Kirk again. I just found this NHK World page that has many of the images and videos I've already introduced but with text in English.
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Kirk here with a damage report. A temple (浄恩寺) in Mashiki-machi that was damaged by a landslide. The priest had evacuated already so no one was hurt.
Sean here - reporting closer to home. Ezuko @ noon
Kirk again. My classes have been cancelled for today due to the rain so I have a bit more time to provide updates. If you are anywhere near a river (or if you are just curious) you should know about the following website:
Kirk here with a link to an NHK page showing parts of Kumamoto Prefecture that have flooded. All of the videos seem to have been submitted by citizen videographers.
Kirk here. Some evacuation "orders" have been issued for some parts of Kumamoto due to the heavy rain. I put the word "orders" in parentheses because, even if an order has been issued in your area, it doesn't necessarily mean that you must go to a shelter. It depends on the specifics of your location within the area with such an order. We discussed this a lot last year. Please see the following for more information:
Kirk here. The caption says "Shinichiro Iseri, chief priest at Kitaoka Shrine in Nishi ward, Kumamoto, recalls how the shrine accommodated people following the Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016."
Kirk with an article about what may be behind recent extreme weather:
Kirk here reporting that I have a new reason to love Yamaga: high quality traditional uchiwa (fans).
Kirk here with some news about the heavy rain. The alert level for landslides is at the highest level in the Aso region.
Kirk here. When Kumamoto Airport first began accepting international flights I remember wondering if there would be enough traffic to justify the expansion of service. With the arrival of TSMC, it's now pretty clear that international flights are here to stay.
Kirk here, happily reporting a bit of news that I hope will help to counter the "more foreigners = more crime" stereotype. A female Lawson employee who hails from Nepal received an award from local police for helping an elderly customer avoid falling victim to a scam. It seems the elderly woman had been convinced by scammers that she needed to deposit money in a bank account. When she asked the Lawson employee, whose name is rendered タマン・サルミラ in Japanese, how to do that, タマンさん recognized the pattern and suggested that she contact the police. Good job タマンさん!
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Kirk here with short video from NHK showing how pretty ajisai (Japanese hydrangeas) can be in the rain.
Sean here
Kirk here. Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the 1953 floods that took the lives of over 500 people (198 of whom are still recorded as "missing"; their bodies were never recovered or identified). If you look at the RKK segment, you'll see some clips that will give you an idea of what the people who experienced the flooding went through.
Kirk here with a little image comparing a still from Hotarubi no Mori e with a picture of the staircase leading to Kamishikimi Kumanoza Shrine (上色見熊野座神社). The still from the animated movie was taken from an official Japanese-language trailer that can be found here:
Kirk here reporting that the TSMC plant that is being built here already has lots of orders. As far as I know, none of those orders have been placed by the Phat Kat in Ezuko that Sean reported on earlier today. He probably has other matters to attend to. ;)
Sean here reporting on a local Ezu Ko celeb -A Phat Kat who will not be named (unless Phat Kat sticks).
Kirk here. The high-tech news keeps rolling in. This article is about a second image-sensor manufacturing facility to be built by Sony in Kumamoto:
