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NHK just broadcast a show about Minamata disease, or mercury poisoning - when the company Chiso ejected vast amounts of mercury from their factory into the sea and it made its way up the food chain, rendering any animal that consumed it unable to coordinate movement - if they could move at all. I visited Minamata with my wife, and we were feasting off oysters from the shoals, when suddenly it occurred to me that maybe this was not a good idea. But it's actually okay now. In fact, Minamata is a place required on your bucket list. You can take the train there. It has a castle. And it has the most beautiful seaside that you can imagine. And you can, now, feast on the oysters from the shoals. Support them. - William

This is Carlton here. Just now I received a call from the Kumamoto Vaccine Center and was thanked for my using the website to make a reservation.
Then the reservation time and place for my first inoculation was confirmed, and I was offered a reservation for my 2nd jab, exactly 3 weeks later, which I snapped up at the same location and in the morning.
So it looks like Kumamoto is getting the kinks worked out of its system.
I was hoping to get an official confirmation by either call or email and I did. Good luck everyone else who makes a try for themselves or elder friend or relative on Monday morning.
And stay safe everyone.

Recently, William posted about commercials done by Tommy Lee Jones in Japan. I happened to come across this one, which definitely relates to Kumamoto. Enjoy! -- Kirk
P.S. This is from 2017.

A note to our ailurophile friends: Of course, Kumamoto is famous for the author Natsumi Soseki, who wrote 吾輩猫である, a story about a pretentious cat (I don't think there are any other types), and there is a road leading from Fujisaki Shrine called 吾輩道理 which is lined with cat images, one of which can be seen below. I stumbled across an image of the - what, 49? - stations of the Hokkaido represented in cats. You're welcome. - William

Something I hadn't thought about: much information about the corona virus is disseminated over the Internet, but many elderly people don't know how to use it - 『ネットのやり方が分からない』. In particular, passwords seem to be a problem. Apparently, Kumamoto City Hall is being overwhelmed with confused citizens. Please: if you have elderly acquaintances, make sure they have the information and assistance that they need. - William
https://kumanichi.com/articles/227541

Kumamoto has been designated as being under "pre-emergency status" ("quasi-emergency status" in the Japan Times article I link to below).
It seems that these terms are being used for the Japanese "man'en boushi tou juuten sochi" (まん延防止等重点措置). The terminology is a little confusing because the literal meaning of the Japanese term is not "pre-emergency" but somthing like "focused measures to prevent (the virus) from becoming widespread." In illustrations about which prefectures are under which status, however, red is often used for emergency status and yellow for "man'en boushi" status, so it's being presented as a step below full-blown emergency status and in that sense, "pre-emergency" is a reasonable translation. It's one rank below the worst status.
Here's a description from NHK of the main change this status will mean for us:
"The new measures targeted risky behavior. Governors in affected areas are calling on bars and restaurants that serve alcohol or offer karaoke to close. Other eateries are asked to shut at 8 p.m."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210507_34/
Finally, here's a little note that I'll leave here for myself and others like me who are interested in figuring out how to link Japanese terms related to COVID-19 to appropriate/commonly used English renderings. The following blog, which is in Japanese, has about 30 articles on such terms, including "pre-emergency status." Many of the articles cover more than one term so it's a pretty extensive resource. The English terms are all taken from English-language news sources so the English is quite good.
https://www.daijob.com/crossculture/arimoto/list.html
I'd like to add that in writing this post, I was surprised at how difficult it was to figure out how the key policy term in Japanese (man'en etc.) is usually translated in English. I think there should be an official glossary to help bilingual people bridge the gap more easily. I did find the following page, which provides translations for many COVID-19 terms in many languages but it does list policy terms that are unique to Japan:
https://glossaries.translatorswb.org/covid19/
-- Kirk
P.S. In the post I made last night about the rate of infection I was mistaken about the unit of time. The numbers were not for the number of daily cases but for cases over the past week. I've corrected that post wanted to add a note here for the many people who wouldn't ordinarily notice my correction. Those high numbers seem to have led to this designation.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/13/national/quasi-emergency-five-prefectures/
Five more Japan prefectures to get coronavirus quasi-emergency status
Gunma, Hiroshima, Ishikawa, Kumamoto and Okayama will be able to deploy tougher measures to rein in COVID-19 from Sunday.

It's a bit hard to see, but Kumamoto is one of the prefectures in red, with a high number of weekly new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people. Of the prefectures that have not been declared by the national government to be in a state of emergency or designated in some other way as being at particular risk, Kumamoto is 6th with a rate of 38.22 per 100,000 per week. This infection rate exceeds one of the criteria for the government's "stage 4" category (over 25 per 100,000). -- Kirk
10万人あたりのコロナ感染者数 21都道府県で「ステージ4」相当 | NHKニュース
【NHK】新型コロナウイルスの感染状況を判断する指標の1つとなっている「新規感染者数」について、直近1週間の人口10万当たりの感染…

This is kind of funny. Y'know when you're in elementary school in Takamori and you're not sure who your teacher will be for whatever class, and someone says, "Oh. It will be the Emperor from the Akasaka Palace." Apparently, this was a demonstration of ICT 「Information and Communication Technology」, and the Emperor didn't actually teach anything. But I'm sure it's an experience that the students will never forget. Sit up straight. - William https://kumanichi.com/articles/227505

Here are two recent translated posts from the Kumamoto City Government regarding an infection at Kumamoto City Hall and an advisory for those planning on making vaccination reservations for the next tranche on May 17:
The General Information Center on the first floor of the City Hall Main Building has been closed today due to the confirmed infection of a city employee with the new coronavirus. We will try to restore the function after disinfection as soon as possible.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to citizens and ask for your understanding.

For more information, please visit the website
本日、市職員の新型コロナウイルスの感染が確認されたため、市役所本庁舎1階の総合案内所を閉鎖しました。早急に消毒を実施した上で機能復旧を図ります。
市民の皆様にはご迷惑をおかけしますが、ご理解いただきますようお願いします。
詳しくは、ホームページをご覧ください。
https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/hpkiji/pub/Detail.aspx?c_id=5&id=35237
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

A third state of emergency has been declared for Fukuoka. Kumamoto had over 100 new cases again today. (The situation in Kumamoto is not mentioned in this article; saw that elsewhere.) Stay safe! Don't let your guard down! The newer strains seem to be hitting younger people pretty hard too. -- Kirk
Cities in Japan's Fukuoka Pref. crowded on 1st day of 3rd virus state of emergency - The Mainichi
FUKUOKA -- Train stations, business districts and other areas in some cities in the southwest Japan prefecture of Fukuoka were crowded as usual on the

If (1) you don't have a Japanese passport, (2) you are not in Japan now, and (3) you have traveled to India, Nepal, or Pakistan recently, you need to get back to Japan REALLY quick or plan on being out of the country for a while. The article says this is effective Friday. I'm pretty sure that if someone is trying to get through customs after midnight Thursday, they will be sent back. -- Kirk
P.S. Note that this applies to foreign residents, including people who are married to Japanese citizens.
Japan to ban foreign residents who traveled to India, Nepal and Pakistan, report says
The new rules, which come amid an upsurge in the region in new variants of the coronavirus, will allow Japanese nationals coming from those countries to re-enter the country.

There are homeless in Kumamoto. You just don't see them. My jogging course along Shirakawa takes me under a bridge where there was once a large encampment furnished with furniture scavenged from the garbage - it was quite comfortable, actually. And then, one day, it was gone. I have no idea where the people went. Here is an article about a creative way people have dealt with homelessness in my home state. - William
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/11/oakland-homeless-cob-on-wood-village

Joe Tomei here. Anyone want to go to Korea? Well, not go, but check out an online presentation done by Kumamoto Kenritsu Dai's Jeff Morrow. It's tonite, check out the poster attached. One of my great joys in spending a year in Korea was getting to know the KOTESOL folks and I am itching to get back there!
[note: I posted this with an older poster, I had to delete it to change it, apologies for any confusion]
one more note, they had to change the zoom info, the correct info is
zoom meeting code 816 840 2183
Passcode 5FiRyu

Kumamoto had 117 new COVID-19 cases today, a new record. 100 cases in a day used to be unheard of here but the average for the past four days has been about 100. Stay safe. --Kirk
＜速報＞熊本県内で１１７人感染　過去最多　新型コロナ | 熊本日日新聞社
　熊本県と熊本市は11日午後４時、新たに１１７人の新型コロナウイルス感染を確認したと発表した。過去最多を更新。県内での感染確認は４９１３人（うち熊本市２７０７人）となった。

I dunno. My wife wakes up at 4:00AM and plays NHK at high volume. I don't mind, and would certainly not consider killing her as that would seriously piss her off. But some Kumamoto guy did not get the message regarding video games. - William
48-year-old man arrested for stabbing younger brother after fight over video games
Police in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, have arrested a 48-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of attempted murder after he stabbed his 35-year-old brother in the chest for playing his video games too loudly. According to police, Daisuke Kikukawa, stabbed his brother in the left chest with a....

Our friend Urabe-san showed for the first time after a few days. He's like a feral cat, and his prolonged absence was making me worried. As usual, he sucked up all of the food we had in the pantry - how much skinny guys eat is astounding. But he is a repository of Kumamoto history: don't ask him a question if you're not prepared for an hour-long answer. - William

Noctiluca scintillans, according to Wikipedia, "is a free-living, marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed." And who amongst us is not. They are most active in summer. I have fond memories of swimming out at midnight to find myself bathed in bioluminescence. If you haven't tried it, put it on your bucket list. Kumanichi says that the season is here. - William
https://kumanichi.com/news/id223422

Hi! This post has already gotten quite a few comments but I'm sharing it to help more people see it. -- Kirk
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/5335451439861578

A heartwarming story: Miyahara Kouharu, born in Nagano to a family of dentists who searched for rural areas where their service was needed, followed family tradition and chose Kumamura, where the village built a clinic and lent it to him free of charge. Elderly people in the village who once had to trek to Hitoyoshi City appreciated the local clinic. Miyahara-san was also generous in visiting mountainous areas of neighboring Ashikita. However, the clinic was destroyed in the floods of last July, and rebuilding on the spot was judged unwise due to danger of future floods. So he found a vacant convenience store 10KM away and reopened there. 「村には戻らんとですか」("Won't you return to the village?" in beautiful local dialect), but that is impossible for the moment. Nevertheless, Dr. Miyahara said, "I want to do my best for the people of Kuma Village and continue to pray for the reconstruction of the village as soon as possible." Pictured below, saying to a young patient, 「もう少し口を開けて。はい、おりこうさん」("Open a little wider. Yes, that's a good girl."- dentist language is pretty much international). - William
https://kumanichi.com/news/id223299

Kirk here, sharing and inquiry so that more people who might be able to answer can see it.
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/5331559193584136