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The majority of roof tiles having sloughed off the donjon of Kumamoto Castle has left the underlying wood exposed to elements and bird poo-poo, which contains many seeds. These seeds have sprouted, leaving the donjon roof covered with weeds. Kumanichi quotes one visitor as exclaiming, "It looks like a fallen castle! What a painful sight!" A castle official explained that the donjon is in such a precarious state that even a safety inspection cannot be conducted, so at the moment, there is nothing to be done. - William
http://kumanichi.com/news/local/main/20160705004.xhtml
天守閣、夏草生い茂る　熊本城－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。

Sadly, an old friend of Kumamoto-i is moving as a result of the earthquakes:
---- start quote ----
Now settling into our new rooms and find that we have a variety of sound
systems that need new homes.
http://gaijin-eyes.com/testrunning/ki/quake.html
3 systems for computers and 1 for TV etc.
Not happy with the prices being asked?
Contact us and we can discuss raising or lowering them . . . . :-)
Regards
Douglas
---- end quote ----
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13363
Yahoo! Groups

Japanese classes will begin soon at the International Center.
This information comes from the Kumamoto City International Center Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/kcic.kif/
-- Kirk
P.S. The flier says "non-Japanese persons with minimal Japanese ability" but I'm pretty sure this is a mistake. I looked at the Japanese and it says "non-Japanese persons who want to learn the basics of Japanese" (日本語の基礎を学びたい外国人の方). (日本の方への解説： "minimal Japanese"というと「最低限の日本語力」のような意味になります。つまり、「ある程度基礎ができていないと受講できない」と捉えかねない表現です。"Japanese for Beginners"と矛盾するようなニュアンスがあります。)

A note from the Kumamoto International entomology desk: Know your cicada.
Called "semi" in Japanese, cicada spend all but the last week of their lives as nymphs some two meters underground, sucking up tree root sap for subsistence. Most Japanese cicada species have a life cycle of two to five years, though some in North America spend 17 years as nymphs before their final glorious week in the sun. Climate cues - sudden dryness and heat following rainy season - encourage the nymphs to emerge en mass (not, as I'd originally thought, a "semi conductor"), generally at night to avoid predators as they are immobilized for a few hours while their exoskeleton and wings dry. (The link has a short video of this.) During this time, while they may snack on sap using their scary-looking but utterly harmless proboscis, their drive is to find a mate.
The males generally don't travel far, spending their time trying to out-shout each other to attract females; females do not produce sound. Unlike most noise-producing insects, cicada do not produce noise by stridulation but by noisemakers called tymbals, located below each side of the anterior abdominal region, which are basically drum-heads sounded by contracting and relaxing internal muscles - kinda like if you could attract a mate by producing a huge amount of noise flexing your abdominal muscles ten times per second.
The some 30 types of cicada in Japan are discernable by their calls; the more common types are the "minminzemi" (which goes "min min min" 「ミーンミンミンミンミー……」) and the "aburazemi" (which goes "ji ji ji" 「ジジジジジ……」) - though I suppose each call could be translated as "Hey baby! Hey baby!". The link mid-way lists different cicada types and calls - entertaining. Catching cicada is a popular past time for Japanese children (but not so popular for the sex-driven, time-constrained captives themselves), who are generally able to distinguish between these two types for you if you ask. For those unused to cicada, do not panic: they may look like flying stogies with needle-like proboscis, but they are completely harmless. - William
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BB%E3%83%9F#.E3.81.8A.E3.82.82.E3.81.AA.E7.A8.AE

And just like that, rainy season is over! There has been no official announcement yet, but the appearance today of cumulus clouds (積雲、sekiun) are a dead giveaway. The end of rainy season does in no way mean the end of rain, of course; in many ways, summer rain is more difficult to predict. Sudden heavy thundershowers particularly in the evening are common.
An interesting Japanese term which has somewhat entered English is "guerrilla rainstorm", which you can read about at the link. In particular, heat islands centered on urban areas can lead to updrafts which then draw in abundant surrounding moisture to produce very localized sudden downpours. So don't put away your umbrellas just yet.
(By the way, Typhoon One was just spawned near the equator. Its path is not yet clear, but keep an eye on it towards the weekend.) - William
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_rainstorm
Guerrilla rainstorm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A guerrilla rainstorm (ゲリラ豪雨, gerira gō'u?) is a Japanese expression used to describe a short, localized downpour of over 100 mm of rain per hour caused by the unpredicatable formation of Cumulonimbus cloud. The term is often used by the Japanese media in reporting upon such events, but does not hav...

We just had an earthquake. The highest level reported on the JMA site was 3. The magnitude was 3.9.
-- Kirk
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/6/20160703165533495-031651.html

Yesterday, I attended a welcome party for foreign students at local universities. A police officer (not in uniform, as shown in the picture ;) ) attended and advised the students to call 110 if they were ever to need emergency help. He explained that even if there were a language problem the police would be able to identify the location from which you had made the call and send officers to assist you. So, if you were in a situation where you needed immediate assistance (e.g. you were injured in car accident, were the victim of a crime, stranded as a result of a natural disaster, etc.), merely calling 110 and saying "Help me" would be enough.
-- Kirk

Here's some information from the Kumamoto YWCA about a Summer Program for KIDS that will be held on July 17th (Sunday). Thanks to Sayoko Ono for sharing this with us.
-- Kirk

Faster internet would be nice . . .
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/07/01/business/broadband-get-faster-via-japan-oregon-cable/
Broadband to get faster via Japan-Oregon cable | The Japan Times
An undersea cable backed by Google and Asian companies aimed at boosting trans-Pacific broadband was put into service on Thursday, the consortium announced

Here's another article about the retrial in a case that may prove to have been based on a coerced confession.
-- Kirk
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607010060.html
Kumamoto man, 83, wins retrial after serving 13 years for murder：The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--With his frail body in a wheelchair and his mind wracked with dementia, a teary-eyed Koki

The link below is to a site which contains Youtube clips of 25 movies or commercials which take place in Kumamoto, starting from an "Otoko ha Tsurai" view of Amakusa back in 1973 (that's the only one I've watched so far, but it was very entertaining). Locations are written in Japanese under each clip. That they'd neglected to include the time Godzilla ate the former Kotsu Center is amazing; I'll try to find the video and post it below later. - William
http://kumamo.jp/post-375/
熊本はロケ地の宝庫だった！熊本が舞台やロケ地になった映画25本！ | クマモ
熊本出身の映画監督、行定勲監督の熊本を舞台にした短編映画「うつくしいひと」が震災前の熊本の美しい姿を写したショートフィルムとして再評価されていますね。 そこで、今回は熊本を舞台にした映画を紹介します。

If you're a budding chef with a penchant for Asian food, this store will be your number one location for sourcing international ingredients. Kumamoto's Asian Food Shop (located on Route 3) is a treasure trove of delicious dishes just waiting to happen, not to mention the ready-to-go food like frozen jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) and baozi (Chinese filled steamed buns). Support Local and cook yourself something delicious while you're at it!
Thanks,
- Celia
http://promotekyushuproject.blogspot.jp/2016/07/kumamotos-asaian-food-shop.html
Promote Kyushu Project: Kumamoto's Asian Food Shop

"'Mr. Miyata might have made up the story,' presiding Judge Yoshihisa Mizokuni said in the court decision, adding his confessions could have been the result of 'adjusting' to the views of investigators."
Kumamoto has been the site of several cases involved confessions that were later shown to have been forced. The most famous is that of MENDA Sakae:
"In 1983, after 80 judges had been involved in Menda’s half-a-lifetime of struggle, a court finally acknowledged the police had concealed his alibi that he was not at the scene of the crime. With that, Menda — by then 54 years old — became the first person to ever escape Japan’s death row (three others, all tortured into confessing, have since been released)."
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2007/04/08/to-be-sorted/one-who-has-lived-to-tell-the-tale/
-- Kirk
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/06/30/national/crime-legal/court-retry-man-convicted-1985-kumamoto-murder/
Court to retry man convicted of 1985 Kumamoto murder | The Japan Times
The Kumamoto District Court on Thursday decided to retry an 83-year-old man who served a prison term for fatally stabbing an acquaintance in 1985. The cour

Claims paid for Kumamoto Prefecture quake 317 billion yen to date
The General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ) reports that claims paid in the wake of the Kumamoto earthquake in mid-April totalled 317 billion yen, or about US$3.1 billion, as of June 20. Specifically, there have been 239,749 inquiries made, 222,981…

After the quakes, Minami Aso in April set up a program called "empty house bank" in order to utilize the unused residences and vacation homes in the area to house locals whose homes are uninhabitable. In particular is an urge to prevent "people drain," wherein locals flee temporarily only never to return. Houses available for immediate occupancy are most sought, but those needing repair can be aided by a 30% subsidy of up to 6 million yen. House loan agreements are up to two years with a possible purchase option following.
Unfortunately, only one property has registered to date. The village is renewing its call for owners of under-utilized property as well as for local residents who are interested in taking advantage of it to register by calling the following number: ０９６７（６７）２２３０ Any on this site who know people with property in the area might want to let them know of the existence of this program. - William
http://this.kiji.is/121070314055370237?c=92619697908483575
みなし仮設に利用　空き家、空き別荘登録呼びかけ　南阿蘇村 - 熊本日日新聞
　熊本県南阿蘇村が、４月から始めた「空き家バンク」への空き家や空き別荘の登録を呼び掛けている。熊本地震の被災者に、みなし仮設住宅として利用してもらい、人口流出の抑制につなげたい考えだ。 　入居の対象は住宅が半壊以上の被害を受けた人などで、村...

The weather has cleared up in Kumamoto. Unless I am unaware of some major development, Kumamoto did not suffer a serious setback in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for some other areas in Kyushu. The following video is of house in Nagasaki City at the moment of its collapse.
-- Kirk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8vZVR-BrUk
長崎市内住宅 轟音とともに崩壊
2016年6月30日木曜日 長崎市内の住宅が崩壊

Here's a little video that reminds us that Kumamoto is not all doom and gloom. This time-lapse video was recorded this past Sunday at Okoshiki Beach by my friend, Jim Reitz.
-- KIrk
https://vimeo.com/172747119
Okoshiki Beach, Japan
The receding tide leaves behind beautiful sand bar patterns in southern Japan.

This video includes samples of a new movie, made with computer graphics, that shows what Kumamoto Castle looked like in the Edo period.
-- Kirk
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20160622/k10010565301000.html

Sorry for the delay in sharing this . . .
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/10153818884688935
#2【みやがわ時計店 店主 宮川幸二さん】Kouji Miyagawa - Owner of Miyagawa Clock Shop-
阿蘇神社の参道にある仲町商店街。数多くある店の中で、一番阿蘇神社に近い場所で時計店を営む宮川幸二さん。本震のあった夜のことや商店街の話を伺いました。 The Nakamachi shopping street leads up to Aso Shrine.Among the other shops on the ...

Here's a post to Kumamoto International that was made several weeks ago. I regret having failed to share it.
Click here to support KUMAMOTO EARTHQUAKE 59 RELIEF FUND by Shinri Endo
Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan, was struck by a magnitude-7.3 earthquake on 16th April 2016, barely 24 hours after a previous shock of 6.5. The footage of the destructive power revealed the catastrophic events: toppled buildings and collapsed houses, the severely damaged Kumamoto Castle, a...