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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

Kirk here with some information about evacuation sites. Kumamoto Prefecture now shows evacuation levels visually on a map. The page can be switched to English and also shows the location of evacuation centers. As I wrote before, even if you live in an area where evacuation is recommended, whether your not you should actually go to an evacuation center may depend a good deal on the characteristics of the particular location or neighborhood you are in. Still, I think this map should be useful if you're wondering whether or not your particular area is safe.
https://portal.bousai.pref.kumamoto.jp/

Fiona here. If the non-stop rain is leaving you with mountains of washing that just won't dry, it might be time to try out a Japanese 'coin laundry'. I experienced my first one today and was blown away by the stylish decor and relaxing ambience. If not for Corona I would have happily spent a couple of hours here reading a book, and I may do so in the future, with or without laundry. It's called The Laundry Lounge and is located in Asoda, Kita-ku, not far from Hikarinomori. Use of the dryer cost 100 yen for ten minutes, instructions all in Japanese I'm afraid, except for 'Push' and a 'How to use the washing machine' mural on the wall. The place also doubles up as a plant and furniture store, and has several shops nearby to kill time while you're laundry is spinning.
https://laundry-lounge.com/concept

Hi,friends,Atsuko here.
Let’s guess,where I was. (I took these photos on July 28.)
The straight road leads to ......
My school is along this street.
I miss the blue sky and white clouds and humid summer in Kumamoto.
We become little bit nervous because of Corona pandemic, heavy rain and the damage, vaccines pain...
Sharing blue sky photos with my hope to be fine for everything.
Please be safe, smile lots!
Who is the first one?
How many hint pictures you need to answer??
Please answer at comments.(*^^*)

Kirk here with a graph showing the amounts of rain that have fallen in the past three days as of 9 AM this morning. Kumamoto hasn't had the largest amounts -- Saga and Nagasaki have had more -- but records have been set all over. The numbers are in millimeters, so spots that have gotten the most rain would have close to a meter of water on the ground if none of it had drained away. There's a lot more to report but I'll stop here for now.
総雨量1000ミリ超えも　8月ひと月分の3倍の雨　川の氾濫発生　命を守る行動を(気象予報士 日直主任)
きょう14日(土)は、福岡県、佐賀県、長崎県には「大雨特別警報」が発表され、佐賀県内を流れる六角川で氾濫発生。今後も同じような場所で非常に激しい雨が降り、さらに災害エリアが広がる恐れも。命を守る行動をお願.....

Douglas here, posting this at Kirk's request. As a Scotsman, I like rain. I was born when it rained, I played in the rain and grew up in the rain and have, for the past 20 years, been enjoying the rain in Kumamoto. I realise that there is a dangerous and sad side to too much rain. But for me, rain let's me see things that most people miss completely. Yesterday Megumi and I went out in the rain and the following video is our first edit of the video sequences we shot at the Takahashi Inari Jinja , Kumamoto.
Takahashi Torrential Rain.mp4
The weather forecast for yesterday and the next 5 or 6 days was rain, rain, torrential rain and more rain. So, yesterday Megumi and I decided it would be a good…

Kirk here with news about COVID-19. Kumamoto hit a new record today: 207 new cases in a single day. The image is from the following NHK page:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/coronavirus/data/
I heard on RKK that most of the new cases in Kumamoto are of the Delta strain. That report can be found here:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a5c792c5434398b1f3e25bc07c75cacec588d04b
Speaking of the Delta strain, there was some important national news today that may come to affect Kumamoto. The following Japan Times article has the following headline:
First Japan case involving lambda COVID-19 variant linked to Olympics
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/08/13/national/lambda-olympic-case/
It's beginning to look like warnings about holding the olympics in the middle of a pandemic were correct. Here's a quote from another article:
"Some scientists have warned that the [Lambda] strain could be more transmissible than the Delta variant."
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/lambda-variant/

Kirk with another update on the rain. The images are from the following TKU video (click on the click to view the Japanese video; it includes reports on several different kinds of damage). I heard on RKK that the rain loosened the earth that the roots were clinging to and that that led to the tree's collapse. If the tree had fallen in a slightly different direction, it would have damage the walls shown in the second picture. Those walls were severely damaged in the 2016 earthquake and repairs on them had just ended.
https://www.tku.co.jp/news/?news_id=20210813-00000007

Kirk here with a little video (in Japanese) about some damage (roads washed out, water outages, etc.) in Amakusa. My impression of the overall situation in Kumamoto is that the rain has taken many rivers close to flood level but, for now, most levees are holding.
熊本 川増水で道路崩落のおそれ 断水も
　熊本県天草市では川が増水し道路が崩落する被害が出ています。　この影響で水道管が破損し、およそ３３０世帯が断水しています。 　「恐ろしいですよ。こんなこと今まであまりなかったです。家の前が崩れていたの.....

Joe Tomei here, I'm not sure how many people are thinking of going out of country and considering trying to return, but I thought I would pass this group on, it was recommended to me by a friend (though I am pretty much staying inside the borders) Any Kumamoto related information, please feel free to put in the comments.

Kirk again. Lot's of rain. Apparently, Yamaga got a month's worth today. I'm sharing a few screenshots from videos that local TV stations have put up:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d4b2adcc630a96f91dd7eeffb13e123290d8d245
https://rkk.jp/news/index.php?id=NS003202108121759250111
The one on top is from FNN, which is Teribi Kumamoto locally. The image is from Nankan-machi. The other two are from RKK. The red car is in Chuo-ku of Kumamoto City and the white car is in Yamaga.
The thing about the rain is that it's not over. We are expected to get more of the same until tomorrow so things could get worse. Take care!
P.S. On TV I saw people wading through ankle-deep water in Shimotori, a covered arcade that rarely floods!

Joe Tomei here with a post by Jason Morgan from his Kumamoto.guru blog. Enjoy!

Kirk here with one more point about the rain and evacution notices. The notices come as images from which the text cannot easily be copied and pasted. If you can read the Japanese, good for you, but if not, you're forced to find a workaround or suffer the anxiety of having received a very loud, heart-stopping message that seems bad but that you can't read.
One workaround is to put the Google translate app on your phone, take a screenshot of the annoying alert, open up Google translate, select the screenshot and then get it translated -- not exactly something you appreciate being forced to do in an emergency -- but a possibility. (The image shows how a warning that I just got comes out.)
I'm not about the extent to which this is an iPhone issue or an issue with how local governments send out warning, or both.
Carlton McCycle said that he can get the same warnings on LINE and then use LINE's translate function. I checked on my app but the only message I was able to find from Kumamoto City was slightly different.
I'd be interested to know if others out there find this as irritating as I do and if you have other workarounds.

Kirk here with a follow-up on the rain. I just got an extremely loud and (for me) rather annoying notice on my phone that elderly people in Mashiki need to evacuate (I don't even live in Mashiki, though I'm not too terrible far away). At any rate, the rain is coming down quite hard and I suspect (though I haven't had a chance to check) that river levels are rising.
When we have heavy rain and I'm wondering how likely it is to continue over the next hour or so, I often check Yahoo!'s "zoom radar" page:
https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/
It not only shows the current situation but how things have changed in the last hour or so and what is predicted for the coming hour.

Kirk here with the weather and some COVID-19 news. The first colorful image is from the following page:
https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#10/32.692/130.672/&elem=all&contents=warning&lang=en
It's calm outside now but more rain is predicted for the coming days. NHK was saying that the conditions are right in many parts of Japan for extreme amounts of rain. They mentioned Kumamoto in this regard in their national broadcast. Evacuations have been called for in some parts of Amakusa and the elderly in many areas have been encouraged to evacuate.
If you're new to this evacuation business, let me point out that a lot depends on your particular location. If you are in an area which is at elevated risk for landslides or in a flood plain, you should probably think seriously about moving to someplace safer. In my case, however, I live in an area that is higher than most of the land around us (we even have "yama" in our name), so I can't imagine any amount of rain making us evacuate. So, study up on your particular area.
Also, please be aware that you can't depend on me or other Kumamoto International editors for timely warnings. We do what we can but, since we're doing this as volunteers, we can't always just drop everything and send out warnings at the first sign of trouble.
Finally, Kumamoto set a new record for new COVID-19 cases today with 181. There's a video about that (from which I took the second colorful screenshot) here:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/f678b2b1c58e3e15d5d3c7695fc0d082d16bbda7

Chuck Waterman here:
I highly recommend Rendaiji Clinic to anyone who needs to get PCR tested and get the results back the same day.
https://goo.gl/maps/KrcUfGaKfrcNmh4z5
I arrived this morning just before 9 AM, let them copy my passport, filled out information on an uncomplicated form, got my PCR nasal stick up the nose and was out of there within 30 minutes!
I had to go back at 6PM to pick up my results, but - hey, same day is same day!
33,300 is a little expensive, but that includes
A) the test
B) getting a bilingual test results form and
C) getting it processed and given to you the same day you are tested.
蓮台寺クリニック · 3 Chome-4-3 Rendaiji, Nishi Ward, Kumamoto, 860-0055, Japan

Joe Tomei here with something that our intrepid Atsuko Kumabe found, which is the upcoming mandatory bicycle insurance for the prefecture!
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/54/85371.html
Unfortunately, the page is in Japanese, but to briefly summarize, bicyclists will be required to be insured from 1 Oct of this year. The website uses automatic web translation or you can paste the link into google translate.
A second page here (unfortunately also only in Japanese)
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/soshiki/54/51723.html
lists insurance providers as well.
This is rather important, if you don't have insurance and have an accident where someone is hurt, you will be liable for damages. My wife tells me that the insurance was recommended for both my daughters when they started JHS.
At this point, as I am not a bicycle rider, so I need to crowdsource from all of you recommendations and help to get such insurance.
I recall when I first came to Gakuen, one of the exchange students had an accident on a bicycle that was not covered by insurance. I don't remember the details, but I do recall appeals made to the faculty for donations because of the amount the student would have been liable. The webpage gives two incidents that required 95 and 92 million yen respectively. So if you have any information, please drop it in the comments or send it as a DM to the page. Thanks in advance.
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