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Beginning on the 11th of April, there will be an exhibit on special effects in Japanese cinema at the Contemporary Art Museum of Kumamoto (CAMK). Some of the installations will allow you to insert yourself as a monster and take a selfie -- perfect for Facebook users. :)
Here's the address of the museum:
http://www.camk.or.jp

Here's a video promoting onsen in Kumamoto:
https://youtu.be/9BVFFnv_gLw
「お風呂で歌えば」 つじあやの
２６人の女子たちが、すっぴん、湯上がり、自撮りで出演！ シンガーソングライター・つじあやのさんが歌うふろモ課公式ＰＲソング「お風呂で歌えば」ふろモーションビデオ、公開中！ ふろモ課公式サイト http://fromotion-ka.com -------------------------------------...

I found this jogging in Kumamoto earlier this year:
"Delinquent kids are the result of parents who are too soft and/or scold too much."
On the one hand, as a parent I can appreciate the idea that, if there's a problem, parents shouldn't just blame the kid but should reflect on their own roles. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the reflexive tendency to blame everything on the parents when something goes wrong; I think it gives short shrift to the agency of the child and a wide variety of factors that are beyond the control of the parents.
This sign strikes me as rather cruel to parents who, despite having done their best, have kids who get in trouble in some way -- and promoting a smug, holier-than-thou attitude among parents whose kids stay out of trouble.
My two yen -- by Kirk

There's a special word in Japanese for cherry blossoms viewed at night: yozakura; 夜桜. Here's a photo of the Isshingyo tree in Aso lit up at night. It's from the following site:
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~hsonoda/essey-2003-4.htm
If you would like more informatioin about this tree, which is said to be over 400 years old, go to
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/804362489637185

A friend of mine posted a little review of this restaurant on his/her Facebook page:
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If you like veggies, it's pretty good, cause you can rip through the buffet, though you need to get early. We were there at 11:30 on a monday. Don't know what the evening is like, but roughly across the street is Reef, an outstanding burger place. https://www.facebook.com/pages/%EF%BC%B2eef/141214769381582
--- end quote ---
The post was private (just friends), so I'm reposting the content.
Posted by Kirk
Other reviews, suggestions, or questions about places to eat are welcome.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/野菜倶楽部-Belle-Vege-Cafe/1382497915333745

"The police on Monday turned over their case to prosecutors on Safety Inc., one of the three name list companies, and its 45-year-old president, on suspicion of selling the data to an education service company in Kumamoto Prefecture, knowing the data had been illegally obtained."
I have some familiarity with these so-called "education service companies" in Kumamoto. For example, the elementary school we sent our children to stopped having parents make up lists with the phone numbers of other parents in the same class because the slime-bag "education service companies" kept finding ways to steal the data (in some cases by impersonating other parents on the phone and asking for numbers) and then flooding parents with calls trying to get them to enroll their kids in various juku. They got me really angry. This incident with Benesse was big but the same kind of thing has been going on for years on a smaller scale and, for reasons I don't fully understand, the "education service companies"
have continued to operate with impunity.
By the way, since the "education service companies" routinely abuse the private information of parents, why not publish the name of the company in this article? Why the sudden concern about the company's "privacy"?
This rant has been brought to you by Kirk :)
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/30/business/corporate-business/benesses-data-went-500-firms/
Benesse’s data went to 500 firms | The Japan Times
Customer information copied by a systems engineer from Benesse Corp. was leaked to more than 500 companies through name-list traders, police said Monday. P

The Kumamon juggernaut continues . . .
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/world/511006/japan-kumamon-product-sales-grow
Japan Kumamon product sales grow
KUMAMOTO, JAPAN — Sales in 2014 of products featuring Kumamoto prefecture's popular Kumamon black bear mascot rose 1.4 times from the previous year to at least 64.3 billion yen (17.5 billion baht), the prefectural government said.

Even Kumamon has his problems . . .
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/kumamon-demoted-for-being-too-fat
Kumamon demoted for being too fat
Kumamon, the popular black bear mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture, has been demoted for being too fat. The mascot, created as…

This article may be of interest to those of you who bank at Higo Ginko. For an article about the overall trend, of which this merger is a part, see
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150323p2a00m0na009000c.html
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002040743
2 Kyushu banks reach final accord on integration
KUMAMOTO (Jiji Press) — Regional lenders Higo Bank and Kagoshima Bank have reached a final agreement to integrate their operations under a joint holding company on Oct. 1.

--- start quote ---
The MSU museum already has a sister museum relationship with the Mifune Dinosaur Museum in the Kumamoto Prefecture and regularly sends staff to Japan to assist with exhibits, train museum workers in fossil preparation, and speak to area groups. The executive director and chief curator of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum in Kumamoto visited Bozeman in 2013. The Museum of the Rockies has also sent a dinosaur exhibit through Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, attracting more than 800,000 visitors during its 2011-2014 tour.
The Feb. 24 Memorandum of Understanding – signed by McKamey and Ikuo Kabashima, governor of the Kumamoto Prefecture – indicates that more collaborations are ahead.
--- end quote ---
http://www.montana.edu/news/15468/museum-of-the-rockies-montana-s-sister-state-in-japan-agree-to-strengthen-bonds
Museum of the Rockies, Montana’s sister state in Japan agree to strengthen bonds
Administrators for the Museum of the Rockies and the Kumamoto Prefecture recently signed a three-year agreement to strengthen their relationship and look for more ways to collaborate.

"According to the hot spring area's local tourism association, the koinobori festival, which will be held from April 1 through May 6, started more than 30 years ago. It is one of the major festivals flying carp banners in Japan in terms of both size and history, the association said."
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201503300063
PHOTO: Schools of 'flying carp' swimming in wind signal spring in Kumamoto - AJW by The Asahi...
OGUNI, Kumamoto Prefecture--Thousands of colorful “koinobori” carp streamers are swimming in the skies above the Tsuetate hot spring resort here to herald the arrival of spring.

Most of this video put out by Kumamoto University focuses on what makes Kumamoto a nice place to live and study.
https://youtu.be/97S964eXROQ
Act Now! Kumamoto University for International Students
「Act Now!」は、留学を考えている世界中の学生を対象に日本そして熊本の魅力をお伝えする動画です。登場する風光明媚な風景もすべて熊本で撮影されました。熊本大学への留学を考えるきっかけになることを切に願っています。

Here's something that was posted to this page a few minutes ago by Paul Beaufait:
--- start quote ---
Facebook searches I've tried have failed to turn up anything like this, so I'd like to share a pointer to a site where you can sign-up for email disaster alerts in Japanese for Kumamoto City:
https://www2.fastalarm.jp/kumamoto/htdocs/ (熊本市災害情報メール)
Once you submit an email address (via the topmost link), and follow the link in a follow-up message that you'll receive, you'll need to make selections from a variety of menu options: some quite fine-grained (e.g.: earthquakes filtered by intensity and location), and others not-so (e.g.: volcanic eruptions throughout the archipelago).
One morning last week, for example, I received an air-quality alert for high concentrations of fine particulate matter (< 2.5 µ), and another as soon as the concentrations diminished.
--- end quote ---
Thanks Paul! This is a good service. I think it shouldn't be too terribly difficult for the city to make versions of it in other languages (the phrases needed could be pre-programmed so that the messages could be generated more-or-less automatically) but for now we only have Japanese.
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/467992026683385

The graphic, taken from the web (https://pixta.jp/illustration/7017579), illustrates the controversy over the differing "weight" of votes in different parts of Japan. If two districts both elect one representative to the national government but one district has a larger population than the other, the votes cast by people in the larger district "weigh" less:
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The Fukuoka High Court, in its Wednesday decision, ruled that the elections in the constituencies of Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Oita and Kumamoto prefectures were “unconstitutional” but did not go as far as to invalidate the results.
--- end quote ---
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/03/29/editorials/letting-popular-will-prevail/
Letting popular will prevail | The Japan Times
Political parties and lawmakers should not put off trying to resolve the vote-value gap between the nation's electoral districts just because recent high court rulings on the matter have been inconclusive.

Here are some pictures of the festivities in Kengun yesterday. Next year, I'll try to let everyone know about this in advance. See also
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/804358952970872

The photo is from the following article about karate training in Kumamoto:
http://www.thevanguard.ca/Sports/2015-03-26/article-4090703/Milton-Bourque-off-to-Japan-for-highlevel-karate-training/
--- start quote ---
Bourque, a fifth-degree black belt in the Chito-ryu style and chief instructor of the Mukashi Karate club in Yarmouth County, was interviewed March 23, two days before he was scheduled to leave for Kumamoto, Japan, where he was planning to spend a couple of weeks training.
Bourque and Mitchell German, a Clare native living in the Halifax area, are the only two Nova Scotians who made the trip. In Japan they would get to train with Soke Sensei, the supreme instructor for the Chito-ryu style of karate.
--- end quote --
The Chito-ryu has come up on this page several times in the past. See, for example,
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/777968468943254
and
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/10153910578375655
You can find a brief summary of some of the history of this school of karate here:
http://bcchitokai.com/history.html
If you read Japanese, check out the following page:
https://ja-jp.facebook.com/pages/%E4%B8%80%E8%88%AC%E8%B2%A1%E5%9B%A3%E6%B3%95%E4%BA%BA-%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E5%8D%83%E5%94%90%E6%B5%81%E7%A9%BA%E6%89%8B%E9%81%93%E9%80%A3%E7%9B%9F/255418737997021

Arao has a very attractive and informative English website:
http://arao-kankou.jp/language/english/

Here's a photo of the cherry blossoms that I took near my home yesterday.
Posted by Kirk

I'm not sure, but I think this may be a first: The advertisement of a house for sale on Kumamoto-i.
--- start quote ---
We are moving, and our home of 12 years is for sale. It has had many improvements done over time. There are two kitchens and various separate living spaces--also a large separate office. There are five upstairs bedrooms, and parking for 5 cars. Suitable for a school, large family, two separate families, etc. A photo walk-through is available: http://bit.ly/1CQCcTZ
Located in Minami-Kumamoto (just south of Rte. 57), about a 20 minute drive to the castle. If interested, p;lease contact Ann by email:
[email protected]
You are welcome to view the house (Miukinishi 1-14-18) by appointment.
--- end quote ---
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13191
Yahoo! Groups

I recently happened upon the results of the 19th “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition sponsored by Kumamoto City. As you can see, awards are given for submissions in English as well as in Japanese. The Japanese side of the website says that the detail regarding this year's competition will be announced on June 1st.
Posted by Kirk
http://kusamakura-haiku.jp/backnumber/2012/english_e.html