Another Hamako Baseball Game
This was my favorite teacher/baseball coach, Sasaki-sensei's "last dance" with the Hamako baseball team. He has been transferred to another school and has stayed on as their coach for this final regional competition. I rode my bicycle to the Osawa's to meet them at 7 am in the morning. We headed out in their van in terribly strong wind and rain wondering if the baseball game would be cancelled. These kids are tough. Unless there's a storm warning for a typhoon, they usually play their games. Awaji Island is about a 1+ hour's drive by car, but since it's Golden Week, we were expecting heavy traffic. I think, because of the rain and wind and being early in the morning, we had no problems. Taking a ferry to the island was a bit exciting. There were some nice waves out there on the ocean but the ferry was big and it was a comfy ride. It was way too windy to stay outside but the inside was warm and dry. The game was played on a fairly nice field but there were no bleachers so the hardy, enthusiastic parents and other supporters stood outside the fencing with our plastic cones that take the place of beating our hands raw clapping. The game was a close one, but i don't think the boys were as intense as i've seen them in the past. There have been a lot of problems off the field in the last few months and having their coach leave for another school probably didn't help either, oh, and the weather was a challenge too. Anyway. It was tied at the beginning of the 7th inning. The other team was up first and scored a run. At the bottom of the 7th we had to score a point or accept defeat. The kids tried hard, but they just didn't have what it took. They lost by one point. Actually, i think everyone was relieved. They had driven out on Monday and stayed all day long, won their games and battled heavy traffic to get back after 10pm at night. Then it was back up on Tuesday morning and if they had won this game on Tuesday morning they would have had to wait around and play another game that afternoon. If they won that game then they would have had to do the same thing all over again on Wednesday. What a holiday, eh? It poured rain right after the end of the game so we ate lunch in the car. There was heavy traffic going back home but at least we got back at a decent time of day.
It is such a pleasure to spend some time with this family. Even though the weather was a bit challenging, we enjoyed the day together. I wouldn't have missed Sasaki's last game for anything. I could sit and visit with the Osawa's all day. I love their kids and Tamie and Ro are such interesting, intelligent, good-natured people, my kind of folks!


Oh, my gosh. Osawa-san says that the Japanese eat quite a bit of horsemeat. It is usually prepared raw as sashimi. Well, i can handle that, but what really shocked me was WHERE they get their horsemeat. He says that most of the meat comes from America and Australia. Some horses that don't cut it on the racetracks in these two countries get slaughtered and shipped to Japan. Good grief, i thought that it was made into dog and cat food. I don't think that i'd like to eat meat that's been shot up with hormones; drugs and antibiotics that I suspect are used on racehorses. How odd.

Another interesting thing is that Ro supervises a handful of Doctoral students at the University of Kobe. One of the things they are researching is the "good" bacterium found in our stomachs and intestines. I am not going to even pretend to understand what their work is all about. In brief they are creating a kind of unique dry/frozen yogurt culture made from an individual's own bacteria to use for that patient if/when his/her bacterial culture is out of whack. For example when someone takes a lot of antibiotics and wipes out their good flora in their stomach. The specific culture unique to that individual will be manufactured from their own bacteria before they start taking the antibiotics. Fascinating.