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Here's an update on something I posted earlier:
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Japanese Customs officials may have been especially suspicious because the 180 pills were not in their original prescription bottle. Inspectors found the unmarked container in a box of household supplies that Carrie Russell sent to herself in Nagoya in preparation for starting an English-teaching job there.
Jill Russell said she had repackaged the Adderall to protect against theft and to guard her daughter's privacy in Japan, where mental health conditions can be stigmatized.
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To say the least, this "protection of privacy" strategy backfired.
Again, this is not an issue unique to Kumamoto but of general interest to people who travel internationally.
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/03/oregon_woman_released_in_japan.html
Oregon woman released in Japan after being jailed for prescribed Adderall
A Japanese prosecutor freed Carrie Russell, 26, who had mailed herself a bottle of Adderall, which is illegal in Japan as an amphetamine.

The Japan Times article has the basic information but I'll add a quote from an e-mail announcement put out by the Kumamoto City International Foundation (Kumamoto City International Center):
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■“Hifuri-shinji” (shrine ritual) at Aso Shrine
“Hifuri-shinji” is a traditional ceremony which celebrates the marriage of deities.
People twirl flaming torches to celebrate. You can see beautiful loops of light.
Day and Time: Sat.,21st. Mar.
18:00~20:00
Place: Aso Shrine
Cost: free
Access: JR Kumamoto Station (boarding) → JR Miyaji Station (kick off)
*about 15 minutes on foot from the station, or please take Sanko Bus and get off “Aso Jinjya-mae”
For more information: Aso Shrine (TEL: 0967-22-0064) *Japanese language only
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/events/2015/03/02/things-to-do/traditional-festivals-things-to-do/hifuri-shinji-aso-shrine/
Hifuri-shinji at Aso Shrine - The Japan Times
Extensive listings — film, music, art, restaurants, things to do — for Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and other major cities in Japan.

It was recently announced that the Fukuoka's Kawaii-ku ("Cute Ward") project would come to a close:
http://fukuoka-now.com/news/fukuokas-kawaii-ku-cute-ward-to-be-discontinued/
I've followed this project from its inception so, when I first learned of its demise, I thought I would write an obituary of the project that built on what I had documented thus far. However, when I went back to check the record I found that part of it had been expunged. Here's the URL of the post from which commentary has been purged:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/10153927418840655
My original post remains in tact but Cute Ward Mayor Micaela Braithwaite's comments and my responses to those comments are gone. Fortunately for me (but, perhaps, unfortunately for Mayor Micaela) I saved the text and screen shots of our interaction. I'm sharing those screenshots in this post to reconstitute the public record of what transpired. I'm also adding a screen shot of a private (until now, at least) message I sent to Mayor Micaela, hoping to come to an amicable resolution. The mayor never responded to any of my comments or to my message. Perhaps she never noticed the private message I sent. Since she and I are not "friends" on Facebook, my message would have been put in a box that she might not look at. But it seems pretty clear that she revisited her own comments to my post at some point, because I think that she is the only person (besides me and another editor of this page) who would have been able to remove them.
At the time the mayor first wrote her comments, I felt that they reflected badly on her. She seemed to be rushing to go on the offensive without taking the time to reread what I had written and check to make sure that her criticisms were really warranted. Perhaps Mayor Micaela came to her senses later and recognized that her petulant comments did more harm to her own position than mine. Perhaps that's why she deleted her comments (and mine along with them). If she had approached me earlier as one human being to another (as I attempted to do with her), I would have let her off the hook and agreed to striking them from the record. At this point, though, I think I'll opt for an accurate record of what transpired.
I'll save my obituary of the Kawaii-ku project (that is, my discussion of the history of the project, including my interpretation of the switch from Mariko Shinoda to Micaela Braithwaite) for another post or two. I hope those of you who are interested in this issue will check it (or them) out.

First of all, the image just indicates that this post has to do with natural disasters; as far as I know, there isn't anything to worry about at the moment.
Here's a quote from the article that relates directly to Kumamoto:
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With this said, six prefectures, specifically Yamagata, Gunma, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, and Okinawa, appear not to have any foreign-language materials at the prefectural level. This lack of foreign-language materials is not directly related to the lack of foreign residents in the prefectures. Of these seven prefectures, ranking-wise, as a reflection of percentage of foreign residents versus Japanese citizens as of 2010 data, Toyama is the highest at 20th (at 1.006 percent) and Kumamoto is the lowest at 0.419 percent.
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This Facebook page is usually pretty quiet -- in most cases, just a few hundred pairs of eyeballs for each post. However, when a typhoon approaches or Aso is erupting, this page suddenly gets a lot more traffic. I think that's due in part to the lack of public sources in English that the article refers to.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/03/05/commentary/japan-commentary/disaster-information-vital-for-foreign-residents/
Disaster information vital for foreign residents | The Japan Times
The 20th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake in January and the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11 should prompt community leaders to ascertain their level of preparedness for future catastrophes including the need to get information out to in…

I posted about this earlier:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/787839287956172
This site (Japan Today) allows comments, though most of them are probably not worth reading.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/2-school-girls-hyperventilate-while-being-shown-is-documentary
2 school girls hyperventilate while being shown IS documentary
Two second-year high school girls in Kumamoto City hyperventilated during a panic attack while being shown a television documentary on…

This is not specific to Kumamoto, but people moving between countries (that is, legal systems) should be aware of this issue:
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/03/a_bottle_of_prescribed_adderal.html
A bottle of prescribed Adderall lands an Oregon woman in a Japanese jail
Japanese police officers arrested Carrie Russell on suspicion of smuggling amphetamines after finding Adderall in a shipment of household goods she sent from South Korea.

Among several venues is "Kumamoto Prefectural Athletic Stadium, Kumamoto Prefecture/Kumamoto City."
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2015/0302/684001-venues-announced-for-2019-rugby-world-cup/
Venues announced for 2019 Rugby World Cup
The stadium where Ireland beat Saudi Arabia 3-0 in the 2002 Soccer World Cup has been selected as one of the venues for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The article also includes a Google map showing the location.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201503030006
Fans of Soseki pushing to preserve novelist's last residence in Kumamoto - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--Fans of renowned Meiji Era (1868-1912) novelist Natsume Soseki are campaigning to preserve the last place he called home here before he moved to London to study.

Kumamon's marketing success wins praise:
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Consumers in Japan were not aware that Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, western Japan, is one of the country’s richest agricultural regions. Most were unaware that the prefecture is a top source of tomatoes, the nation’s favorite vegetable, nor did they know about recent efforts by prefectural authorities to brand Kumamoto the "red prefecture".
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http://www.prweek.com/article/1332949/bears-missing-cheeks-helped-agricultural-region
How a bear's missing cheeks helped an agricultural region

Today is the last day of business for Kumamoto Kenmin Hyakkaten (department store).
http://www.kenmin-dept.com
催事情報、フロアガイドなどの総合案内等。

Tickets for Tao's performances in Kumamoto on May 16 and 17 go on sale on March 1. The details are in Japanese -- sorry I don't have time to translate.
For more information see
http://www.drum-tao.com/main/archives/schedule?lang=en
and
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/784317488308352
世界600万人を動員！世界が認めた和太鼓を使ったエンターテイメントショー

I suspect that English teachers out there will enjoy this:
"With young learners, the first hurdle to get past was for them to not freak out about talking with someone from a different country. "
By the way, Seiha English Academy has quite a few schools in Kumamoto:
http://www.seiha.com/room/kyusyu.html
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/02/26/japans-craziest-ad-ever-english-school-commercial-as-likely-to-make-kids-terrified-as-bilingual/
Japan’s craziest ad ever? English school commercial as likely to make kids terrified as bilingual
The very first job that brought me to Japan as a gainfully employed adult was teaching at a private English school. While most of our customers were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, we also offered kids' classes, even for preschool-aged children. With young learners, the first hurdle to get past was for…

The connection of this article to Kumamoto is minimal, but those of you who are interested in Soseki will probably want to read it:
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“If I fail with this work, I would rather break off relations with you,” the aspiring novelist told Genji Shibukawa, chief of The Asahi Shimbun’s city desk, who got to know Soseki in Kumamoto Prefecture and urged the novelist to write for the newspaper.
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http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201502210033
Letter shows novelist Soseki struggling with 1st newspaper series - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
A newly discovered letter penned by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) shows that the literary giant had difficulty writing his first serial novel for The Asahi Shimbun.

Virtually the same article is available in Japanese:
http://kumanichi.com/news/local/main/20150225005.xhtml
The image is not from the video shown in class.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/02/25/national/kumamoto-school-criticized-for-showing-program-detailing-islamic-state-executions/
Kumamoto school criticized for showing program detailing Islamic State executions | The Japan Times
The Kumamoto board of education has criticized a high school in the city for poor judgment after it showed pupils a graphic television program about the Is

Facebook can be convenient but it also tends to be rather "hit and miss" -- you see posts that the algorithm has chosen for you and miss others. E-mail, on the other hand, gives you everything in the order it was sent so you know what you've looked at and what you haven't opened yet. If you would like to get posts from this Facebook page via e-mail, I recommend joining the Kumamoto-i group on YahooGroups. You can join by sending a blank e-mail to
[email protected]. Or, check out the following page:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/info
Also, whereas the information flow on this Facebook page tends to be unidirectional (mostly from me to you), the e-mail group makes it easy to send information directly to others interested in Kumamoto. For example, buy-and-sell offers frequently get started on the mailing list. Here's an example:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13135
Posted by Kirk

For information about a moving sale, full- and part-time teaching positions, and an intensive Japanese course, checkout the Kumamoto-i mailing list:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages

Female representation in Kumamoto's Prefectural Assembly is low:
"While all prefectural assemblies had at least one assemblywoman, Gifu, Kagawa and Saga assemblies had just one female member and Yamagata, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Ehime, Kochi and Kumamoto had two."
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201502230028
Survey: More than 20 percent of local assemblies lack female representation - AJW by The Asahi...
More than 20 percent of all 1,788 prefectural, municipal and ward assemblies in Japan have no female members, in stark contrast to 30 European nations where the ratio of assemblywomen exceeds 30 percent on average, an Asahi Shimbun survey found.

Joe Tomei here. This Saturday, 28 Feb, the KGU Green Philharmonic will have its annual concert in the Takahashi Morio hall on the KGU campus. The orchestra is playing Beethoven's Fidelio Overture, Movements 1, 4 and 5 from Khachaturian's Masquerade and Beethoven's 6th Symphony. I won't be playing this time, but will be in the audience. You can download a ticket at http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/circle/greenphil/concert/concert.html Hope to see you there!

Car for sale:
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Honda Odyssey Absolute, 2004 year ARA RB1 model, 2350 L, automatic, 136 000 km, Black, good condition, small scratches, half-leather seats. Shaken until May 16, 2015
Satellite-linked Navigation i.e.
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For details see
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/messages/13135
Yahoo! Groups

This article includes the following description of a project under construction in Yatsushiro:
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Solar Frontier has begun construction of a megasolar plant that uses mountings made from lumber, which is not the norm in Japan, the company reported. The plant is scheduled to begin generating power in May 2015.
High resistance to salt air damage and low thermal conductivity were important factors in choosing wooden mountings for this project. These characteristics will result in less damage from salt air in coastal areas and the effects of snow melting agents.
The wooden mountings also offer better resistance to the effects of heat under strong sun conditions. In addition, once the domestically sourced lumber has been dismantled at the end of its life, it can be used to power woody biomass power plants, thereby reducing the project’s environmental impact.
The project in the Yatsushiro region of Kumamoto Prefecture is being undertaken by SF Solar Power, a company jointly founded by Solar Frontier and the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ). The plant will leverage knowhow about wooden mountings from Xyence, the leaseholder and a specialist in wood preservation technology. The wooden mountings, made of Japanese timber, will comprise about 20% of all the mountings at the power plant facility.
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http://news.pv-insider.com/thin-film-pv/thin-film-intelligence-brief-10-%E2%80%93-24-february-2015
Thin Film Intelligence Brief 10 – 24 February 2015 | PV Insider