Posts

William I had the pleasure of living in Taiwan twice, once for a month as a college freshman with a paltry three months of Chinese language and history study to shakenly rely on; second following graduation for 18 months, after which I came on a one-way ticket to Japan by freighter with $100 and a phone number. I learned much about Taiwan and retain a deep love for the country.

Kirk here with more TSMC-related news. The article says that "TSMC's new fab in Kumamoto, Japan, scheduled to open on February 24, has already had a positive impact on the local housing market." Well, I guess if you have housing that you want to rent or sell the tight housing market might be good for you but I'm rather surprised to see the housing shortage portrayed as a "positive impact." I would agree, though, that it's good that the number of flights between Kumamoto and Taiwan will increase.

Earlier today I posted about the scandal that a prefectural assembly member may have bet on golf. That made me wonder why various kinds of gambling are OK in Japan and others not so. This article gives a good answer in my view. -- Kirk

Kirk here was news about MASUNAGA Shin'ichro, a member of the Prefectural Assembly. He's accused of being involved in an extramarital affair and betting on golf. Granted, if true, the allegations are problematic. But, what about bigger scandals that have been swept under the rug? I'm thinking of MIZOGUCHI Koji, the politician who introduced the Moonie-sponsored bill called the "Kumamoto Home Education Support Ordinance" (くまもと家庭教育支援条例), leading it to become the first Unification-Church-related law of it's kind to be passed in Japan. I'll link to a page on Mr. Mizoguchi site where he explains his reasons for supporting the Moonie-sponsored ordinance (without, of course, mentioning his connections to the Unification Church). There's much more I could say about this guy but suffice it to say that, for some reason, deep corruption in the form of connections to the Unification Church is viewed as a less serious matter than betting on golf and infidelity to your spouse. Go figure!

Another article from Kumamoto Scoop. -- Kirk Masden

Kirk here. Any of you been looking at the "Kumamoto Scoop" website? I just learned about it, ironically from a Japanese-language article reporting on this site with information for foreigners. Here's the article that's listed as its most popular. I'm particularly pleased to find this article because the spa is quite near where I live. :)

Kirk here with information about an exhibition that is in progress and the Contemporary Art Museum of Kumamoto.

TSMC Kumamoto Facility Opening Ceremony

William "Otsukaresama" to all of our friends who participated in today's marathon. Those with stories and/or photos to share, please PM us and we will ensure that your voice is shared.

Liz here. I am posting the translation of a post made earlier this weekend by Noriko Kimoto , a tea ceremony teacher here in Kumamoto. I think most foreign residents are familiar with Shirakawa Park downtown , next to the police station, but you may not know about the historically and culturally important tea house that sits quietly in the back corner of the park. I had the good fortune to attend a tea ceremony event by Kimoto sensei last year.

William I don't get out much but visited the Gusto in Kuhonji for lunch and was quite surprised to be served by robots. It was no gimmick - one orders by tablet, the food is delivered by robot, and the only human interaction is when you're seated and when you pay. It was quite pleasant, actually. Is this the new normal that I've been missing out on?

Kirk here. Click on the photo to see a slideshow of some of the ways in which Tsujunkyo was lit up.

Kirk reporting that Amakusa used to have some BIG critters running around: "It is the largest jawbone of a carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Japan, according to experts."

Michaela here - Thanks to Kuma Visit for the post that the Kumamoto Marathon is being held this Sunday. As the map indicates there will be some impacts in terms of road closures and public transport routes particularly in town.

William Reihoku is a peninsula tipped by a large hill on Amakusa island, formerly known as Tomioka until it merged with several nearby villages. It even has a small castle, built in 1601 atop the hill, which came in handy in 1637, when rebels from Shimabara crossed the sea and attacked during the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion. It takes less than an hour to walk every small fork on the one road that crosses the tip; here and there are sandy beaches with fair-to-good water quality. Its small but deep harbor offers ferry service to Shimabara. For Amakusa fans, the sleepy town is a must-visit both for its past and present.

Kirk here with a call to foreigners to improve their manners. The illustration you see was added by the Kumanichi to a letter to the editor from a woman who wrote to complain. One problem brought up in the letter was a group of people gathering with bicycles on the sidewalk in a way that made it hard for other pedestrians to get by. Granted, that's not very considerate behavior. The other complaint (and what you see in the illustration) was about foreigners talking loudly on a bus and taking selfies. OK, having lived here a long time, I recognize that most Japanese people like for their bus rides to be quiet. However, I was very interested to hear from a Chinese student who gave a little presentation in a class of mine on "bus riding culture" that she found buses in Japan to be a bit too quiet. She said she actually preferred to hear people enjoying conversation and found the typical silence on Japanese busses to be a bit stifling.

Kirk here. Morris Chang is a huge figure in the history of microchips. He is originally from mainland China then emigrated to the U.S., where he eventually became a vice president of Texas Instruments. Chang's perception that racism would prevent him from moving any higher in the U.S. company is one consideration that led to his move to Taiwan in 1983. In Taiwan, his decision to separate semiconductor manufacture from chip design (TSMC focuses on manufacture) was an important factor in TSMC's success.

Kirk here. This article says that the Ministry of Education is pushing public high schools to create special entrance exams etc. for foreign students to make it easier for them to continue their education. Kumamoto is one of the prefectures in that is in compliance. The prefectures in light green have not made a special entrance exam system to help foreigners but conduct interviews with individual students wishing to study at a high school (presumably, in lieu of an exam). The prefectures in grey are not taking either type of action to accommodate foreign students.

Happy Valentine's Day from Kumamoto.

Hi! Kirk here with a repost and addendum to a post I made a while ago about "Hi no kuni" ("land of fire" vs. "land of fat"). I'm afraid I had forgotten since posting about how learning a bit about these old "countries" (kuni) in Kyushu (Higo vs. Kumamoto, etc.) also helps one understand how Kyushu (literally "nine states"; 九州) got its name. If you count the number of prefectures that make up Kyushu today it's not nine but seven. That's because two "countries" to our south (Satsuma and Okuma) were combined to make what is now Kagoshima, "Hizen" was divided into Nagasaki and Saga, and the three "countries" of Chikuzen, Chikugo and Buzen (its western half) to our north were combined to make Fukuoka, thus resulting in a total of seven prefectures. Only Higo (Kumamoto) and Hyuga (Miyazaki) survived the transition from "countries" (kuni or han) to "prefectures" (ken) with little or no change in boundaries.