on a peaceful day

some pictures from the newslines
It was quite cold and dull, but peaceful.
Though that could mean getting out of business, I have to welcome peaceful days which also means less people suffering to disasters and accidents.
At least it was a nice day to glance through the newspapers and internet news sites.

On the front page of the evening papers was Godzilla Matsui wacking the baseball to the stands in the opener of the Big Leagues (pic on low right). I'm not a big Yankees fan, but how exciting it'll be to see this guy kick butts in America.

The spring's national high school tournament ended today with Aikodai Meiden High School beating a Kagoshima team which came from nowhere in the final game (pic on low left). The new champion is the Mariner star Ichiro's school, though surprisingly it was the team's first ever reach to the top. What more was surprising was that the runner up, Kamimura Gakuen's team was only at its second year from the team's establishment. Wow! Can't imagine how hard they've worked out, though collecting skillful players from all over the nation could have helped just like many other teams that reach the top nowadays. Let's see what they can do at the summer tournament!

I didn't have any knowledge of the "German Year in Japan" (http://www.doitsu-nen.jp/index_JA.html in Japanese) as the German President Horst Koehler and Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi exchanged soccer uniforms at an event (pic on upper center). No idea why there having this celebration now, but at least the World Cup coming up is a good enough reason!

Female-only cars was run for the first time in morning rush hours today (pic on upper left). Yes, I have to agree to the service as there are unforgivable molesters hunting girls in crowded trains. But, you know guys, when you're all tired on the train, just a glance at a cute girl cheers you up, right? ...well not too many might agree, but so long for romantic encountering on trains. (http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/press/index.html)

A sumo tourney was held at the Aichi World Exposition site as the sumo champion Asashyoryu visited his country's Mongolian pavilion (pic on upper right). Don't know if I'll get enough days off this summer, but I wish I can pay a visit myself! ( http://www-1.expo2005.or.jp/en/index.html )