Posts

I didn't know that there was such an event in Hong Kong. :) -- Kirk

Kirk here with some geothermal news.

For Fortnite fans. -- Kirk

Joe Tomei here. In response to the almost audible cry for Funky Friday Finds, we will be dusting off the FFF desk and scheduling those posts. The next two months will be places in and around Ezuko and Kengun Jinja.

Letting students nap for a short time during the day strikes me as a very good idea. This enlightened approach is being practiced at Uto Junior and Senior High School. -- Kirk

Kirk here recommending that you check out this NHK World interview with Andrew Mitchell. NHK World videos don't usually stay up forever so take a look before it's taken down.

Kirk again. I've posted quite a few articles about the arrival of TSMC but this one has some new information you might want to check out. Major topics:

Kirk again, catching up with posts I should have made earlier. This one is advertising an opening for a homeroom teacher assistant of 5–6-year-olds. Please read the quoted text below:

Kirk here with a recommendation for people in need of a good lawyer who speaks English. The man whose image you see is KITAZATO Toshiaki. My wife needed some legal advice (NOT regarding how to divorce me, thank goodness ;) ) and decided to enlist his services. I first met him when my wife and I visited his office. It was only then that I learned that he had studied at Harvard Law School, which seems to be considered to be a pretty good place to study law -- at least that's what I hear. ;)

ミフネ古本市・大山鹿古本市

William Kumanichi reports that Mt Aso is acting up a bit and provides two lovely photos. The article describes a "fire phenomenon" in which high-temperature volcanic gas ejected from underground causes the walls of a crater to become red-hot. The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the eruption alert level from 1 to 2 (restrictions around the crater) and warned of risk of volcanic blocks and pyroclastic flows within a radius of about 1 km from the crater. Click on the photos for a better view.

Kirk back after a bit of an absence. Today I read that YAMAMOTO Riken has won the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The statement on the Pritzker website includes the following sentence: "As founder and principal of architecture studio Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, Yamamoto’s major works include Hotakubo Housing (1991) in Kumamoto, Japan, a complex of 110 units that share a central green space and adjacencies . . . " They listed the ken'ei jutaku (県営住宅; the low-cost housing development run by the prefecture) first!!

William Marijuana is a tricky subject. When I lived in China, I travelled to Manchuria and found wild plants growing the size of Christmas trees (though being wild, I found, they contained little THC). Legalization is spreading in America from medical marijuana to recreational use. I know from experience that, when my wife was dying from cancer and had lost her appetite, a THC-infused gummy would have helped her immensely.

Ireland's Saint Patrick's Day parade in Kumamoto

William A nice thing about having my daughter (who is Higokko to the core) home is that she does the shopping and buys stuff I wouldn't know about.

NPO法人 外国から来た子ども支援ネットくまもと 相談会

Kirk here with an inquiry from our friends Chuck and Julie Waterman:

I may have mentioned this before, but this article says that "Taiwan's CTBC Bank has operated in Japan for a decade and recently expanded to Kumamoto to capture demand related to the chip industry boom." It also presents an overview of the huge investments being made here. -- Kirk

ORUGATTA SOUDAN - 新学期準備相談会

Here's a video (TV news report) of some students from Kumamoto University and the Prefectural University of Kumamoto making wagashi, tasting halal dagojiru, and talking about places to see and things to do in Kumamoto. The narration is in Japanese but the students all speak in English. -- Kirk