Posts

Kirk here with something for people interested in improving their Japanese. As you can see, NHK's NEWS WEB EASY site provides articles with furigana (to show the readings of words). Moreover, they let you control what you see. You can turn the furigana on and off and you can choose between simplified Japanese and the original article. I think it's a great study tool. (I wish I had something like this when I was getting started.) This article is about kids in Amakusa learning about renkon (lotus roots).

William Bit of lighting on the castle.

Michelle Rounds Jazz Performance - Memorial Live

This is a share from the Kumamoto City International Center. Here's the URL:

Kirk here with an update on Kumamoto City's efforts to recognize foreign residents as community members, not merely as guests. Kumamoto City is doing this by saying that foreign residents are included in the concept of "shimin" (市民 -- literally "person of the city"). This has been in the news this year because the city formally proposed changing the wording of the basic ordinance on local government (自治基本条例) to explicitly state that foreigner residents are shimin. When the city took public comment on this and other changes there was a good deal of criticism, much of it based on the misunderstanding that calling foreign residents "shimin" would give them (us) voting rights. That's not the case but it's easy to understand why people might think that; the English translation of "shimin" is "citizen" and so one might imagine that using this word implies full rights of citizenship (市民権).

Kirk here reporting a good experience at Toyomizu no yu, a "kazokuyu" (private bathing) facility in Shisui-machi. Unless you happen to live in the area you'll need to drive there but my wife and I were glad we did. (We bathed in the "hinoki" bath that I think is first picture. There's another type of private bath outside.)

Kirk here. A while back, I made a calendar for this page. I thought my first attempt was working but I later realized that only editors could see it. This time, I think what I've made should be accessible to everyone. Here's the URL:

Kirk with what I think is a nice 5-minute video, and a professional sounding British narrator, on the reconstruction of the castle:

Kirk here. You can read a summary in English here:

Here's a share from the Kumanichi (local newspaper):

Kirk here with a share from Explore Kumamoto for One Piece fans:

Rock festival

Photo showing the end of the Corona era.

Kirk here. This article from the Kumanichi reports that the Kumamoto chapter of Buraku Liberation Studies Association (my translation of 部落解放研究会) is reminding people not to refer to the festival as the "Boshita festival" because, according to the group, "boshita" is an abbreviation of the word "horoboshita" (滅ぼした; "we destroyed them") and refers to Kato Kiyomasa's participation in the invasion of Korea.

Kirk here with a video showing the early morning festivities today:

Kirk here with a short news article about the Janes' Residence:

Joe here, I'd like to pass on some good news from a teacher in Nagasaki but first give a bit of background.

Kirk here. Circus performers in Sakuramachi today. The video is of yesterday's performance:

Parade

藤崎八旛宮例大祭