Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Lost in Otaru

     We arrived in Otaru City. Otaru City is the second biggest city in Hokkaido. During the Meiji Era, about 100 years ago, this city was the centre for finance and the distribution of goods. As you know, the biggest city in Hokkaido is Sapporo City, but Sapporo had no harbour. The goods that were transfered to Sapporo were brought to Otaru City at first. The distance between Otaru and Sapporo is about 30km. The commodities were carried by trains or horse carts from Otaru to Sapporo. There remain dozens of historical buildings everywhere in this city.
     I usually choose my hotel using my PC connected to the internet. I searched for a favorable hotel for us at the beginning of July as usual, but it was too late. Otaru City is one of the most famous cities for sightseeing as is to be expected. There was no vacancy. More properly, I found some vacancies at extremely luxurious hotels, but it wasn't suitable for us. Finally I called the municipal sightseeing agency and asked them to help me find a hotel. At any rate I chose a Japanese-style hotel.
     I headed for that hotel, "Wakaba-sou," shortly after getting off the train. I'm going to report about this hotel. On the way to the hotel, we got lost. We found ourselves getting into a dark alley. I took some picture here.This is Otaru, too.

(Vocabulary)
commodity   商品, 生産物
agricultural commodities  農産物
horse cart  馬車
more properly より正確には
at any rate  とにかく、ともかく、いずれにしても、いずれにせよ、どちらにせよ、何はともあれ、どのみち、何しろ、それにしても
alley  裏通り、路地、小路、小道

(KW: 小樽 観光 若葉荘)

Raining as Usual

     I'm sitting on a seat in the express train for Otaru. It's raining outside. I've visited Hokkaido 4, 5 times. As always, it's raining this time. I really prefer the clear sky to the rain, but the green of the plants around me is very beautiful just in the rain.
     I found a skywalk at Kita-hiroshima station. I've seen some passages like this in Minneapolis. When I visited a hospital in Rochester in Minnesota, I stayed in Minneapolis a night to watch a baseball game of the Minnesota Twins. I heard the temperature of Minnesota is extremely low in the winter and people can't walk outside. This skywalk reminds me of the days in Minnesota. The climate in the winter around here must be harsh for humans.
     The name of this station is "Kita-hiroshima". "Kita" means north and "Hiroshima" means Hiroshima City that is famous for being the victim city of the Atomic Bomb, so the meaning of "Kita-hiroshima" is "North Hiroshima".
     In the Meiji Era the government promoted emigration from the mainland to Hokkaido to protect our land from the northern enemy. At that time the immigrants newly named their land after their original place. The ancestors of the citizens of this city must have come here from Hiroshima City.
     My daughter is looking out of the window. She must be aware of the difference between our hometown and here in various ways. I think this land might be her second home town.

(KW:北広島)

At Shin-Chitose Airport

     We got to Hokkaido and just got on the train for Otaru at Shin-Chitose Airport. In the airplane, after having reached the cruising altitude, I put the headphone on and kept it on all the time during cruising. An announcement shortly before landing said that any digital devices are prohibited, so I took it off. I didn't mind the weight of the headphone for the 2 hours for which I set the headphone. The contact with the ear pads didn't bother me. I felt that it decreased 90% of the noise produced by the airplane. In other words, you can hear only what you want to hear. If you want to listen to music or a certain sound like conversations in a noisy place like the subway, you have to turn the volume up to overcome the noise. Consequently, in some cases, the sound you are listening to leaks and might bother some people who are sitting next to you. If you put this headphone on, your listening never bothers others and you can hold conversations.
     The picture shows a bottle of tea and two lunches, what we call "Ekiben". "Ekiben" means a lunch that is sold at a stall on the station platform. Every "Ekiben" has characteristic ingredients that are the special products from each place. The shape or the material of the lunch case is rich in variety. Eating "Ekiben" is one of the fun things to do when you travel. My youngest daughter chose "Ika-meshi", which is made of squid and rice. Squid, landed at Hakodate City which is near here, is very famous. I chose a lunch of salmon and salmon caviar. Hokkaido is famous as the place where salmon is landed. The taste was very good, especially with the view from the window.

(Vocabulary)
land （魚）を釣り上げる, 取る
caviar   キャビア (チョウザメの卵を塩漬けにしたもの)

(KW: 駅弁 函館 イカめし 石狩鮨 うらら ボーズ ノイズキャンセリング noise cancelling)

At Matsuyama Airport

     It's bright and clear today just after the typhoon passed by. The typhoon is heading for Hokkaido now, where we are going to visit. When our plane reaches Hokkaido, the typhoon is supposed to be at Tsugaru Strait, which is located 100 miles south of the Shin-Chitose Airport where we will arrive. This flight seems we are chasing the typhoon.
     Our plane is coming into the parking spot as the picture shows. Hokkaido is farther from here than Tokyo. I thought our plane would be bigger than the plane headed for Tokyo, but I was not correct. Our plane was a Boeing 737-500 and smaller than I expected. I imagine the number of passengers is not always so many on the flight to Hokkaido.
     By the way, I'm now using a noise cancelling headphone, QuietComfort 3, produced by BOSE. The effect is amazing. I realized how many noises were around me in the airport. I can't do without this anymore. It erases only unnecessary and harsh noises. I was going to listen to English conversation while I was waiting for the departure, but I'm listening to baroque music as I was touched by the technique of BOSE.

(KW: 松山空港 北海道 台風)

Viva! Hokkaido

     The time has come. I'll leave for Hokkaido tomorrow. When I write the my travel record, I sometimes run into problems of not knowing how to express the events because travel is a sequence of unusual happenings. I think that it is kind of a training for me. I'd like to continue writing.
     On this trip, I'm going to try and use a noise cancelling headphone.
     As you can see from the website above, it's expensive, so I rented one this time. If it is as effective as I would expect, I'll buy it for the next long flight and I'll report my impressions to you.
     My youngest daughter would like to see what Hokkaido University is like. It's the first time for her to visit Hokkaido. The temperature would be lower than that of our hometown by 5 degrees centigrade. The humidity is lower as well. She doesn't like the heat just like me. In fact, she loves Vancouver in Canada because the people who she met there were so kind and the climate of the Pacific side of Canada is nice for her. I'm interested in her first impression about Hokkaido as it has the same climate as Vancouver. Hokkaido University is the biggest one in Japan. Her dream is to become a veterinarian. The Hokkaido University School of Veterinary Medicine has the longest history in Japan and I hope that her dream will come true.

(Vocabulary)
run into sb  （人）にばったり会う = bump into
I ran into Ruth this morning outside the station.
今朝駅前でルースにばったり会った．
run into sth （困難など）に陥る, （批判・反対など）にあう
Many students run into debt.  借金を抱え込む学生は多い．
run into difficulties/problems/trouble
困難に陥る、問題にぶつかる、困ったことになる

(KW: BOSE Noise Cancelling Headphone)

Masked Yukichi and Turbaned Noguchi

     There's a special culture, Origami (Paper Folding), in Japan. I'll show you one of the websites that handle it.
http://www.origami.com/
     I can make some of them that are introduced in this website. The Origami crane is very famous and most Japanese can make it from a piece of paper. When they offer a special prayer on something, they often make 1000 cranes and connect them with strings (we call it Senbaduru). If you want to see it, search "Senbaduru" in the images database of Google. You can find many pictures of Senbaduru.
     By the way, take a look at the picture. What do you think is it? What do you think it's made from? The left is made from a 10,000 yen bill and the right a 1,000 yen bill. The 10,000 yen bill features Mr. Yukichi Fukuzawa and the 1,000 yen bill Dr. Hideyo Noguchi. Therefore, these are called Masked Yukichi and Turbaned Noguchi. They never even dreamed that they would be drawn on the bill and be the object of Origami.
     When I attended the beer party on July 28th, a friend showed me them and I asked him promptly to exchange my plain bills with them. It was so delightful to look at them and I showed them off to my wife and my staff members today. To my surprise and regret, my wife and many of my colleagues already knew about it. I might be out of style!
     At any rate, I wonder who figured it out?

(Vocabulary)
offer prayers for the souls of the victims  犠牲者のめい福を祈る
offer prayers to God  神に祈りをささげる
out of style →out-of-style
out-of-style  流行遅れの

(KW: 福沢諭吉 野口英世 日本 紙幣)

A Happy Summer!

     I wish you a happy summer. The photo was taken more than 20 years ago and shows me on the ocean. I've had a vacation every summer since my childhood. It is a kind of family policy. My parents took me and my brothers to many places and I could see many people and many things. I really feel that those were great experiences and made us open-minded. After I got married and had daughters, I took them to many places in Japan and North America. (Another article  Canada)

     However, my daughters grew up and got to have their own schedules. It means that the whole family's long-time trip was getting impossible. Recently we can only stay at hot spas near here for one night.
     I have spent my summer vacation by myself, with my family or with our parents over alternate years.
     Last year, I took a long ride alone to Hokkaido by motorcycle. This summer I'd like to spend my vacation with my whole family, but it is regrettable that my daughters and my wife have their own schedules and my daughters don't want to visit anywhere with us.
     HOWEVER, the youngest daughter, who usually doesn't want to talk with me as I wrote here before, is eager to visit Hokkaido University. I'm going to show her the University. Aug. 5th and 6th are the open campus days of Hokkaido University.
     I'll leave for Hokkaido on Aug. 4th and be back on 8th. Needless to say, I'll post my trip memos with pictures here from my camera phone. The resolution of my camera phone is low and the picture may be unclear, so I'm going to flesh the memos out with high resolution pictures. (Another article)

     Lastly, the day that the photo was taken was the first day of my water skiing. My water skiing was not good in the photo. You can see the bending elbow and waist but now I have got better. I wanted you to see my happy face after I was able to stand on the ocean for the first time. A Happy Summer again!

(Vocabulary)
flesh out　～に肉づけする、～を具体化する

It's Hot!

     It's getting hot. What I used to do first in my office in the morning was to turn on the PC, but now it is turning on the air conditioner.
     When I get to work by motorcycle, I throw my helmet, gloves and clothes away on the bed. I have to cool my body down for a while. I don't like hot weather but when I survive this hot summer the winter comes. I feel that Whistler is waiting for me. To Canadian friends, I'm planning to visit your home piste next March. Why don't you have a party!