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Kirk got me interested in the painting of the castle posted recently. It was too close to the river to be Hitoyoshi Castle; the closest I could find was Watarijyo, just west of Hitoyoshi. But my poking surfaced this useful site for those searching for long-vanished Higo castles. - William
https://www.hb.pei.jp/shiro/higo/

Poking around for some yukie of Kumamoto, I came across this of a bridge crossing Kumagawa. Coincidentally, it appears to be quite close to the Sakamoto-mura railroad bridge washed out during the floods of last summer. Reports are that a replacement of the bridge would cost in the billions of yen, increasing the option of simply not replacing it.
Roads exist with bridges both up- and downstream from the railroad, but these would add some 15 minutes to the commuting time of village children to the nearest schools, add burdens to their parents, and decrease options for the elderly. Already struggling, abandonment of the rail link would be another nail in the coffin of the villages the railroad served.
Trends such as the greying society, falling agriculture production, and concentration of population in urban areas have lead to abandonment of many rural towns - the only viable option, no matter how painful. Sakamoto-mura, with its population of less than 4,000, a vast majority over 50, may be next. - William

Douglas here. I will be posting the occasional video and virtual tour taken around Kumamoto. The videos try to show how I see various aspects of Japanese traditions, culture and heritage.
I posted my first ever virtual tour of the Takahashi Inari Jinja a few days ago. There will be more virtual tours in the future.
For now, I will start the video ball rolling with a montage of various spots taken from above!
First 6 months with Parrot Anafi
We bought our first and only drone in August 2018. We soon posted an "Our First Flight" video,as do hundreds of other new drone pilots. We have noticed…

Joe Tomei here. Gotten a request for some observations about different neighborhoods in kumamoto, in particular
Omine, Sadowara, Nagamine, Yama no kami and Shin Hoka. Anyone living in any of those neighborhoods who can share good and bad points! Thanks!

Hello One piece big fans.
Yesterday, 2nd March, was Sanji's Birthday.
There is a lightning event at Mashiki town which has Sanji bronze statue.
It will be held from 6pm to 9:30pm till 7th March at Mashiki Sogoundo park.
Luffy with Ginkyo is very famous but it might be good also, I think.
If you are a big fan of One piece, hoping you enjoy it too.ーAtsuko«٩(*´∀`*)۶»
@益城町運動公園 Mashiki Sogoundo park
https://g.co/kgs/XaGbQn
https://www.facebook.com/200668296665728/posts/4085968438135675/?sfnsn=mo

Kirk here. Today is March 3rd, Reiwa 3. 3-3-3. That has made shrines (jinja) popular today. Let me explain.
Until COVID-19 made it virtually impossible for students to come to Kumamoto Gakuen University (my work place) as exchange students, I had a bilingual seminar that was made up of Japanese students and students from other countries. One of the things I had them do was to give little presentations about their hobbies, interests, or the culture of their home countries. Through one such presentation, a Japanese student opened my eyes to the practice of collecting goshuin (see English article below).
Had it not been for that student, I probably would have had a harder time understanding the RKK TV news story linked to below. It seems that lots of people wanted an auspicious goshuin with three 3s today.
Here's the RKK video report:
https://rkk.jp/news/index.php?id=NS003202103031835460111
And here's an English article about goshuin (my screenshot is of this):
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-tokyo_train_station/article-a0002402/
P.S. Sorry for not being smart enough to give you a heads up about this beforehand. I just realized that today is 3-3-3 myself.

Kirk Here. Yesterday, Hari posted about Kurashi no Nihongo meetings in the Minami Ward. That prompted me to take a look at the International Foundation's website for more information. I hadn't noticed it before but this time I realized that if I click on "Foreign Language" whatever page I was looking at would be translated into English. That may not sound very good but the thing I like about it is that you can go back and forth between the original Japanese and the English translation very easily. This makes the tool quite useful in my view.
Here's the URL of the International Foundation:
https://www.kumamoto-if.or.jp/default.html

Hari wrote about the new Japanese program starting in Minami Ward. I wrote a little note about how they probably needed Japanese people to help as tutors. Here's a page about that (text is in Japanese).
-- Kirk
「南区くらしのにほんごくらぶ」日本語交流サポーター募集 / （一財）熊本市国際交流振興事業団

If you are living in the Minami-ward of Kumamoto City, this event might be of interest to you.
Kumamoto International Foundation (KIF) is going to start "Minami-ku Kurashi-no Nihongo Club" from this month.
March 6 (Sat.), March (Sun)
From April, 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month
https://www.kumamoto-if.or.jp/kiji003574/index.html
-Hari

Kirk here with a commemoration of the passing of MENDA Sakae. Mr. Menda's life ended in December of last year but I missed the opportunity to post about his passing at that time.
His case is truly historic in Japan. To see more posts about Mr. Menda that we published on this page before his passing click on the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=Menda
Another article that may be of interest:
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13996596
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/06/national/sakae-menda-death-row-obituary/
Sakae Menda, an innocent man freed from death row after 34 years in prison, dies at 95
Menda, who was released in 1983, spent much of the rest of his life as a campaigner against the death penalty, giving speeches in Japan and abroad.

Kirk again. Yesterday I tried to share a post from the "Aso project." For some reason, my post started out just as my text -- the "share" part was missing. So, I thought I'd share another example of the outstanding imagery on the site. If you'd like to learn more about the background of noyaki (field burning) in the Aso area, please click on the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/page/123734781033296/search/?q=noyaki

Kirk here. Today I came across a Facebook page called "Aso project." The posts are in Japanese but the images are beautiful. This is just one example.
https://www.facebook.com/Aso.project/posts/2975749455981165

Here's more about the upcoming Costco opening from Kuma Visit.
-- Kirk

Here's and interesting post from "Untapped Kumamoto." If you're unfamiliar with this informative page, please check it out. -- Kirk
https://www.facebook.com/untappedkumamoto/posts/2214803265316676

Kirk here. A while ago I posted about MINAMATA, the Johnny Depp movie about Eugene Smith. I don't have anything new to report about the movie but I'd share this article about Smith. It think it's pretty good for the most part but I noticed one problem:
"However, the disease was first discovered in 1956, after the Chisso Corporation conducted their own test and found a severe amount of heavy metals (mostly mercury) in local water bodies. "
As far as I can tell, everything after the date, 1956, in the above sentence is wrong. Here's a much better summary of what happened in 1956 from the Wikipedia page:
"On 21 April 1956, a five-year-old girl was examined at Chisso's factory hospital in Minamata. The physicians were puzzled by her symptoms: difficulty walking, difficulty speaking, and convulsions. Two days later, her younger sister also began to exhibit the same symptoms and she, too, was hospitalised. The girls' mother informed doctors that her neighbour's daughter was also experiencing similar problems. After a house-to-house investigation, eight further patients were discovered and hospitalised. On 1 May, the hospital director reported to the local public health office the discovery of an 'epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system', marking the official discovery of Minamata disease."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
So, the "discovery" was the first official report about there being some kind of health issue. It's true that Chisso did its own testing and the hid the results, but that came a good deal later.
Other than that, the article is fine, as far as I can tell.
Is Minamata Based on a True Story? Was W. Eugene Smith a Real Photographer?
Directed by Andrew Levitas, ‘Minamata’ focuses on photojournalist W. Eugene Smith’s (Johnny Depp) coverage of the effects of mercury poisoning in the village of Minamata in Kumamoto, Japan. The film pits him against a major corporation whose business practices leads to severe health hazards in...

Hi friends.
If you are Kumamoto residents, you might know 水前寺公園 Suizenzi park also has lots beautiful plum trees. Yes, it's the beautiful season to visit there.
If you visit there on this Saturday evening, you can enjoy the beautiful plum blossoms and beautiful lightning.It will be held till 8pm.
The people who wear kimono don't need to pay the entrance fee in February but unfortunately you should wear mask too.
Hoping you enjoy the beautiful spring colors and spring light both ーAtsuko(*ˊ˘ˋ*)♡
https://matsuri-no-hi.com/matsuri/33634
http://www.suizenji.or.jp/

MINIATURE LIFE EXHIBITION 2 Tatsuya Tanaka Main Works
Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Gallery I,II
Dates January 29(Fri)－March 14(Sun), 2021
https://www.camk.jp/english/
I saw something about this on TV. Looks interesting. -- Kirk

Congratulations to local author, Seán Michael Wilson! -- Kirk

Kirk here. Here's something from KUMAMON about an exhibition that is in progress and ends of on March 7th.

Joe Tomei here, this from the Mainichi about foreign eligibility for vaccinations
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210212/p2a/00m/0na/046000c
This looks a bit tricky for non-Japanese speaking residents so as it comes closer, I hope we can give more details.
FAQ: How foreign residents can get coronavirus vaccinations in Japan - The Mainichi
TOKYO -- With reports that coronavirus vaccinations will begin in Japan during the week commencing Feb. 15, The Mainichi answers some common questions