Tomakomai Higashi won the final game over Komazawa in high school baseball tournament.

  Today, I again went to see high school baseball games. Todyay's three games were the finals to be qualified to advance to all Hokkaido Championship Tournament held in Sapporo Maruyama Ball Park on July 16 - 22. The game I saw was between Komazawa Tomakomai and Tomakomai Higashi. Higashi won yesterday's game against Urakawa by an upset victory. The pitchers of both Komazawa and Higashi teams pitched well but, in the 5th inning, Komazawa scored 1 run. On the other hand, Higashi caught up in the 8th inning. And in the top of the 9th inning, Higashi got 1 run, and Higashi pitcher Torigoe completed the winning game. By the way, Komazawa is famous because it has won the Japan champions twice so far. I was happy to see Higashi, once my school, win and have decided to participate in the all Hokkaido Championship Tournament. Ohtani Muroran and Hokkaido Sakae also decided to tae part in the All Hokkaido Championship Tournament.

I went to the municipal ball park to see a high school baseball game.

  The weather was fine, today, too, and very warm. In the morning, I went to the baseball park in Midoriga Oka to see a baseball game. The game was between Urakawa Senior High School and Tomakomai Higashi Senior High School, where I used to teach. The game was such a close game that Higashi got one run in the 3rd inning, but Urakawa caught up by winning one run in the 5th inning. But in the top of the 8th inning, Urakawa got 5 runs, and led the game. I thought the game would be won by Urakawa and left the ball park before the game ended. After coming home, I checked the result of the game on the Net which team had won. To my surprise, Higashi won the game scoring 5 runs in the bottom of 9th inning. I thought it was a miraculous result. This is the high school baseball game. I should have seen the game to the end.

Yesterday, June 28th - what did I do? I forgot to post my diary.

  In a sunny weather I walked as usual as far as Kawazoe cho, and returned home in the morning. On the way back, I dropped in at the book store "B-top" at Nisshin cho, but I didn't buy anything.

A warm summer day - we enjoyed playing park golf.

   It was a warm, beautiful summer day today. In the morning, Ayako and I first went to our field in Furusato Noen and watered the vegetables. We first thought of playing park golf in Arten holiday land, but the park golf course was reserved by a group, so we had to give up and returned home. After having lunch at home, we went to another park golf course near our house named Itoi Family park golf course. We enjoyed playing two rounds and came home at about three o'clock.

   It was really a beautiful pleasant day, and so will it be tomorrow. Along my walking path, I can enjoy seeing beautiful flowers. I like this season best and I hope it will last as long as possible.

June 26th - the bill to raise the consumption passed in the House of Representatives.

  The bill to raise the consumption tax rate was approved in the House of Representatives today. It was supported by parties including the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and New Komeito.  363 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill and 96, including former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa and former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, voted against it. The bill will go to the House of councillors and if it is approved, Japan's consumption tax rate will be increased to 8% in April 2014, and to 10% in October 2015.

The plan of traveling to Shanghai, China.

 Ayako and I have decided to travel to Shanghai, China, this summer. Today, we went to a bank nearby to send the traveling expence. We have traveled in about 20 countries so far, but we have never traveled in such near countries like China, Korea, and Russia. I like European countries or English speaking countries, but trecently, as Ayako has become weak in waling, we chose China because it is near and if we travel only around Shanghai, it will take only 5 days. Anyway, we are looking forward to the travel. 

I worked in my field in Furusato Noen today, too.

  It was cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. I went to Furusato Noen, and I transplanted the seedlings of peanuts and green peppers I had bought, and top-dressed the tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers etc. After I came home, I began to have a runny nose because of hay fever.
  I watched a baseball game between the Fukuoka Sftbank and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham on TV in the afternoon. The result was Nippon Ham's victory by the score of 6-0. In this game, Kokubo of Fukuoka hit his 2000th base hit to the center field. In this season, three players hit their 2000th base hits including Inaba of Nippon Ham, Miyamoto of Yakkult Swallows, and Kokubo. By the way, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters is in the 2nd place now.