Kirk here with football / soccer news: "The Japanese defence, with Shogo Taniguchi and Ko Itakura either side of Yoshida were brilliant." That's Shogo Taniguchi, alumnus of Ozu High School, mind you:
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TOM TANIGUCHI'S CHRISTMAS QUEST
Kirk here with news that Kyushu Electric Power Company has been found to have been colluding with other companies to keep fees artificially high. They're going to have to pay a BIG fine, but it looks like all of the money will go to the government. How about giving some of it to those of us who have been the victims of the collusion?
Kirk here reporting that "Murakami-sama" (村神様; "The Murakami God") has been chosen as the "new word of the year" for 2022. This, of course, refers to Kumamoto's hometown-boy-done-good, Munetaka MURAKAMI (profession baseball player). Note that Mr. Murakami write's his name "村上" (second character means "up") but that 村神様 (Murakami-sama) is written with the character 神, which means "god." According to an explanation I read on the web, fans started to refer to him as "村上様" a couple of years ago as a term of endearment mixed with respect for his abilities. That morphed to "村神様" as the extent of his powers began to make fans believe that he was no mere mortal.
Monitor tour in Kosa
Take what you pick direct sale at Chibusan Yokaen
Kirk here feeling old -- partly because I'm in my 60s but mostly because I use Facebook. It seems that Facebook is pretty passe among college-aged young people these days. I told some exchange students from English speaking countries about this Facebook page the other day and was surprised to learn that none of them use Facebook.
Carlton. Revealing to a degree my age and time in Japan, I have to note that today is the 50th anniversary of the tragic fire that destroyed the former Taiyo Department Store on Shimotori.
Kumamoto Caste Illumination
Chuck Waterman here:
Aid drive to Ukraine
Kirk here sharing a link to the 2022 Summer YOKA:
Japan vs Costa Rica Football Match
ウクライナ防寒着人道支援in九州
Kirk here with a photo from Aso Farmland via the "Engrish in Japan" group:
Kirk here with some photos of Japanese maples and some notes about the words momiji (紅葉) and kaede (楓). First, regarding the photos, the one taken from a distance is of a Japanese maple on the campus of Kumamoto Gakuen University that was looking quite nice in the afternoon sun on Friday. My smartphone photo doesn't do it justice but I really enjoyed taking it in after class. The other photo is one I took from the following article that discusses the words momiji and kaede:
Christmas Quest fundraising event
Kirk here with baseball news. Murakami is being offically recognized as a local hero.
KIrk here. Helping others can be very gratifying -- good for yourself as well as the people you're helping. I hope someone with language skills (no need to be good enough to do simultaneous interpreting at the U.N) can help out. If not, I may be able to but I've kind of got my hands full managing this page so I'd sure appreciate it if someone else out there could contact Sheila to offer some help. Thanks!! :)
Kirk here with news from RKK that it's going to take longer than originally expected to completely rebuild Kumamoto Castle after the damage from the 2016 quakes. Originally, I was estimated that the work could be completed by 2038. Now it looks like it will take until 2052 -- an additional 15 years. Work on the Honmaru Goten (home to the residing lord when not at ware) and Uto Yagura (building with second largest turret) should be finished around 2032 (10 years from now) and work on other important cultural properties is now estimated to take until 2042. The stone walls (ishigaki) won't all be put bacc together until 2052. Well, that better than Humpty Dumpty, who was never put back together.
