Posts

Kirk here. In preparation for the approaching typhoon, I'd like to introduce (re-introduce, actually) Kumamoto City's hazard map:
https://hazard7.kumamoto-city.jp/sphone.html
After playing with it a few minutes this morning, I'm fairly impressed with it. One problem for the non-Japanese-reading community is that the interface (place names on map, labels on buttons, explanation in the maps key, etc.) is all in Japanese and I don't think it's possible (or at least not easy) to use a machine translation service to render it in English. Another problem is that it's only for Kumamoto City -- I haven't yet found a similar resource for other parts of the prefecture. Please share any such resources that you happen to know about in a comment.
With the coming typhoon, winds may be somewhat scary but I think that, as long as one doesn't got outside when debris is being blown about, the greatest risk is from flooding. The hazard map should help you get a good sense of the risk you face in your particular area.
I read on it that the colors representing high water levels are for a "once in 1000 year flood." So, for example, the Shimotori shopping arcade in downtown Kumamoto is projected to be covered in over 5 meters of water (!) in such a flood. Remarkably, other areas closer to the river would have lower levels than Shimotori. So, the projections in the map are not always intuitive; instead of relying on your gut feeling about your area, it's probably a good idea to check the map to make sure.
The last typhoon caused the city to issue a level 3 call for evacuation -- meaning that the elderly should evacuate. It wasn't immediately clear to me or other readers of this page if people in that age group REALLY needed to evacuate. As I explained in the following post, such evacuation notices only apply to people who live in flood prone areas:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0MauE3DobAqzff5WhCPm7HgmE9rP8TKYRAizZvbfY3xBMAAh8u89af4t7hYF9n1Trl
So, if you are in Kumamoto City, please check the hazard map to see if flooding is a concern for you. If you are not in the city, I'd recommend asking neighbors about whether there is any concern about flooding in your area.

William My paternal grandfather was an arachnologist, a person who studies spiders and other venomous lil guys. He did much work on tarantulas and the black widow (former: docile, good pets; latter: very dangerous). But he lived to be 95, so perhaps the venom he exposed himself to was actually healthy.
Kumanichi reports on grey widow spiders being found in Kumamoto, likely introduced by lumber shipments - they're known to lurk in woodsheds. If you see one, don't touch it: stamp on it or run away.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/792871

William Heads up on the typhoon. It seems to be gaining strength as it barrels straight towards us. Take precautions and ensure you have stuff for the next few days as infrastructure disruptions may render your convenience store less convenient..

William There are multiple fascinating places to visit in Kyushu, which got a write-up on Japan Today. A favorite of mine is 都井岬宮崎 (Toi Misaki, Miyazaki - or Cape Toi), which is known for its feral horses. They are housed but head out each morning to spend their days keeping the grass short and making new horses. They are generally tame and allow themselves to be approached. Some say they are descendants of horses brought by Ghingis Khan during his invasion of Japan. Pretty much only accessible by car, this site south-east of Kumamoto should be on your bucket list. https://blog.gaijinpot.com/5-historical-and-quirky.../

Kirk here with news about Kumamoto City's YouTube channel, which was discussed recently in the City Assembly. This is the channel's most popular video with 397,341 views. That's pretty good, I guess, but the price tag was ¥11,990,000, which works out to about 30 yen per view and is more than a typical person earns for a full year of work. The member of the council who brought up the topic of the channel seemed to be concerned that the city wasn't promoting their videos effectively. Quite a few videos have fewer than 30 views each.
In regard to the city's promotional activities, I can testify that no one from the city asked Kumamoto International to share any of their videos on our wildly popular Facebook page. ;)
P.S. Here's my source:
https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/rkk/153126?display=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSlEfEZVvKY
LOOK UP Kumamoto City , JAPAN 4K 熊本市 Full ver【広報課】
「見上げる」「良くなる」「元気を出す」という意味の「LOOK UP」。旅人の女性が熊本市に降り立ち、風土に触れるうちに、いつの間にか街に魅了され軽快に前を向いて歩き出すというストーリー。終盤では、「パワー・元.....

William This is something to keep an eye on.

Kirk here with some news and a request for feedback about issues related to visiting Japan (and, of course, Kumamoto).
As this article explains, "self-guided" doesn't mean "plan and implement your own itinerary"; it means pay a company to allow you to participate in a tour that's a bit cheaper because they don't have to hire a full-time guide. If, however, you want to come to Japan to visit old friends in different parts of the country, etc., "self-guiding" wont' be enough. If you are an American (I assume the situation is similar in other countries), you can get a visa to visit your spouse, attend a wedding, etc. but I can imagine lots and lots of reasonable plans for travel to Japan that would fit any of the currently available visa options.
In October, I'm going to be delivering a public lecture (in Japanese, advanced registration already closed :( ) comparing the U.S. and Japanese responses to COVID-19. In many ways, I think that Japan has done better than the U.S., but when it comes to travel restrictions I'm not a fan of Japan's draconian mizugiwa ("defend the water's edge") policies.
So, here's where I'd like to request feedback. If you feel comfortable writing an opinion in a comment to this post, please do so. Or, if you would prefer, please use the "Message" button to write a note to me via the page's message thingy (sorry to use such technical terms ;) ). Thanks in advance! :)
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/09/07/national/japan-self-guided-tours/
P.S. To get the ball rolliing, here's my take: The current system (and media coverage I've seen) is clearly focused on how to get people to start dropping money in Japan again. Conversely, there seems to be little concern about damage to interpersonal relationships that cross borders -- so-called intercultural / international exchange (国際交流). I see two problems with this: 1) Japan is missing out on the long-term benefits of intercultural exchange (networking across borders). Such exchange may not have clear short-term benefits to the tourists industry but has the potential to lead to extremely valuable connections, projects, and activity in years to come. 2) This policy leads to the perceptions that the Japanese government sees foreigners primarily as walking sources of cash that can be accessed when they come as tourists. Like the "trainee" system, which has clearly views trainees as cheap, expendable labor, rather than as human beings that may build long-term relationships with Japanese people, this perception damages Japan's reputation in the world community. Any thoughts?
Japan opens borders to foreign travelers on ‘self-guided tours’
The country also raised the daily arrival cap to 50,000 and dropped a requirement that visitors test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departing for Japan.

Kirk here. This guy is amazing! I heard on TV today that there are enough games left in the season for him to surpass the all-time record if he continues at his average for this year's season.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2022/09/14/baseball/japanese-baseball/murakami-55th-home-run/
If you can't read the Japan Times article try this one:
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/baseball/20220914-58199/
"Murakami belted his 55th homer of the season to tie former Yomiuri legend Sadaharu Oh’s 1964 record for a Japanese-born player during Yakult’s 9-7 loss to the Giants at Jingu Stadium in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo."
P.S. In case you missed previous posts, Murakami is from Kumamoto and played for Kyushu Gakuin High School.
Munetaka Murakami chases history after matching Sadaharu Oh's mark
The 22-year-old Swallows slugger is the first Japanese player to match the Giants legend in home runs and has 13 games to reach Wladimir Balentien's NPB record of 60.

Kirk here with a screenshot from Tropicalstormrisk.com. It indicates that we are fairly likely (40% ?) to experience tropical storm winds about 5 days from now (120 hours).
Actually, I was prompted to post this message by a message from fellow editor Carlton in which he asked me what my favorite typhoon-related website is. Here's my answer: For predictions several days in the future, I like Tropicalstormrisk.com. For short-term predictions (within a 24-hour period) fellow editor Douglas's recommendation of Ventusky.com looks promising to me. Please add other recommendations or opinions about resources in a comment. :)

William Kumamoto had a difficult time dealing with leprosy. Documentation of abuse is abundant. Many infected were isolated at what became temples on Mt Kimpo at what is collectively called Hon Myoji (本妙寺). Several of these temples remain on a long walk up a flight of stairs. Start early, take a day, and bring water.

Kirk here with a note about my continuing research on Kumamoto's Moonie connections. This has to do with Kumamoto's "family education" law (くまもと家庭教育支援条例) which was established in 2013 and can be read here on the prefecture's website (in Japanese):
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/site/kyouiku/8775.html
As I have written previously, I have learned through media reports that pushing (or encouraging) local governments to establish such laws has been a long-standing objective of the Moonies:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/167033417187237/posts/1164986174058618/
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0thvZHyWDuS7JqyHZNdWkuBjkBGUTgES6kdVVdvXYuXYpm5JTKUGuGHRjTPCnKLvdl
Today, I came across an article in the Akahata, published by the Communist Party of Japan, that is related to this issue. The focus of the Akahata article is the municiple government of Tokyo. It points to several connections that municipal politicians have had with the Moonies, one of which is the attendance of NOGAMI Junko (Komeito member of the Tokyo Municipal Assembly) at events sponsored by the World Women's Association for Peace (世界平和女性連合; English is my translation), a front group for the Moonies. The article says that Ms. NOGAMI wrote in a 2020 report about how she learned at a one such meeting "that Tokyo should pass a law like Kumamoto's family education support law."
This doesn't prove anything about how the Kumamoto law came to be written and passed. But, at the very least, it indicates that the Moonies in Tokyo were paying attention and considered the Kumamoto law to be a model.
For me, the actual content of such laws is of secondary interest. What interests me most is the possibility that Moonies and conservative politicians were cooperating on a project of this nature. It could be that the conservative family values embedded in these laws were supported even more strongly by the politicians themselves than by the Moonies. However, whatever the answer to the "who-was-leading-whom" question, the likelihood of strong cooperation between Moonies and conservative politicians deserves some serious investigative reporting in my view.
I'll continue to wait for the local media in Kumamoto to start publishing a series of articles on this topic. In the meantime, I'll try to ask movers and shakers I know here why nothing seems to be happening.
--- start quote ---
公明党の野上純子都議（当時、葛飾区選出）は１７年１０月と２０年１１月の２回、統一協会のダミー団体「世界平和女性連合」主催の講演会に出席し、計３０００円を政活費から支出。
２０年１１月には講演内容として、家庭教育について「都政の中で、くまもとの家庭教育支援条例のような責任ある子育てができるように親を支援する条例が必要」と書いた「研修結果報告」を添付していました。
--- end quote ---
https://www.jcp.or.jp/akahata/aik22/2022-09-07/2022090704_02_0.html
　自民党の東京都議が２０１７年都議選で統一協会のダミー団体から推薦を受けて以降、今年３月まで統一協会系の「世界日報」を都議会の政務活動費（政活費、都議１人当たり月５０万円）で購読していたことが、６日ま...

Kirk here posting again about an exhibition at the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art. Here's a machine translation of the original Japanese-language information about the exhibition:
Miyabi: The history and the beauty of the Hosokawa collection
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp.e.qp.hp.transer.com/site/museum/129243.html
And here's the original Japanese:
https://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/site/museum/129243.html
My previous post focused on a very famous sword that is being displayed as part of the exhibition:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid02UE5iYdf2u3aKNcavnmzZiJkzpKqibZRQqWJKMTGeTa3wwYGykeqmkHtjhP7RUQrql
This sword can only be seen in Part I of the exhibition which ends on September 25th.
Note regarding how I found the machine translation of this page: The prefecture doesn't provide direct links between the original Japanese pages and their machine translations on their website. Unless you know a little trick, you have to go to the very entry point on the site and try to navigate the labyrinth to page (good luck!). I've learned, however, that inserting .e.qp.hp.transer.com before the first slash on a Japanese page will produce an English machine translation. Conversely, if you want to get to the original Japanese from a translation on this site, just remove that text string from the URL. This removal and addition of text to a URL is super easy for programers to do. So why didn't they make it standard? It seems that there are large numbers of people in Japan (not just Kumamoto) who simply can't imagine why English speakers who live in Japan would have any use for Japanese. :( I think that there are two assumptions involved: (1) Japanese is too damn hard for us and (2) we live in foreign bubbles and have no need to communicate with Japanese people about information we come across in English.
But, on a more positive note, I got the city to fix their website:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid0GrfwCuptziq
Next target: The prefecture!

Kirk here reporting that the temperature in Kosa (in Kumamoto) was 36.3 C (97.3 F). That's a new record for Kumamoto in September and it was the hottest temperature in the country today.
熊本県甲佐町で 36℃超えを記録し全国一の暑さに　9月なのに猛暑日　11年ぶりの記録 | 熊本のニュース｜RKK熊本放送
9月としては記録的な暑さです。12 日、全国で一番の暑さとなった熊本県甲佐町（こうさまち）では36.3℃を記録。県内各地で猛暑日となりました。森 明子 気象予報士「木々が少し色づいてきていますが、また真夏の暑…

William Our friend Liz is a very talented photographer and runs a studio near Fujisaki Shrine, so if you have something to commemorate over eternity, go her way. She took these marvelous photos of the moon. According to Wikipedia, "The most widely accepted origin explanation posits that the Moon formed 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth, out of the debris from a giant impact between the planet and a hypothesized Mars-sized body called Theia." Brutal. Don't name your daughter "Theia," and appreciate life. Photos by Liz Suenaga.

William Things one might not associate with Kumamon and badminton might be one, but remember: this guy (?) somehow swims.
Pictured is Akane Yamaguchi, who won the badminton world championship in Tokyo in August, visiting with Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima.
Kumamon might not be "bad"minton but "good"minton!
(Drops mike as wife slaps him.) Also, a reminder about how excruciating it must be to be a human inside a stuffed animal on the beach in the middle of summer.

Kirk here with some news about Kumamoto's relationship with Montana.
Kumamoto friends mark 40th anniversary of sister-state bond
Japan is an important partner in trade, educational exchanges and critical ally in national security in the region.

Kirk here with some local news that has become national. IDE Nobuo, an LDP member of the Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly, is shown in this video smoking in Koshien Stadium, while rooting for Kyushu Gakuen High School, his alma mater. This part of the stadium is "no smoking" but he continued to smoke despite requests from school officials to cease and desist. The video contains an older video from Mr. Ide where he says that his motto is 初志貫徹 (shoshi kantetsu), which means "once you decided to do something, you should see it through to the end." I guess the implication is that once Mr. Ide decided to start smoking in the stands, he was determined to see it through to the end, regardless of what others might say.
After the first inning a cheerleader is reported to have complained that the smoke was making her feel ill.
I'm not exactly sure why this news came out today and not earlier but I've seen multiple reports about it in the last few hours.
禁煙の甲子園客席で母校応援の熊本県議が喫煙　学校関係者「注意しても吸ってた」
　先月行われた夏の甲子園、母校を応援していた現職の熊本県議会議員が禁煙の観客席でたばこを吸っていたことが分かりました。 　夏の甲子園準々決勝。九州学院と聖光学院の対戦。熱戦を繰り広げている球児たちを目.....

William Our good friend Tami Day recently posted that there are over 230 varieties of potatoes in the Americas. This is particularly important for genetic health - think of the the Irish potato famine. Kumamoto does a whole lotta potatoes (yeah - their is an "e" on the end when you pluralize them).

William This article is about a female infant who was born and abandoned in a phone booth, likely as her mother was panicked and could think of no other options.
I was adopted back in mid '60s Boston, when such a practice was unusual. It is not unusual anymore. Jikei Hospital offers full medical care under complete confidentiality. PM us if in need of help.
https://kumanichi.com/articles/785611
https://jikei-hp.or.jp/
電話ボックスに置き去り、探し求めた自分のルーツ　会えたのは…　＜ゆりかご15年＞連載　第４部①｜熊本日日新聞社
　スマートフォンのフォルダーには、新聞記事の写真が収められていた。画面に触れ、数枚の画像をスワイプ。そこには「置き去り」「電話ボックス」という文字が大写しになった。

Kirk here with more recent successes of Kumamoto's own Munetaka Murakami: "Murakami, who has a very real chance of becoming the first Triple Crown winner in Japan since Nobuhiko Matsunaka of the then Daiei Hawks in 2004, homered over the center-field wall in his first at-bat of the night in the second inning at Jingu Stadium."
I didn't know what "triple crown" meant. Here's an explanation: "The term 'Triple Crown' generally refers to the batting achievement of leading a league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBI) over the same season." -- Wikipedia
Murakami is also climbing the ladder of all-time records in Japan for home runs in a single season.
Baseball: Munetaka Murakami hits 53rd homer in Swallows' win over Carp - The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Munetaka Murakami hit his Japanese baseball-leading 53rd home run of the season and Yasutaka Shiomi drove in three runs as the Yakult