Posts
Let me start with a few quotes from Wikipedia:
"Kanō Jigorō (嘉納 治五郎, 28 October 1860 – 4 May 1938) was a Japanese educator and athlete, the founder of Judo."
"In January 1891, Kanō was appointed to a position at the Ministry of Education. In August 1891, he gave up this position to become a dean at the Fifth Higher Normal School (present-day Kumamoto University). One of the teachers at Fifth Higher between 1891 and 1893 was Lafcadio Hearn."
"Kanō was also a pioneer of international sports. Accomplishments included being the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (he served from 1909 until 1938); officially representing Japan at most Olympic Games held between 1912 and 1936; and serving as a leading spokesman for Japan's bid for the 1940 Olympic Games."
If you visit the campus of Kumamoto University, you may be able to find a small monument commemorating Kano's contribution near the entrance to the gymnasium where Kumadai's judo club practices. I met with a friend recently who pointed out to me that Kumamoto has largely ignored Kano's connection to the community. Much has been said and written about Lafcadio Hearn's and Natsume Soseki's connections to Kumamoto but, by comparison, Kano Jigoro is hardly ever mentioned.
But there are some who have been trying to point out the importance of Kano's time in Kumamoto. If you read Japanese, please check out the following page from the "Kumamoto Human Resources Network" (「熊本人財ネットワーク」 ）:
http://www.jinzai-brand.com/2016/11/柔道を「国際化」した教育者%E3%80%80嘉納治五郎/
-- Kirk
P.S. The picture of Kano engaging in judo is from the second site, not Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanō_Jigorō
"The number of passengers on the railway plummeted to 40,000 in fiscal 2016 from 260,000 the previous year, mainly because Tateno Station, which offers a link to the Hohi Main Line of Kyushu Railway Co., remains closed."
Copied and pasted by Kirk
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/21/national/kumamoto-railway-struggles-rebuild-devastating-2016-quake/#.WZt4Vq2B2Cc
Kumamoto railway struggles to rebuild after devastating 2016 quake | The Japan Times
A railway in Kumamoto Prefecture is working hard to win back passengers 16 months after a series of powerful earthquakes rocked the area. Minami-aso Railwa
For those of you who will be in Kumamoto this weekend, the Honda plant in Ozu will be holding its annual summer festival on Saturday. Festivities kick off at 4pm and run until the end of the fireworks show, which starts at 9.
Entry is free and there will be loads of fun and entertainment, including live stage events, a visit from Kamen Rider for the kiddies, and a raffle with drawings at 8:05pm. No word what the top prize will be this year, but it seems that last year's winner walked away with an Honda motorbike!
You can drive directly there and park in one of the 4000 available spots, or take a free shuttle bus from the JR Higo Ozu station.
Here is the address and the event poster in Japanese.
〒869-1293 Kumamoto Prefecture, Kikuchi District, 大津町Hirakawa, 1500
- Sara
This article is from May but just this morning the Asahi Shimbun published an article in Japanese about the practice of making kids whose hair is not naturally jet black prove that they are not dying it by submitting a "natural hair certificate" ("jige shomeisho"; 地毛証明書):
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASK815T7FK81UTIL04X.html
The article is critical of the practice. Several people interviewed (two experts and one teacher) characterize it as an abuse of the rights of the child. One criticism that is mentioned in the article is that the practice encourages students to focus on differences in appearance instead of helping them to learn to look beyond them. I might add that the burden of having to document the natural condition of one's hair and the implied message (even if unintended) that having a different color of hair is somehow abnormal or undesirable are also problematic.
Human rights activist Arudo Debito has also written about this:
REPORT: Immigrant children and Japan’s Hair Police
http://www.debito.org/?p=412
I don't know if kids in Kumamoto are required to submit such certificates. My kids were not. (Correction: My wife has informed me that our daughter was indeed asked to submit such a form -- with a picture as evidence! As if the word of my wife and the fact that her father is of a different nationality isn't enough!) Still, I thought this might be of interest to current or future parents in Kumamoto, especially if your kids' hair is not naturally jet black.
-- Kirk
http://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-students-hair-color-2017-5
Most Tokyo high schools demand students prove their real hair color, study finds
Some Japanese students are prohibited from having permed, dyed, or unkempt hair. The measure is designed to uphold strict standards for physical appearance.
The Kumamoto JET website has an events page. I may not be able to share the information here in a timely manner so, if you're interested, you may want to bookmark it and check in from time to time.
-- Kirk
http://kumamotojet.com/shin/index.php/category/events/
Events September Events in Ashikita August 17, 2017 Published by: kumamoto Ashikita Music Festival Date: 10th September 2017 Venue: Yume moyai （芦北町女島活力推進センターゆめもやい） Doors open at 16:00 Performance starts 17:00 Tickets are ￥3000 in advance (need to be booked by phone) or ￥3300 on the day To book, p...
Sorry about not giving you all a heads up before hand. This event occurs every year so, if you're interested, mark your calendar for next year.
-- Kirk
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170817/p2a/00m/0na/020000c
1,000 dancers light the way at Kumamoto Pref. festival - The Mainichi
YAMAGA, Kumamoto -- About a thousand women wearing traditional summer yukata and lanterns on their heads danced during the traditional Yamaga Toro Matsuri lantern festival here on Aug. 16.
Hirata is a company which makes industrial robots and has some facilities in Kumamoto, which is featured in their latest commercial. The tagline is, "The world is not yet compete. We're working to make it so."
Okay, good luck with that - but it is a beautiful, short CM. - William
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNt-wy8QH0
.
平田機工 東京証券取引所 第1部 市場変更のCM(熊本,栃木,滋賀)
Here's part of an e-mail announcement from the Kumamoto City International Center about an opportunity to study Japanese:
=== start quote ===
KIF Japanese Information
※Intensive Japanese Course on Daily Life Japanese for Beginer
Without basic Japanese ability, living in Kumamoto can be hard! We are now offering an intensive basic Japanese course for people who have just come to Kumamoto and have trouble communicating, or people who have lived here for a while but have not yet studied the language seriously.
Date ㈰Sept 10th 9:30-12:30 ㈪Sept 16th 9:30-12:30 ㈫Sept 22th 9:30-16:30
㈬Sept 23th 9:30-12:30 ㈭Sept 24th 9:30-16:30 ㈮Sept 26th 9:30-12:30
㈯Sept 29st 9:30-16:30
Place Kumamoto City International Center
Applicants Foreign residents who want to study Japanese.
Fee 3,500 yen ※ materials fee included
Capacity 10 people
Application In person at the Kumamoto City International Center
※Please apply personally until a week before starting the class.
Note The following people will be given priority: those who can attend all programs.
=== end quote ===
You can contact them at:
TEL: 096-359-4995 (9:00 to 20:00)
Email: [email protected]
-- Kirk
Koryo High School of Hiroshima has defeated Shugakukan of Kumamoto (Yatsushiro). The impression I got from the Japanese article I'm introducing is that Koryo was considered to be the underdog; though they could not overpower Shugakukan outright with power hitting, they were able to win with a combination of "smaller" techniques such as bunting.
Out of curiosity, I took at look at a web page showing the junior high schools from which the Koryo players graduated (making such information public seems to be customary in high school baseball):
http://apapnews.com/famousmember/1486/
Koryo also has a few players from other prefectures but the majority are kids from the local area. As I wrote earlier, that's something that's not true of Shugakukan. On the other hand, Koryo may not be all that different from Shugakukan. If you go to the Wikipedia page of the high school, you'll see a very, very long list of professional baseball players listed as notable graduates:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/広陵高等学校_(広島県)
The NHK Koshien page says that they've made it to the spring and summer tournaments three times each:
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/koushien/school/
Hiroshima City has a population of over a million so they have a much larger pool of local talent to draw from than does Yatsushiro --- and even so they get some of their talent from places like Fukuoka, Osaka, and Okayama. When I think of it that way, perhaps a school from Yatsushiro trying to win at this game as a relative newcomer should be considered the underdog after all, regardless of where they find their players.
This confused little essay, which lacks a clear conclusion, has been brought to you by Kirk.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASK8K3RKMK8KUTQP013.html
「甲子園慣れ」秀岳館のミス突く 広陵、大技小技で圧倒：朝日新聞デジタル
（１７日、高校野球 広陵６―１秀岳館） 「秀岳館さんは甲子園慣れをしていて、どしっと構えている。ミスを突く野球を出来ればと思う」 試合前の、広陵の中井監督の言葉だ。 小技を絡めて、相手を崩しにかかった…
If you're non-Japanese and live in Japan for any longer than a few moments, the police at your local koban will recognize your existence. Sometimes they'll visit for mutual introduction, which is a good thing as then you're mutually introduced. I've had a few interactions with them (most recently, I smelled a gas leak at a vacant house near mine and called for a discrete inspection - it was near midnight - and a dozen emergency vehicles showed up in minutes with all their bells and sirens blazing). They thanked me as it turned out to be potentially disastrous.
The other day, an ear infection had left me disoriented, so I opted to drive to the ear, nose and throat clinic a kilometer down the street (the Japanese is a direct translation - "jibiiinnkouka" 「耳鼻咽喉科」）and, having neglected to seatbelt myself, was immediately stopped by a cop who called me by name. I explained my situation, and he said that, as he'd stopped me, he was required to ticket me, which he did, and I politely thanked him (verbally, at least) and continued on my way.
It was later that I noticed the "ticket" I'd received was not the green of the type I normally (and too frequently) receive - it was white. (Further research has unearthed a third type - red, which is issued for violations entailing criminal prosecution - fortunately, I'm not familiar with those; they're known respectively as "kotsuihan aokippu and akakippu" 「交通違反青キップ赤キップ」). Closer inspection showed that it was a warning ("kokuchihyo" 「告知票」), not a ticket, and as such entailed no fine nor license penalty point loss. All three types are pictured below.
Lesson: Be nice to your local police. If this had happened in a place where they didn't know me, I'd be a few thousand yen and one point poorer. - William
The mercury poising tragedy known as Minamata disease is not merely a matter of history; many issues related to the environmental disaster that occurred here in Kumamoto have yet to be completely resolved. Globally, the threat of low- and high-level mercury poisoning is still with us but the Minamata Convention on Mercury is an important step in the right direction.
-- Kirk
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170816/p2g/00m/0in/009000c
Int'l treaty to prevent mercury pollution enters into force - The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- An international treaty to protect human health and the environment from mercury pollution entered into force Wednesday, paving the way for regulation of the manufacture, cross-border trading, use and disposal of the chemical.
Due to rain on Tuesday, the Shugakukan game has been pushed back one day. It will be held tomorrow (Thursday).
-- Updated by Kirk
NHK 甲子園｜全国高校野球選手権大会
NHK（日本放送協会）が提供する全国高校野球選手権大会の実況ウェブサイトです。
In light of my post about translation this past weekend, I wanted to have a brief discussion about an interesting article concerning translations of works by Natsume Soseki, one of the most famous and admired Japanese writers of all time. As you may (or may not!) know, Soseki lived in Kumamoto for several years in the late 1890s, where he worked as a teacher before the beginning of his literary career. Soseki taught at the Fifth High School (第五高等学校), a school which later combined with other schools in the area to become Kumamoto University. In fact, part of the old Fifth High School still stands on the Kumamoto University campus and now serves as a museum. You can learn more about the building here:
http://ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/dept/fifth/
If you're in Kumamoto or planning a visit, I would definitely recommend stopping by to see it!
This article about the recent first English translation of Soseki's "Nowaki" raises a very interesting topic concerning translation, this being the fact that there is a hierarchy of perceived importance among works by even the most famous authors. Just because an author is well known, much loved, and/or the focus of academic research and interest does not necessarily mean that all of that author's works will be published in translation. I find it fascinating that an English translation of one of Soseki's works, no matter how minor it is considered to be, was only published last year, in spite of the fact that his most famous works have been translated many times and into many languages. It just goes to show that the world of translation can be a very complicated one and that all sorts of factors determine what gets translated and what doesn't.
Anyway, this has ended up being a longer post than I intended, but I had a lot to say and could ramble on about this sort of thing forever! I hope you enjoy the article and visit the old Fifth High School building if you haven't done so already.
-Grace
Minor Soseki work gets first English translation | The Japan Times
NOWAKI, by Natsume Soseki, translated and with an afterword by William N. Ridgeway. Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2011, 120 pp.,
This information is about a phone consultation service that is offered by Fukuoka Prefecture but, as far as I can see, should be open to people calling from areas to the south of Fukuoka as well. It's a 24 hour service and a wide variety of languages are supported: English, Chinese, Korea, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Nepali, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Russian.
The prefecture is also offering interpreting via telephone to doctors in Fukuoka. I don't know if a similar service is available here. Here's the address of a Japanese page with more information:
http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/contents/ajisapo-callcenter.html
I happened to learn about this from a recent segment in a regional news show. A doctor who was going out of his way to look after people who do not understand Japanese (Dr. Tomoya Hinoki of the Fukuoka Hinoki Clinic) said that the Japanese point system winds up being a disincentive for hospitals and clinics to take the time required to communicate properly through an interpreter. Dr. Hinoki said that he may take as much as three times longer to interact with a patient through an interpreter than he would need to take for a comparable level of care with a patient who is fluent in Japanese. Regardless of that added burden, however, the Japanese point system has a fixed price for each procedure. So, if doctors seem to be in a hurry, part of the problem may be with the system.
In addition, here's the URL of an English page with more medical information:
http://www.rainbowfia.or.jp/en/living/03.html
It needs to be updated. For example, it doesn't have information about this new service yet. But it has other numbers and information that may be helpful.
Finally, I'd like to note that I had to work to find this information. The Japanese TV program talked about the service and how they want more foreigners to use it but then neglected to share a phone number or URL. I was able to find information in Japanese about the service on Fukuoka Prefecture's website but, as you can see, their English "Medical Care and Welfare" information section does not contain an appropriate link:
http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/somu/multilingual/english/living.html
I wound up searching the web for the phone number I found on the Japanese page, and that took me to the Fukuoka Now article. Not exactly something you can expect of foreign tourists or residents lacking language skills when they are not feeling well!
It seems they are spending lots of money to run this service for people who don't understand Japanese but only announcing it in English. To it's credit, Fukuoka Now has made this English announcement, but they had to get the information from a Japanese newspaper announcement. Curiouser and curiouser!
-- Kirk
http://www.fukuoka-now.com/en/news/medical-telephone-support-expanded/
Medical Telephone Support Expanded
Fukuoka Prefecture announced the expansion of services of a multilingual call center for help with medical issues on April 3. Previously the medical support line was only available in three languag…
As a severely hair-challenged person (translation: I'm virtually bald), I don't have any use for hair salons but, for those of you who still have hair and would like to make it look nice, I thought I'd share a bit of information that I found on the KumAJET group:
"I just had my hair done at United People on Thursday. Arie-san gave me one of the best haircuts I've ever had! She worked in New York City for 15 years."
Here's the address of United People's Facebook page, which includes a map showing the location.
https://www.facebook.com/Unitedpeopleユナイテッドピープル-1555633234686629/
And, for your reference, here's the address of the KumAJET group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/45261511655/
-- Kirk
United・People / 熊本 南千反畑町 美容室
再現性の高いスタンディングカット
Joe Tomei here. A former student, Hiroko Ogata, is organizing a workshop on teaching and improvisation to be held on 1 Oct here in Kumamoto. It will be in Japanese, led by Ikegame sensei, from the Japanese NPO Creative Debate for GRASSROOTS. Their website is http://grassroots-edu.com/ and it looks interesting. I'm hoping to attend if I'm free (a pretty big assumption these days), but if you want to check it out (and maybe give your Japanese a workout), let me know.
2017年10月９日（月・祝） 『協働的な授業リフレクション研究会 in 広島』 今年度３月に発足した『リフレクション』をテーマにした研究会が、広島にやってきます。 ２つの授業を受けた後、上條先生のガイドでリフレクション・ワークを丁寧に行います。 教師の底力を掘り起こす、新しいカタチの深い学びを体験してください。 10:00-10:10 自己紹介的アイスブレイク（運営スタッフ） 10:10-11:00 「演劇的手法を使った英語授業」池亀がめら 11:00-12:00 リフレクション 上條晴夫 ランチ 13:00-13:50 「特別支援教育におけるコミュニケーション支援」 ～子どもからの自発を目...
Hi everyone! My name is Grace and this is my first post for Kumamoto International. I lived in Kumamoto from 2012 to 2013 as a university exchange student. After leaving Kumamoto I did a Master's degree in translation studies and then became a professional translator. Kumamoto will always hold a special place in my heart, and I'm excited to help share interesting news and info about Kumamoto with all of you readers here.
Though this first link I'm going to share isn't directly related to Kumamoto, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk a bit about translation and the translation-related career paths available to any of you who may still be students or who may be considering a future career working with Japanese. Think of it as a peek into the world of a professional translator, if that's something you happen to be curious about!
Over the next week or so I'm going to try to bring this back around into a more focused discussion about Kumamoto (and dialects in the area), so stay tuned. :)
-Grace
The Realities and Benefits of Translation as a Full-time Job – An Introduction
This week we have a special guest article on translation by a professional in the field. Ever wonder what it takes to be a translator? Considering going outside of academia with your Japanese? See …
As rhetoric between North Korea and the U.S. heats up, I thought I'd briefly consider how Kumamoto's geographical location relates to all of this. I'm worried about the possibility of further escalation in general terms but I'm not feeling particularly vulnerable because I happen to be in Kumamoto. So, I'm not trying to be alarmist at all but am merely interested in clarifying where we stand geographically, so to speak.
Firstly, Kumamoto's relative proximity to the Korean peninsula puts us, according to a report in the New York Times, within scud missile range (see first image). Of course, North Korea would be crazy to launch a scud missile at Kyushu but, nonetheless, that seems to be a technical possibility.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/10/world/asia/what-can-north-korea-reach-with-its-missiles.html
Secondly, in regard to the question "Would a missile launched at Guam fly over our heads?", the short answer is "probably not." Here's a TIME.com report:
"The report said the Hwasong-12 rockets would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures in Japan and travel '1,065 seconds before hitting the waters 30 to 40 kilometers away from Guam.'"
http://time.com/4894948/north-korea-plan-guam-missiles/
But, you might see an image like this second one (taken from Korean media by the Guardian) that makes it look like the missiles will fly right over Kyushu:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/10/north-korea-details-guam-strike-trump-load-of-nonsense
There are two problems with this. First, the curvature of the earth is such that the straight line that was drawn on the screen in the TV studio is not a geographically correct "straight line" (a line that follows the curvature of the earth would transverse Japan a bit farther to the east). Second, I think it is generally being assumed that North Korea would launch from a point farther east than this image indicates. It is true, however, that if North Korean picked a point in the far western part of its territory for a launch aimed at Guam, the missiles tragectory would come a good deal closer to our area.
Well, that's all I have to offer tonight. Here's hoping that cooler heads prevail and that military conflict can be averted.
-- Kirk
Here's an article about Mika and Stoltzman. As the article points out, Mika is originally from Kumamoto. I had the pleasure of hearing the couple play with Steve Gadd at the Prefectural Theatre a few years ago.
-- Kirk
http://marblehead.wickedlocal.com/entertainmentlife/20170810/winchester-couple-makes-great-music-together
Winchester couple makes great music together
Jazz will meet classical, classical will meet blues, and the sounds of it all will range from hauntingly beautiful to joyously exciting when clarinetist
