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.

The sun shone late in the evening for the first time in many days.

  In the morning, it was foggy as usual here in this season. I drove to the field with Ayako and picked some vgetables. On the way back, we bought seedlings of peanuts and flowers to plant in the garden. We passed by the laundry in Nisshin cho which was damaged by a fire a week ago. The owner, Mr.Ichioka and his granddaughter were burned to death in the fire. I remembered going boat fishing in the sea with late Mr.Ichoka.  Speaking about a fire, one day just after the fire, there was a fire in Toyokawa 500 away from our house, a coffee shop was burnt, and the master of the shop was killed. The day before yesterday, when I was walking, I saw the burnt shop, which was completely destroyed. 

It is cold and rainy today,too. Ayako went to the ceramic art class in the evening.

  It was cold and rainy, and we had to heat the room for our pet cat, Leo, our family member. Why is it so cold even though it is late June? Vegetables in my field do not grow, especially, I am afraid, the eggplants seem to be weakening.
  In the morning, Ayako went to the hospital for check-up of her diabetes, while I stayed at home, as the weather was not good but foggy. In the afternoon, I went out and walked as far as Kawazoe gymnaseum in the foggy wet weather.  

Chonai kai monthly meeting

  It was cloudy and cold all day, today. In the morning, I went alone to Furusato Noen and picked some vegetables ( miniature red turnips ). In the afternoon, Ayako went to the hospital to take an echocardiographic examination. I weeded around the house. The roadsides of my house became clean.
  In the evening, I attended the monthly meeting of our chonai kai, or neighborhood association. We talked about the plans for this summer including Star festival ( Tanabata ) for children, carrying-portable-shrine festival, and Bon dance festival, and so on.

The typhoon did not reach Hokkaido after all.

  It did not rain, and the strong wind did not blow. The typhoon weaken around over Sendai, and disintegrated into a tropical low pressure system. We were happy, but in Honshu, there were one man killed and over 50 people injured. The weather forecast says another typhoon is approaching western Japan from the sea off the Philippines. It is not yet the typhoon season, but six typhoons have already been spawned. Will there be more typhoons this year than usual years? Tomorrow, it is going to begin to rain again.

Takashi called us on Skype from Nagano.

  For the first time in eight years, a strong typhoon is approaching Japan's mainland in June. In Wakayama, southern Honshu, there was a rainfall of 40 mm per an hour. I am afraid it will cause much damage. According to the forecast, the typhoon will go across Honshu and come straight to Hokaido.
  In the afternoon, Takashi called us on Skype from Nagano. Takashi is now staying in Japan and yesterday he hosted some kind of meeting at his alma mater, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He was staying at Dr.Yamashita, his uncle, in Nagano. Dr.Yamashita also attended the meeting, and said Takasi's meeting was very successful attended by about 60 academic people and entrepreneurs including a former prime minister Naoto Kan. Takashi is going to leave Japan to travel on business to Bangkok,Thailand, and Shanghai, China, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. He is too busy to come here home. 

"Warabi" an edible wild planta - it was too late to collect them.

  In the morning, I went alone to Furusato Noen, and transplanted soy bean seedlings. And in the afternoon, I went with Ayao to the western suburbs to collect 'warabi' or a kind of bracken, an edible wild plant. We parked at a gate to a part of the land developed for the industrial estate which used to be farmland, and went through bushes to where we collected warabi every summer. But warabi had grown big and hard to eat. It was too late, at least two weeks late. We collected some butterbur, and some wild flowers, instead, and came home.

It rained all day, so I atayed at home.

  It rained all day, so I stayed at home. I had nothing to do but studied English on the English learning magazine "CNN English Express", and saw a baseball game between the Fighters and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. The baseball game was won by the Swallows by 4-3. Masaru Takeda pitched well to the 8th inning, but allowed Valentin of Yakult a come-from-behind game-ending homerun in the 9th inning.
  In early this morning, a fire broke out a fire at a laundry in Nisshin cho near our house. The owner of the laundry, Mr.Ichioka, and a junior high school girl, Mr.Ichioka's granddaughter were found dead. When I was still working at Higashi Senior High School, Mr.Ichioka came to my house to gather laundry every week, and once I had gone fishing by boat with him. I am sorry for him and his granddaughter, and his family.

I worked on Furusato Noen in the morning with Ayako.

  It was cloudy and a little foggy today. In western Japan, it is raining very heavily. In  the morning, I went to Furusato Noen with Ayako and we transplanted the seedlings of corn. We have planted vegetables in three quaters of our field leaving the space for planting green soy beans.  On the way home, we dropped in at a florist shop, bought seeds of sunflowers and cosmoses and sowed them in our garden. In the evening, it began to rain. 

At Arten holiday land, I enjoyed park golf with Ayako.

  It was a fine, warm day. Ayako and I drove to Arten Holiday Land in the suburbs and enjoyed playing park golf and having lunch in the restaurant there. The course was in the beautiful woods, and we could see Mt.Tarumae over the trees, so it was very pleasant to play there.
  Today, Katsuya Takahashi, the last wanted man for a suspected murderer in the aum shinrikyo matter.

June 14th - my 76th birthday.

  It was cloudy in the morning, but clear in the afternoon. Similar weather continues these days. I went to Furusato Noen twice today. In the morning, I shoveled the soil between the furrows of the potato field and mound the soil on the roots of the potatoes. In the afternoon, I sowed the seeds of soy beans because the seedlings of soy beans I sowed on the wood deck have not grow well yet.
  Today, June 14th, is my 76th birthday. I don't feel anything special because I am spending happy usual days, but I realize I have only four years before my eighties. How long can I be as healthy as I am? And how many more years can I be alive? To think of such things, I am not so happy. In the evening, Ayako celebrated my birthday going with me to the izakaya restaurant  "Tsubohachi" to eat out. We returned home at 8:00. 

Ayako went to Hotel New Oji to see her old friends from Iwamizawa.

  It was a cloudy today,too. The temperature was low, and so I am afraid the crops will not grow. In the afternoon, I worked on my garden.
  Ayako went to Hotel New Oji to talk with her old friends in her alma mater having lunch there. She came home at 4:00.
  In the evening, we wrote a letter to Manabu Shimizu, our cousin, about the situation about his parents, Emiko and Ukio Shimizu.

The third game of the World Cup qualifier against Australia -

  It was a cold day today. In the morning, it was reported that in some area of Hokkaido the temperature went down to below the freezing point. It was quite unusual for June. I felt cold when I stood at the corner as a crossing guard. Ayako went to Sapporo to help Mr.Shimizu who moved from the hospital to a care facility. Mr.Shimizu and his wife, Emiko, Ayako's sister, are now in different facilities in Sapporo. Ayako came back home at about 4:00.
  In the evening, I watched Japan's third game of the World Cup soccer qualifier against Australia. The game ended in a draw by 1-1. It was a very exciting game. Japan got 7 points in the 3 games and is in the top of the group.

Glad to see the crops in my field in Furusato Noen growing.

  In the morning, I drove with Ayako to Furusato Noen. We were glad to see the potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes and spinach and other vegetables had grown more than when we saw them last week.
  Random killing was committed in a busy downtown street in Osaka. Two people, a man and a woman, were killed by 36 year old man who had just let out of jail in Niigata was arrested. The criminal said he first had tried to kill himself,but couldn't, so he thought if he killed other people, he would be sentenced to death. How selfish he was! What did he think of other innocent people's lives?  

Maria, my friend in Urguay, sent me an email saying she is going to travel in Europe.

  It was cloudy in the morning, but the sun shone in the afternoon. I went out for my routine walking in the morning toward the Tomakomai river.
  Maria, my friend, sent me an email saying that she was about to leave for Europe. She said she would arrive in Spain on Monday tomorrow. She will stay in Europe till the beginning of July. How envious of her I feel!  

I walked in the morning before it began to rain.

  I wrote an email to Ilsemarie to thank her for sending me a calendar and a music disk of her chorus group performing.
  It was cloudy in the morning, and was likely to rain, so I started to walk in the morning earlier than usual. I walked westward as far as the gymnastic hall in Kawazoe riverside park. As I walked back home, I picked some edible wild plants such as honeworts (mitsuba) and butterburs. Then, it began to rain. The temperature is not warm enough, and the sunshin ratio is low, so I am afraid the crops will not grow.

The World Cup Qualifier - Japan beat down Jordan by 6-0.

  It was cloudy in the morning, but in the afternoon, it cleared. I worked in the kitchen yard in the corner of my garden in the morning. I transplanted the seedlings of string beans, which Ayako had sowed in a plastic planters on the wood deck. I will have to set up bean poles in a few weeks.
  In the evening, I watched a soccer game on TV, which was a world cup qualier between Japan and Jordan. Japan defeated Jordan by the score of 6-0. It was Japan's second win following the game with Oman three days ago.

Regular check-up of my diabetes.

  I went to the hospital for my regular check-up for my diabetes in the morning. But my doctor, Dr.Iga, was absent today because of illness. Instead of Dr.Iga, Dr.Kikuchi saw me and told me first about the result of the barium enema X-ray of the large instine. Then, about my diabetes, he thought it was getting worse and told to add one more tablet of one kind after dinner. Today's sugar level of mine was 178 three hours after breakfast and HbA1 was 68.

Prince Tomohito Mikasanomiya , cousin of Emperor Aihito, passed away.

  I went to Furusato Noen to sow the seeds of sugar peas in the morning. I worked all morning, and on the way back I dropped in a nearby convenience store to buy rice balls for breakfast.
  The weather was wet in the afternoon, and I am afraid the temperature is not warm enough for the crops to grow.

  Today it was observed all across Japan thatVinus was traveling across the sun. It was a very rare phenomenon which occurs when the sun, Venus, and Earth are aligned. Next time when this phenomeno will occur will be more than 100 years later.

Ayako still has a cold.

  It was a fine day today. I walked westward as far as the Kawazoe riverside park. Ayako still has a cold, so she went to the hospital in the morning.
  BBC news reports the spectacular scenes of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee. The gorgeous celebration has continued for four days.

Cloudy in the morning, but clear in the afternoon. Naoko Kikuchi arrested.

  In the morning, I walked along the Tomakomai River. The puffballs of dandilions and tiny flowers on the banks of the river were so beautiful.

 Today, Naoko ikuchi, who were wanted for 17 years as one of the suspects of the Aum shinrikyo cult members' sarin attacks in 1995, was arrested in Sagamihara city in Kanagawa prefecture. I had seen her picture in the arrest instructions in the police boards or many other places. In 1995, in three subway cars deadly poison "sarin" was scattered by the cult members and 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 were seriously injured.  

I walked as far as Kawazoe for the first time in more than10 days.

  Ayako has a cold, and she wasn't feeling well - no fever but she often coughs.
 In the morning, I walked as far as Kawazoe Riverside park. The flowers of azaleas were very beautiful.
 In the afternoon, I watched two sports games on TV - one was a baseball game between the Fighters and the Tigers, which was won by the Fighters by 7-4, and the other was the World Cup soccer elimination game between Japan and Oman, in which Japan won by 3-0.

"Undo kai" - a field day of our grandsons.

  Ayako and I went to Sapporo to see our grandsons' "undo-kai" or a field day. The weather was good so, the condition was very good. Chiaki and her divorced former husband Kazu Yokoyama, and Chiai's big sister Haruna came. In the running races, Tokio, a sixth grader, was in the 3rd place, and Arashi in the 4th. Tokio in the cavalry fights, and Arashi in the group dance "Yosakoi", did good jobs. 

It was fine and warm. I walked along the Tomakomai river.

  It is June 1st today. The weather was fine in the morning, but in the afternoon, it was cloudy. I walked through the Komorebi no mich woods and along the Tomakomai river. The puffballs of dandelions were beautiful. On the way back, I collected the tiny flowers of various kinds of wild plants . Some of them were red, others were yellow, blue, pink, purple, and so on, and they were so pretty.
  Tomorrow, Ayako and I are going to Sapporo to see Tokio and Arashi's "Undo kai" or field day of their primary school. But Ayako seems to have a cold and has a little fever. I am afraid we won't be able to go. It is still before 9:00 p.m. and Ayako is in bed now.