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Kirk here with a share from Kuma Visit. I would agree that this is a must-see video. Please do take a look. The fascinating wind-powered contraption is "walking" in Kumamoto. You can see Fugendake (Shimabara) on the other side of the water. And, of course, this is associated with an exhibition and the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto that is still in progress.
https://www.facebook.com/kumavisit/posts/2927862740798686
テオ・ヤンセン展会期：2021年7月3日（土）〜9月12日（日）会場：熊本市現代美術館詳細：https://www.camk.jp/exhibition/theojansen/ロケ地：長部田海床路、天草四郎ヶ浜ビーチ、御輿来海岸（全て熊本県内）製作著作：KKT熊本県民テレ...

Kirk here with information about Kumamoto's vaccination rates, prospects for getting vaccinated in the near future, and recent COVID-19 infections.
First, in regard to recent infections, rates remain high. Yesterday was 267, just under the high of 271. Source:
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/30/92000.html?fbclid=IwAR3pM0vWNk_sUtIqdrHATxVjQEUFUyiq927rp2vngsNIi3O1hvihXtvIYoU
On a more positive note, however, vaccination rates in Kumamoto have improved significantly. The percentage of the population that have gotten at least their first shot is 58%. If I'm not mistaken, this would be the 2nd highest in the country after Yamaguchi prefecture, which is 60%. Source:
https://vdata.nikkei.com/newsgraphics/coronavirus-japan-vaccine-status/
This percentage differs slightly from the percentage reported on the prefecture's page, which is 64.81％ for having at least the first shot. I think the reason is that the prefecture is presenting the percentage of people who are eligible to receive the vaccine. Children under 12 can't get it so removing them from the statistics raises the percentage. Source:
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/45/102050.html?fbclid=IwAR2arYQ3arrFM3LZJwHXqM9RDqMuVz5P5rZb44mo2sDYsQFYcJqhMicKNRw
The following news report said that the government's position used to be that areas where vaccination rates were high would get more vaccine (to keep the flow going, I guess) but that that policy has been reversed. Now, areas like Kumamoto will get much less vaccine so that areas with lower vaccination rates (and rising COVID-19 rates) can get more. That has led to what the article calls "vaccine refugees" -- people who got the first shot but who are now "stranded" waiting for a second shot that's no where in sight. Source:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/76a075aee7c61e78b5e90824cc1fb9ad220364af
If you haven't been vaccinated at all yet, I'm not sure but I think the next round will start in October, at least that's what I remember hearing on the news.
Update: See Megan Pavlak's comment below. She has a good information about upcoming vaccination opportunities.

Thanks to Claire Sezaki for pointing me to the prefecture's pages I cited today. :)

William. If you think it's humid out there, you're right! Checking out the stats, it turns out the Kumamoto ranks as the #1 most humid prefecture in all of Japan. So we've got that going for us.
At the first link is a list of ways to deal with hot and humid weather. Most are, like, "Duh!", but a few are useful. Good luck, everyone!
https://www.wikihow.com/Deal-with-Hot-and-Humid-Weather
https://tenki.jp/suppl/yasukogoto/2015/08/06/5731.html

Kirk here. Japan set a new record today for new COVID-19 cases and Kumamoto had almost as many new cases today as yesterday. It's not raining here in Kumamoto City as I write this but warnings are still in effect. Nonetheless, this time I'd like to set rain and COVID-19 aside and write about a different topic: skateboarding. This post doesn't have a Kumamoto connection but it has a clear Kyushu connection as gold medalist Sky Brown was born in Miyazaki.
The Time Magazine article acknowledges Sky Brown's connection to Japan as follows: "Sky Brown, the 13-year-old phenom who skates for the U.K. but was born in Japan, won bronze." Moreover, the second article I'm citing in this post explains that she "still lives in Miyazaki, but spends half of the year in California, United States, hence the American accent."
I was interested and, frankly, disappointed when NHK celebrated the gold and silver medals of Sakura Yosozumi and Kokona Hiraki but didn't even mention that the bronze medalist in the same event had roots in Japan . . . and Japanese citizenship no less (source: Japanese Wikipedia page on her says she has dual citizenship). It's completely true that Sky was skating for Great Britain but I thought the Japanese side of her identity might at least be mentioned. Even for nationalistic NHK, I thought it would be kind of cool to point out that all of the medalists in this event had a connection to Japan.
Those of you, like me, with children of mixed heritage may share my frustration with this sort of all-or-nothing approach to identity. Naomi Osaka is given attention because she's playing for Japan (and, of course, she's great!) but Sky Brown is treated by some media as though she has no connection to Japan whatsoever because she wound up skating for Great Britain. :(
On a more positive note, I read in an article in the Asahi Shimbun that the other Japanese skaters encouraged her and celebrated with her when she did well. The younger generation gives me hope. :)
For an explanation of why Sky competed for Team GB, see the second article.
https://time.com/6087258/womens-park-skateboarding-japan-olympics/
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/08/04/is-sky-brown-british/
Japanese Skaters Are Now 3-for-3 in the Olympics, Proving Japan Is the Top Skateboarding Nation in the World
Of the nine medals in skateboarding awarded at the Tokyo Summer Olympics so far, five have gone to Japan.

Carlton here..A while back the subject of mandatory bicycle insurance in Kumamoto starting October 1 was raised. I just checked and discovered that my automobile insurance does NOT cover me for 2 wheeled transportation.
So I contacted an ardent cyclist friend of mine in Tokyo and he sent me the following links re: bike insurance to help in searching for and choosing a policy.
I hope these will be of assistance to others like me now in need:
https://tokyocycle.com/threads/accidents-insurance.831/
https://tokyocycle.com/threads/educate-me-on-bicycle-insurance.8208/
https://tokyocycle.com/threads/its-time-again-for-bike-insurance.8592/
https://tokyocycle.com/threads/personal-liability-insurance.8806/
Personal liability insurance
In Gunma from April personal liability insurance for all cyclists is being made compulsory. Firstly, how ‘compulsory’ is compulsory here and where to purchase such insurance whilst getting a good deal? Thanks for any input

Kirk here. This about a jirsuberi (地滑り; "landslide") in Amakusa. In this case an area about 80 meters wide has slid about 1.5 meters down the hill. Of course, they are worried that this is just the beginning of a more serious event. Still, I thought it was interesting because I hadn't heard of an event quite like this. When I think of "landslide" I think of a more catastrophic event. This is a bit more of a "land sag." Hope it doesn't get worse.
https://www.tku.co.jp/news/?news_id=20210818-00000001

William. A short moat traverses the distance between the path from the castle parking lot to the road to the parking lot. It is called yakkenbori or yagenbori (薬研堀) and is usually dry (karabori - 空堀). It's a fun place to play with young children because they can't get too far and the scenery is wonderful. However, due to the recent deluge, it is dry no more; officials note that the drain at the lower end of the moat may have been damaged during the quakes, but that's a good thing as all of that water would have flowed down to Josaien. I suppose one could still play there, but bring a swimsuit. Video at the link.
https://youtu.be/nkaNEJxq84s
https://www.tku.co.jp/news/?news_id=20210814-00000004
*Addendum: There has been some discussion about whether the kanji 薬研堀 is pronounced "yakkenbori," as our friend Michael Rupp believes, or "yagenbori," as our friend Hiromi Chida maintains - she notes the reporter used the former but thinks he made a mistake. But this is Japan - they're probably both right.
熊本城の「空堀」連日の大雨で「水堀」に (21/08/14 18:00)
【郡司琢哉アナウンサー】「熊本城のこちらの堀、普段は空堀なんですが、連日の大雨で水堀となっています。こちらは熊本地震で崩落した石垣の仮置き場となっているんですが、水の底に沈んでしまっています」熊本城二...

Kirk again. In response to my post about the record high number of positives recorded today, Megan raised the issue of hospital beds. This is an important point that was mentioned in what I saw on RKK but that I forgot to mention in my post. I looked on the web and found a KKT report that's relevant. I've attached the URL and the images are from that report. First, the bar chart shows how the numbers have increased recently. Last week, the vice-governor who usually does the press conferences (sorry, I forgot his name) said that they were prepared to deal with numbers of up to 250. So, 271 "exceeds expectations" -- the term 想定外 (souteigai; outside of the expected range) in the next image. The "51.5%" you see on the first imaged refers to the percentage of hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 cases that are already occupied. This number is for the prefecture as a whole and 68.1% is for Kumamoto City (where more than half of the cases are occurring).
The second pie chart shows the ages of the people contracting the virus (clockwise: 10 to 19, 20s, 30s, 40s, etc). You can see that fully half of the cases are those of people under 30. So, young people really need to take this seriously: get vaccinated, avoid interactions or social settings that are risky, wear a mask, etc.
https://www.news24.jp/nnn/news100bukxspic4yd3q5yy.html

Kirk here with some notes on COVID-19 and the rain. First, the prefecture had 271 positives today, a new record (see Japanese video in link). Also, earlier today, William wrote about the rain in Yamaga. I heard on the news today that the amount of rain they have received since all of this started has just passed the 1 meter mark. They said (on RKK) that this is the first instance on record of any part of Kumamoto getting over a meter of rain in the month of August.
Yamaga has already had quite a few landslides (again, according to the RKK report I saw). It seems that those landslides didn't destroy property or cause loss of life. The Unzen Onsen area (just a short ferry ride from Kumamoto Port) experienced a tragic landslide and has one fatality confirmed and at least one other person that they are searching for.
新型コロナ　過去最多となる２７１人の感染確認（熊本）（TKUテレビ熊本） - Yahoo!ニュース
新型コロナウイルス、感染拡大に歯止めが利かない状況です。 熊本県内では17日過去最多となる２７１人の感染が新たに確認されました。 また、熊本市内の放課後児童クラブで新たにクラスターが発生しています。

William. It rained 905.5mm in Yamaga between 8/11 and 8/16 - almost a friggin' meter. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to four years of rainfall in my hometown of Los Angeles - in six days. More rain is expected mid-week.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/357005

Kirk here with a minor earthquake report. This quake didn't cause any damage and so normally I wouldn't mention it. But, with slopes in Kumamoto being so soggy, the possibility of earthquakes is something to think about. Personally, I would avoid driving on roads that go through mountainous areas until things dry up. Stay safe!
https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#11/32.732/130.605/&elem=int&contents=earthquake_map&lang=en

Kirk with more weather. It's calm where I am in Kumamoto City but we're not quite out of the woods yet. The image is one I took from the following website, which is run by the prefecture:
https://portal.bousai.pref.kumamoto.jp/
What you see is only a sample. There are warnings for most areas in Kumamoto. One reason is that we're forecast to get more heavy rain between now and noon tomorrow. And, of course, in regard to landslides or "sediment disasters" (a rather awkward direct translation of the Japanese 土砂災害), the fact that many areas are already more-or-less saturated means that the additional weight of some newly fallen rainwater may be all that is needed to trigger a landslide. If you're in a vulnerable area, play it safe!
P.S. There was an earthquake earlier this evening. I didn't feel it but I saw something about it on a news program I had recorded. If we have the bad luck to have some more serious shaking before things dry out, that will probably trigger lots of landslides. The 2016 quakes trigger lot of landslides all over the place even though the ground wasn't particularly wet at the time.

William. The last time I visited the Aso museum a couple of decades ago, it was a few dusty rocks on a shelf. Seems like it's changed. Kumanichi reports on the installation of a huge touch-screen panel which will introduce visitors to the volcano and the Aso Geopark. Looks like it's time for another visit. https://kumanichi.com/articles/355289

Kirk with more weather. Here's a quote from the following page, which also has an English-language video:
"In the town of Yamato, Kumamoto Prefecture, 51 millimeters of intense rain fell during the hour until 8 a.m. on Monday.
The Meteorological Agency says a lingering rain front brought intense precipitation to much of eastern and western Japan intermittently through Sunday. Rivers overflowed and mudslides struck some locations.
Mudslide alerts remain in place in some parts of Saga and Kumamoto prefectures in Kyushu."
More downpours pound Japan's Kyushu region | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
A weather front is bringing more downpours to Japan's southwestern region of Kyushu, which has been drenched by torrential rain in recent days.

William. Slipping through our fingertips are the penultimate memories of the war and what Japan was prior to that. My prior neighbor, who we called "tonari no ojisan," had been stranded on a southeast-Asian island and was forced to eat insects to survive (he was an accountant, not a fighter; he taught my children how to use the abacus); later, he became a captain in the Imperial Guard (those who protect the emperor), but he died, alone except for us, here in Kumamoto. In our harried, modern world, most have forgotten those who buttressed the previous generation. I had planned to interview tonari no ojisan on tape for posterity but postponed it, and now it is too late. An historical lapse.
But if you are a Kumamoto resident, nothing will benefit you more than befriending an elderly citizen who will gladly impart what it was. It's a one stone, two birds thing: they have a listener, and you can listen. Kumanichi reports on the finding of some wartime material and the importance of direct communication with the person who provided it. Be proactive in this. It is up to all of us to ensure the past does not slip through our fingertips.
戦没者遺品保管難しく　遺族の高齢化進む　活用期待、博物館に寄贈も | 熊本日日新聞社
　熊本市中央区の竹野惠子さん（８１）は昨年１１月、父續［つづき］さんの遺品を中央区の県護国神社に寄贈した。４４歳の陸軍少尉だった續さんは１９４４年、インドネシアで戦病死。遺品は手帳や軍の経歴書、勲章な...

Kirk here. William mentioned watching high school baseball in a comment (well, he wasn't actually watching it in a comment but he mentioned it there ;) ) and that reminded me that the game between Nagasaki and Kumamoto Kogyo should be coming up soon. In fact, it's scheduled to start tomorrow morning at 8 AM. It was originally to be played on the 13th but was rescheduled because of the rain.
Here's a related Kumanichi article (in Japanese):
https://kumanichi.com/articles/350468
And here the Koshien schedule (also in Japanese:
https://www.hanshin.co.jp/koshien/highschool/summer2021/schedule.html
熊工ナイン「初戦突破めざす」　夏の甲子園開幕 | 熊本日日新聞社
　第１０３回全国高校野球選手権は１０日、兵庫県西宮市の甲子園球場で開幕した。昨年は新型コロナウイルス禍で中止となり、２年ぶりの開催。開会式に臨んだ熊本県代表の熊本工は選手１８人がマスクを着けて入場行進...

Hi friends, Atsuko here.
Today is Obon but I don't go back my hometown, Nagomimachi, this year.
At Obon, my mother makes and serves あんつけだご ANTSUKEDAGO. ANTSUKEDAGO is mochi dumpling with Anko paste.Some call it Ankodango, Ankomochi.
I can't go back so made it by myself and share you.
We make mochi dumpling from 白玉粉 Shiratamako. 上新粉Jyoushinko, もち粉 Mochiko are also OK.
Put some water into Shiratamako powder and mix it.
mixed well and make small balls.
Put them into hot water and boil them.
When they go up, pick up and put them into cold water.
Mixing Anko kan or topping 黒みつKuromitsu and きな粉 Kinako.
(Anko kan has cooked and tasted Anko.)
My mother makes Anko by herself, from Azuki been but this is easy way, recommended!
Hoping you also enjoy Japanese Obon.(*Ü*)
Shiratamadango
https://chefjacooks.com/en/shiratama-dango-mochi-balls/

Kirk here. Between the rain and COVID-19, we've had a lot of disconcerting news lately. I'm hoping to be able to report on lighter topics soon but, in the meantime, here's some more bad news:
"An official in Kumamoto, south-western Japan, said a 76-year-old man was missing after trying to secure his fishing boat."
Japan rain: Nearly two million residents told to seek shelter
Some provinces are under evacuation alerts as experts warn of "unprecedented" rainfall.

William here. Kumanichi provides some frightening statistics: those initially diagnosed with the corona virus in Kumamoto have surpassed 200 daily for the first time. More frightening, the percentage of hospital beds devoted to corona patients has surpassed 60%. And this is just as the new Delta variant, which apparently has a higher contagion rate, appears.
One important note: Being vaccinated does not mean your body is cleared of the virus, or even that you cannot catch the virus (if you do catch it after being vaccinated, you're likely to be asymptomatic). It simply means that your body is conditioned to recognize the virus as a threat and neutralize it rapidly. (As an example, it is likely that the percentage of those infected with corona in California and Florida are roughly the same, but most Californians are vaccinated and masks are mandatory, while the rate in Florida is low and mandating masks is illegal; this would explain why California is reporting 141.1 new coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents, less than one-fourth that of Florida’s rate of 653.8 weekly; in comparison, for Kumamoto City, the current rate is apparently 74.5). So even if you've been vaccinated twice, continue to wear a mask. Not only will it help those around you (you may still be infectious even if vaccinated), it also may help prevent you from catching a different strain.
The point is, now is precisely not the time to let your guard down.
NIID (the National Institution of Infectious Diseases) has periodic English-language updates on covid: https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/en/2019-ncov-e/10556-covid19-ab45th-en.html
and here is the Kumanichi article on which this post is based: https://nordot.app/799108156839346176?c=92619697908483575
熊本県「病床不足しない」　県内の新型コロナ感染、最大想定200人超え ｜ 熊本日日新聞
熊本県内の１日当たりの新型コロナウイルス感染確認が１３日、初めて２００人を超えた。県が５月下旬に立て...

UPDATED on Aug. 18th:
Chuck Waterman here: Just a hopefully helpful informational post about my process in getting back to the US this week.
1) Got the two Pfizer shots as early as possible. (I'm in Group 2). That meant that the morning after I arrived here it had been two weeks after the second shot and I'm able to walk down the rsidential streets here without wearing a mask and associate with my close family (also vaccinated) without one. Only waving and saying hello to people in the neighborhood from the distance of acrosee the street, though, and everyone is still wearing masks in stores, but not in restaurants in MI.
2) Got to the Rendaiji Clinic to get my PCR test at 9 AM (opening time) the day before my flight. Had to return at 6PM (normal closing time) to pick up my results. They gave me a bilingual PCR test results form with all the needed details and an ENGLISH signature by the doctor! Cost: 33,300 yen. 25,000 + extra fees for same day processing and bilingual form.
tinyurl.com/RendaijiClinic = Map
蓮台寺クリニック 3 Chome-4-3 Rendaiji, Nishi Ward, Kumamoto, 860-0055, Japan
Added 8/18:
American Airlines has a downloadable app called Verifly. They asked for passport number etc and then asked me to scan or send a photo of my PCR test. After they received that they said, You're ready to fly!
When I got to FUK, Skymark (an American partner) didn't even ask to see my PCR paperwork, and they checked my luggage through to Detroit! At NRT, I had to show my PCR paper very briefly, and then got boarding passes for the last two flights. Except for the flight in Dallas departing one hour late and landing me in Detroit at 11:30 PM, the rest of the whole trip wqas very smooth and easy to deal with!
It was amusing to see this sign at the Dallas airport:
Free Vaccinations: Go to Terminal C2.
蓮台寺クリニック · 3 Chome-4-3 Rendaiji, Nishi Ward, Kumamoto, 860-0055, Japan