It was "hot" today.

I felt "hot" for the first time this summer. The highest temperature was around 25 degrees. In the morning, Ayako went to the neighborhood hall to help cleaning activity of the neighborhood association. I went to Furusato Noen. I stood beanpoles, and transplanted a tomato seedling and two sweet potatoes. The purple flowers of potatoes were about to come out. According to the TV news, in Honshu, including Tohoku district, it was a very hot day and in many places the highest temperature was over 35 degrees. So, I sent an e-mail to Tomoko in Sendai asking how she was, but I haven't received her answer yet.
In the soccer world cup tournament for under the age 17 being held in Mexico, Japan defeated New Zealand by 6-0, and promoted to the quarter final game against Brazil. I am looking forward to the game.

My personal history after the war  17
On the next Sunday, I was introduced by Mr.Araki to the members of the track and field club, and ran along a road with several men members. I could keep running consistently with the top runner all through the course, and I was praised by the other members. I thought I could run because I had walked a long distance to and from school every day in Miyagi.

It was a foggy day all day.

It was very foggy all day today, and visibility was only 50 meters or so. It was just like Tomakomai in summer. Anyway, it didn't rain, so I could take walking exercise without carrying an umbrella. Walking along the Tomakomai river, purple,yellow, and white colors of irises looked very beautiful. In the afternoon,I stayed at home watching a soccer game of Women's World Cup being held in Germany. Japan beat New Zealand by the score of 2-1 in the 1st stage of the tournament. Japan's next game will be against Mexico.

My personal history after the war      16
My father went to the employment office with a shovel and a lunch box every day. I went school feeling nervous because I was not used to the new school life, and had no friend yet. But, in a few days, my classmate began to talk with me one after another. I found a classmate sitting next to me was very kind. His name was Araki, and he kindly lent me an English dictionary and other reference books which I couldn't afford to buy. And he invited me to join his track and field club, and I promised to run 10 km running practice in the next week end..

Ogasawara Islands and Hiraizumi were decided to register as World Heritage sites.

Ogasawara Islands

The 35th session of World Heritage Committee held in Paris decided to add Ogasawara Islands, 100 km south of Tokyo, and Hiraizumi, Iwate prefecture, to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites last week. Ogasawara Islands are dubbed the "Galapagos of the Orient" for their unique wildlife,including such endangered species known as the Bonin flying fox (Ogasawara o ko-mori) and black-footed albatross (kuroashi aho-dori). The chain of Ogasawara Islands consists of about 30 islands, and they are home to 57 species listed as rare species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a UNESCO advisory body.



Konjiki-do, the golden hall



 Hiraizumi is now a small town in Iwate prefecture, but in the 12th century, it was called the capital of Tohoku District, and a rival city of Kyoto. It was established by the Fujiwara, and the famous Buddhist temples such as Chusonji and others still remind us its past glory and prosperity. Chusonji temple is well-known for its Konjiki-do or the golden hall.

My personal history after the war   14
I was admitted to enter Iwamizawa Nishi Senior High School at last, but it was almost the end of April. On the day when I first went to school, "challenging exam" was being held. I hadn't gone to school for almost a month, so it was quite natural that I couldn't give a right answer to any of the questions. There was such a question in the English grammar exam as  "Point out  'complement' and 'object' in the following sentences". I didn't understand what it meant. English was my weakest subject, because there was no teacher in my junior high school in Miyagi who could teach English. It was the beginning of my struggle to learn English. 

We picked spinach in Furusato Noen.

It was a sunny Sunday. In the morning, we went to Furusato Noen to pick spinach, and transplanted the seedlings of peanuts we had sprouted on the wood deck. After having returned, I walked along the Tomakomai river. In the afternoon, I stayed at home watching a baseball game and soccer on TV. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters is now at the second place after the Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks. The High School Baseball Championship Tournament of this district began yesterday at Tomakomai Midorigaoka ball park, but there are no good games yet. But I want to go to see the semi-final games or the final game scheduled next weekend.

My personal history after the war  13
I was afraid if I could really enter senior high school in Hokkaido. One reason was, of course, the problem of finamce. I thought of the poor situation of  my family. My older sister was seeking for her job, but had not found it yet. she was only 17 years old, and had finished junior high school two years before. I was to transfer from Furukawa Senior High School to Iwamizawa Nishi Senior High School, but the system of entrance examination was quite different, so the school in Iwamizawa couldn't have decided to admit me yet.   

Kazuko,my younger sister came to visit us with her daughter,Mariko.

It was fine, but a little windy and not warm. Kazuko, my younger sister had promised to come to visit us, and her second daughter, Mariko, drove her and arrived a few minutes before 11:00 a.m. Kazuko is five years younger than I, and now, she lives in Iwamizawa, central Hokkaido alone. She married a man who graduated from the department of Nippon University and used to be a bit movie actor, and had two daughters. But, soon after the second daughter was born, her husband died of illness. Since then, she and her daughters had lived with our father in Iwamizawa until our father died at the age of 80. Our mother had died about 10 years before. So, Kazuko's life so far has not always been very happy. She is still working as an accountant for some little company. I am glad to hear she is enjoying her single life, playing tennis, watching baseball games, or going to concert with Mariko.      

My personal history   12
Late on the evening of the day when I arrived, my father came home carrying a shovel and an empty lunch box. He was working as a day-laborer at some traffic zone. When he was young, he studied law in the law school of Chuo University in Tokyo wanting to be a lawyer. But he gave up becoming a lawyer because in 1923, when he was 28 years old, Kanto Great Earthquake occurred, and he lost all his books and everything. And then he began working at one time as a policeman, and at another time, ran an independent business like producing fuel for domestic use called "tadon". And just before the war ended, he was a section chief of an optical industry company. So, I couldn't imagine he would work as a day-laboror and our family would have to live on his day wages.   

The temperature in Kumagaya,Saitama,39.8 degrees,in Nemuro,8.0 degrees.

The topic of  weather again. Today's highest temperature in Kumagaya,Saitama prefecture, was 39.8 degrees,while in Nemuro,Hokkaido, it was only 8.3 degrees. The difference of temperatures between these two places was more than 30 degrees! Japan is a small country but the Japanese archipelago lies long from north to south. That's why the climate varies greatly from place to place. The rain here stopped in the morning, and I walked, as usual, as far as Kawazoe cho.

My personal history after the war   ⑪
I walked out of the station building to the square in front. It was not paved, and there were bumps and puddles after recent rain. Taxis and busses were running splashing up dirty water. I saw a dog wandering around between wooden buildings. The dog looked very dingy because it seemed to get dirty with soot and dust from the smoke of the locomotives burning coal. A small-sized horse was plodding along drawing a wagon full of coal. Spallows were chirping in the trees along the road, and they also looked as dirty as the dog.

We don't have a rainy season in Hokkaido, but .......

In Japan, we almost always talk about the weather by way of greeting in such  ways as "It's fine today, isn't it?" or "It's a nasty day, isn't it?" "How long will it continue to rain?" etc. That's because, in Japan, the weather is so changeable, and the topic of the weather is always harmless. Now it is a rainy season called "nyu bai" or "tsuyu". However, meteorogically speaking, Hokkaido has no rainy season, but in this time of every year, we have almost as much rain as in other parts of Japan. Today was a rainy day, and the forecast says it will rain tomorrow, too. For the crops in the fields, this rain will be good, I hope.

My personal history after the war   ⑩
I arrived at Iwamizawa at last. I don't remember the exact time, but, maybe, it took about 20 hours. It was a long trip. My mother was waiting at the ticket wicket and smiled at me, feeling releaved. There were not so many people around, but I felt a little ashamed to see her wearing shabby clothes. When she lived in Tokyo, she was a career woman who worked for the Ministry of Telecommunication. In her old photo album, she always dressed neatly.  But in Miyagi, she had to work on a farm, which she had no experience of such physical labor at all. She always wore shabby ragged clothes. I still remember feeling sorry for her when I saw her scolded by my father because she couldn't do some farm work well.

We weeded and cleaned up around our house.

Today is the summer solstice - that means, the daytime is the longest, and the nighttime is the shortest in the year. But the weather here was cloudy and dark all day, while in Kanto area, the temperature rose over 35 degrees, and in many places in Tohoku, it also rose over 30 degrees. The temperature here was only about 20 degrees. In the morning, Ayako and I weeded and cleaned up around our house. In our garden, tree peonies and irises are now blooming beautifully.

My personal history after the war   ⑨

The train pulled by a powerful steam locomotive was running along  a river flowing in the valley, and through tunnel after tunnel, and scenes of the sea sometimes came in sight. It was early morning, and the sky was gloomy. I don't remember where and when I slept the previous night.  Before long, an announcement was heard over a loudspeaker, saying "Otaru,Otaru",  and about an hour later,"Sapporo, Sapporo". I just remembered these names being taught in the social study at school, and when I heard them, I felt something very exotic.  

　

It was a hot summer day today.

It was a hot day today. In some cities in northern Hokkaido, the highest temperature was over 30 degrees. Here in Tomakomai, it was around 25 degrees. On the other hand, in many places in Honshu and Kyushu, it has been raining heavily, and rivers are flooding, and in Tohoku district, the rainy season has begun, the Meteorological office officially announced.
In the afternoon, Ayako and I, inviting Mrs.Azumi to join us, went playing park golf. As the sun was very strong, we went to the golf course in Arten camp site, where there were a lot of trees. We enjoyed playing two rounds of each 18 holes. On the way home, we dropped round at Furusato Noen to show Mrs.Azumi our field.

My personal history  ⑧　
I didn't remember what Hakodate looked like, because I could get on the train almost straight from the pier. Anyway, I felt relieved to set foot for the first time in my life on the land of Hokkaido. The train would take me straight to Iwamizawa, where my family was waiting for me. I wondered what the city of Iwamizawa would look like,what kind of house my family lived, and what kind of job my father had found. I was not sure that I would really be able to go to senior high school, because if my father could not find a good job, there would be an economical problem. In the train, people around me talked to me very kindly because I looked very young to take a long trip by myself. The mountains seen through the window still looked very white with snow. "This is Hokkaido", I thought.

The spinach we grew ourselves is very delicious.

We picked spinach and tiny red turnip in our field and ate for supper. Ayako made 'ohitashi' of spinach and pikled turnips in vinegar. Both were very good, because they were fresher than those bought in the supermarket.
In the afternoon, Takashi and Sachiyo called us on Skype from California for the first time in two weeks. They looked well on the screen, but Takashi said he had been very busy. We didn't ask why he was so busy. We just know he is going to found his new company there with his co-founders.

My personal history after the war  ⑦
I arrived at Aomori and walked from the platform straight to the ferry boat and got on board. But at the gate to the cabin, I was surprised to see all the passengers being sprayed with pesticide DDT,which is now forbidden to use for fear of environment pollution. It was brought into Japan from US to get rid of lice.
The cabin was divided by railings, and, in each compartment, about ten people were sitting or lying on tatami mats. The boat was always swaying and rolling, and in four hours and a half, it came alongside the pier of  Hakodate harbor.

The final day of the Interleague play series of the professional baseball in Japan

It was a summer day today that I had been waiting for. The highest temperature rose up over 20 dgrees even here in Tomakomai. I walked as far as the Koitoi river in Kawazoe cho in the morning.
Today was the final day of the interleague play series of Japanese professional baseball. The results were : ① Fukuoka Soft Bank  ② Kobe Orix  ③ Hokkaido Nippon Ham  ............
An important soccer game was also held in Tokyo today. It was a game between Japan national team and Kwait national team, which was a second-round game of the preliminary for the London Olympics. Japan defeated Kuwait by the score of 3-1. Another game between both teams will be played in Kuwait on Wednesday.

My history after the war  ⑥
I was alone with no one I knew around. I felt uneasy thinking of having to change trains some times ahead, because I had never traveled by myself. I would have to change trains in Kogota, and in Aomori. And I would have to get on board the ferry boat from Aomori to Hokodate. Hakodate, or Hokkaido, what would it look like ? Would I be able to get there safe and sound? I was feeling very uneasy.

I found seedlings of peanuts at JA shop.




In the morning, I walked along the Tomakomai river and dropped in at JA ( Japan Agricultural Cooperatives ) shop and found the seedlings of peanuts which I had been looking for. I bought two of them, and planted them in our field in Furusato Noen.



My history after the war  ⑤

Ｍｙ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ　ｉｎ　Ｍｉｙａｇｉ



My family - my parents and  two sisters - left Miyagi by train for Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, in late March, but I stayed at my father's birth house because I had to go through the admission procedure for Furukawa Senior High School. I don't remember the exact date, but on a warm, fine day in early April, I left Miyagi by train alone. Some of my classmates in junior high school, boys and girls, came to the little railroad station of Ikezuki village to send me off. I had never seen any one of them for 45 years since then until we were 60 years old, when I attended our class reunion for the first time. The photos here were taken in September 2010, when I attended our class reunion for the second time.   

  





My family gave up developing new farmland and moved to Hokkaido.

It was mostly cloudy, but warm. In Sapporo, the temperature rose up to 26 degrees, but here in Tomakomai, the highest temperature was 18 degrees. In the morning, I went to our field and planted two seedlings of yakon, and watered corns and beans we had planted yesterday. In the afternoon, I enjoyed playing park golf with Ayako at Itoi Family Park Golf Course just close to the golf course we played the other day.

 My personal history  ④
It was late autumn in 1949 or early spring in 1950. My father's younger brother, who had returned from Sakhalin, which used to be Japanese territory before the war, visited us in our hut in the mountains in Miyagi. He was surprised to see our life in such poor circumstances, and advised us to move over to Hokkaido where he worked as a carpenter. By the way, I was in the third year, the final year, of junior high school then, and I had to think of what I should do after April when I would finish my junior high school. My father asked me whether or not I wanted  to work as a farmer there in the future. I answered "No." I had no idea what I would be in my future, but I vaguely wanted to go on to senior high school if possible. Despite our poor circumstances, my school record was good. So, my homeroom teacher recommended me to go up to senior high school. I took the entrance examination for senior high school and was allowed to enter Furukawa Senior High School, which was a prestigious school there. Still then, I didn't know how to commute to the school, because it took me more than an hour to walk to the village which had a railroad station, and then, it took another half an hour to Furukawa city by train. There was, of course, a financial problem,too.
At last my father gave up living there and decided to move to Hokkaido, as advised  by his brother. 

Memory of hunger

It was sunny all day today. In the morning, Ayako and I went to Furusato Noen to bed out the shoots of beans which we had grown in the wood deck. Maria from Urguay, and Ilsemarie from Germany sent me an email for my birthday. A few days ago, Emiliano sent me an email from Barcelona, too.

My history after the war 　③
Now I will continue my story in Miyagi. Our everyday life in the mountains in Miyagi was filled with hardship. There was no electricity and no running water. And for us children, to go to school was hard work. Walking along the footpaths through woods and weeds up and down hills and valleys, it took us more than an hour to get to the village where our school was. In winter, we had to leave home for school almost before dawn, and it was already dark on our way back home. What was worse, I,as well as my family, was always feeling hungry. My father sometimes brought home some rice presented by his relative in his birth house, but it was far from enough. We ate rice porridge our mother made with much water and wild vegetables. But we sometimes had  happy time. In spring, we ate edible wild plants collected around our house. In autumun, we gathered chestnuts, wild fruits, and edible fungi. But our struggle to develop a new farmland was completely failed. our father wanted to grow rice, but the water in the valley was too cold for rice to grow . Next, we planted corn, beans, wheat, millet, and vegetables. But the soil was very poor, and hare and birds came to our fields and ate up most of them. We set traps to catch hare but in vain. We were feeling almost always hungry.   

Struggle to develop new farmland.

My history after the war 　②
We couldn't go back to Tokyo, because Tokyo was  completely destroyed, but still, so many people were flowing into the city from everywhere across the country. My older brother,who had been independent of our family, went to Tokyo to see what had happened to our house. "Nothing, there was nothing. I couldn't spot and recognize the place where our house used to be." He reported with a piece of thick glass of a US bomber and  a burned-out helmet in his hands which he found somewhere around the place of our house.
Our family had no place to go, so we decided to cultivate wild land to produce something we could live on. I didn't know how my father got the land, but I heard he went to Sendai many times to negotiate with officers of the prefectural govenment. We moved from our rented house to a little valley, where we built a hut with a thatched roof. My father tried to develop a rice field, but found the water was too cold to grow rice.

June 14th, my 75th birthday.



Ayako

  Today is my 75th birthday. I am now so-called  an "old old",which means the people over 75. I'll be invited to the party on "Keiro no Hi" or "the Respect-for-Senior-Citizens Day holiday in September


Talking with my cat

My history after the war 　① 

I am thinking back on my life so far. I was born in Fukagawa,Tokyo, in 1936. The war began in 1941, when I was five years old. By 1944-45, Tokyo was under severe air raids by US millitary forces. In February,1945, when I was eight years old, we couldn't live in Tokyo any more. My family, - my parents, my two sisters and I, decided to evacuate to Miyagi prefecture, which was my father's birthplace. I remember the scene of the platform  of Ueno railway station which was congested with evacuating people.  



The war ended in August 15th,1945. We wanted to go back to Tokyo, but Tokyo had completely been destroyed and we had no place to live there. ( to be continued)



I worked on our field in Furusato Noen in the morning.



Azalea



The weather forecast said it would rain, but it didn't at least in the daytime. In the morning, I worked on our field in Furusato Noen. First I planted out seedlings of pumpkins, and tomatos and then mounded soil on the lists of potatoes.  

After returning, I weeded the garden. Flowers are so beautiful, especially verious colors of azaleas. Black lilies are pretty,though they are not so noticeable in our garden. The buds of Japanese tree peonies

are swelling, and I look forward to them blooming.

Black lily

Emiliano, a sculptor in Barcelona Spain, sent me an email for my birthday. I met him in Nayoro three year ago, when his team participated in the international snow sculpting competition, and won the first prize. He was an art teacher in Barcelona and when he came to Nayoro, he was with his beautiful daughter. I want to see him again next winter.   

Tomorrow, June 14th will be my 75th birthday.











I went alone to collect wild edible plants.

In the morning I drove to the Tomakomai Eastern Industrial Estate to collect wild edible plants. Ayako wasn't feeling well so that I went there alone. At this time of  every year,we go to the same place because we can collect a lot of warabi (bracken) and fuki (butterbur).  
By the way, this industrial estate was developed by a great national project known as "Toma-toh Kaihatsu" or Tomakomai Eastern Industrial Estate Development" in 1970s and 1980s. But the project has not succeeded because only less than 10 % of the 10,000-hectare-developed land is now used for industrial sites. Before the land was developed, there used to be farms and pastures,so in such places along beautiful roads newly built, we can find a lot of edible wild plants. 







Fuki



Warabi







Ayako and I worked on our field.

It was a busy day. In the morning, Ayako and I went to our field in Furusato Noen to prepare for transplanting the shoots of beans and corns we are growing in planters on the wood deck. The weather was fine and the temperature rose up as high as 20 degrees for the first time this year. It was very pleasant to work outdoors.
In the afternoon, we went to see a trade fair of appliances being held at a supermarket near the railroad station.

It was a foggy day all day.

This is a typical early summer day in Tomakomai - very foggy, and chilly all day. Flowers are beautiful but the shoots of beans in the seedbeds do not grow well. I am afraid it will take another week before I can transplant them in the field in Furusato Noen.

In the morning, I attended late Mr.Wada's funeral in a funeral hall in Mihara-cho near Furusato Noen. Ayako didn't attend the funeral,because she had to send some important documents by special delivery to Takashi in California from the post office. 

In the afternoon,I walked as far as Kawazoe cho in the fog. After supper,Ayako went to her ceramic art class.

Ayako went to Otaru for the trip hosted by women's section of the neighborhood association.

Various colors of azaleas are blooming in our garden. I like this season best.

Ayako went on a trip hosted by the women's section of our neighborhood association. I heard about 40 people would take part in it. They will go to Otaru to see "Aoyama Bettei," a historic residence built by a daughter of a wealthy fisherman who had made a fortune by catching herrings in Miji era. Until 1950s, a lot of herrings had been caught along the coast of the Japan Sea in Hokkaido every spring season, but now, the number of them has remarkably decreased.

I stayed at home almost all day, but just before noon, went out to buy onigiri,or rice ball for lunch and some other things for supper. And in the evening, I attended late Mr.Seizo Wada's funeral wake. Late Mr.Wada sometimes visited us some years ago, and talked about his experience in Okinawa during the World War II. He said he had thrown into a trench together with dead bodies of other solidiers. He was  going to be buried alive by mistake. Another witness of the war has passed away. Mr.Wada was 92 years old. 

A spacecraft with three astronauts including Mr.Satoshi Furukawa on board lifted off for the International Space Station.

A Russian spacecraft Soyuz lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station with three astronauts from Rassia, U.S.A. and Japan on board. The Japanese astronaut, Mr.Satoshi Furukawa, is a 47-year-old surgeon from University of Tokyo Hospital. He was born in Yokohama, and graduated from the medical department of Tokyo University, which is the most difficult university to enter in Japan. He was selected as a candidate of astronauts twelve years ago, but because of two accidents happened in NASA, he had to wait for as long as 12 years. To fly into space as an astronaut has been his dream since his childhood, and his dream  has come true at last after he had begun to have the dream more than 40 years before. When he was a child, he liked to watch on TV  "Ultra Seven", one of Tsuburaya Productions Co's famed "Ultra" science fiction series. Accoding to his mother, he always said, "I want to become an Ultra Seven." He still had the dream even after he became an astronaut. Mr.Furukawa will stay in the International Space Station for 160 days until November 16th, and  will carry out many medical, physical and other kinds of experiments.     

We walked about 7,000 steps playing park golf this afternoon.

It was warm, and I felt of early summer. It is reported that lilacs are now in full bloom in Sapporo and "Lilac festival" is being held there. Another popular festival in early summer, "Yosakoi dancing festival" will get underway tomorrow. The most beautiful season in Hokkaido is coming.

 In the afternoon, I went to the park golf  course "54 Park Golf Course" with Ayako, and enjoyed playing for about two hours. This course has some steep slopes and we have to walk up and down, so we think it good for exercise. Ayako wore a pedometer, and said we had walked about 7,000 steps during our play.

We heard Mr.Seizo Wada, a former chairman of our neighborhood association, passed away.

"Skype", an international telecommunication system by internet, which we usually use is out of order. What is happening to it? We can't contact Takashi and Sachiyo in California.

I went with Ayako to see our field in Furusato Noen.

It was a fine day today,too. In the morning, Ayako and I went to see our field in Furusato Noen. Young sprouts of vegetables are growing steadly. The temperature is rising, so we took off the vinyl covers over the sprouts, and left the young vegetables in the sun. We stayed in the field only for 10 munites, and returned home. On the way back, we dropped in a shop in which seeds and seedlings of flowers and crops are sold. We looked for seedlings of peanuts, because the seeds of them we sowed in the pot on our wood deck have not come out yet, and we were afraid they would not come out after all.
 Azaleas are beautiful now, not only in our garden, but everywhere along the streets.

I enjoyed walking in the sunny morning.

It was a sunny beautiful Sunday. As usual, I walked along my walking path. On such a fine morning, I really enjoy walking. I took some photos on the way. Late-blooming-cherries are still in full bloom. The green of leaves were so pleasant to see, and I felt relaxed. In our garden, azaleas of red color are coming out, and on our wood deck, we can enjoy seeing colorful little flowers planted by Ayako in flower pots. I hope it will get warmer and we will have more sunny days.

In the earthquake-and-tsunami-stricken area in Tohoku the number of the people confirmed dead was 15,355, and 8,281 people are still missing as of June 4. The number of the people living in the evacuation centers is 98,916. I hope the political turbulence will end as soon as possible and the politicians will unitedly hold hands  to help the victims. 

It was foggy,rainy,and wet all day.

I could not  go out because it was dizzling all day, and  even thundered in the evening. The temperature is low,so the plants do not grow well, and the flowers are late in blooming. Is it really June now? It seems to be May. In some parts of southern Japan, the temperature rose up to about 30 degrees today. How different!
In Japanese professional baseball leagues, the interleague play is now under way. As usual, most of the teams belonging to the Pacific league are proved to be stronger than those in the Central league. Accoding to the standings as of June 5,  in the 1st place is the Fukuoka Soft Bank (P), in the 2nd is Saitama Seibu (P), in the  3rd there are Hokkaido Nippon Ham (P), Kobe Orix(P), and Nagoya Chunichi (C) in tie. That means only one team, Nagoya, from the Central league is in the top 5 teams. There are 12 teams in Japan, 6 teams belonging to each league.  

Marie, our granddaughter, got a job in Sapporo.

Our oldest granddaughter,who had studied in Shinshu University in Nagano prefecture, got a job in Sapporo,where her family live. She majored in architecture in Shinshu University,but in this time of difficulty for job seekers, she had not been able to find a job suitable for her. The name of her company is "Sogo sho-ken" Co.Ltd. The president is Mr.Masaru Kato. I  know almost nothing about the business content of the company,but, it seems to have something to do with printing. Anyway, Marie will come and visit us in a few days, and we will get to know.
 By the way, Marie took a driver's license some years ago, but has little experience in driving. So, her mother, Haruna, asked Ayako to lend her car to let Marie practice driving. We are looking forward to seeing her. 

The no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime minister Kan voted down.

The no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime minister Kan was voted down by 152 to 293 in the House of Representatives this afternoon. But, Prime minister Kan had a meeting with the former prime minister Hatoyama and announced, at the caucus of the Democratic Party of Japan held right after that, that he would step down sometime after effort to restore the disaster-stricken area and bring the accident at the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant under control. Prime Mnister Kan was allowed to remain in power, but at the same time, announced to resign some time  in the not-so-distant future. I didn't understand it quite well, but the diet members of the Ozawa group of DPJ who had been to vote for the no- confidence motion did. That is why they voted against it. Politics is always difficult for common people to understand. When will Prime Minister Kan resign? Now that the prime minister of Japan has announced his resignation, what will become of Japan's foreign policy? Will the heads of other countries trust him if he promises anything?

I am worrying about the political situation of Japan.

It was cloudy all day. In the morning,I went alone to our field in Furusato Noen and have finished preparing for  planting all the crops we are planning to plant. Spinach and other vegetables we sowed are growing. The sprouts of potatoes are coming out. The sweet potatoes are growing well. On the wood deck of our house, young  shoots of peas and corns are growing  little by little, and in a week or so, I will be able to transplant them in the field.

I am worrying about  the political situation of Japan. The largest opposition party the  Liberal Democratic Party is going to submit a no-confidence motion against the Kan Cabinet with the Komei Party tomorrow. More than 70 members from the ruling party Japan Democratic Party (Ozawa group) are said to approve the motion. I don't know why the motion should be submitted now at this moment, when the recovery efforts from the East Japan Great Earthquake are going on. Why are even the members of the ruling party going to approve it? And what will happen if the motion should be approved? I think many people ask the same questions as mine. Now is an important time for the history of Japan, so the acts of the politicians will have a lot to do with the future of Japan.