Furusato Noen - I love to work there in my field.

  It was the last day of May, which was a beautiful day. In the morning, I went with Ayako to Furusato Noen. We took off the vinyl covers over the seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables because the highest temperature went up to over 20 degrees.
  In the afternoon, Takashi and Sachiyo phoned us on Skype from California. Takashi is going on a business tour to Tokyo, to Bangok,Thailand, and Shanghai,China in the middle of June. Sachiyo is studying to be qualified for something, which I don't know. I admire she is always studying beside working for her company. 

Masanobu and Sawako-san and Masako and Yasuhiro-san left us and returned yesterday.

  Masanobu-kun and his wife, Sawako-san, and Masa-chan and her husband, Yasuhiro-san have left us and returned to Honshu yesterday. In the morning, Masanobu-kun and his wife Sawako-san left for Noboribetsu to enjoy hot spring bathing and sightseeing there on their way back home to Tochigi. In the afternoon, Yasuhiro-san came from Sapporo, who had stayed in Sapporo after having attended our party, and joined his wife Masa-chan and at around 5:00, took the train and left for Nagano. Masa-chan could not walk well because she had had a surgery in her right hip joint. She said she felt pain in her left leg. She was afraid she would have to have a surgery in her left leg, this time.

May 27th - my diary one day later.

  I have just returned home with Ayako, Masa-chan, and Masanobu-kun. Yesterday, by Masanobu-kun's driving my car, we went to Sunagawa. We first went to the temple, where Chiaki and her two boys and Haruna's family had arrived and had been waiting for us. But they were not at the temple but they were at "Water Hill museum", close to the temple. We walked to the museum and saw some articles on display. After staying there a little while, we all went to the Kamada's family tomb. We cleaned the tomb and walked around. After that, we went back to the temple, and had a memorial service for the 7th memorial of late Ayako's mother. Then, we went to the tomb again, and we again had a service by Mr.Watanabe, the Buddhist monk who took care of the service in the temple.
  We went to Sapporo and checked in at the Sapporo Prince Hotel, and had a party. In addition to the six of us, including Sawako-san, Masanobu-kun's wife, and Mr.Yamashita, Masa-chan's husband, all the family of Haruna's except Kazuma,who lives in Gifu prefecture, and Chiai and her two sons attended. By the way, Chiaki recently divorced from Yokoyama.

Yesterday, May 26, Ayako's sister Masako and brother Masanobu, and his wife arrived from Honshu.

  Yesterday, May 26, Saturday, at around 11:00 a.m., Masa-chan arrived by train from Nagano, when it suddenly began to rain and hail. In the afternoon, at around 4:30, Masanobu-kun and his wife came from Tochigi. Today,we are going to attend the 7th memorial Buddhist service for Ayako's mother to be held in Sunagawa. After the service in Sunagawa, we will go to Sapporo, and stay there at Sapporo Prince Hotel to have a party with our relatives and stay overnight there and return home tomorrow evening.
 After Ayako's sister and brother arrived yesterday, I had to go to the party of the neighborhood association to farewell the former staff members and welcome new members. We enjoyed eating, drinking, and talking at Tsubohachi restaurant, and I returned home just after 8:00 o'clock.

Ayako went to the hospital for periodical check of diabetes.

   It was fine today,too. In the morning, Ayako went to the hospital for the periodical checkup of daibetes. I worked in my garden. Azaleas named "kurofune" and a bush called "yuki-yanagi" ( snow willow ) are now in full bloom. Tulips, daffodils, narcissuses are also in full bloom. I enjoyed gardening.
   Tomorrow, Masa-chan, Ayako's sister, and Masanobu-kun, Ayako's brother, will come to attend the Buddhist service for their mother's 7th anniversary in Sunagawa on Sunday.

A sunny,warm day - I went to collect wild vegetables in the woods.

Butterbur in my garden

Udo in my garden

  It was a warm, sunny day. In the morning, I went to collect wild vegetables in Bozu Yama woods. I collected butterburs, udo, and so on. I want to let Ayako's brother Masanobu, and her sister Masako enjoy eating them. We eat stalks and stems of them.

I am feeling painful in the low back.

  It was cloudy, but didn't rain. I first thought of going to the woods in the suburbs to collect edible wild plants, but I didn't because I was feeling painful in the low back. I think this low back pain came from a little hard work in the field in Furusato Noen a few days ago.
  On Saturday this week, Masako, Ayako's sister, and her husband from Nagano, and Masanobu, Ayako's brother, and his wife from Tochigi, will come to attend the 7th Buddhist memorial service for Ayako's mother.

Ayako went to Sapporo alone by car.

  Ayako went to Sapporo to see Emiko, her sister, and her husband Mr.Shimizu. After she returned, Ayako said that Emiko in the institution, who were demented, smiled today, when Ayako spoke to her. Ayako,then, visited the hospital to see Mr.Shimizu, and did some errand she was asked to do.
  I cleaned the windows of the house and took care of my garden in the afternoon. In the evening, I watched the Fighters' baseball game against Yokohama DeNABay Stars on TV. The fighters won by 6-2. The Fighters is now the second in the Pacific League.  

An annular eclipse - "the diamond ring" took place this morning.

  An annular eclipse was observed this morning in a region stretching along the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago from southern Kyushu to southern Tohoku.  This was the first time in 932 years - since the Heian period ( 794 - 1192 ). But, here in Tomakomai, the weather was so foggy that we were very sorry we couldn't observe it at all. A huge number of people in southern and central Japan were enthralled when they could glimpse the ring of light through breaks in the clouds. Even in Sapporo, as the weather was fine, many people could enjoy a partial eclipse, with up to 84 % of the sun eclipsed by the moon.
  Another annular eclipse will be observed in Japan in June 2030 only in Hokkaido, when I will be 87 years old, if I am still alive.

A cloudy day - I cleaned my garden by pulling up weeds.

  I didn't have a running nose today. The symptom of my hay fever begins suddenly at any time, and is found ended by myself suddenly. I went out to my garden, and worked pulling up weeds for about two hours. I was afraid my nose would run again, but it didn't. In the afternoon I stayed in the room, writing an email to Ilsemarie in Germany. I sent an email to Tomoko, my friend in my home town in Miyagi a few days ago, but she hasn't answered yet. She is suffering a very serious lung desease, so I am very afraid what has become of her. 

Do I have a cold? I stayed home all day.

  My nose is running, though I don't have a fever. Maybe it is hay fever. Yesterday I went into woods to collect edible wild vegetables. Maybe I have an allergy to some kind of pollen, which I don't know.

A fine day. Went to see high school baseball games at Midoriga oka ball park.

Midoriga Oka Ball Park

 It was a very fine day. In the morning, I went alone to Kintaro no sawa park and entered the ball park there. The games were semi-finals of the spring championship in Muroran distric. Mukawa high school won over Hokkaido Sakae high school by 8-3, and Komazawa Tomakomai high school over Tomakomai high school of trchnology by 3-0, and both winning teams proceeded to the final tomorrow. I was tired because I walked around Kintaro no sawa lake in the interval between the games.

I went to collect edible wild plants.

  The weather was fine today, so I went to the woods in the city's northern hills to collect edible wild plants. I collected udo plants, butterburs, and some other kinds of wild plants. We ate them for supper and they were so good.
  In the evening, I attended the monthly meeting of the neighborhood association. After coming home, I watched a baseball game I had recorded on TV. Yesterday, the inter league play began, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters were playing against the Hanshin Tigers, and they defeated two games in a row. In the yesterday's game, Yoshikawa was the winning pitcher, in today's game, Wolfe was.

It didn't rain, though the forecast said it would. Walked along the Tomakomai river was sp pleasant.

 It was pleasant to walk under the cherry blossoms along the Tomakomai river. I like spring best of the four seasons. I feel everything fresh and hopeful.
 

Yesterday,May 15, was a wet day all day - stayed at home all day.

  I forgot to post on this blog yesterday. In yesterday morning, I stood at the crossing as a crossing guard for about thirty minutes when it began to rain. Since that time, it had been wet and, toward evening, began to rain heavily. We stayed at home all day doing nothing special.

Cherry blossoms are now almost in full bloom.

  It was a fine day. In the morning, I drove to Kintaro no sawa park with Ayako. The cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom, but there were few people in the park because it was a weekday early morning. We walked under the cherry blossoms as far as the baseball park, and then, went up the slope way to the hill top to the Midori ga oka park, and returned. The view we looked down from the hill top was very beautiful with black mountains far away. 
  In the afternoon, I went alone to Furusato Noen and worked for anout two hours.

We planted the seedlings of sweet potatoes in our field in Furusato Noen.

  It was a warm, but windy day, today. In the morning, Ayako and I went  to our field in Furusato Noen, and sowed seed potatoes and planted seedlings of sweet potatoes. The temperature is still low in the morning and night, so we covered the sweet potato seedlings with vinyl cover. The weather is getting better and better, and we look forward to seeing the vegetables and other crops will grow.

Our kitchen garden.

                                                     This morning, I made a little "field" at a corner of our garden to grow vegetables. Ayako had been thinking of what kinds of vegetables to grow there. And she bought six seedlings of tomatoes, and eight of eggplants. A week before, she had sowed the seeds of spinach, red beets, and komatsuna. She is thinking of growing a kind of snow peas which have pretty flowers of purple color.
  Maria sent me an email from Monte video, Urguay. She tells me about a book she is now reading. She wants me to tell about my family.

A cold,windy day, but the cherries are coming into bloom.

  It was a cold day, and in some places in northern part of Hokkaido, it even snowed on the cherry blossoms or tulips. Here in Tomakomai, the cherries are coming into bloom at last.
  In the morning, Ayako took Leo, our pet cat, by car to the pet salon to have his hair cut. The cat's haircut costs 8,000 yen, while my haircut costs 1,600 yen. After she came back, I went to Furusato Noen to furrow the field. I worked there only an hour and half because I had to attend a meeting of the neighborhood association.

I went to Furusato Noen, and workde hard in the morning.

  It was a warm day, and the temperature was 18 degrees near noon, when I was coming home from Furusato Noen.

A fine day - I worked on my "farm" in the afternoon.

  A warm day. In the morning, I went with Ayako by car to the city's sewage treatment facility to buy ten bags of processed fertilizer. On the way back, we bought the seeds of flowers and vegetables and some seedlings of tomatoes, and eggplants which Ayako wanted to sow in the kitchen garden.
  In the afternoon, I went to Furusato Noen alone, and worked for about three hours to prepare for planting potatoes. I returned home before 4:00, being exhausted. After dinner, I had to patrol in the neighborhood with other members of the neighborhood association. There were more than 10 members with me.

I worked in the field in Furusato Noen.

  The weather was fine, today.  I went alone to Furusato Noen by car, and worked there whole morning. I dug two holes in the western edge of the field, pulled out the roots of weeds, and threw them into the holes and burried them. The gentleman working in the next field to ours helped me, but I was tired at around 11:00,  and returned home.

The rain stopped in the afternoon.

  In the afternoon, for the first time in four or five days, it stopped raining. At about 3:30, I left for my walking exercise, first, westward as far as the barber shop at Kashiwagi cho, where I go to have may hair cut every two months, and returned to Toyokawa, across Shirakaba cho, where my house is located. I dropped in at the community hall there and bring home some pamphlets of workshops which will be held there in the hall. But, in the pamphlets, there were no interesting workshop or classes there.

Furusato Noen & our kitchen garden

 This morning, Ayako and I went to Furusato Noen for the first time this season. But the field was muddy because it had rained for three days. So, we couldn't furrow, and returned after having dusted lime fertilizer on the field, and went to Kintaro-sawa, a park in the suburbs. The lake there was full of snow melt water and was almost flooded, so the walking path around the lake was cut in many parts, and a lot of carp were swimming just close to the shore, and turtles were resting on the top of the rocks in the water. On the way back home, Ayako bought some flowers to plant in the flower beds on the wood deck. 

It had rained till noon. I stayed at home today,too.

  We have had no fine day during the "Golden Week". Was it really the golden week?  In the first half of the week, heavy rain and strong winds hit the western half of the Japanese archipegalo, and in the last half, we are having bad weather in the eastern and northern parts of Japan. In the mountains in Nagano prefecture, seven climbers, most of whom were experienced climbers, were found killed by snow storm. In Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures, a big, horrible tornado attacked towns and hundreds of houses and buildings was reported to have been destroyed and a boy was killed and many others were injured. Terrible!

It was rainy all day today.

  It has still been raining heavily since yesterday. The weather forecast says it will continue to rain till tomorrow. So, I had to stay at home all day without doing anything special. I have applied for renting a lot in Furusato Noen, and have been allowed to use it, but I am sorry I cannot go there to prepare for sowing the seeds of vegetables. It is now the "Golden Week" when we have consecutive national holidays, but this year the weather is so bad that people cannot enjoy holiday-making.

I am tired because I returned late last night.

 It was cloudy, and began to rain in the evening. I stayed at home all day. The purple azaleas in my garden are now in full bloom. And the fawn lilies are also blooming here and there. Shiitake mushrooms are growing big on the mushroom wood I stood under a yew tree in the garden. But they are all wet, today.

Mr.Abe's funeral

  I went to Sapporo and attended Mr.Akio Abe's funeral wake.

I drove to Sunagawa with Ayako.

  Today, Ayako and I went to Sunagawa. We first went to Kamadas' family tomb in the Sunagawa city cemetery. There was no snow, and the tomb had not changed. We prayed before the tomb, and then, visited our temple. We wil have the 7th anniversary service this month, so Ayako asked some questions.