Happy New Year♥!　2

【A message for golf and baseball lovers!】

Act 3 [Chasing♪] It's March, and today is Sunday, so we decided to go to Lake Biwa with our neighbors, Gen-san, and the others in two cars to the Koyo paradise in Otsu.It's a big hot spring facility with a large hall, and guests come and perform songs, stand-up comedy, and magic tricks. Grandpa and Gen-san drink alcohol while watching the show, but Mom and Gen-san's wife Tora-san drive on the way back, so the grandpas enjoy cold draft beer after the bath. We each got 1000 yen for pocket money and went to the game center. There were crane games, coin games, and all sorts of things, and on Gantan, we were clicking away with shining eyes. The thing that caught our eye the most was the game of pulling a string of octopus thread, and there were stuffed toys of Moni-chan's favorite Pokemon and other things that were tied up in the string, as well as plastic models and Gundam figures that she wanted on Gantan. About 30 of them were neatly placed so that if you picked a string and pulled it, a stuffed animal or Gundam would come up. I paid the man 100 yen and pulled one of the many strings on Gantan. I was hoping that a Gundam would come up, but for some reason, what came up from behind the Gundam was Baby Ramen."They didn't have anything like this.""They sell them for 10 yen at the candy store, I lost out on Gantan." Next, I wanted to get a Pokemon stuffed animal for Moni-chan, so I paid the man 100 yen and while I was choosing a string, I was puzzled by the number of strings compared to the 30 or so luxurious toys lined up."Hey, why are there so many strings? These are all sakura!( fake) They're not actually all baby ramen." The man said,"I'll give you your 100 yen back, so go away,"and chased us away."It's a sakura after all. Gantan is stupid.You're so easily fooled." Gantan opened the baby ramen and devoured it in his mouth in one go. Moni-chan exchanged her 100 yen pocket money for coins and played a coin game.A stepped staircase slid back and forth.Coins were piled up on it, looking as if they would fall to the step below. Moni-chan waited for the right timing to put a coin into the insertion slot. Then the coins piled up on the top step were pushed out and fell to the bottom, and eight coins fell into the return slot with a clang. Moni-chan was delighted and showed the man 15 coins, including the nine she had in her hand, and was in a good mood when he exchanged them for a small Pikachu stuffed toy. I looked through all the crane games and other games, but I didn't think I'd win anything so I decided to save my money. Grandma Natsu said."Hapi saves a lot of money.You saves most of his New Year's money. Hapi to give me a massage, but he always asks for 50 yen each time." In the end, Gantan, I used up all of my 1,000 yen allowance and got one baby ramen and some candies from the crane game."Gantan, same old thing."We changed into our swimsuits and went to Jungle Hot Springs, a tropical hot spring pool and bath. There was a heated pool, a jacuzzi, and palm trees, so it was a tropical hot pool. It was like a jungle, so we took a dip in the pool and walked around the jungle. When I looked down, I saw several crocodiles sleeping. They were real crocodiles."Gantan, look down! There's a crocodile.""I wonder if it's really dead. It's not moving."Gantan, I tore off a palm leaf and threw it down. The leaf fluttered down and fell on the crocodile's back, but it didn't move. At that moment, the song of the music show in the hall came from the speakers. The old men were listening to Yoshi Ikuzo while drinking alcohol. (Chasing after me~♪ Chasing after me~♪) Gantan said"I told you to pour hot water on it." We filled a washbasin with hot water and poured it on the crocodile. The crocodile jumped in surprise."It's alive!!" It was so funny that Hapi and Gantan repeated it several times. At that moment, the PA system said (ping pong pong♪)"Customers, please do not pour hot water on the crocodile.Ken, Jin, and Gen said"There's a stupid brat called Gonta(Naughty child), ha ha ha." We returned to the hall where the show was. Moni said" Older sister and Gantan's brother poured hot water on the crocodile and got scolded by the guy in charge!""You guys did it!!" "But I told you to pour hot water on it..."


Act 4 [Gantan 's Summer Vacation] It's midsummer, with the cicadas' loud chirps and the blaring sun. Summer in Kyoto is famous for its humid weather, which is unique to basins. Gantan is in the fifth grade and is on a little league baseball team. The coach is Gen-san.He loves baseball and is a big fan of the Hanshin Tigers. We play games every Sunday, but we've never won, and on days when we lose by a large margin, I have a habit of sipping shochu(Strong alcohol) and soda for an evening drink while complaining. I call my grandpa Ken-san Gen-san, so everyone calls him that. My house was renovated a few years ago by my grandpa Jin-san and Gen-san, and we've become friends as a family. Gantan's mother is Tora-san. Like Gen-san, he's a Tigers fan, and he goes to cheer on the Gantan game on Sunday with his tea picking friends who work part-time. Gantan is the catcher and captain. He often bounces the ball back, so the umpire says,"If I don't catch it properly, the ball will hit me and hurt me.""Sorry!"I'm not very good on Gantan. Today, everyone came to the field on the banks of the Kizu River to cheer on the Gantan game. Gantan's team is a weak team, especially in terms of pitching.They have never won yet.Gen-san loves the Hanshin Tigers, and Hanshin has a lot of good left-handed pitchers. There aren't many batters who can hit home runs like the Giants, but he always says that baseball is all about the pitcher. He especially hates the Giants, who take the fourth batter from other teams, and always says,"Yomiuri fourth batters."The team's name is Ujitawara Happy New Years.Today's opponent is the Joyo Alplazas, a strong team with a fastball pitcher named Suguru. Our team is just a bunch of batters who can only hit single hits. They have yet to beat the opposing team, and they are underestimating them. But they are not to be outdone when it comes to cheering, as they have cheerleaders called the Tea Picking Bunny Girls, and Tora-san, Gen-san's wife, is the cheerleader. Tora-san, who is aged bunny years old, admires bunny girls and requested to wear a bunny girl style but was turned down, so the cheer squad, made up of fellow tea pickers, is made up of the strongest Tea Picking Bunny Girls, with an average age of 45, who wear tea picking costumes with navy blue ikat patterns, red sashes and neck scarves, white hand towels on their heads, and drums instead of baskets, threatening the opposing team with the same intensity as cheering at Koshien Stadium. In the top of the first inning, the opposing team hit three consecutive hits, giving them a run, and they are in a pinch with no outs and runners on first and third. The fourth batter hit a fly ball to center field, and Takeshi, playing left field, said,"All right, all right."Center fielder Makoto saw Takeshi and dropped the easy fly ball, adding two more runs."Why did you say ' All right!', Takeshi?""Because I always say ' All right!' at work, sorry!"Takeshi's father was the traffic manager for the community bus that runs through Ujitawara. After that, he somehow managed to hold off the next runners and get three outs. But they gave up five runs. The bottom of the first inning, Ujitawara Happy New Years goes on the attack. "Waah, Don Don♪ Go Don Don♪"The Tea Picking Bunny Girls start their loud cheering with taiko drums. "Ah..." Makoto, batting first, strikes out looking."Waah, Don Don♪ Go Don Don♪ Ah..."Takeshi, batting second, strikes out swinging after Suguru's fastball hits his catcher's mitt. Rintaro, batting third, is the eldest son of the tea shop owner who sells the matcha sweets and tea dumplings that Hapi and Moni love. "Wow, Don Don♪ Go Don Don♪ Ah~Ah..." The team's cheering was no use, and in the bottom of the first inning, Ujitawara Happy New Years started the losing pattern with three strikeouts. In the top of the second inning, a ball was thrown to first base with no outs, and the batter was pitcher Suguru. The softball he hit went over the head of center fielder Makoto, and Suguru went around third base for a running home run. Two more runs were added, making it 7-0. After that, despite letting runners on base, they somehow managed to get out of the pinch and get three outs."Wow, Don Don♪ Go Don Don♪"The noisy cheering by the Tea Picking Bunny Girls started again. In the bottom of the second inning, No. 4, Gantan, swung her bat at Suguru's fastball, and her timing was perfect. The ball grazed the bat and changed trajectory, and the catcher of course couldn't catch it, and it hit the umpire's right foot. The umpire's uncle stumbled and was on his knees on the ground. The rumor that Gantan is a killer for umpires, whether they catch or hit the ball, spread throughout the Little League Baseball Association. On the second pitch, Gantan hit a slow grounder to third base, and Gantan slid headfirst into the safe zone. Hapi said."This is what they practiced for sliding at Lake Biwa Valley."But no one else followed, and it was a three-out change. Gen-san said to Gantan."We have a great catcher called Nomura, and he often tweets to the players in the batter's box! He tweets about the opponent's weaknesses and tries to get them to miss the ball!""Got it!"At the top of the third inning, the team was still in a big pinch with two outs and the bases loaded. Gantan remembered the coach's words. The batter was Suguru, a sixth-grade pitcher, again. Gantan muttered."Your mom's a belly button is sticking out!""What the hell!"Suguru got angry and punched Gantan. Gantan also kicked the ball back, not giving up. Everyone except the coach came out of the benches. Home base was a scuffle. The Tea Picking Bunny Girls beat the drums, saying, "Waah, bang bang♪ Go bang bang♪" to encourage the fight. The umpire said,"Game over, forfeit!"Gen-san, "...."Gantan and his team had no losses."What an idiot."That evening, the baseball game was changed to a barbecue party for a large group of people, including the Tea Picking Bunny Girls. Gen-san was being removed from the team as manager for the next game, and was sipping on his shochu soda while complaining. Gantan and his team were overjoyed that they had no losses, so it was practically a win. When will Ujitawara Happy New Years win?I said. "As long as Gantan is captain, we'll never get a win." I often play catch with Gantan in the garden. Gantan said."Hapi, you're throwing like a guy!""What do you mean?""Girls usually don't use their bodies, they just throw with their arms from the front!""I'm just throwing normally!""So you're turning to the side and swinging your arms properly, it's a man's throw.""I don't really get it though!"Crack! A pleasant sound resonates in Gantan's catcher's mitt."Hey, Hapi.Why don't you join our team?""Why not?""I can be a pitcher, I'm faster than Kyuji!""Kyuji's pitches are too slow~""Yeah, flies stop on them and they don't even reach the mitt.""Hey, come on in.""We're busy. We have a lot to do."Every time I saw Hapi's face on Gantan, I scouted him.



Act 5 [First Round] "Hapi, Moni, good morning on Gantan!""Good morning!"It's a fine Sunday morning in September. Gantan, they often come here to eat breakfast bread as if it were their own home. Grandpa Ken and Grandma Natsu got married through an arranged marriage, and now they share a common hobby of golf. When they got married at 25, Ken was skiing and windsurfing, but had no interest in golf. Natsu, who is one year older than Ken, is the fourth daughter of five siblings, the first three of which were girls, and Natsu's parents were very Hapi when they had their first boy. The youngest boy was loved by his sisters, and he was apparently the closest to Natsu, the fourth daughter, who was close to his age. All of his older sisters had married, and his parents ran a self-employed machine factory, so they were busy working every day, their hands covered in oil. The youngest son, instead of going to college, graduated from high school and started helping his parents. Natsu, the fourth daughter, is a fashionable grandmother with excellent fashion sense who works as a helper at the boutique run by the eldest daughter. The husbands of the older sisters all share a common hobby of golf, and Natsu was often taken to the driving range by the husbands of the youngest daughter and the eldest daughter. The eldest daughter's husband, Shin-san, is a very caring and kind husband. He is rarely at the boutique as a man, and has no other work to do than opening and closing the store, traveling to Tokyo for trade shows to purchase products, playing golf with buyers and manufacturers, and negotiating, so he often buys lunch boxes and sandwiches for the two people who work at the store and don't have time to eat lunch. When he went on business trips to Tokyo, he took Natsu along and treated her to delicious food in the evening, and both Natsu and the youngest son looked up to him and thought of him as an older brother. For the two, he was the first big brother they had ever had, so they relied on him like they were real siblings. Natsu had never played on a course, but Shin-san had taken the youngest boy to the course several times, and the two became more and more absorbed in golf. When Ken married Natsu, Shin-san gave Ken a golf set as a gift. It was almost as if he had been forced to go to the driving range. At that time, Ken was working as an architect for a commercial facility design and construction company in Osaka. He would load his golf bag into his car for commuting, and hit balls at the driving range after work and on his days off, and gradually he began to like golf. One evening, the four husbands of the sisters gathered at Natsu's parents' house and, while chatting, got excited talking about golf. There was a short course in Hibarigaoka where you could play at night, so Shin-san, the second sister's husband, Ken, and the youngest brother went out to play night golf. It was Ken's first time on the field, and the course lit up by the lights was fantastic, with the green in the distance shining brighter than the dark greens around it. On the first hole, a short hole with an uphill approach, rookie Ken hit a nice iron shot that surprised all his brothers. "I wonder if it landed on the green!"The ball got close to the green and all he remembers was that tee shot, the rest seemed to be a mess. Ken was frustrated but also had fun, and he became more and more absorbed in golf and started going to the driving range."The weather is nice today, so shall we go to the driving range?"Natsu said.Hapi said"Yes! Let's go!"The five of them, except for Ken who was at work, went to the driving range with Mom, Moni, and Gantan. Moni's mom was watching, and she wanted to eat tea dumplings at the tea shop after practice. Moni, the younger sister, loves these tea dumplings, and she ate them on a skewer with relish while sipping slightly cooled tea."It's weird, like a kid from the old days!"Gantan follows me everywhere. It's my first time playing golf, and I keep swinging and missing."That was just a practice swing.""How many times are you going to practice?"Gantan hits the artificial mat without hitting the ball. Hapi lived in neighboring Korea until a few years ago after giving birth in Japan due to Daddy's work, and took swimming lessons and screen golf lessons for about a year near her apartment. She was also given a second-hand set of Nike golf clubs for herself, and Natsu praises her for her beautiful swing form. After moving to Kyoto with her family, we went to the practice range several times, and one of Hapi's favorite things to do is to eat matcha parfaits or matcha soft serve at a tea shop. There is a prestigious course called Ayama Country Club in Iga City, Mie Prefecture, which Ken and Natsu often use, and there is a system to train junior golfers, and in early summer of that year, Hapi played his first round. The caddy master of the starting room, who always takes care of us, asked Hapi-chan."Hapi-chan is so cute. What kind of ball does Hapi-chan have? Draw, fade or straight?"Hapi looked at the ball in his pocket in confusion."It's a Srixon! I got it from my grandpa.""Hahaha, it's the best ball!"It's rare to see an elementary school golfer, and the customers in the following group and the gallery in the clubhouse are all paying attention to Hapi's tee shot. First, Ken and Daddy hit from the regular tee, and then it's Hapi's turn from the red tee. When he takes a practice swing, the gallery is all excited by his brilliant form."Wow! What a good swing."Hapi was a little nervous, but his first shot was a nice shot that brushed over the ball and rolled forward! Still, he hits his second shot with a wood and drives it 120 yards, and everyone says,"Nice shot!"It's a bittersweet golf debut for Hapi. When the ball gets caught in the bunker, Hapi throws it at the cup with his five fingers, no, with his fifth. (clink, roll) A splendid chip-in."That's not fair!""Hehe, what's that?" Golf originated in Scotland, and St. Andrews, where the major tournament, the British Open, is famous. In the old days, people used to roll and launch rubber balls with wooden golf clubs, hold a mobile case full of Scotch, play, drink the whole bottle, and drink the whole bottle by the 18th hole, so it was decided that one round is 18 holes. Nowadays, you load your golf bag onto an electric cart and slowly move along the cart path, walking or riding in the cart, playing the first nine holes, taking a meal break at the restaurant in the clubhouse, playing another nine holes in the afternoon, and relaxing in the bath to relax your muscles. It's a sport that you can play for a whole day and feel fulfilled. These days, it's mainstream to play with a companion using a self-owned cart, but Grandpa Ken said,"When Grandpa first started playing, he had a caddy and the caddy could ride in a cart that only he could ride standing up, and after hitting the ball well, he had to run away holding two or three clubs." Then there was a push cart with wheels that you pulled yourself. There are many team sports, but golf is a sport where you compete for scores by yourself, for better or worse. A nice shot makes you feel good, but a bad shot or an out-of-bounds shot makes you feel disappointed, it's a sport where you fight against yourself. On that hole in the vast golf course, only our family and group were standing, what a luxurious space we occupied. Hapi's self-reported round score of 120 was an unforgettable first round day for Hapi.