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Kirk here introducing a podcast that I think anyone living in Japan (including, of course, Kumamoto) will be able to appreciate. It's about the Netflex show "My First Errand," which is the Japanese show "Hajimete no otsukai" (はじめてのおつかい). One thing I'm enjoying as I listen to this (I still haven't gotten through the who thing) is the appreciation of how the physical configuration of residential streets, shops, and narrow streets, makes it easier and generally safer for kids to get around in than is the case in more car-centric American cities.
First Errand - 99% Invisible
Back in March, Netflix picked up a long running Japanese TV program based on a children’s book from the 1970s. The show is called Old Enough, but the name of the original Japanese program translates to My First Errand. Because in each episode, a child runs an errand for the very first time. Episod...

William This has nothing to do with Kumamoto, but it does regard foreigners living here. My home town of Costa Mesa consists primarily of immigrants from South America and Southeast Asia, and they are integrated (mostly - the Trumpists hate them).
Man or Muppet | The Muppets (2011) | The Muppets
Streaming Now on Disney+ – Sign Up at https://disneyplus.com/In this emotional duet, Walter and Jason Segel show the delicate balance of being a Muppet or a ...

William A reader had asked how to best climb Mt Kimpo, and I had recommended the following routes. If driving, the road which passes by Honmyoji Temple is gorgeous (tunnel effect by roadside elms; stop by the temple your way up - free parking), but it's a terrible road for hiking. Ishigami Dori (石上通り - Google it - streetcar station 段山町駅) has most zero traffic, is more direct, and offers a few temples and some springs from which one can drink en route. It is a long (start early and expect to be home by evening) but gorgeous autumn hike, and historical: it was here that the stones of Kumamoto Castle were quarried. Quarrying continues, as evidenced by the number of shops selling tombstones in the area.

William Poking around a bit, I stumbled across this video (much like I stumbled across Kumamoto). If you tell your parents that you're moving to, say, Paris or London, that's something they can imagine - but Kumamoto? This will help. (Clearly an LP - the cracking sound brings back memories of vinyl.)

Kirk here with another installment in my series of posts on the Unification Church and Kumamoto.

William Adoption may be preferable to other methods when a pregnancy is unplanned. (Disclaimer: I was adopted.) A question is the extent to which a birth mother has over information regarding her adopted child. In my case, I was given the option of contacting my birth mother but did not do so; my sister, who was also adopted, did. Not much came of it.
子どもの「出自知る権利」母親に説明　内密出産のガイドライン方針｜熊本日日新聞社
　病院の一部関係者にのみ身元を明かして出産する「内密出産」のガイドライン（指針）に関し、生まれてくる子どもの出自を知る権利を母親に説明するよう病院に求める方向で国が作成を進めていることが29日、分かった....

Mt Kimpo, as we've mentioned, is a DORMANT volcano. There are two ways to hike it (and you should do both): sarusuberi (which means "monkey slips" as the trail cuts straight up the eastern side of the mountain) and the road, which I recommend: it winds completely round the mountain, so the views change drastically. As a volcano, Kimpo has a caldera, which is clearly visible during the hike, as is the volcano Unzen across Ariake Sea in Nagasaki.

Kirk here. If you see (or saw) U.S. military personnel in Kumamoto, it's probably because of this:
GSDF, U.S. Army Start Joint Exercises in Japan - JIJI PRESS

Fujisaki Hachiman Shrine Autumn Festival (Boshita Matsuri)

Kirk here. Sorry to be stuck on my anti-Moonie one-note samba but, well, lets just say "the Devil is making me do it." (I have no doubt that any Moonies that might be aware of my posts view me as Satan. ;) )
熊本で配布された勧誘ハガキの裏面 統一教会（世界基督教統一神霊協会／統一協会）が、結婚できない独身者などをターゲットにした勧誘ハガキを配布し、毎月“お見合いパーティ”を開いていたことが判った。 これは、....

Kirk here with another report on how deeply the Unification Church managed to integrate itself into the Kumamoto's public life. Today's topic is the Peace Road initiative. First of all, what's this "peace road" thing about, anyway? In English, the Moonies have explained it for us on the UPF (Universal Peace Federation) website:

William My son will visit from Tokyo with his new wife (I'm a little nervous), so I referenced Kumamoto Castle's status and found their official website to be very picturesque and informative.
Visitor Information
今こそ見てほしい熊本城。平成２８年熊本地震で大きな被害を受けた熊本城ですが、二の丸広場や加藤神社から、天守閣等を見ることができます。熊本城の復旧状況のお知らせや、二の丸広場等を活用したイベント情報も随...

Kirk here. As I've written before, the president of Sojo University was recently in the news because he had been chair of the "Kumamoto Citizens Promoting the Building of a Tunnel Between Japan and Korea" (日韓トンネル推進熊本県民会議). Since posting that, I've learned a bit more about the history of the tunnel scheme.

William Lafcadio Hearn was, as Wikipedia notes, "a Greek-Irish-Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the West.... During late 1891, Hearn obtained another teaching position in Kumamoto, at the Fifth High Middle School (a predecessor of Kumamoto University), where he spent the next three years and completed his book Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894)." His published books are available for free at Gutenberg.org: https://tinyurl.com/3wndckcv .
Lafcadio Hearn becomes Koizumi Yakumo in 1890s Japan
If you ask your Japanese friend about writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), they might pause for a moment and say, “Who?” But after telling them a few details — that’d he’d traveled to Yokohama in April 1890 and spent the next 14 years writing ghost stories and folk tales (such as…

Kirk here with a share from Japan Today:
Suizenji Garden: One of the finest of Japan’s feudal samurai strolling gardens
During Japan’s feudal age, the favorite duck hunting ground for the successive lords of Kumamoto Castle and their warrior entourage was a spring-fed pond about one ri (four kilometers) southeast of the castle. In the 1630s, Tadatoshi Hosokawa (1586-1641), the latest of the daimyo feudal lords of t...

Kirk here with an Asahi.com article that covers more-or-less the same territory as my post yesterday about the president of Sojo University. One thing in this article that I didn't mention yesterday was that "he (President Nakayama) said he took the chairman’s post at the organization in 2011, when it was established, because he was asked to do so by a former Kumamoto city assembly member." I wonder who that former city assembly membeter might be and how they might have been connected to the project.
Kishida denies Unification Church ties after magazine report | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Aug. 24 again denied having any relations with the Unification Church after a weekly magazine reported that one of his key supporters did.

「家族の死に対する刑法の介入をどこまで許すのか」

Kirk here with a screenshot of some survey results published in the Kumanichi (see URL below). According to the survey about half of the foreign "trainees" (jisshusei) and students (ryugakusei) in Kumamoto plan or hope to work in Kumamoto after their trainee or study period ends. Less than a quarter plan to return to their home country. I'm not sure how this compares to other prefectures but it makes sense to me -- Kumamoto is a nice place to live and work.

William That was some thunder storm last night! Lightning is rare in my hometown of Los Angeles, so I love it, but it used to terrify my dog so much that he'd hide under my daughter's bed, shivering for hours even after a storm had passed. It occurred to me that there might be a photo of the castle with lightning, and yes, there was: this rather spooky one. It is attributed to this blog: https://blog.goo.ne.jp/fuhkan/e/0b2421f85ed023898b758803dd6d625b

Kirk here with a Unification Church (Toitsu Kyokai) update. The gentleman pictured is NAKAYAMA Mineo, president of Sojo University. It seems that Nakayama-sensei has also been the Chair of "Kumamoto Citizens Promoting the Building of a Tunnel Between Japan and Korea" (日韓トンネル推進熊本県民会議). According to the Bungei Shunjun article, this project was proposed by Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church. The length of the tunnel would be about 200 kilometers, of which 500 meters have already been dug.
岸田首相の後援会長が「統一教会関連団体の議長」問題　首相が統一教会との関係を否定、会長は議長を辞任 | 文春オンライン
岸田文雄首相（65）は8月24日、オンラインで記者団の取材に対して、「週刊文春」が報じた統一教会（現・世界平和統一家庭連合）との関係について、「旧統一教会との関係はありません」と改めて否定した。「週刊…