Drive-in fireworks
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Good morning! Kirk here. This post is a follow up to a very nice post William did on the same topic:
藤崎八旛宮秋季例大祭
"A plum by any other name would taste as sweet." I'm pretty sure that the fruit you see would be labeled "Plums" in the US, where I'm from. A "prune," by contrast, is usually a dried plum. But Wikipedia tells me that, "prune" can also refer to the "firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of Prunus domestica varieties that have a high soluble solids content, and do not ferment during drying." So, I guess it's not exactly incorrect to call these prunes -- just confusing to old prunes, I mean "people," like me.
Kirk here with a tip for archaeologists of the future: If you look inside the rebuilt walls of Kumamoto Castle, you may find some stones that were decorated by local children way back in 2023. The one in the cover image says "I love Kumamoto Castle" and has picture of Kumamon, a mythic creature worshipped by natives at the time. ;)
Kirk with some news that both interested and frustrated me.
William "Bueller? Bueller?" in Kumamoto classrooms may be queried by a robot, according to this article, which notes "that officials hope will encourage absentee children to attend classes remotely and eventually coax them back to school. ... “Aside from letting them view the classes, the robots allow students to move freely in the classroom space and communicate with their classmates,” a board official told the newspaper. “Hopefully, this can help lower the mental hurdles for truant students.”"
William Many are aware that Mt Kimpo is a volcano (dormant at that, according to a geologist friend). It's history to date is shown in the illustration (the caldera used to be a lake! - cool if it still were, eh?) https://www.mifunemuseum.jp/kumamotogeo/kinpouzan.html
2023 ETJ Kyushu English Language Teaching Expo
Kirk here. I'm not a fan a gruesome news like this but it happened here and became national news so I guess I should share it.
Kirk here with some notes about the machine translation of this Japanese article using Chat-GPT-3.5. Here's the opening paragraph, which I think is basically accurate:
The economic benefits of TSMC's arrival may be even better than originally anticipated. -- Kirk
Kirk with potato chip news. If we get anything about dip we'll publish it here without fear or favor (always the highest journalistic standards, you know).
Kirk here. I saw a segment on RKK last night about kids from Taiwan (here with their parents who have come with TSMC) beginning their studies at Kumamoto International School (KIS). English is the primary language of instruction but they have staff who can help the kids with Chinese when needed. And, they also get lesson's in Japanese. In the RKK segment, Principal Mathew Ohm described his vision for the students in excellent Japanese. Congratulations to Mr. Ohm and everyone at the school on this milestone!
The Great Festival of Fujisaki Hachimangu Shrine
William It's easy to forget how close Kumamoto is to the sea. Kumanichi reports on a wayward ray spotted near Kumamoto Station. One hopes he figured out how to get back to Ariake - the river only has two directions, so it shouldn't be too difficult. https://kumanichi.com/articles/1159396
Kirk here with an article published in a Chinese newspaper presenting a criticism from Koichiro Matsunaga, a Minamata disease victim I have met many times. He's quoted as saying that the Japanese government "completely failed to learn from the lessons of Minamata disease."
SUIZENJI KOI AKARI
みずあかり Mizuakari
According to the third URL below, Kounoyu (こうの湯）, a ryokan in the Kurokawa Onsen area, is the most popular onsen ryokan in Kyushu in the 1 to 10 room category. Looking at the website is making me want to save up some money (such facilities tend not to be cheap) for a visit. -- Kirk
