Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Walking in Tokyo

     I'm in Tokyo. My second daughter will take a university entrance exam, but she is not familiar with Tokyo. I took her there. I'm going to stay in Tokyo until tomorrow.
     I took a walk around Ueno Park for the first time. This area of Tokyo forms a kind of hill. Because I thought the topography of Tokyo was flat, I was a little surprised. Come to that, I had never walked a lot in Tokyo. I always use trains. I enjoyed looking around Ueno Park.
     The photo shows the statue of Takamori Saigoh in the Park. He is an architect of the transfer of power back to the Emperor in 1868. I think it is the one and only revolution of all ages and cultures that didn't exact any toll. Tokyo remained intact. It might be one of the reasons that Japan could develop in such a short period.

(Vocabulary)
topography  [U] 地勢, 地形
the island's topography  その島の地形
exact  (フォーマル) 〈承諾・服従など〉 を強要する, 〈税など〉 を取り立てる
exact sth from sb  ＜人＞に＜…＞を強要する
exact a high price/heavy toll  大きな犠牲をもたらす

(KW:上野公園 西郷隆盛 明治維新 大政奉還)

Sex Offender Notification

     I was working in a small agricultural village for 3 years about 10 years ago. That village was tranquil and peaceful and 2 hours away from the prefectural capital city by car. There had been no criminal case for years.
     One day, a high school girl was missing. Almost all the villagers, including me, looked for her after her parents reported it to the police, but we couldn't find her. The next morning she was found alive at a neighboring village. She was abducted by a young man. He was arrested a few days later and sentenced to a few years in prison. I left the village for here sometime after the case.
     A few years later, I heard the news of a rape-murder that occured in a rural village where a schoolgirl had been protected by police before. The criminal was the same man. He had come out of the prison a few days before he committed the murder case. I don't know his sentence this time, but it must be more strict. They say that sex offenders are apt to commit the same crime again and again.
     I knew the notification system of sex offenders in the US. If there were such a system in Japan, the new victim might not have been attacked by him. I have wanted to see a real notification of sex offenders since then.
     An acquaintance showed me the real notification. The photo shows it. It is an A4 size but is divided into two photos.

(Vocabulary)
offend
[他] 〈人〉 の感情を害する, 気分を損ねる
[自] 感情を害する
[自] 犯罪を犯す

My Father Gone

     My father-in-law passed away today. He was a great man. He worked his way from the bottom after  World War 2 and brought up 4 children.
     He greeted the end of the war on Bougainville island (Papua New Guinean territory) when he was only 20 years old. He had been working as an engineer on that island and Shortland Island, 6 miles south of Bougainville island. His main job was maintenance work on fighter planes.
     Bougainville island was one of the bloodiest battlefields and is famous for the place of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's death. My father-in-law seemed to be in line saluting his coffin when his body was recovered and came onto the base.
     I used to listen to his story during the war over shouchu, a distilled sprit. He said that he wanted to visit there again and express sympathy for the dead of both countries.
     I tried to get information of the area from 1986 to 1995, but I couldn't get enough. I wish there had been internet at that time. After 1995, my father-in-law was fading away or had weakened.
     The borderline between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands is drawn between Bougainville and Shortland island. Shortland island is one of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville island is similar, but it belongs to Papua New Guinea. The Revolutionary Army of Bougainville (BRA) island was fighting with the government army for indepencence at that time and the government closed all doors to foreign countries. I didn't get any news about Bougainville island around that time. I'm very sorry not to have been able to take him there.

     With folded palms,

(Vocabulary)
work one's way   苦労して進む
work one's way from the bottom  何もないところからはい上がっていく
bring sb up 《通例受け身形で》 ＜子供＞を育てる, しつける
fade  [自] (face away とも)(文) (病気・加齢により) 〈人が〉 衰弱する

　義父が亡くなった。大東亜戦争のあと、裸一貫から４人の子供を育て上げた立派な人だった。

　彼は２０才の時、パプアニューギニア領ブーゲンビル島で終戦を迎えた。この島と６マイル南にある隣の島、ショートランド島で零戦のメンテナンスを行っていた。

　ブーゲンビル島は最も凄惨な戦場のひとつであり、山本五十六大将が亡くなった地としても有名である。義父は山本の遺体が回収され、基地に運び込まれたとき、その棺に向かって敬礼して迎えたと言っていた。

　義父の元気な頃、焼酎を飲みながらよく戦争中の話を聞いた。死ぬまでにもう一度、島を訪れて日米両国の犠牲者に黙祷したいとよく言っていた。１９８６年から９５年頃までこの地域の情報を得ようとしたが、十分なものは得られなかった。そのころに、今のようなインターネットがあればなんとかなったかもしれないが。９５年頃を境に義父は衰え始め、ついに彼の望みを果たせてやることはできなかった。

　パプアニューギニアとソロモン諸島の国境線はブーゲンビル島とショートランド島の間に引かれている。ショートランド島はソロモン諸島の一部であり、ブーゲンビル島も同様である。しかし、ブーゲンビル島はパプアニューギニア領なのである。ブーゲンビル革命軍（BRA)が当時独立を目指して政府軍と戦闘を続けており、鎖国状態となっていたのである。

　合掌

(KW : 山本五十六 ブーゲンビル革命軍 大東亜戦争 ショートランド ブーゲンビル島) 

Gym

     My old friend, who lives in Aomori prefecture, sent me an e-mail. I wrote some entries about him in this blog last summer. http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/08/japan-self-defe.html He showed me some pictures of him wearing outfit for the cold weather and climbing up the snowy mountain with his skis. Moreover, he advised me to access a website that was created by his friends. http://wearehakkouda.fc2web.com/index1.htm I saw some movies on that website. They were really enjoying the snow on Hakkoda Mountain. I couldn't stand still.
However, I don't think that I have as much physical strength as I used to in my younger days. I made up my mind to start going to the gym.

Trumped-up Story

     The Dietary effect of natto that I wrote about before was disclosed to be based on fake data. The TV program was a fabricated story. The story was extremely vicious. I guess that the producers were desperate to make the program work at any cost. They have been making a similar program every week. It must have been hard work.
     When I was in postgraduate school to get a Ph.D, I sometimes felt a kind of frustration. You know, when I couldn't get preferable data from the experiments, I got depressed. I imagine that the feelings of those TV producers were likewise and they yielded to the temptation of making up the segment. The TV program might come to an end.

(Vocabulary)
trumped-up  〈申し立て・口実などが〉 でっち上げの, 偽りの
trumped-up charges  でっち上げられた容疑
fabricate  〈話・うそなど〉 をでっち上げる, 捏造(ねつぞう)する
The police were accused of fabricating evidence.
警察は証拠を捏造したとして告発された
vicious  悪意のある, 意地悪な
a vicious rumor  悪意のあるうわさ
at any cost  金をいくら出しても、是が非でも、意地でも、絶対に、万難を排して
segment  〔テレビ・ラジオ放送などの〕一区切り、一番組、ひとコマ

Korean Student

     A Korean student saw me today. She cut her little finger accidentaly with a kitchen knife. She tried to stop the bleeding in vain. After the treatment I tried to talk with her using some Korean words. I'm eager to use Korean now, but my speaking ability turned out to be very poor. Something must be done to become a good Korean speaker. I'm thinking of asking her or her friends to see me once or twice a month in a cafe or something like that and talk in Korean.

A Cheap Wine

     I got the cheapest foreign wine at the nearest supermarket. That cost me only 500 yen, about 5 US dollars. You know, I've wondered about that price. This wine is from Chile. So ... somehow, they have to grow the grapes, turn the grapes into wine, make a bottle, slap a label on it, insert a cork in it, box it up, ship it halfway across the world, store it in a warehouse and then bring it to the store in a truck - all for under four dollars, because the store has to make at least a dollar profit too. Someone must be getting a raw deal.
     Anyway, the taste of the wine was worth it for more than 10 US dollars.

(Vocabulary)
slap sth on sth  ＜…＞をべたべた塗りつける
box (up)  …を箱に入れる［詰める］
ship  [他] (船・飛行機・トラックなどで) …を運ぶ, 輸送する
a fair deal   正当な扱い
get a raw/rough/bum deal   (informal) 不当な扱いを受ける

Natto Boomlet

     Natto is one Japanese foods that most visitors from out of Japan hate. Natto is fermented soybeans. Natto is a very healthy food. Soybeans contain many kinds of nutrients, such as protein.
     By the way, it appears the production of natto cannot keep up with the rapid increse of demand now in Japan. It's because a new method for diet by eating natto was introduced on a TV variety show on Jan. 7. On that night I went out shopping for natto as soon as the program had finished, though it was late at night because I was afraid that natto would run out.
     Next evening I dropped in at the same supermarket after work. As I expected, natto was out of stock. A few days later, I found some new brands of natto from out of Ehime Prefecture arranged at the supermarket. All of the natto producers across the country seem to be working to capacity.

My Daughters (Corrected by Maria)

     I have 3 daughters, no sons. When my first daughter was born and I met her for the first time, I was mildly overwhelmed. I didn't know how to handle a baby girl. I grew up with two brothers, no sisters. I couldn't change her diapers due to feeling quite inadequate around such a precious package.
     In succeeding years two more baby girls were born. I have no words for describing their loveliness. I attended their school events as much as possible, though my work sometimes interfered. The girls wanted to be with me all the time; when having dinner, when taking a bath, even when sitting on the lavatory! Every time I went to work, they tried to follow me. I had to leave home with painful reluctance.
     But look now, they are 20, 18 and 15. Times have certainly changed.  Two years ago, the youngest daughter lost herself in a long winding tunnel where she hides herself away, locked alone with her dreams. She no longer wants to share with me. She sits on the sofa away from me in the living room and even at the dining table. She didn't tell me when her school's athletic meeting was held, because she hated me to attend and take pictures or videos of her. I sometimes get impatient and angry with such behavior.
     My wife advised me to remember the junior high school days of my eldest daughter. I'm sure that she acted similar. It seems that most young girls hate their fathers in their teens. Okay, but why? I always loved and cared for them. I did everything I could for them. It's utterly unreasonable.
     As for the eldest, she seems to have surely made her way through the tunnel. She doesn't mind being seated next to me. January 8th was Coming of Age Day in Japan this year. She attended the ceremony with a gorgeous kimono. This event has brought home to me how time flies.
     I'm hoping that the other daughters pass through the hideous tunnel as fast as possible.  I miss them and await the day they can share their lives and dreams again.

(Vocabulary)
package  神様からの贈り物
utterly  まったく　完全に
bring sth home (to sb)  （＜人＞に）＜…＞を痛感させる, はっきりと悟らせる

They always make me proud.

Urban Valley

     I carry around a digital camera these days. I'm going to shoot many pictures around me. One of the biggest benefits of using a digital camera is that you can take as many photos as you want. This picture is shot on the way to my hospital from my parking lot. It has a composition of looking up towards Matsuyama Castle from the urban canyon. The castle is in bright natural light but the sunlight doesn't reach the bottom of the valley.

(Vocabulary)
composition [U] 構図, 画面構成, 配置

(KW:松山城　都会の谷間)

My Daughters

     It's very difficult to express my emotion properly and with accuracy. I'm going to ask a professional writer, Maria to check this essay. I don't know where she lives, but she is on the internet and a great coach. If you are a Japanese, read the revised version that I'll post later.

     I have 3 daughters, no sons. When my first daughter was born and I met her for the first time, I was in mild embarrassment. I didn't know how to handle a baby girl. I grew up with two brothers, no sisters. I couldn't change her diapers due to my shyness.
     In succeeding years two more baby girls were born. I have no words for describing how they were lovely. I attended their school events as much as possible, though my work was busy. They wanted to be with me all the time; when having dinner, when taking a bath, even when sitting on the lavatory. Every time I went to work, they tried to follow me. I had to leave home with painful reluctance.
     But look now. Their ages are 20, 18 and 15. The youngest daughter is in a long winding tunnel since 2 years ago, if you know what I mean. She doesn't want to talk with me. She always take a seat on the sofa away from me in the living room and even at the dining table. She didn't tell me when her school's athletic meeting was held, because she hated me to attend and take snaps or videos of her. I sometimes get angry with such behavior.
     My wife advised me to remember the junior high school days of my eldest daughter. I'm sure that she was alike. It seems that most young girls hate their fathers in their teens. I got it, but why? I always loved and cared for them. I did everything I could for them. It's utterly unreasonable.
     As for the eldest, she seems to have surely got through the tunnel. She doesn't mind being seated next to me. January 8th is Coming of Age Day in Japan this year. She attended the ceremony with a gorgeous kimono. I deeply realized that time flies.
     I'm hoping that the other daughters pass through the hideous tunnel as fast as possible.

(Vocabulary)
hideous
〈姿・形などが〉 醜い
(見た目が) ひどい, 目も当てられない
〈犯罪・体験などが〉 忌まわしい, おぞましい

(KW:成人式　着物)

"Tako-Yaki", Octopus Dumpling in Dazaifu

     Octopus balls or octopus dumpling is very popular in Japan. I think many visitors to Japan have eaten it at least once. Needless to say, I've eaten it many times. Octopus dumpling is not a formal food, but kind of a snack. I always find a few "Tako-Yaki" stands among fair stalls. Every "Tako-Yaki" ball has a piece of octopus in it. I was so surprised to see how big the ball was here. You can see it in the photo. Every "Tako-Yaki" ball has a whole body of a small octopus. I took a picture in a mad rush.

(Vocabulary)
fair stall  お祭りの屋台
in a mad rush  あわてて　大急ぎで

(KW:太宰府　たこ焼き)

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine

     I went on an overnight domestic trip to Dazaifu City. The purposes were two. One is a new year's visit to the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, and the other is watching a Karuta match of my eldest daughter.
     Today's Dazaifu City owes its name to an office called the Dazaifu or "Government-General Headquarters," which was established approximately 1300 years ago and which ruled all of Kyushu for a period of some 500 years. Within the city, there are many historical sites which serve as reminders of its past, including the ruins of the Dazaifu itself, the Mizuki("Water Fortress"), Kanzeonji Temple, Chikuzen Kokubunnji Temple, and Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine. Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine is sacred to the memory of Michizane Sugawara, also known as "The God of Learning." In 901 A.D., Michizane was suddenly demoted from his position as Minister of the Right and sent to work at the Dazaifu, where he died two years later. Tenmangu Shrine was built on the site of his grave. The main hall, as it stands today, was constructed in 1591 A.D. and it is registered as an important Cultural Property.
     My second daughter will take the entrance exams of some universities this winter. I prayed for her success to Michizane Sugawara, the God of Learning. This shrine is famous among students preparing for an exam. Many entrance test takers visit here every year.
     Next, I'd like to write about the rule of Karuta, but it's beyond my English ability. I'm going to show you how to play Karuta here some day.

(Vocabulary)
sacred  神聖な　極めて重要な
Sacred to the memory of sb  (墓碑銘で）～にささげる
test takers  受験者

(KW:太宰府天満宮　菅原道真)

A Happy New Year

     As the New Year unfolds, I look forward to what is in the cards for the new year. I'll turn 49 in September. 49 = 12 x 4 + 1. They take 12 years together in Japan. That it to say, I got into the 5th cycle in life. I wonder what will happen for the coming 12 years. All my daughters would be full-fledged members of society and live alone or with their partners. I could be a grandfather.
     Anyway, the exciting 5th cycle has just started!

(Vocabulary)
unfold　[自] 〈ドラマ・事件・歴史などが〉 展開する
No one can predict how events will unfold.
だれも事件の展開を予想できない．
in the cards　ありそうな、起こり得る、起こりそうな
turn  …歳になる 《連結動詞》
take ~ together  ～をひとかたまりと考える
full-fledged  一人前の, すっかり成熟した