Kirk here with a post about reducing environmental mercury. This has a strong connection to the Minamata disease issue but will impact people throughout Japan.
Posts
Kirk here with some images from an RKK segment on four young women from Myanmar who are working in a facility for elderly people. It includes footage from an event in which they spent some time talking about their work and experiences with local high school students.
Kirk here with an article about work by a local professor. If you're interested in studying Japanese, you can click on "Japanese version" to see the original.
Kirk again! Here's a share from Kuma Visit. I'll be interested to learn about the feedback that Kuma Visit gets. :)
Kirk here with the results of a survey question directed to residents of Kumamoto. Here's a translation of the question:
Kirk here. Each year, Saishunkan Seiyakusho puts on a winter light show. The location is the East Bypass (Higashi Bypass) in the Obiyama area. The light show has already started this year and will last until the 25th. I'll put citations and other information in comments.
Kirk here with some statistics on "foreign workers" in Kumamoto. The category of "foreign worker" includes people like me (I'm a worker in the educational sector) but would not include foreign students at my university. I'm not completely sure but I think that the foreign children (those without Japanese citizenship, even if born here) may account for rest of the gap between the total foreign population (now nearly 20,000) and the approximately 15,000 figure in the report.
William with a heartwarming experience: I ran into my daughter's (who is now 26 and lives in Tokyo) kindergarten teacher, who remembered her and my family.
Kirk here. Former professional baseball player Bobby Rose will come to Kumamoto to coach the Hinokuni Salamanders. If you should happen to read this, Mr. Rose, welcome to Kumamoto!
Kirk here with something about the foreign Kumamoto in Kumamoto. The article says that the number of foreigners living in Kumamoto (those with a zairyu [residence] card) is roughly 20,000, about twice what it was 10 years ago.
William Obviously, I would never claim to have any particular knowledge of sword smithy except for one interesting fact I learned long ago: Japanese swords were made from blended levels of steel, with a more malleable core which provided flexibility and a more brittle exterior which held quite an edge. A friend of mine once showed me a sword dating from the Muromachi period: it's blade were like rings on a tree.
Kirk here. The TSMC news just keeps coming. The latest is that TSMC is considering building a third factory in Kumamoto to manufacture 3 nanometer chips! I'll put links to various articles in a comment.
Sean here -
Kirk here. Coming up soon.
William This has little to do with Kumamoto other than it is Japan-related (and Tokyo-centric), yet it still hits a chord: A self-acknowledged pudgy junk-food addicted British guy tries to analyze life in Japan (one of a long series):
SL Hitoyoshi birthday run
Kirk here. Tomorrow is "Labor Thanksgiving Day" （勤労感謝の日; kinrou kansha no hi）in Japan and "Thanksgiving Day" in the U.S. This coincidence made me wonder if it had something to do with the U.S. occupation of Japan and the imposition of American sensibilities on the country. I Googled the topic and found that the answer is "well, yes, in a way, but it wasn't just a matter of importing the U.S. holiday."
Kirk here with a little more about TSMC.
Kirk here with a nice post from Jeff about swordsmith Matsunaga, shared with permission.
William Bit of sad news about an abandoned corpse of a mother in Amakusa. https://japantoday.com/category/crime/72-year-old-man-arrested-after-remains-of-mother-found-buried-in-vacant-lot
