Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Considerable Issue in the Neighborhood Association

     A big problem came up in the block association which my hospital belongs to. City authorities want to set up an off-site betting office for bicycle races in the block. The block that my hospital is located in is convenient for access, near the central station.
     However, this block is surrounded by several one-way streets. If such a pari-muteul ticket booth was established, heavy traffic jams would occur. Besides, most people who enjoy bicycle races are unemployed and unwelcome guests to the block. Those people would be injurious to public morals. They will litter with tobacco and garbage. This block can't be kept clean.
     Nevertheless, City Hall wants to install the ticket booth to earn money. My boss is attending the block meeting now. He is going to run a campaign against the betting ticket booth. I've no idea what's going to happen.

(Vocabulary)
off-site betting office  場外馬券売り場
pari-mutuel〈フランス語〉  場外馬券販売機（パリ・ミュチュエルの）
injurious   有害な
litter  [他] 〈公共の場所〉 にごみを散らかす［捨てる］   [自] ごみを散らかす［捨てる］
[!] 「ごみをポイ捨てする」の意味でlitter trashは不可．drop litterを用いる
People should be fined for dropping litter (×littering trash).
ごみをポイ捨てする人には罰金を科すべきだ

Miscellaneous Impression About Korea

     I make it a rule to see a student from Korea once a month for half a year. She has been studying economics in a college in my city. I asked her to be my teacher. I'm learning Korean now and she checks my pronunciation and grammatical mistakes. I started learning Korean one and half year ago, and have learned by myself. However, because self-taught knowledge might be often wrong, I asked her to see me for 1 hour a month. She is a good teacher and I'm a little more confident.
     By the way, to learn another language is to know another people, another culture and their history, I think. I got to be able to understand the Korean way of thinking.
     "Ann-Nyong ha-se-yo" is Korean for "Hello". It can be used anytime, anywhere. When I knew the meaning of this greeting, I was very surprised and realized Korea's sad history. This phrase doesn't expect anything new, happy, or good. This greeting means "Something unusual or something bad may not happen!" They couldn't have wanted anything better in their long history.
     I can guess the miserable history of Korea, which has been ruled and looted by other peoples; Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese and South-East Asian peoples all the time. Even now they are struggling, divided into 2 countries, in the midst of the Korean war after World War Two.
     I just hope they will be united into one country in the near future.

　この半年、韓国人留学生に韓国語をみてもらっている。月に一度会って、しゃべるのを聞いてもらうのである。全く独学でやってきたので不安ではあったがあまり間違って覚えていることはなく、自信を持った。
　ところで、言葉を学ぶことはその国の民衆、文化、歴史を知ることだと思う。韓国人の考え方が少しわかるようになってきた気がする。
　「안녕하세요」は韓国語のあいさつであるが、いつでもどこでも使うことができる。この言葉の意味を知ったとき、驚きもし、韓国の辛い歴史にも気がついた。このフレーズは何か新しいこと、幸せなこと、良いことを期待しているものではない。只単にいつもと違った悪いことが起きていないことを確認するだけなのである。良いことを期待できない歴史とは、、、
　有史以来、他国からの略奪を受け、常に支配されてきたみじめな歴史。今でさえ同じ民族が分割されている状態である。
　ただただ、近い将来に統一されて一つの国になることを望むのみである。

I Hate China #1

     I have a concern about hegemonic China. China started to insist recently that Okinotorishima Island is not an island but a mere rock and Japan can't insist on an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around it. Okinotorishima Island is acknowledged as an island internationally. No matter how much noise Beijing makes, it is an island if the surface of land is above the sea at high tide according to international definition.
     Mischief Reef, that has belonged to the Philippine's EEZ for a long time, has been dominated by China since 1995. This Reef goes under sea level at high tide. China built military facilities on the reef, pouring concrete over the reef in 1995. The funny thing is that China calls this reinforced reef a kind of an island and calls these facilities a shelter for the fisheries. Besides, China insists on their EEZ around this artificially elevated area which was captured from the Philippines.
     China is so naughty and difficult to deal with. They complain about Okinotorishima, the surface of which is above the sea even at high tide. On the other hand they occupy Mischief Reef, which goes under the sea at high tide. Can you accept these facts? What do you think about their opinion? It sounds paradoxical. As an aside, the Paracel Islands were occupied by China in 1974.

     The victim of the hegemonism of China is not exclusive to Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. The Prime Minister of Nepal, Koirala, spouted off at a news conference, "No one had climbed Mt.Everest from the Chinese side. Nevertheless, why does China request that mountain. How would they explain that?" I expect China to act with civilized words and acts.

(English Version)   http://www.geocities.jp/baud_2005/tx310.swf

(Chinese Version) http://www.geocities.jp/baud_2005/tx310c1.swf

(Vocabulary)
exclusive   締め出す、中に入れない、排外的な、排他的な、唯一の、一つだけの

Mercedes Down Again

     My Mercedes went down again. To be exact, the air conditioner doesn't work. The compressor doesn't move. It might be normal life span of them. Anyway, no matter the reason is, all that is certain is that I have to pay much. It's rainy season in Japan. It's getting hot day by day. It's the best season for air-conditioner to break down.

Motorbike Maintenance

     I have a plan to go for a long ride this summer. I did maintenance on my motorbike today. The thing that I most felt uneasy about was a rear tire. That has already worn down flat. I sometimes feel that the rear tire has minimal skid in the rain.
     Though I ordered the repairman to exchange only the rear tire, I knew the front tire gets worn away after replacing the rear tire. The front tire was threadbare compared with the new one. I'm not scared about the rear tire skidding but a front tire skid leads to a serious accident.

(Vocabulary)
wear down   すり減る、すり減らす、磨滅させる、徐々に破壊する
wear down flat  平らにすり減る
threadbare  擦り切れた、着古した、みすぼらしい、お粗末な、陳腐な

At The Stable

     I wrote that my youngest daughter, A, had an interest in animals. She wanted to see horses up close, so I took her to an equestrian club in my city today. The stable is on the riverside. Though all the horses had gentle faces and looked peaceful, their enormous bodies blew me away. I felt a little scared.
     As for A, she was running her finger across the face of a horse. I was upset to see her. Japanese proverbs which have the word "horse" are almost implying that horses are numb. It's not true, the keeper working at the stable explained to me. Horses know who loves them. It seems that horses knew that A loves animals.

(Vocabulary)
equestrian club  乗馬クラブ
blow away  〈米俗〉感動させる、つくづく感心させる、～に非常に良い印象を与える
run one's finger across   ～の上を指でなでる

Long Tunnel

     My youngest daughter had gone into the long winding dark tunnel. Do you understand what I am talking about? She won't come out for at least 3 years. Yes, she is just about to enter the rebellious phase. She was always with me when she was a little girl. She was happy with me in bed, the dining room, even in the bathroom. Because she wanted to do everything I was doing, her hobbies are almost the same as mine now. She is a good skier, likes climbing and motorcycles.
     However, she rarely talks to me now. I hope she goes through the tunnel as fast as possible. The other day I read a book that a cultural anthropologist wrote about the rebellous period. He said in the book that such a period was required for the development of personal independence and useful for the prevention of incestuous affairs. I only half believe it right now.

(Vocabulary)
incestuous affair  近親相姦的な行為

Fridge

     Today is Sunday. Ordinarily I'm off. Because my hospital should be open for emergency patients by city ordinance, I came to work just now. When I opened my fridge, I found nothing in the fridge. I'm crazy about chocolates. I'm always stocking up well with chocolates and some cookies. I had forgotten to replenish them. There's a convenience store near my hospital, but now I have to stay in the hospital all the time and can't go out for supplies. I'm so sorry.

(Vocabulary)
ordinance   〔市町村の〕条例
replenish  ～を（再び）満たす、補給する、補充する、継ぎ足す

Perfume

     I don't like any perfume. I nearly choke. A male patient is seeing me regularly now. He got injured in a traffic accident and needs to attend my hospital for about 2 weeks. Seeing patients is my job. I cannot avoid him. Of course, I know that. However, his perfume is so strong. Every time I see him, I'm treating his injuries in the shortest possible time. Sometimes I stop breathing without being noticed by him in spite of the nurses chuckling over me.
     I can't understand why young people use perfume.

New Checking System of Parking Violations

     On the first day of this June, there was a big change in society. The new system of inspection of parking violations started. Though the policemen issued parking violation tickets up to now, people will get zapped with a parking ticket by observers in the region who were authorized by the police department from now on. This switch means that human resources for blowing a whistle increases. My hospital is located in the heart of the city and has always had heavy traffic jams. After this regulation was adopted, one of the major streets of my city was cleared up.

(Vocabulary)
get zapped  （～に）してやられる
get zapped with a parking ticket  駐車違反切符をもらう羽目になる
blow a whistle   笛を吹く、警告を発する、取り締まる

"Koromo-gae"

     June is the season for a change of clothing, which is called "koromo-gae" in Japan. I put away my winter clothes and took out my summer clothes. It's not an easy task because I have many hobbies. For example, climbing gear. I keep all the gear for climbing organized in my room. I'm always ready to go out whenever I want to go climbing. It's the same for other hobbies. That is to say, skiing, riding my motorcycle, fishing, swimming and so on. Gear and kit for these hobbies must be exchanged on this "koromo-gae" day. I've done all this work today. So tired!