Kirk here with an old bit of news that is not Kumamoto specific but applies to Kumamoto as it does to other parts of Japan. The gist of the Japanese headline is "Questioned 30 times by the police because of his appearance (racial profiling)."
Posts
William An update on Kumamoto City's conundrum regarding citizenry for non-Japanese (Google translate of a Kumanichi article - I guess this means we can ignore garbage regulations):
2023 Lipovitan-D Challenge Cup
William Passing an elderly man pruning, I remarked, 「椿がきれいですね」and without looking up, he retorted 「椿でなくて山茶花。」("Beautiful tsubaki!" - "They're not tsubaki; they're sazanka.")
Kirk here. My posts about how puctual Kumamoto Airport is have gotten many more views than posts on other topics. So, I thought I'd share this commercial about the opening of the of the renovated airport building. Here's the URL on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9bC07Lwwc4
Atsuko here, sharing the view of SUIZENJI Park in early spring.ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧
Kumamoto St.Patrick's Day Parade
Multicultural event in Minamiaso Village
Kirk here. Though it may be too late (I'm not sure) I'd like to go ahead and share this post from Mr. Yagi:
Kirk here with another report on how punctual Kumamoto Airport is:
Kirk here with a second post about how Kumamoto University will "'hire' graduate students studying semiconductors to supply top-quality workers to the growing local chip industry."
Kirk here. I found this rather extensive article worth the time it took to read it. In a nutshell, the technology referred to in the title involves (1) identifying the rocks that need to be returned to specific locations and (2) enhancing the strength of the reconstructed walls while remaining largely faithful to the original construction methods.
Atsuko with Shochu tour
Kumamoto Language Teachers Conference
Kyushu International 3 Day March
William We're about a month from the cherry blossom front (or "sakura zensen, 桜前線," as it's known), so preparing strategy now would be timely.
Kirk here with news that's old but should still be of interest if, like me, you missed it when it first came out:
Kirk here with an update on the case of Le Thi Thuy Linh, who is appealing her conviction for abandonment of corpses (she did not report the stillbirths of her twins immediately).
Kirk here with some amazing news I came across today: The volume of groundwater in Kumamoto is 1.6 that of Lake Biwa. For reference, I'm sharing screenshots of Lake Biwa and Kumamoto Google maps. I think you can get a pretty good idea of just how huge Lake Biwa is -- and the volume of water in Kumamoto considerable greater than that! It's hard to believe but that's what researchers at Kumamoto University say, according to the following Japanese news report (with video):
Kirk here with some thoughts about how big the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake was and how it compares to the disaster in Turkey and Syria. The first thing to know is that magnitude is how scientists compare the size (energy release) of an event but that even with the same magnitude a number of factors can affect the intensity of the shaking that hits you in your particular location. Here's a nice succinct explanation I found on the web:
