Posts

William Due to an abundance of inattention (of which I have a plethora), I'd mistaken my 4th round of corona vaccine for the flu shot (the former is free - if you're a resident and haven't received the docs, contact your local public office). But that got me thinking: Is the covid vaccine effective against the flu?

Hosokawa clan old house open to visitors

Kirk here. The arrival of TSMC is, of course, bringing Taiwanese people to Kumamoto. The article I'm linking to discusses many ways in which preparations are being made for their arrival. One small aspect of that is Tsuruya stocking more Taiwanese food items that we can all enjoy.

William We've had some rough weather recently. Kumanichi reports on the first snow in Aso. Generally, the roads are clear enough to travel there without tire chains, but caution is advised.

Christmas donation party

Palestine Current situation facing Palestinians including Gaza and issues facing society

Kirk here. RKK reports that there was a demonstration of about 50 people in downtown Kumamoto today calling for an end to the attack on Gaza and a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Kirk here. Sometimes readers of the page kindly share essays and/or pictures with the editors. This essay and the pictures came from Gene Toda (Gene is on the left in the closeup photo). Thanks Gene! He generously shared many more photos with us but I picked out these two as "illustrations" for his essay.

Kirk here. The other day I posted a YouTube link to this ABEMA News segment featuring Kumamoto International's own Hari Devokta, talking about his meeting the other day with the mayor. I was amazed (and actually rather disappointed) to find the "reach" (number of viewers) of the post to be pretty dismal -- a measly 116 at this point. That makes it one of the least popular posts on this page. I'm reposting it now without the link (in order to avoid any suppression by the Facebook algorithm) to double-check to see if people really just aren't interested or if there's something about the Facebook platform that caused this to get ignored.

Kirk here. A big badminton tournament is currently underway here in Kumamoto.

Atsuko.

Kirk here: "TSMC will soon announce a plan to build its second wafer fab in Japan, according to industry sources. The fab will be involved in 6nm process manufacturing, and the Japanese government has pledged at least JPY750 billion (US$4.96 billion) in subsidies..."

Mifune autumn leaves celebration

POT LUCK PARTY Fundraiser - チーム トナカイ

NEWS FLASH: Kumamoto International editor Hari Devkota is really smart!!!

Clothing exchange

William Kumamoto National Hospital (https://kumamoto.hosp.go.jp/patients_attending_list.html) has history. During the Seinan War (which coincided with the American Civil War), it was carved out of the castle to "treat" those horribly wounded by muskets and shrapnel in an era before morphine (illustrated below). A good way to visit is to take the tram and walk up the hill; this gives an idea of what attackers were up against when faced by defenders.

Here's another video about the mayor speaking with foreign residents and the backlash on Twitter (X). Highly recommended if you understand spoken Japanese. -- Kirk

Kirk here posting about the much-ado-about-nothing regarding the meeting between Mayor Onishi and local foreigners. The illustration is one I found searching with "伝言ゲーム" (dengon game). Dengon means "message" and "dengon game" is the Japanese equivalent of "telephone game" in English.

William During the war, California was underpopulated and ill-prepared - and worried of a Japanese invasion. As preparation, a massive blimp container building was built near my hometown to house dirigibles capable of scouting the coast for Japanese warships.