Posts

Kirk here with news, and a video in English, about the water summit. Prime Minister Kishida used the occasion to meet with leaders from Cambodia, Laos, and Tuvalu. The Emperor also delivered a message (in English) from the Imperial Palace, but that's not included in this particular video.
Asia-Pacific Water Summit opens in Japan | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
High-level delegations from Asia-Pacific nations and international organizations have gathered in Japan to discuss water-related issues.

Hi Atsuko here with some photos of the beautiful deep green scenery of Aso.
Unfortunately it's raining today and the Aso trail is closed on the 23rd and 24th, so if you want to go, I recommend after the 25th or GW.
I hate traffic jams, so I'm just going to fully enjoy in pictures for now.╰(*´︶`*)╯
Information about the closure of Aso trail.
Thank you Kuma Visit!
https://www.facebook.com/1668393530078953/posts/3108307422754216/

Kirk here with a little update on the water summit currently being held in Kumamoto. Thanks to my friend Yuka Ogata, who is a member of the Kumamoto City Council, the issue I raised the other day was addressed; the website now features a link to an English-language video on Kumamoto's groundwater:
https://www.4apws-kumamoto2022.jp
Thanks again, Yuka!! I can't be sure, but I suspect that my calling City Hall (the Shiyakusho) to tell them about the problem wouldn't have been enough; I needed a friend with connections. The thing I often have trouble understanding, though, is the apparent lack of interest in such feedback. I would think that it would be to the advantage of institutions who put out information in English (especially for major international events) to get feedback from native speakers. Such feedback, however, is rarely requested and frequently ignored when offered. At my university, for example, there have been several instances of strange English being put in a sign or a publication or something without consulting any of the native speakers of English that the university employs.
When taxpayer money is being spent, a period is sometimes set aside for public comment. In fact, Kumamoto City has a "public comment" section on their website:
https://www.city.kumamoto.jp/hpkiji/pub/list.aspx?c_id=5&class_set_id=2&class_id=126
I am not aware, however, of an early version of an English-language website being subjected to such public comment. For major events of this sort, I don't think I'm the only native speaker of English who would be willing to offer a comment or two, such as those you see in the image.
From my perspective, the mistakes are not the problem. As you all know, I make plenty of mistakes, both in English and, naturally, in Japanese. What bothers me is an apparent lack of interest in the perspective of people who might be able to point out such mistakes. :( It's all well and good to tell students not to be afraid of making mistakes when they converse in English; preparing a document or website that will be placed on an international stage is another matter.
P.S. My previous post about the summit is here:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/7180901071983263

William Interesting about Kumamoto is their diaspora. I've met in my hometown of Orange County people from Uto (for some reason, lotsa Uto people there) who were surprised to hear how it had grown. And they have festivals.
リオのカーニバル最高潮　２年ぶりに開催（共同通信）｜熊本日日新聞社
　【リオデジャネイロ共同】南米最大を誇るブラジル・リオデジャネイロのカーニバルは２２日夜（日本時間２３日午前）、市中心部のメイン会場「サンボドロモ」でトップチームによるパレードが始まり、最高潮を迎えた...

(Fiona) Unfortunately, the weather forecast for tomorrow is not good so the 3pm Tatsuda-yama Walk will have to be postponed until a future date. Let's try again sometime between Golden Week and the start of the rainy season - a very slim window of opportunity!

William My hometown is Los Angeles, where water is more valuable than gold. Kumamoto is blessed for its water. It literally spurts out here and there.
The 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit, an international conference where leaders and ministers of the Asia-Pacific region discuss water issues, will open on the 23rd at Kumamoto Castle Hall in Chuo-ku, Kumamoto City. https://kumanichi.com/articles/633074
Seriously:

Kirk here reporting that for the first time in three years someone has been certified as a Minamata disease patient but 18 were denied, and one judgment was deferred (I'm not sure if that's the best translation). 350 remain unadjudicated.
https://newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/rkk/28571?display=1

Kirk with something has only the weakest connection to Kumamoto. This came up when I searched for news about Kumamoto because the Guardian pointed out that the kiwi yuru-kyara that greated New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, paled in comparison with the gold stardard of Japanese mascots -- Kumamon. I thought that perhaps Prime Minister Ardern might be on her way here for Kumamoto's water summit but, alas, no such luck.
Jacinda Ardern greeted by giant sad dancing kiwifruit during visit to Japan
Two large mascots, dancing to sorrowful music, helped welcome the New Zealand prime minister on her first trip overseas since the pandemic began

(Douglas) I am in the process of moving many of my videos from Vimeo to 2 newly created YouTube channels.
If anyone is interested in watching videos, which are mainly from the Kumamoto area, you are welcome take a look at:
Gaijin-Eyes:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCphTjOfFH3fRs2cHZqk60mg
and Gaijin-Eyes in the Skies@
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNutfNKhBc0sFz33jn6S8mA
Gaijin-Eyes - YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

Kirk here with some news on the wafer fabrication plant to be built in be built in Kikuyo-machi. The use of the phrase "wafer fab" to mean "a facility that manufactures (fabricates) silicon semiconductor wafers (chips)" didn't make much sense to me at first (especially since the article ONLY uses that jargon and never spells it out) but the phrase "wafer fab" led me to this video on the process, which I found to be interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPh-mQ6irls
https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202204200009
Construction of TSMC's wafer fab in Japan to start Thursday - Focus Taiwan
Taipei, April 20 (CNA) The construction of a wafer fab to be run by a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) joint venture will start on Thursday, according to Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. (JASM), the joint venture.

Kirk here with news from Tsuetate: "The streamers can be seen until May 6, and are illuminated in the evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m."
3,500 carp streamers gracefully 'swim' above river at southwest Japan onsen resort - The Mainichi
OGUNI, Kumamoto -- Some 3,500 carp streamers are gracefully

Kirk here with news about the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit, which will be held in Kumamoto City this weekend. Unfortunately, it's too late to apply to attend any of the events in person (the deadline was a few weeks ago) but I found this cool video about Kumamoto's ground water, something that makes it unique in Japan.
The weird thing is, though, that the official website for the summit (which is in English, naturally) links to the JAPANESE version of the video, even though they have and an English version they've already made and could easily link to!
https://www.4apws-kumamoto2022.jp
Being the perpetual thorn in the side of city official's that I am, I called to ask (politely, of course) what the *@!$%# they were thinking. The very nice person I spoke to on the phone said she would relay the information to those in charge. She seemed to agree with me that it was a mistake to use the Japanese-language video (which doesn't even have English-language subtitles) when tax-payer money has already been spent to make an English version but that she didn't have the authority to make any decisions about this. She said she would describe the issue to those in charge. We'll see if it gets fixed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJm2KC27Crc
Water of Kumamoto-A Bridge to the Future- 4K Full ver. (英語) 熊本市
令和4年4月23日㈯・24日㈰に第4回アジア・太平洋水サミットが開催される熊本市は、豊富な地下水に恵まれた日本一の地下水都市です。地下水を育む熊本の雄大な自然。地下水を守り、地下水に支えられ、彩られる人々の暮.....

Carlton. I caught this on a news aggregation site and then checked it out on Facebook. It is self-explanatory and real.
<https://www.boredpanda.com/japanese-stuff-no-context/>
This Account Collects And Shares Japanese Pictures Without Any Context (47 Pics)
Welcome to the Facebook page that shares random stuff from Japan intentionally put out of context to maximize weirdness. Not that being in context would necessarily make any of this less weird.

Kirk here with a detailed article about the plight of Ms. Le Thi Thuy Linh, which has been a topic of discussion on this page in the past:
FOCUS: Pregnant trainee in Japan feared being forced to return to Vietnam
A Vietnamese woman who came to Japan as a technical trainee and feared being forced to return home when she became pregnant,

Kirk here with another bird post. I Google "Kumamoto" from time to time in order to check up on recent news related to this community. Yesterday when I did that, a summary of Wikipedia's page for Kumamoto Prefecture came up and I happened to notice that the official prefectural bird was listed as "great tit," (which I later learned is "シジュウカラ" [shijuukara] in Japanese). That led me to check Japanese sources and I found that the official birds of Kumamoto Prefecture and Kumamoto City were reversed on the English Wikipedia pages. I've since corrected them and now the official bird for Kumamoto Prefecture is correctly displayed as "Asian skylark" ("hibari" in Japanese) -- the bird pictured on the right.
I'm a jazz fan and learning about the Asian skylark reminded me that the great Hoagy Carmichael wrote a tune, now a standard, called "Skylark."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7HsGBJjilQ
I don't think he ever wrote a similar tribute to the great tit, even though it's a very attractive bird. Sometimes a name that that is completely unremarkable in one language carries different connotations in another language -- which reminds me of recent discussion of Asian Americans Anglicizing there names to try to fit in:
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2022/04/11/1091407334/a-chinese-student-americanized-her-name-to-fit-in-it-took-more-to-feel-she-belonged/
I'm not recommending a name change for Kumamoto City's bird. But, as someone with a name that took me aback when I first heard how it was pronounced in Japanese, I can sympathize if he/she/they feel any discomfort with the English rendering of his/her/their name.

Kirk here with news about a survey conducted by the Tokyo Bar Association. The results probably won't surprise many long-time residents of Japan who don't look Japanese: Foreigners get questioned a lot just because they are foreigners. The law says that the we must comply with such questioning. OK. But it also says that the police only have the right to stop and question us when they suspect criminal activity. The notion that one's skin color or facial features are enough to make one a criminal suspect is what is called racial profiling. I think the Tokyo Bar Association took this up in part because it's an abuse of the law -- the police don't have carte blanche to stop anyone they like without good reason.
I haven't had too much experience with this (though I've had enough to be angry about it) but I remember an exchange student here in Kumamoto that said he got checked all of the time -- just walking in town. According to the student, the officer would say "just checking" (or perhaps the equivalent in Japanese), as though being foreign meant that such checking was warranted.
I'm pleased to report that this has gotten a good deal of coverage in Japanese. Here are some links to Japanese articles for those of you who might want to see how this is being discussed in Japanese or who might want to convince a skeptical Japanese person that this actually happens:
職務質問、「外国人」は受けやすい？　東京弁護士会が実態調査
https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ3253DHQ2PUTIL00B.html
職質、外国人を狙ってる？　東京弁護士会が実態調査
https://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S15220978.html
レイシャル・プロファイリング「全国的に調査しなければならない」国家公安委委員長が答弁
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/839e2f71ad1d44baa4e0a55c3c6530e7def2fa05
人種差別的な職務質問、東京弁護士会が調査へ【レイシャル・プロファイリング】
https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/story_jp_61d508f5e4b0d637ae9b4101
「だって黒人でしょ」「名前を確認して態度が急変」人種差別的な職務質問、329人が訴え【レイシャル・プロファイリング】
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/cb8fc3edfd927c2917e02e7fce25c13c76d954ed
人種差別的な職務質問、東京弁護士会が調査へ【レイシャル・プロファイリング】
https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/story_jp_61d508f5e4b0d637ae9b4101
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220410/p2g/00m/0na/019000c
63% of people with foreign roots in Japan questioned by police - The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A total of 62.9 percent of people in Japan with foreign roots were questioned by police over the past five years, preliminary results

Kirk here with a little preview of the Zoom chat we have planned for Sunday. Kumamon seems to be up for it, but the last time I Zoomed with that bear I was a little disappointed because he really didn't have anything to say -- just a lot really genki gestures, which started to wear thin after a while. And we're looking forward to hearing a little more from Johnny about that movie he made -- if he feels like talking about it this time.
Oh, wait a minute. I forgot that I'm only allowed to lie once a year -- on April 1st. It's already April 18th so I guess I'd better give you the straight story:
The sign-up post is here:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/7121999554540082
A post Douglas made to get the ball rolling is here:
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/7111362698937101
See you Sunday!

William My beat covers politics, technology, and the environment, not culture. That 八代亜紀 (according to my wife, pronounced "Yashiro," not "Yatsushiro" Aki) could have remained off my radar displays the depths of my ignorance.
If Kumamoto could have a prefectural anthem, it would be this: Sweet Home Kumamoto
八代亜紀 / Sweet Home Kumamoto
■八代亜紀　Newアルバム『哀歌-aiuta-』の情報はこちら↓https://columbia.jp/aki/八代亜紀　Newアルバム『哀歌-aiuta-』、2015/10/28発売！収録曲より「Sweet Home Kumamoto」　作詩/大友 博　作曲/Robert Johnson　編曲/寺岡呼人八代亜紀...

Kirk here with news of recognition given to researchers at Kumamoto University:
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949491
--- start quote ---
Dr. Miharada and his team were selected this year for their proposal, “Towards safe and stable transfusion therapies independent of blood donation.” The excellent collaboration of young international scientists is made of three researchers from Japan and one from Sweden.
--- end quote ---
Kumamoto University’s Dr. Kenichi Miharada awarded this year’s Heisei Memorial Research Grant from the Japan Prize Foundation
The Japan Prize Foundation has awarded Dr. Kenichi Miharada from Kumamoto University's International Research Center for Medical Sciences (Japan) the 2022 Heisei Memorial Research Grant.

Kirk here with something that's not unique to Kumamoto but is as relevant here as it is elsewhere in Japan. As this post from Kuma Visit explains, the new 500 coins are cool, but you might not be able to use them in older vending machines:
https://www.facebook.com/kumavisit/posts/3102320763352882