It was a fine day. I went to Furusato Noen.

  In the morning, I went alone to Furusato Noen and pulled out all daikon. In our field, there are no more crops or vegetables left. The harvest season for our field in Furusato Noen is over. But I will have to go there once or twice more to clean the field. I am afraid we won't be able to till the field next spring, because Ayako says it will be too hard for her to work there, and besides, we have prepared a part of our garden for planting and growing vegetables.

The Fighters were beaten by the Lions - the end of the season for the Fighters.

  Why did Nashida yank Darvish in the seventh inning in yesterday's game?  The Fighters were leading by 2-1 at that time. Everyone wonders. The Fighters lost the most important game in this season. In today's game, he yanked Wolfe, who had pitched in the seventh and eighth innings well. After all, the team was defeated by 2 to 8.
 In the morning, we went to Aeon shopping center in the eastern suburbs of the city. Ayako bought vegetables, bread, and some other foods. In the furniture shop close to the shopping center, we broused sofas, which we were thinking of buying.  

Yesterday, I attended a drinking party of the neighborhood association.

  Yesterday, a drinking party of our neighborhood association was held at a Japanese-style pub "Tsubohachi". Nominally it was the evaluation meeting of the events we have held in the past half year, but, anyway, we enjoyed eating, drinking, and talking and returned home a little before 9:00 p.m.
  Before leaving for the party, I watched a Climax Series baceball game between the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the Saitama Seibu Lions. Fighters' ace pitcher Yu Darvish pitched very well and allowed only 1 run till 7th inning, but Nippon Ham's manager Masataka Nashida changed the pitcher at the 8th inning, and finally the Nippon Ham was defeated by 5-2 in the extra inning game. What a shame!

I cleared almost all the chrysanthemums in my garden, and replanted some of them in other corners of the garden.

  It took almost all day to clear my garden today. There were too many  various colors of chrysanthemums in my garden. I pulled out almost all of them, and I selected some which had flowers of red, pink, yellow, white, and purple colors, and replanted them in the corners of the garden. And also, I cut down some azalea trees with a saw. To cut trees with a saw is always hard work. But I was glad to see my garden had been cleared. I now look forward next spring coming.
  The flood in Thailand is becoming worse and worse. The water is now getting into the beautiful Budhist temples in Bangkok which we have visited. People are evacuating by boat, or by wadingwater flowing into the streets.

The Nippon Ham Fighters picked Sugano at the first round draft.

  Today, at the 2011 draft meeting of the Japan Professional Baseball Leagues, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters picked Tomoyuki Sugano, Tokai University's ace pitcher at the first round. Sugano is one of the three best pitchers in the university leagues in Japan, but he has wanted to play for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants because he is a nephew of Mr.Tatsunori Hara, the Tokyo Giants' manager. So, the other teams but the Nipon Ham avoided nominating him. As a result of the lot, the Nippon ham won the right of negotiation.
  In the morning, we went to Furusato Noen. We pulled out some daikon or Japanese radish, and 'yacon', and cleaned the field by berrying the leaves of them in the field. In the afternoon, I worked in my garden to prepare for winter season and for the next spring. Ayako planted the bulves of tulips and lilies for the next season.

My sister in Fukushima sent us rice, persimmons, and a pumpkin.

 In the morning, I took some photos of autumn scenes while walking along my routine walking path. After having lunch, as the weather became sunny,though the temperature was low, Ayako and I went to enjoy playing park golf.

Heavy rain since last night, but the autumn colors of leaves are beautiful.

  It rained heavily. But while I was standing at the crossing as a crossing guard, it wasn't raining. The leaves of rowan  and cherry trees had turned red, and looked very beautiful. In the afternoon, I walked as far as the reverside park in Kawazoe, where I picked up chestnuts, but there were no chestnuts,but a lot of empty burs under the trees.

A big earthquake in Turkey - more than 200 people were confirmed dead.

  No one knows when and where a disaster will happen - especially, an earthquake.

Heavy rain. The cleaning day of the neighborhood association cancelled.

  Since last night, it had been raining heavily. So, the cleaning day that the neighborhood association had planned was cancelled. But, as  the rain stopped before noon, I took a walk toward the Tomakomai river.
  Everyday, the media is reporting about the great flood in Thailand. Not only the capital,Bangkok, but many industrial parks where more than 400 factories of Japanese companies have been under water. People were fighting desperately, some are evacuating by boats, others are piling up sandbags to prevent their houses and shops from being flooded by water. It is unknown when the flooding will end. 

Picked up some chestnuts while walking in the morning.

The forecast said it would rain, but in the morning, it didn't. I left home at 9:30 with an umbrella and walked along the Komorebi no michi ( meaning a road through woods ) as far as Kawazoe. In Kawazoe, as it means "riverside", there is a long narrow park, and I picked up some 50 or 60 chestnuts under big chestnut trees. After returning home, Ayako boiled them and we ate them. In the afternoon, it began to rain. In autumn, the weather is always changeable.

It was cloudy all day.

Ayako went to hospital to check her diabetes. I watched the world series game between the Texas Rangers and the St.Luis Cardinals. It was a very close game, but Texas beat St.Luis by 2-1.

Enjoyed driving through Shikotsu Toya national park

 It was a beautiful autumn day today,too. In the morning, at around 8:30, Ayako and I left home by car for Lake Toya. Along the road to Lake Shikotsu, the leaves that had turned yellow and red were so beautiful. We first drove along the Shikotsuko road, got over Bihue Pass, and arrived at the road station "Forest". We shopped around interested in various kinds of fungi, and then, Ayako bought some vegetables like little pumpkins and hakusai. By the way, we had eaten miso soup with mushrooms whenever we came here, but this time, as it was a little early to eat anything, we didn't. We started again for Lake Toya. On the way, Mt.Yotei, or Ezo Fuji, looked very beautiful. We arrived at a scenic overlook, and enjoyed seeing the panoramic view of Lake Toya. Then we went to the foot of Mt.Showa Shinzan, and ate ramen for lunch. Then, we headed back to Tomakomai by way of Shiraoi. We returned home at 1:30.

 In the afternoon, Takashi and Sachiyo called us by Skype. Takashi told us about the scandal of the executives of Olympus Optimistic Company, which he used to work for. Anyway, both Takashi and his wife were well, and we felt relieved.   

A beautiful,sunny day. Enjoyed playing park golf.

It was a beautiful autumn day. In the morning, after trimming the magnolia, or mokuren in Japanese, in my garden, Ayako and I went to enjoy playing park golf in Hamanasu park golf course. There were many people enjoying playing park golf in the sunny weather.

Ayako went to Sapporo to see her sister, and Chiaki.

  It was fine, but a little windy and cold. I have to stand at the crossing near my house to guard the children to go to school on every Tuesday morning. I felt cold this morning. The lowest temperature this morning was only 1.5 degrees. Winter seems to be just around the corner.
  Ayako went to Sapporo to see her sister in the care house and her husband in a condominium. On the way, she would drop in at Chiaki's house to deliver our souvenirs from our travel.
  I trimmed a rhododendron tree or a rosebay. All the trees in my garden became shorter.

Trimmed the maple tree in my garden

  In the morning, I trimmed the maple tree in my garden. I cut not only the twigs, but some big branches. Now my garden looks brighter, and the sky looks wider.

Returned home from our trip to southern Japam late at night

In front of the atomic bomb dome

  Having traveled in the southern Honshu and a part of Kyushu for four days was not easy for us. On the first day, we visited the Atomic Bomb Dome, The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the Atomic Bomb Museum. On the second day, we went to the famous sightseeing spot "Akino Miyajima". At the peace memorial park in Hiroshima, we saw the Atomic Bomb Dome, and entered the Atomic Bomb  Museum. There were a lot of photos and remains of the atomic bomb attack, and  seeing them, I felt so sad and gloomy, because among the victims, there must have been many of my grandmother's relatives. I prayed for them in front of the cenotaph and the monument.

At Aki no Miyajima

Akino miyajima is a very famous sightseeing spot, and has been called one of "the most scenic spots in Japan."

We took Leo, our cat, to Sapporo for Haruna's family to take car for him during our trip to western Honshu.

  The weather forecast said today's weather would be rainy and windy, but, in the morning, it didn't seem it would rain, so we decided to go to Sapporo. We had asked our daughter Haruna's family to take care of our cat during our travel. We have prepared almost everything for our travel. I had studied about the sightseeing spots we would visit, and compiled into a leaflet, and printed and made two leaflets, one for Ayako, the other for myself. We are looking forward our travel starting the day after tomorrow. 

Archery "All Hokkaido", Kazuma's team, won the 3rd prize in the national athletic meet.

  In the national athletic meet held in Yamaguchi prefecture, Kazuma's all Hokkaido team won the 3rd place in the group match. They beat Team Osaka, Team Saitama, but were defeated by Team Tokyo in semi-final. Finally they defeated Team Saga, and won the 3rd prize.
 In the evening, I went to Nidom, a gorgeous resort hotel in the eastern suburbs of the city to attend Michiko Mokudai's wedding. There were some 60 attendances including her high school classmates from Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukushima, Sapporo, and Tomakomai, of course. It was a very special wedding. Michiko and the man named Koichi Takahashi had been married for seven years, and they had already had a two-year-old daughter. But they said they hadn't had their wedding ceremony. And, a very sad thing happened. Michiko got cancer in her breast, and the cancer had spread to lung. The doctor said in July this year that she would live only three month, so if she wanted anything while she was living, do as quickly as possible. So she wanted to have this wedding. So sad !  It has already passed three months since the doctor said so. Michiko said she hoped a miracle would happen. I do hope so, too. I pray for her.   

Kazuma, our grandson, was in the 7th place in the archery competition in the National Athletic meet.

  Kazuma, our older daughter Haruna's son, participating in the National Athletic Meet now being held in Yamaguchi prefecture, was in the 7th place in archery individual competition.
  In the morning, I went with Ayako to Furusato Noen to harvest sweet potatoes. The amount of them  was not so much, but we can enjoy eating, as well as presenting them to our daughters and some neighbors.

A changeable weather.

I heard a peal of thunder when I woke this morning. But I got up, drew a curtain, and found a blue sky.

Steve Jobs, the charismatic CEO of Apple, died.

  It rained heavily in the morning. I went to the hospital to have my diabetes checked. The blood glucose level two hours after breakfast was 248 mg/dl, which was bad, and HbA1c was 7.2, slightly better than the previous month.
  News came in from the US; The charismatic CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday, October 5, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56 years old.

A warm,autumn day

I walked in the morning taking the route to the Tomakomai river. Then I worked to widen the kitchen garden at the eastern corner of my garden. It was  hard work to dig out the root of an azalea.

The Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2011 was announced, but .......

  The Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2011 was announced yesterday evening, but it was not awarded to Dr.Nakayama, who had been expected to be the most likliest. The winners for this year will be awarded to three scientists, one Frenchman and two Americans.
  It was a beautiful autumn day. I walked in the morning a little off my regular route. From Kawazoe cho and returned by way of the hill side road. Hiromi Hironaka ( maiden name Hayasaka), one of my old student posted on Facebook, saying she was going to attend Michiko Mokudai's wedding next Sunday in Tomakomai. She lives in Osaka, so she couldn't attend the class reunion in August. I look forward to seeing her.

Today, again, I collected mushrooms while walking.

  I went out carrying an umbrella for my routine walk. It was cloudy with scattered rain. I walked toward the Tomakomai river, and on the way back, I found the same kind of mushrooms as I had collected on the previous day.

A busy day. Walking through woods in the morning, and in the afternoon,.....

The news reported it snowed in Asahikawa, and, of course, the other mountainous places in north region. It was the first snowfall in Asahikawa and it was the second earliest snow fall in the year on record. Today I walked through the woods in the citizens' hiking course at the back of Kintaro-sawa park. I looked for mushrooms and found almost as many as I had found on the previous day along my regular walking course. 
 In the afternoon, I went  shopping with Ayako, first in Nagasaki-ya near Tomakomai station, and then Paseo in Kawazoe cho, and bought some clothes which I will wear in the tour from the 12th this month.  

I picked a lot of mushrooms on the way along my routine walking course.

   In the early morning, it rained a little. I thought this wet weather is good for fungi  to grow. At about 8:30, I started for Kawazoe cho with a plastic bag in my pocket. First, I found mushrooms called 'yukinoshita' near Hokusei primary school, then, just in front of the crossing at the supermarket "Paseo", I found many mushroom called 'bori bori' just beginning to grow. First, I thought it was a little too early to pick them up, but the place was where many people were always walking, and the mushroom would be found and picked easily by other people, so I decided to pick. Soon the plastic bag became full. I was happy.