Baseball...

::::one baseball team story::::
I feel complicated now because there was an event in my hometown.
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. Every year, there is a big baseball game, "Koushien" for high school baseball players.
Each only one team of Tokyo, Hokkaido, and all the prefectures, can take part in Koushien. There are more than 4000 teams in Japan, but the number of high school team that go in for Koushien is only 49 teams!!! In addition, high school that can capture the championship pennant of Koushien is ONLY ONE team of all teams in Japan!! I am a big fan of Koushien. Every year, I am so impressed by it, and I fluctuate between hope and despair with players...it is a drama without scenario!!

Last year, my hometown's team, Komazawa, Tomakomai team attended the game, and won the first prize!!!!!!!!! It was so impressive thing because it was the first time that Hokkaido team won in long long history of Koushien. Hokkaido is north island. In winter, Hokkaido has a big snow, so teams of Hokkaido can't practice baseball as well as those of other prefectures. It is believed that Hokkiado teams are much weaker. But Komazawa team proved that it was wrong;D!!! They broke common sense of baseball!! Even if the ground was deeply covered with snow, they play baseball on deep snow. This team gives us emotion and courage. Players of the team were treated as like celebrities:)

This year, Komazawa took part in Koushien again, and fought against many powerful players to win two consecutive championships! Most people didn't so well expect that they won again. But Komazawa beaten favorite team and won the championship again!!! In my hometown, at the moment they won, fireworks were launched. We danced madly for joy!!!! Komazawa is the sixth high school that achieve two consecutive championship in the history, and it is in 57 years!!!!!!!!!! Don't you think it is great!??? There were a great number of people around special papers:D People made merry!!! My house is near to Komazawa high school, and it takes about 1~2 minutes from my house to there, and the dormitory of players is near too. A good deal of people come there to take pics;D!!

However, there was an scandal....it was found out that one teacher often hit one student of Komazawa team. In addition, Komazawa tried to hide those violence!! News picked up this scandal, and journalists rushed Komazawa high school....Such news fussed that the League of High School Baseball would confiscate their title as champion!! We were disappointed;( Their parade was postponed. Many people felt that it was unfair because wrong person was teacher, not students!! But the rumor went out of control, and we can't judge what is right and what is wrong. I thought that it was incorrect that the third parties stirred their honor. At a burst, we felt depressed, and wished the League wouldn't forfeit their title. Komazawa's achivement never change whatever happen!!!!!!

Yesterday, the League dicided that it was NOT necessary to return their championship cup and pennant because it was not students' false...When I heard it, I jumped with joy, and I thought it was a good judgement:D!!! Finally, Komazawa became real winner!!!!!
But the aftertaste of Koushien was a little bad due to such scandal. Besides, I heard many rumor, and I am losing what right things are. The opinions of victim and teacher were different. The League decided that the teacher who hit a student should quite his job. But I heard that the teacher was so nice person, and many students wanted him not to resign. Of course, there are a lot of faithful news, but I think that some news makes such scandal bigger, and it dosen't always tell us the truth....I want proper information...I don't know what is right even now.

Anyway, I like Komazawa, and I will continue to cheer the team;D!!!!
Go Komazawa! Go!!!

Shiretoko, the World Heritage!!

Today, I have too many pics to show you.
I went to Shiretoko with my family:D Shiretoko was selected as the World Heritage recently!!! It was long long way from my house. It took about seven hours!!!! I was exhausted, but I saw many beautiful and spectacular views, and I had precious experiences:)
I ran across, say, wild deer!!!!! They were very cute! It is my first time to see such wild deer! They weren't scared people at all, so that I could take some pics;) I was very exciting so I got off my dad's car and approached deer. They were eating grass. They were used to people very much. When I said to them, "I wanna take your pic!" they turned their faces toward us;) So cute!! But many deer are killed by cars because they approach people's cars without hesitation. I want them to be more careful!

We went to Oshinkoshin waterfall. It was a magnificent view, and I was impressed by it. Oshinkoshin means "Three waterwall" in an old Ainu language.
And, I saw other waterfalls. In one small waterfall, fish were trying to overleaping it to go to the place to lay their eggs. I saw much fish jump. Some of them succeed in jumping over waterfall, but most of them couldn't do it, and died. It is very sad story, isn't it?


I went to a farm, and there were many horses. There, visitors could ride horses, but it was very expensive. In fact, I fell from a horse when I was about seven years old, so I don't like riding, hehe;P

I went to Mashuko. It is famous lake in Japan. Normally, a dense fog lay all around Mahuko and it is rare for people to see the clear view of it. I was very lucky and there were no fog!!! I heard one boy say "I should release the shutter of my mind." Wow! Cool!! LoL:)

I went up a big observatory and saw a beautiful ocean!!! This observatiry was a huge monolith! I had to climb a long stairs to go to the top of it. Many people who were older than me overtook me. I realized that my strength began to decline...I must play sports more!! I have been very exhausted when I was in the top:( But the view from there was very beautiful.

At the end of our trip, I ate a delicious *kaisendon like pic:D There were *uni (urchin) and *sashimi on rice!! In Japan, uni is a very expensive food. It was very good!!
I had a precious and nice time anyway. It was very nice place! Japan can be proud of Shiretoko:D

---Japanese words
*kaisendon--a big bowl, that there are many seafood on rice
*uni--sea urchin
*sashimi--sliced raw fish

Natto!!!

These days, I am really being crazy about one Japanese food;) It is *natto!!!! Do you know natto? I don't know if it sells in other countries, but I think that it may be strange food for non-Japanese people....but I like it!!!! ;D
*How To Make A Natto*
1, People steam soybeans.
2, They put bacteria that are called *nattokin (the bacteria of natto) into those soybeans.
3, Soybeans are fermented.
To put it shortly, natto is fermented soybeans!!!
Natto is stringy very much , and it smells bad. If you see my pic, you can see how stringy natto is:) Besides, the taste of it is unique and strange. Of course, some people (even Japanese) hate natto very much due to its strong and strange smell, but others really like it and eat it preferably!!! Can you belive it;D!??
Maybe you are thinking now " Is it food who people eat??" Yeah!! I like it and I eat three pack of natto everyday:) Japanese people eat it in their own way. They mix it with chopsticks and make it more stringy. These strings are said to be good for bodies. The more, the better. And then, they add soy sauce (*syoyu) and mustard (*karashi) to it and maix it again. They pour it on rice (*kome), and they eat!!! In my case, I add cayenne in addition:)
It is very yummy~!!! Besides, it is very helthy for our bodies.
Finally, It makes us smart:D It's definitely true!!! Researchers said so!! I heard that a genius boy who entered a university when he was 12 years old (Wow!) ate natto everyday!!!
I think Japanese people like strange food such as natto;)
If you are brave, I'd love for you to try natto, when you come to Japan someday:D!!!

---Japanese words
*natto--description is above
*nattokin--the bacteria of natto
*syoyu--soy sauce
*karashi--mustard
*kome--rice

Tanabata, the Star Festival

Today is special day;D!! *Tanabata!!! It is "the Star Festival" in English...Actually, in Honshu (the main island of Japan), it is on July 7th, but in my hometown, Hokkaido, tanabata is on August 7th;)!!! It is very romantic day today:)
Once upon a time, *Orihime (Altair) and *Hikoboshi (Vegar) loved each other very much. However, they were separated when the banks of *Amanogawa (the River of Heaven, or the Milky Way) parted. Since then, they have been able to only meet once a year on tanabata day!!! It's romantic, isn't it!?
On tanabata, person writes his or her wish on a piece of paper that is called *tanzaku, and hangs it on the bamboo leaves like the above illustration. If we do so on tanabata, it is believed that our wishes will come true;) People make sweets and offer them to orihime and hikoboshi:D
When my sister was 5 years old, she wrote her wish on tanzaku. "I want to be a pink candy because it is so cute!!!" lol!!.....I read her wish and I said, "Me too!! Me too!!" I can't understand why she and I wanted to be such a pink candy:P I want to stay human!!! But I wrote stranger wish than hers. When I was about 5 years, I wrote "I want a shining gold tooth like my grandma's!" When my mom laughed at my wish, I shouted "Why are you making fool of me?" as I was crying, so my family had to hear my stupid wish seriously without laughing. It's very strange:P lol!!

This year's wish of mine is "I would like to improve my English skill;D" (Wow!! I'm a hard worker!! lol:)!!)

---Japanese words
*tanabata--the star festival
*orihime--altair
*hikoboshi--vegar
*amanogawa--the Milky Way
*tanzaku--oblong cards, and people write their wihes on them

Very Japanese Day:)

I went to Otaru with my family. Otaru is popular city in Hokkaido, Japan. There are many traditional buildings there:D
I had *sushi with my family!! This is the pic of sushi bar!! It was so delicious:D I was sooooo happy to have sushi because sushi is very expensive food even for Japanese, and it is rare to have it:)!!
He is the man who makes sushi for us. He is not my friend:P I ate *basashi too!! Do you know basashi? It is a sliced raw horse meat (Oops!!) like *sashimi;) It was the first time to eat it!! It was so sweet, but the aftertaste was so oily:P Maybe I won't eat it again:(
I think the first person who made up his mind to eat raw horse meat was very brave;(!! I wanna give a warm hand for his courage:) LoL!!

After sushi bar, we went to traditional *sake shop. Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made from rice;) There, we can't only buy sake, but also can see how people make it... We looked around there, and we had much fun time. My dad tried some sakes (they were free!!) and he looked happy:D The right pic is the appearance of the shop. It is beautiful, isn't it?? Very Japanese style:) I like it!! I wish my house was like this too(o^^o)

The third pic is the uniform of workmen who make sake:D
Today, they don't wear this uniform when working, but they wore it in the old days;) Looks airy. I wanna try it:D

And then, they are beautiful casks for sake:) They are beautiful!!
These casks are made from straws, not woods:D

I like drinking, but I haven't tried sake ever before because tey are strong drinks. They smell like the room sauna bath, lol:P I had strong trouble of sake odors when I was in the sake shop:( But my parents said "Oh good smell!!" Mybe my palate for alcohol is still childish:P!! I wanna be an adult who enjoy sake soon!!!!

---Japanese words
*sushi--Japanese food that raw sliced fish on the small ball of rice
*basashi--sasimi of horse
*sashimi--sliced raw fish, Japanese traditional food
*sake--the description is above