News from August 10 to 16, 1998<[japanese]

We had much rain in this rainy season. Finally it didn't pass though the Japanese "Obon" day has come (the middle of August). We had fine days in Tendo City (Yamagata Prefecute), but they had cool rainy days in Sendai City (Miyagi Prefecture). So they could not announce that the rainy season has passed in Tohoku area in Japan.

They gather new staffs from next spring at the City Office. There was a rule that no one could take an examination out of Tendo City. But 2.3 times people apply for an examination because they get rid of it this year, who is in not only Tohoku Area but also Tokyo.

They had a reserch about traffic in Yamagata Prefecture. They found that they were very crowded rather than any other city in Tohoku Area in Japan.
They checked for 12 hours (from 7:00 to 19:00) and for 24 hours (from 7:00 to 7:00 next morning on weekday, from 3:00 to 3:00 next morning on weekend). Around "Dainome" on Route 13, it was the most crowded area in Yamagata Prefecture, about 443,000 cars for 12 hours. This is 2nd crowd in Tohoku area.
Best 5 area is on Route 13 around Tendo City and Yamagata City.

In October 28 they will open a new part of the Yamagata Highway from the "Sagae Interchange" to the "Nishikawa Intercahnge" (14Km). They build a rest place "Sagae service area" between them. They already have opened from the "Shounai Asahi Interchange" to the "Sakata Interchange" (31.3Km) in Shonai area.
From "Nishikawa Interchange" to next interchange "Gassansawa Interchange" (16.4Km), they will open next year.

We have the shogi (Japanese chess) festival "Shogi 100 men zashi" in the Summer Festival. It is 3rd festival this year. This time 5 professional shogi players came, Mr.Suguru MORISHITA with 8th dan, Mr.Toshiaki KUBO with 5th dan, Mr.Daisuke SUZUKI with 5th dan, Mr.Hideyuki TAKANO with 4th dan and Ms.Tomoko KUTSU with 1st Kyu. 5 professional shogi players played with 100 children at the festival.