[Kumamoto UNESCO Association］2/12(Sun) Try and enjoy the Noh performance at the workshop!! | Consortium Kumamoto
Posts
I like Kumamoto by I'm repulsed by the seedy areas near Shimotori. The allegations in this article are particularly repulsive.
-- Kirk
Kumamoto cops: Hostess club employed middle school girls | The Tokyo Reporter
Police started receiving tips about employment of young girls in November
"The Building Standards Law only sets out the bare minimum standards for builders, so it does not guarantee that a house will be entirely safe. However, during the Kumamoto Earthquake [in 2016], we also saw a clear difference in the degree of damage inflicted on houses built in different periods. According to a report by a commission of experts set up by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, only 5 percent of wooden houses built before 1981 in the center of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, escaped damage. This rose to about 20 percent for houses built from 1981 to 2000, and about 60 percent for houses built in 2000 and beyond. This supports the idea that if no effort has been made to add quake resistance to a house, it will collapse more easily."
Quake-resistant housing vital for saving lives
The Great Hanshin Earthquake of January 1995 destroyed or severely damaged about 250,000 houses and residential buildings. About 90 percent of the deaths in the earthquake (see below), excluding those who died later of secondary earthquake-related causes, were killed when houses collapsed or caught…
Another teaching opportunity. -- Shared by Kirk
急な用事や病気でレッスンをお休みしても、振替レッスンができるから安心。 カフェスタイルの待合室. 待合室はいつでもご利用頂けます。レッスン以外でもお気軽にお立ちより下さい。
Kumamoto University is looking for staff to work in their Global College. They require fluency in both English and Japanese. The pay is not great but, depending on your situation, it might be worth considering.
http://www.c3.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/college/recruit/
-- Kirk
Shindo 3 (magnitude 3.8) in Yatsushiro a few moments ago . . .
http://www.jma.go.jp/jp/quake/20170126233747495-262334.html
-- Kirk
Sorry for the late notice but tomorrow a couple of lectures will be given in English at Kumamoto University by two world-class scholars. Anyone who is interested is encouraged to attend. The titles of the lectures are in English and a Japanese note indicates that the lectures will be in English "for the most part" (原則として）.
For more information go to
http://ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/event/11/
-- Kirk
Here's another article about the Nadeshiko soccer game.
-- Kirk
http://kyodonews.net/news/2017/01/24/97521
Soccer: Nadeshiko Japan to play Costa Rica in April friendly | Kyodo News
Former women's world champions Nadeshiko Japan will play Costa Rica in a friendly in Kumamoto city on April 9,
Coming to Kumamoto! (but not all of the players you see in this photo ;) )
-- shared by Kirk
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2017/01/24/soccer/nadeshiko-japan-host-costa-rica-april-friendly/
Nadeshiko Japan to host Costa Rica in April friendly | The Japan Times
Former women's world champion Nadeshiko Japan will play Costa Rica in a friendly in Kumamoto on April 9, the Japan Football Association said Tuesday. The m
Not Kumamoto specific, but of interest to many expat residents, I suspect.
-- Kirk Masden
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/23/national/japan-simplify-residency-process-foreigners-online-service/
Japan to simplify residency process for foreigners with online service | The Japan Times
The government has decided to launch an online service to allow foreign nationals to apply and update their residency status in Japan from fiscal 2018, one
One of today's main Kumamoto-related stories is that, although there will continue to be an "Aso campus" of Tokai University, it cannot be reconstructed completely. As I understand it, many of the heavily damaged buildings are located on faults that preclude complete reconstruction.
Fields, pastures, etc will continue to be used for hands-on instruction in agriculture but I take it that the bulk of the classroom instruction will need to take place on the campus in Kumamoto City.
-- Kirk
P.S. Tomorrow (this morning?) is projected to be the coldest of the year so far -- unusually cold for Kumamoto. Bundle up if you're going outside!
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20170124/k10010851581000.html
熊本地震で被災の東海大キャンパス 存続も全面再建は不可能 | NHKニュース
一連の熊本地震で被害を受け閉鎖されている南阿蘇村のキャンパスについて、東海大学は農業の実習場所として存続させる方針を明らかにしました。一方、…
There have been a couple of posts to this page about English teaching opportunities:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/1292859824120780
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/10154459766068871
If you happened to have missed them and are interesting in such jobs, please take a look.
-- Kirk
Personally, 936 yen for this Kindle edition strikes me as a bit pricey. It is a collection of photos, mostly (as far as I can tell from the preview) of scenes that have become fairly familiar to readers of this page. It doesn't include the stories found in the Japanese edition. The Japanese edition, moreover, is available in softcover for about the same price as the English digital edition. Also, "Emergency Publication" appears in red toward the top of the cover but the Japanese version came out in May of last year. If the money were going to a charity, that would be different but I don't see any such indication.
-- Kirk
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/18/national/english-edition-kumamoto-earthquakes-photo-book-released-download/
English edition of 'Kumamoto Earthquakes' photo book released for download | The Japan Times
A collection of photos taken after the earthquakes that rocked Kumamoto Prefecture and its vicinity last April has been released for download in English. T
The Agricultural Festival (ueki matsuri, 植木祭) will open Saturday at a new location due to the quakes. It used to be held on the Shirakawa riverbank, which was a great location; it then moved to Toshima, which was terrible. This year, it will be held at Jozan Park (Jozan Koen, 城山公園 - map at the link), which I hope will be an improvement. It's a good chance to catch a glimpse of plumb blossoms while enjoying a bowl of steaming horse offal stew (馬ホルモン煮込み - yum! My favorite!) Another, larger festival should open soon at Agricultural Park in Koushi Machi, but the JA Website is, typically, down, so I can't confirm the date. Spring is just around the corner!
http://kuma-uekiichi.com/
A note on terrible publicity concepts: Someone in our neighboring prefecture to the west, Nagasaki, who really at this point should be jobless, came up with this advertising slogan for JR (warning - NSFW): "Kiss my Nagasaki." Important here is that "Nagasaki" literally means "long peninsula" and the ad is accompanied by a photo of some boy band ... uh ... boys. It doesn't take Fellini to figure this out.
Fortunately, we in Kumamoto have our G-rated Kumamon. Any ideas on a G-rated mascot for Nagasaki? 99-Shimamon? - William
http://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/kissmynagasaki/
KISS MY NAGASAKI | JR九州
キスマイのメンバーが長崎をまるっとご紹介。それぞれが旅したマイナガサキや、ラッピングトレイン、TVCMなどの情報盛りだくさん！
From the department of things that make you wonder at humanity: vandalism. Two guide signs at Kumamoto Castle were discovered vandalized early yesterday morning. I'd guess a couple of drunk yahoos. Remember, if you ever see vandalism in progress, discretely dial 110 and report it to the police.
http://kumanichi.com/news/local/main/20170118003.xhtml
I got lunch at a little restaurant on Shimotori (downtown Kumamoto) last week, and noticed that there was a tiny area for non-smokers, while the rest of the restaurant allowed smoking. I've seen big changes in the provision of areas with clean air for non-smokers in Kumamoto in the 25 years that I've been here (it used to be much worse!) but the configuration of the restaurant made me realize that non-smokers were still being treated like a bothersome minority in some establishments. I hope the new law fixes the problem. (Apologies to smokers who like things the way they are.)
-- Kirk
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003462158
Bill brings ban on restaurant smoking
A smoking ban inside restaurants is one of the main pillars aimed at preventing damage from passive smoking (see below) in a draft revision to the Health Promotion Law, according to sources. It also allows for the installation of smoking rooms inside these facilities and imposes fines on serious vio...
Kind of the best thing about being an adult is that you can have weaker people do crazy stuff even for no reason (though it's a double-edged sword - one is seldom the lead dog for long). In Hitoyoshi, where it was at the time 2°C, adults decided it would be really fun to have a bunch of kindergarteners of ages Kumanichi reports to range from "0 to 6 years" run around shirtless over distances ranging from 20 to 1,110 meters. I'm guessing that the 20-meter course was reserved for the shirtless 0-year olds and that they didn't actually run, though the article does not clarify this; on the other hand, when you're zero and shirtless and the temperature is a scant 2° over your age, it's a good time to learn. This was reportedly the 38th time they've done this and might be a major factor in explaining rural depopulation. - William
http://kumanichi.com/news/local/main/20170116002.xhtml
A note regarding things you really don't want to do: Nankan Machi's fire department has a tradition dating back to 1882 of including in their year-opening drill ceremony a water battle in the middle of Kan River wearing nothing but an outfit called Edo hara (江戸腹 - Google it and be glad you're not them). The originating culprit for this torture was the introduction of the water pistol, called the ryudosui pump (龍吐水, りゅうどすいポンプ- literally, "dragon vomit water" - Google that, too; there were several types which vastly improved upon simply tossing buckets of water on flames). Video at the link.
And, yes - it is cold: -5°C downtown, according to our trusty thermometer, and not scheduled to get much warmer this week. Stay out of the water is my advice. - William
http://kumanichi.com/news/local/main/20170114007.xhtml
勇壮に伝統の放水合戦 南関町で消防出初め式－熊本のニュース│ くまにちコム
熊本日日新聞社が取材した熊本のニュース。新聞紙面に掲載前の記事もお伝えします。
Here's a notice about a teaching job:
"Freedom English School is looking for an English teacher to teach a Junior High School class approximately twice a month on Saturday mornings. The class runs from 10:30 to 12:15. The date of the first class is Saturday January 28th."
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/topics/13472
-- forwarded by Kirk
