omicron crystal clear.
P.S. William shared this link with me privately. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would have missed it. Thanks William!
https://kumanichi.com/articles/545218