How pleasant it was to drive through the Rresearch Forest of Hokkaido University!

It was a very fine day. I drove with Ayako through the Research Forests of Hokkaido University in the suburbs of Tomakomai. We saw beautiful green all over hills and valleys with late-blooming wild cherries here and there. We were surprised to see three wild deer coming out among the trees. In some places,we walked into the forest to collect edible wild vegetables like fuki(butterbur) and 'sudoki' or 'sudoke' we call in Japanese. We ate these wild edible plants for dinner and they were very good. On the way back home,there was a beautiful park golf field near the entrance to the Research Forest, and we enjoyed playing park golf there for about two hours.

I worked on my farm in Nishikioka.

It was cloudy,but warm. The temperature was about 20 degrees. In the morning,I went to my field in Furusato Noen. The seeds of vegetables we had sowed two weeks before were sprouting. I plowed the other half of our field and prepared for planting out the seedlings of peas and corns we had sowed in planters in the wood deck.I worked from about 9:00 to 11:00.
In the afternoon,Sachiyo,our son's wife,called us from Tokyo International Airport at Haneda,sayinig she was just leaving Japan and returning to San Jose. She had come back to Japan for participating in a research workshop held in Keio University,her alma mater.
In the evening,Ayako and I went to a kaiten-zushi restaurant to eat out.We enjoyed drinking beer and eating sushi.

Blogger has been recovered at long last.

I had been unable to post for this "Hirobo's Daily Life" for more than a week because of something wrong with Google.In order to recover it,I had tried to do this and that,but nothing I had done didn't work at all. I gave in and asked Takashi by email to help recover it by remote control,and he successfully recovered it yesterday by around 5:00 p.m. Japan time, when it was 1:00 a.m. for Takashi in California.

For this past week,of course,a lot of things have happened. On Wednesday,Ayako and I took part in the park golf competition hosted by the neighborhood association. The results of us were not good at all,but I was awarded to some kind of encouraging prize. On Thursday morning,I went to the woods of Oji Paper Company which is located about twenty munites' walk from my house,and picked some edible wild plants. In the evening of the day,we had a committee meeting for taking care of the neighborhood association hall.

Saturday was the field day for the elementary schools in Sapporo,and we went to Sapporo by car to see how Tokio and Arashi,our grandsons,perform in their field day events. Both of our grandsons were not fast runners, but Arashi,2nd grader,was 3rd in 50 meter race, and Tokio,5th grader,was 4th in 100 meter race. They performed in some other games and danced in groups,too.

I am preparing a speech to make at late Mr. Azumi's funeral.

It was raining in the midnight,but it had cleared up when I got up.
In the morning,I wrote the draft of the speech I am going to make tomorrow evening at the Funeral Hall after late Mr.Azumi's funeral wake service. In the opening of my speech,I will express,on behalf of the bereaved family and relatives,hearty gratitude to the attendees for coming and offering prayers to the deseased. Then,I will speak something about late Mr.Azumi's personal history and about his personality. I will conclude my speech by saying "Thank you" again,and will announce the schedule of the following day's funeral service.
Toward noon,after Ayako returned home from the beauty salon,we went by car to a ramen shop to eat ramen for lunch. On the way,we passed by the Akeno Funeral Hall,where late Mr.Azumi's funeral would be held, and made sure of its location. After coming home, Ayako sowed seeds of spinach in our kitchen garden.

Mr.Kihachi Azumi,our neighbor, passed away.

Our neighbor,Mr.Kihachi Azumi,who lived across the road,died yesterday evening at 6:21. He was 78 years old. We have been acquainted with late Mr.Azumi and his wife since we began to live here about 17 years ago. Mr.Azumi had been suffering from diabetes so until several years before, he had taken a walking exercise almost every day. I often saw him walking along the Tomakomai river while I,myself,was walking there, and sometimes had a chat with him on the way. But about a couple of years ago, he came down with stroke,and became unable to walk any more. He had been in hospital for a month or two.
Late Mr.Azumi's funeral wake is going to be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday,May 23rd,at Akeno Funeral Hall,and his farewell service will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. As a vice-chair of the neighborhood association,I will have to serve as the chief of the care-takers of the funeral services, and make speeches in place of the bereaved family.

Ayako and I enjoyed playing park golf.

In the morning,I spent weeding in the garden,while Ayako went to the hospital to have her right leg treated.In the afternoon,the weather was good and warm,so we went to the golf course"54",which is just close to our house and enjoyed playing park golf from 12:40 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. In spite of her pain in the leg, Ayako played quite well, and won against me almost in every hole. She even succeeded in a hole in one. After returning home, Ayako planted some young seedlings of tomato,parsley,and shiso,or Japanese basil, in a corner of our kitchen garden. In our garden,tiny white flowers of spiraeas, or 'yuki-yanagi' in Japanese, are beautifully blooming, and the buds of pink flowers of azaleas named 'kuro-fune' are growing bigger and bigger, and will begin to bloom in a few days. We are looking forward to their opening up.
In the evening, Masako,Ayako's younger sister,who lives in Nagano,gave Ayako a phone call.She said she had a pain in her lower back, and she would not be able to come to visit us in Hokkaido,which she had scheduled in June,the next month. We are very sorry to hear that. We do hope she will get well as soon as possible.

What is the true meaning of the public opinions? - Sachiyo studies.

It had been raining since last night,but cleared up in the afternoon.So I walked in the afternoon. The cherry bolssoms are in full bloom, and looked beautiful everywhere along my walking paths.
Takashi sent me a video on Net from California. It was on what Sachiyo is studying both in Keio university,which is her alma mater, and in Stanford University,(where she studies as a visiting scholar?). By the way,Takashi's wife Sachiyo majored in politics in Keio,so what she is studying in Stanford is,of course, politics.
The title of the video Takashi sent me is "Innovation in Participation : Citizen Engagement in Deliberative Democracy." According to the video,Sachiyo seems to be studying about how to take the public opinion poll,not by the conventioanal way but by an innovative way. They first take the poll at random in the conventional way. Then, they prepare a forum where they invite volunteers who are interested in it from among the respondents to the poll, and let them have a debate. After the forum,they take a poll again. They compare the results of the poll with those of the previous poll.There is a big difference between the results of the two polls.
What is the meaning of the public opinions? What is the approval rating of the government? I have always wondered so far. I hope they will accomplish a good result of their research.

My wife goes to Sapporo to see her sister, who is in a care house, at least once every month.

My wife Ayako goes to see her sister in a care house in Sapporo at least once or twice every month. Today,the weatherforecast said it would be a fine day all day,so she decided to go by her car. Her big sister Emiko had been in a care house in the suburbs of Sapporo city for several years. She had lived with her husband in a condominium in the center of Sapporo city before, but she came down with a disease of her brain. Her disease was something like Alzheimer's, but the doctor said it was not. What was worse,her husband,who used to be a principal of senior high school,suffered cerebral infarction,and became unable to live without a wheel chair. That is why Emiko entered the care house. She had been a very bright woman and been able to do anything very well. But she became unable to do what she could have done easily before. Now she cannot speak, walk by herself, and cannot even recognize who are around her. Emiko is now over eighty years old,and her husband is eighty-four, I heard from him last month. When we have grown old, can't we avoid facing such difficulties? I am afraid my wife and I may fall into such difficulties ourselves in the future.
I stayed at home and worked on our garden doing what I had left half done yesterday.

I planted seedlings of sweat potatoes and Japanese leeks with Ayako in our field.

It was a sunny,warm day today. In the morning, we went to the city sewage-treatment plant to buy manure,which we couldn't buy last Sunday. We bought 10 bags,and gave two to Mrs.Azumi who lives across the road. Then we went to our field in Furusato Noen and planted six seedlings of sweat potatoes and about twenty Japanese leeks,which were presented by Mrs.Azumi.
In the afternoon,we worked to pull weeds in our garden,and trim the ivy covering the concrete fence of our garden. It took us about two hours, but it will take another half day work to finish weeding and trimming the ivy. It is hard to work on the field or on the garden,but I like it.

The English class at the Ivy Plaza.

A dark,cloudy day. I walked along the Tomakomai river. Cherry blossoms were beautiful,though it was a little too early to be in full bloom. I took some pictures with my digital camera on the way. I was glad to take a picture of a beautiful magpie from a close place only a few feet away. Until ten years before,we hadn't seen magpies around here,but now,we see many,and in the morning,we are often woke up by their noisy calls.Does this have anything to do with the global warming?

I went to the Ivy Plaza to attend the English class.The teacher handed out an English-English dictionary to each attendant who had ordered it in the previous class. But I didn't buy it, because I had an electronic dictionary. I told the teacher that my IC dictionary was very handy and I could use it anywhere, but she said she disliked it, saying that,if I looked up a word by the IC dictionary, I would soon forget abut it. But I didn't think so. We can find meanings of a word very quickly. It will take me as long as 1 minute or so to find a word in the paper dictionary, but if I use my IC dictionary,it will take only a few seconds. So in a limited time,I can look up far more words. Which is better?
There was nothing new to me in today's lesson. The class was far different from what I had imagined. By the title "To understand English through English", I had expected that we would talk about many topics in English, and exchange each other's opinions. But it was not like that at all. The teacher was almost always explaining in Japanese about English words and sentences. I am now wondering whether I should continue to attend it or not.

We sowed the seeds of spinach,red turnips,and daikon in our field.

It was a fine day. In the morning,I went with Ayako to our field in Furusato-noen,and sowed the seeds of spinach,red turnips,and daikon.On the way back home,we dropped at the municipal sewage-treatment plant to buy some manure,but it was closed. We had forgotton today was Sunday.
In the afternoon, Ayako went shopping,and found seedlings of sweat potatoes being sold,and bought them. We will plant them in our field in Furusato Noen.

I watched a Fighters' baseball game against the Orix Buffaloes on TV. It was the last game before the Interleague play beginning on Tuesday next week. The game ended one-sidedly in Fighters' victory by 9-1. Fighters is now at the top in the Pacific League.
The Fighters' first game of two game series in the Interleague play will be played against the Yakult Swallows,which is now at the top of the Central League.I am looking forward to the games.

It was mostly cloudy with cold wind and scattered rain.

I went to the Kintaro-no-sawa park in the suburbs and walked around the pond. Cherries were beginnig to bloom,though cold west wind was blowing. It took about ten munites to walk around the pond. After I walked around it four times,I walked through the woods of young cherry blossom trees to Midori-ga-oka baseball park. I watched a game between Tomakomai Higashi Senior High School,from which I retired 14 years ago, and Mukawa Senior High School. In the 4th inning, Mukawa earned 5 scores while Tomakomai Higashi earned nothing, so I gave up watching it, and returned home.
At home, Ayako was planting spring flowers in her flowerpots.Weather is very changeable these days. In some northern parts of Hokkaido,the forecast says it will snow. In mid-May,willl it snow?

The access to the blogger had been denied for more than two days.

Yesterday and the day before yesterday,I couldn't post blog entry at all,because of maintenance. I wonder why such a long time it took for maintenance.

May 12 Thursday - I went to the hospital to check my diabetes. My blood glucose level 2 hours after breakfast was 278,and hemoglobin accumulation/1cc was 7.4. This result is worse than in the previous month. The doctor said he might have to prescribe half more tablets of Melvin and did so. Now I have to take one tablet of Melvin after breakfast and supper every day. Other than this,I must take five different kinds of medicines. Isn't that too much?

May 13 Friday - Since last night,it had been raining heavily toward evening, so I stayed at home all day doing nothing special but watching TV, playing games on pc.,taking a nap,etc.

Ayako and I went to Sunagawa with Chiaki to visit the ancestral tomb of the Kamada family.

It was a beautiful,sunny day. Ayako and I went to Sunagawa,which was Ayako's hometown, and I,myself had lived there for eight years with Ayako's mother after our marriage. We drove along the expressway to Sapporo, and dropped at our daughter Chiaki's house. Chiaki is a dietician but she had no work today. She was free until 3:00 p.m. when her two primary school boys would come home,so she wanted to go to Sunagawa with us. Chiaki drove my car,and again took the expressway to Sunagawa. In Sunagawa,we bought some flowers at a supermarket,and went the cemetery. We first pulled out the weeds around the tomb,and then,cleaned the tombstone,put flowers,lit a candle,and burned incense sticks.

May 10th,Tuesday. It's cloudy all day.

I woke up at 4:40 this morning. It was a little too early for me to get up at this time in the morning, even though I am always an early riser. I may have been worried about the post page in my blog, which had been frozen since yesterday. I sent an e-mail to my son Takashi in California asking for help. Takashi checked my computer by remote operation,using Team Viewer. Finally,he found it was not a trouble caused by my operation mistake or any trouble with my computer, but many other bloggers were also having the same kind of trouble. So he said I should have to wait and see. Then, by afternoon, it had recovered.
I walked in the morning for an hour and a half as usual. While walking,I gathered some mushrooms for eating. The mushrooms are the kind we call "yuki no shita", which means "under snow". We can find them in the woods of ash trees in autumn and in spring. We can find them even under snow in early spring,so they are alled "yuki no shita". Ayako put them in miso soup and we ate them for supper.
I watched the Fighters' baseball game on TV. The game was played in Sendai against the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles,and the result was Fighters' victory by 2-0, a shutout game by the ace pitcher,Darvish. 2 runs were scored by Nakata's two-run homer in the 6th inning from Rakuten's ace pitcher Iwakuma.

I went to the Ivy Plaza to attend an English class.

In the morning,as it was sunny,I went to Furusato Noen to work in my field. I plowed the earth and turned five furrows to plant vegetables, and returned home about two hours later.
In the evening,Takashi and Sachiyo called us on Skype and talked for about 10 minutes. They were well. They were surprised to hear that I was going to attend an English class, because they thought most of the attendants there would be beginners,while I had worked as an interpreter,even as a volunteer.
At 5:35,I left home by car for the Ivy Plaza,where we were to have the English class.
In the 4th study room on the 3rd floor,there were 17 "students",most of whom seemed to be over 40 or 50 years old.The teacher was named Ms.Tomiko Nyerges,and she was born in Tomakomai,and had lived in USA with her late American husband for 18 years. I was surprised she recognized me at first glance,because she remembered I had worked with her as an interpreter in some event held in Tomakomai about 10 years ago.
I agreed to her idea that in learning English,we should always try to understand through English, without the help of Japanese. So,she earnestly recommended Longman's English-English Dictionary. Using the tape recorder,she made us listen to English dialogues.(Written on May 9 )

Ayako and I went to plant potatoes in Furusato Noen.

The rain that had been falling through the night stopped in the morning. Ayako and I went to our field in Furusato Noen,and furrowed one fifth of our field and planted potatoes.It was a hard work,and we realized it's getting harder and harder year after year.But I think I can hardly stop working in the field, because I like it very much and this hard work is only in the beginning of the season.
Reports from the areas in Tohoku stricken by the earthquake and tsunami continue on TV and newspapers.On-screen talents,musicians,sports players,etc. are visiting one evacuating center to another to encourage the evcuees. But to see those evacuating centers surrounded by mountains of rubble,I think it is just incredible that such big tsunami attacked the places so far inside the land. As of May 8,the number of people confirmed dead is 14,898,and people misssing 9,922, so, in total 24,820 people seem to be dead. There are still 19,656 evacuees in the evacuation centers.

Prime minister Kan asked Chubu Electric Company to shut down Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka prefecture.

The weather was not good today,either. I wanted to go to my field,but the soil would be wet,so I gave up going. In the morning,I walked west as far as the Koitoi River in the dense fog, after I had translated some pages in the book "Chippewa Chief in World War II."

Prime minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Company to shut down its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka prefecture until the planned breakwater is built. The reason is the probability that Central Japan will be hit by a big earthquake within 30 years from now is supposed to be 87%. I don't know how this probability is calculated,but if this probability forecast comes true,it will be quite natural that the electric company should shut down nuclear power plants. But why Japanese seismologists could not forecast the East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11 this year? Anyway,we should always be prepared for the worst.

I tilled the soil in my field in "Furusato Noen", or Our Home town Farm.

It was sunny early in the morning,but toward noon,it was getting foggy.At 8:30,I drove to my field in Furusato Noen in Nishikioka.I struggled to till the soil for about 2 hours and a half thinking of planting potatoes. While I was digging,I was happpy to think of what I would grow in my field other than potatoes. Last year,I
grew potatoes,beans,pumpkins,corns,sweet potatoes,soy beans,cucummbers,spinach, tomatoes,eggplants,daikon or Japanese big white radishes,and so on. But,last summer, the weather was not good and the temperature was low,so tomatoes,eggplants,and sweet potatoes did not grow well.I hope the weather will be better this summer.
In the afternoon,I took a nap,and in the evening watched a baseball game on TV. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham was defeated by the Fukuoka Soft Bank by the score of 1-4.
Ayako went to hospital to check her diabetes,and the result seemed to be worse than before. Her hemoglobin accumulation/1c was over 6.5.

Today was Children's Day.

The "Golden Week" - it was another holiday,Children's Day,today,and it was a fine,pleasant day. In the morning,I wrote an e-mail to Ilsemarie in Germany. According to her e-mail sent to me the day before yesterday,discussions on the problems of nuclear power generation seem to be going on in many places in Germany.Should we have nuclear power plants as we have now,even after we experienced Tschrnobyl,Three Mile Island,and Fukushima?
Especially,Japan is a land of earthquakes and have been stricken by a lot of big earthquakes. And it is an island country surrounded by seas, so almost every time when a big earthquake occurs, it causes tsunami.There have been at least 13 big earthquakes ever recorded in history which killed more than 5,000 people since the 18th century.Tokyo Electric Company and the people concerned have repeatedly said the disaster this time was "more than expected". But only glancing back at these historical facts,it was quite natural that they should have expected. As for tsunami,they had only 5 m-high protection walls. On July 12th 1993,when tsunami hit Okushiri Island, Hokkaido, it is reported that waves as high as 14m rushed into the island.
Was this time's disaster "more than expected"?

It was a rainy holiday,and I stayed at home all day.

It was a cold,rainy day.But It was a holiday named "Greenery Day". In this time of year, we don't see much green in nature in the northern part of Japan yet.What is worse,the season seemed to have turned back to winter, and it even snowed in some parts of Hokkaido.
Ilsemarie sent me an e-mail. She says the discussions on the problems of nuclear power generation are going on in many places in Germany.I know this situation is not only in Germany,but in other European countries,in Russia,in U.S.A. and in India,too. I can imagine how massive impact the accident of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima has exerted on the problems of the neclear energy generation the world over.
Japan is a country poor in energy resources,so it has been dependent on import for them. That is why the so-called "security myth of nuclear power generation" was made up by the electric power companies,industrial circles,and even by the government.The age of the security myth has completely ended.

Today,May 3rd, is the Constitution Memorial Day.

The preamble of the constitution of Japan.
"We,the Japanese people,acting through our duly elected representatives in the National Diet,determined that we shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with all nations and the blessings of liberty throughout this land, and resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government, do proclaim that sovereign power resides with the people and do firmly establish this Constitution."

Article 9
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, as well as other war potential,will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

The other day,when we met Mr.Nishimura from Ryukyu University,Okinawa,we talked about the constitution,especially about Article 9,and we agreed with each other in that we should firmly defend this spirit of the constitution.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed.

In the morning it rained with strong wind,but the rain stopped at around 9:00. I went to my field in "Furusato No-en" or "Hometown farm" in Nishiki Oka for the first time this year,and spread some fertilizer.Next weekend,I will till the soil,and prepare for sowing the seeds of some vegetables.The temperature is not high enough yet,so I am afraid vegetables will not grow well.
Today,US pesident Barrack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden,the leader of Al-Qaida,was killed in a firefight with U.S.forces. The firefight took place in a city named Abbottabad which was located about 100 km north of Islamabad,the capital of Pakistan.I still clearly remember the scene when I saw on TV a big passenger plane crush into the tall building of the World Trade Center in New York in September 11,2001. Another plane crushed into the Pentagon near Washington D.C. and the other in Pensilvania. By these attacks, more than 3,000 people were killed,including 24 Japanese.Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of these terrorist attacks,so U.S.A.and its allies were desperate to chase him. Since Osama bin Laden has been got rid of,will there be no more terrorist attacks? Nobody thinks so. We will have to consider what the causes of terrorism are once again.

I drove to Sapporo with Ayako in the rain to see our own tomb just completed.

It has been raining since last night.But we had to go to see our own tomb which had just been completed in the Barato Cemetery in the suburbs of Sapporo.We left home at 9:30 by car in the heavy rain. We went first to our older daughter Haruna's house,and just after we had arrived there,our younger daughter Chiaki arrived by car with her little son Arashi. We spent about an hour or so to wait for the time appointed by the cemetery. Then Haruna drove us in my car to Barato. It took only about 15 minutes.
It was still raining in the cemetery,and in addition,the wind was blowing hard. After making sure of the location of our tomb at the office,we went out to see it.There,in the flat land,were a lot of tombs,big or little,in rows.Ours was a little square stone tomb on which was graven the words "Thank You" in English, which we had ordered.When we ordered,I wondered what words we should ask to engrave on the stone,I proposed to Ayako to choose the words meaning our thanks to all the people we have had contact with. In Japanese,or in English? - that was Haruna's choice,- "in English", because I used to be an English teacher,and even after retirement,I have always been doing something in English. A Buddhist monk came with a big umbrella,and performed a ritual for about ten minutes chanting something we didn't understand.