Posts

The temperature in Kumamoto today is about 35 C (95 F). For other ideas about how to beat the heat (Magicool neck scarves, frozen bananas, etc.) see this thread from Kumamoto-i:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kumamoto-i/messages/12545?threaded=1&m=e&var=1&tidx=1
10 tips to help you survive the Japanese summer
Hot enough for ya!? Despite having enjoyed an extremely mild spring, summer in Japan has kicked off with the ferocity of a right-wing tiger with a bad case of hemorrhoids and a stinging mouth ulcer. If you're from more tropical climes and currently living in Japan you're likely wondering why everyon...

I mentioned the Miike Coal Mine and the Manda Pit in my previous post. Here's a page in English with more information.
http://www.kyuyama.jp/e/kyushuyamaguchi/ky_miike_02.html
The Modern Industrial Heritage Sites in Kyushu and Yamaguchi

This page is about four places in Kumamoto that are candidates to become World Heritage sites: Sakitsu in Amakusa (for its Hidden Christianity tradition), Misumi Port (Dutch architecture from 1887), Manda Pit (Miike Coal Mine), and Aso (the beauty of which derives from its agricultural traditions).
http://kumanago.jp/special/season/2013spring/index.html
春の天草・歴史と文化をめぐる旅 世界遺産登録めざして
熊本県の西南端、新鮮な海の幸やマリンレンジャーで知られる天草は、遠くヨーロッパから伝わった南蛮文化が栄えた土地でもあります。 宣教師養成機関「コレジヨ」の設置や、金属活字印刷機によるローマ字本の印刷など、キリスト教文化は天草で大きく花開きました。 「天草の崎津集落」は、世界遺産登録を目指す「長崎の教会群とキリスト教関連遺産」の構成資産に含まれています。 そんな歴史と伝統が息づく春の天草を訪ねました。

This is Mr. Takashi Morita. He's running from Kumamoto for national office in the current election. Like Abe and other conservatives he wants to change the constitution and strength Japan militarily. However, the reasoning behind the position his party has taken is rather unique. Mr. Morita belongs to the Happiness Realization Party. This party is affiliated with a religion called "Happy Science." Their position in favor of a strong military stance is in keeping with advice that, according to the English side of the website of the party / movement, Margaret Thatcher gave the leader of the religion from the grave. "Merely 19 hours after her death, Master Ryuho Okawa, the founder and CEO of Happy Science, invited Mrs. Thatcher’s spirit to the General Headquarters’ prayer hall to talk about her thoughts from Heaven. . . "
Ryuho Okawa: "We would like to receive your advice on the Japanese prime minister or us."
Thatcher: "If you felt some sort of fear of invasion from them, you must attack, of course."
"Them" refers to "North Korea and the red empire of China."
http://eng.the-liberty.com/2013/4397/

When Hello Kitty Met Pedobear: The Kumamon Craze
Brandchannel - always branding. always on.

Here the team responsible for a new (well, December of 2012) photovoltaic plant in Koshi;
http://www.juwi-shizenenergy.com/typo3temp/pics/4_b9ba26dd88.jpg
The location of is here:
http://goo.gl/maps/WwOjc
And here's the address of a company's web page about the project:
http://www.juwi-shizenenergy.com/projects.html

Soseki went to Britain after thanking friend for repayment - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--Famed Meiji Era author Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) left for Britain in 1900 for two years of study apparently relieved that a friend had finally paid off a debt.

Here's another video about Kumamoto-ben (Kumamoto dialect):
http://youtu.be/gchqsnfBZIQ
大好き！熊本弁Part２　～地域の宝・方言の魅力～

I think this exhibition is really worth seeing. Foujita (or Fujita) led quite a life. He was friends with Picasso and other leading artists in Paris. During the war, he threw himself into the production of arts works intended to further the war effort. After the way, under heavy criticism for his cooperation with the war effort, he return to France where he became a French citizen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuguharu_Foujita
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/03/national/kumamoto-shows-foujita-painting-of-unesco-fuji-site/#.UdNuQxac1K4
Kumamoto shows Foujita painting of UNESCO Fuji site
A museum in the city of Kumamoto opened an exhibition Tuesday showcasing nearly 120 works by Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968), including two oil paintings discovered last year. ...

The Branding of Kumamon: The Bear That Stole Japan’s Heart
These days, no character stands out more than Kumamon, the lumpy black bear mascot promoting rural Kumamoto prefecture in southern Japan.

This is a Japanese version of the following English post:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kumamoto-i/message/12595
熊本県と熊本市は、秋に行われる「水銀に関する水俣条約外交会議」で手伝う「語学ボランティア」の募集しています。まず、関連のリンクを紹介してから多少の補足説明をしたいと思います。
http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/site/suiginjoyaku-gaikoukaigi/volunteer-language.html
このページでは締切が7月1日になっていますが、ボラティアがまだ足りないので、今月の20日ごろまで延長されるそうです。
今日、私自身がコーディネーターの方から受け取った募集要項や申し込み用紙のpdfを次のリンクで入手できます。
http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~masden/2013/130702_volunteer/20130702214755.pdf
さて、補足説明として、次の点を強調したいと思います。
＊準備等の日程が合わなく諦めないでください。調整できるそうです。
＊英語の力に自信がなくとも、興味とやる気があれば、ぜひ申し込んでください。バックアップ体制がしっかりしていますので、言葉が通じないなどのような場合には、近くで待機しているプロが応援に来てくれます。
＊ボランティアは会議の全日程ではなく、自分にとって都合のいい日を事前にコーディネーターに伝え、その日だけボランティアをすることになります。
＊自分自身がボランティアできなくとも、ぜひこのメッセージを関心がありそうな友達とShareしてください。周知徹底の協力も重要なボランティアです。よろしくお願いします。

This major international conference will be held in Kumamoto in October. I'll post a message about the need for volunteers soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd post this link to try to raise awareness of about this major event.
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2702&ArticleID=9373
Minamata Convention Agreed by Nations - UNEP
Global Mercury Agreement to Lift Health Threats from Lives of Millions World-Wide

Mayor to travel to Japan
Mayor Julián Castro has accepted an invitation to be a featured speaker at the 11th annual Asian-Pacific City Summit on Nov. 1 in Kumamoto City, Japan. Castro will travel from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 for the trip as the guest of Kumamoto. The invitation came from the Kumamoto mayor, Seishi K...

This Tanabata festival will be going on from the 4th of July through the 7th at the Takamori Tunnel in Aso:
http://kumanago.jp/topics/?mode=detail&id=940
http://kumanago.jp/thumb.php?mw=300&mh=240&path=./topics/photo/1372229493.jpg

To Takamori Town by tram!

This page is in English but, somehow, the blurb you see below came out in Japanese. At any rate, the blog talks about how "bicycles can be taken on trains of Kumamoto Electric Railway for free" and how at "Kita Kumamoto Station where I changed a train I could finally see the 'greed frog'!!", etc.
http://kumanago.jp/en/blog/2013/06/26/the-train-with-wrap-advertising-of-keroro-gunso-so-called-a-green-frog.html
Blog Kumamoto Nagomi Tourism Site
「火の国」くまもとの雄大な自然の中でゆったりのんびりくつろぎませんか。くまもとの多彩な観光地、美味しい特産品や伝統ある工芸品、イベント、キャンペーン、グルメなど盛り沢山の情報をご紹介した熊本県観光サイト・なごみ紀行です。

PR Character “KUMAMON” to Participate in “Japan Expo” for First Time | 共同通信PRワイヤー
"KUMAMON," Kumamoto Prefecture’s PR character, will participate in "the 14th Japan Expo" to be held at Parc des Expositions de Paris Nord Villepinte (North Paris-Villepinte Exposition Park) in France to publicize Kumamoto. This will be KUMAMON’s first participation in Japan Expo.Japan Expo is the la...

Though this cover image is not of Kumamoto Castle, this article says that Kumamoto Castle has been ranked as number one of all of Japan's castles in a survey done by travel website TripAdvisor.
"Taking the top spot was Kumamoto Castle. Oddly enough, Kumamoto was the only member of the group traditionally referred to as “Japan’s Three Great Castles” in the top 20, as neither Osaka nor Nagoya Castle were chosen for the honor.
Visitors ranked Kumamoto highly for its watchtowers and sweeping stone foundation created by master castle designer Kato Kiyomasa. One visitor remarked that the building’s low ceilings and squeaking wooden nightingale floors, designed to alert guards to the presence of an intruder, made hum feel like he had slipped back in time to when the structure was first built, 400 years ago."
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/06/21/travelers-rank-japans-20-best-castles/
Travelers rank Japan’s 20 best castles
An often used device in explaining how crowded major Japanese cities are is to point out that the country has roughly half the population of the U.S. crammed into an area about the same size as California. But there’s another important statistic Japan also exceeds America’s most populous state in. W...

Coming this way . . .

Check out this page for more information:

http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com

I posted the following on the YahooGroups side of Kumamoto-i:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/05/national/minamata-recognition-criter\
ia-called-outrage/#.Ubxydxac1K6
Unfortunately, however, RSS Graffiti, which I've been using to forward items from YahooGroups to this page, isn't very reliable lately.
I wrote a bit about this article on Minamata disease and a parallel with the Fukushima issue on YahooGroups at the following address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kumamoto-i/message/12556
Minamata recognition criteria called outrage
The government must relax its strict criteria for officially recognizing victims of Minamata disease so more people can receive compensation, according to panelists at a symposium on the mercury-poisoning disease. ...