Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

I Accomplished!

     When I started writing this blog in Nov. 2005, I set a goal that I would write 100,000 words within 3 years and stick with it. It was not easy, but I finally accomplished my goal this month four months earlier than I expected.
     I wanted not only to improve my English skills but for people all over the world to see my albums and travel notes. If I could become friends with many people on the globe and visit them after my retirement it would be my great pleasure.
     Don't hesitate to send an e-mail to me!

(Vocabulary)
stick with one's goal   目標をあきらめない

　このブログを書き始めたのが２００５年１１月。その時、３年間で１０万語の文章を書こうと心に決めた。そして絶対に諦めないと決めた。それは決してたやすいことではなかったが、今月、予定よりも４ヶ月も早く達成できた。今、とても満足している。

　英語の修練だけではなく、世界中の人に自身のアルバムや旅行記を読んでもらい、それらの人々と友達になり、リタイア後に実際に訪問できたらとても楽しいことだろうと思う。

　どうか、皆さん、おっくうがらずに僕にメールを下さい。

 

A Foreign Body On The Garage Roof

     An incident occurred in my house, involuntarily shouting "What?". I'm showing a picture of the roof of my garage. Something was on the roof! On closer sight it was a disposable lighter.
     Why? Someone had acted up? I couldn't find the exact answer, but it was possibly done by a bird. It was kind of fun, but it was so extremely hot that the lighter might have caught on fire. I decided to remove it immediately, but I didn't have a stepladder.
     When I was about to go out to buy one, my wife stopped me saying "You can use the broom and the rack for the plant pots and the planters. She didn't want to spend any money and I insisted that we absolutely needed a big stepladder.
     We had a small quarrel and finally my wife said, "I'll try" and she did it!

(Vocabulary)
on a closer view   もっとよく見ると
act up   子供などがいたずらをする　ふざける
catch (on) fire  火が付く　燃え出す
stepladder  脚立
broom  ほうき

She made it!

July 26th

     July 26th is an unfogettable day for the citizens of Matsuyama City. On this day of 1945, Matsuyama was heavily bombed several times and hundreds of people were killed. The accurate number of victims is still unknown. Why were the citizens killed this way? They neither had nor made any weapons. They were just citizens, not military personnel.
     The U.S. Government has never apologized for the bombing. They have justified their military actions over 60 years. However, how can they possibly justfy their actions?
     The Japanese have been educated by U.S. methods. The Japanese did bad things during the last war and were punished. The U.S., 'the generous country,' helped Japan rebuild from the devastation. These are their excuses. The Japanese have been brainwashed since 1945.
     I think it's time to examine what made Japan move to such a reckless war. I'd like to insist that the most sinful war criminals are Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Shippe Truman. 

(Vocabulary)
rebuild from the devastation   荒廃から復興する

　７月２６日は松山市民にとって忘れられない日です。昭和２０年のこの日、松山は数回にわたって爆撃を受け数百人の市民が虐殺されました。その正確な数は今もってわかりません。なぜ戦争に関わっていない松山市民がこのように殺されなければならなかったのでしょうか？

　アメリカ政府は爆撃したことを現在まで謝罪していません。彼等は自らの軍事行動を６０年にわたって正当化してきました。しかしながら、どのような理屈でこの松山空襲を正当化できるのでしょうか？

　日本人はアメリカが作った教育方針に則って戦後教育を受けてきました。日本人は悪いことをしたので罰せられた。寛大な国、アメリカが日本の復興を助けた。これらはアメリカに都合の良い口実です。日本人は昭和２０年以降、洗脳され続けてきたのです。

　日本がなぜ、無謀な戦争に踏み切らねばならなかったのか、そろそろ真剣に考えてみるときが来たのではないでしょうか。僕は最も罪深い戦犯はアメリカ大統領のルーズベルトとトルーマンだと確信しています。

A New Acquaintance

     When I wrote about irori, the Japanese traditional hearth in the previous entry, I didn't have a picture of the irori and looked for it on the internet. Finally, I found one on the net. I liked it and I sent an e-mail to the owner of the website to ask permission to use his picture in my blog. Two days later the reply saying ok arrived.
     I was surprised to see his signature. He was Japanese, but his address was in Chilliwack BC in Canada. There are many countries on the earth. Nevertheless, there's a high possibility that my foreign acquaintances have something to do with Vancouver or BC in Canada. The person who advised me to write this blog for brushing up my English skills was a Japanese pilot who was living in Vancouver.
     It was in Victoria that Mr. Inazo Nitobe passed away, whose writings had inspired me to travel all over the world when I was a university student.
     I'm thinking about my next vacation plan in Canada. My wife and I are interested in a houseboat. I'd like to stay on a lake without doing anything special, just enjoying the time passing. The present first choice is Okanagan Lake, because it is narrow and long. If it was a round lake I wonder if I could easily lose the way.
     Anyway, my life is getting happier.

　前の記事で囲炉裏のことを書きました。その際に利用した写真をネットで探し、使用許可をもらったのですが、その人は日本人でカナダに住んでいるのです。それもバンクーバーから１時間半ほどの場所にある市です。世界には多くの国があるのにどういうわけか僕の知り合いはバンクーバーに関係のある人が多いのです。このブログを英語の勉強のために書いてみろと勧めてくれたのもバンクーバー在住の日本人パイロットでした。
　若い頃、その著書から多大な影響を受けた新渡戸稲造が客死したのもここBC州の州都ビクトリアです。
　今、次の休暇の計画を考えているところですが、妻も僕もハウスボートに興味があります。湖の上で何もせずに過ごしてみたいのです。今のところ第一候補はオカナガン湖です。細長い形なので丸い湖よりは迷子にならずにすむかなと考えています。この湖もバンクーバーのすぐそばにあるのです。
　ま、とにかく、我が人生、ますます面白くなってきました。

Material of My Chopsticks

     I'm writing about the material of my chopsticks that I got the other day and wrote about in the last entry.
     The material of my portable chopsticks is "susudake" in Japanese. I imagine that most subscribers don't know "susudake". Though I looked "susudake" up in my Japanese-English dictionary and on the internet, I couldn't find an exact translation in English. I'll explain "susudake" in the next paragraph.
     At first, take a look at the picture at the bottom. This is a Japanese traditional house topped by a thatched roof. In this type of house, there is an "irori", the traditional hearth, usually in the biggest room. I'm also showing the irori below.
     Irori is the sunken space for the fire and is designed to be in the center of the room. This space is used for cooking and heating the house. Pots and kettles are hung by the pot hook, or jizaikagi, over the irori. These hooks are generally hollow bamboo tubes with an iron rod penetrating the middle. The attached lever, which is often shaped like a fish, allows the pot or kettle to be raised or lowered. Bamboo is also used for the ceiling of the irori room. These hollow bamboos are called "susudake," which means bamboo with grime. It takes 100-150 years for susudake to be made and it can be produced only when the old houses are torn down. This material is very valuable. That's the reason for the high price. My chopsticks are handy and worth the price.

(Vocabulary)
an exact translation      ぴったりの訳語
handy 使い勝手がよい
tear down   引き下ろす、引きはがす  〔建物などを〕壊す、取り壊す、解体する
sunken  （名詞の前でのみ）　周囲より一段低くなった

　今回は、前回書いたマイ箸の材料について書こうと思います。

　材料はすす竹です。多くの読者はどのようなものかわからないと思います。辞書やネットで調べても適訳がわからなかったのでこれから説明します。

　最初に下の写真を見てください。日本の伝統的な藁葺きの家を示しています。この中に囲炉裏と呼ばれる煮炊きの場所があります。写真も添えます。

　囲炉裏は部屋の中央に配置された一段下がった場所にあります。煮炊きに使われたり、暖房に使われたりします。鍋ややかんをつり下げて使います。このつり下げるためのフックや天井に使われている竹をすす竹と呼びます。すすのこびりついた竹という意味です。この竹ができるまで１００年から１５０年ほどかかるといわれており、古い建物を解体したときに得られる材料なので高いのです。

　で、箸の使い勝手ですが、とても良いです。

(KW: すす竹)

Portable Chopsticks

     It might be seen as curious for western people, but many Japanese use their own chopsticks at home. On the other hand, they use disposable ones outside like in restaurants and on hiking trips.
     Disposable chopsticks are made of thinned wood, which was cut down to manage the forest. Tree thinning is necessary to keep the forest healthy. Thinned wood is a kind of waste material and I thought it was not bad for greenhouse gas emission because the wood was grown by absorbing CO2 gas. Throwing away the disposable chopsticks only means expiring CO2 gas that was absorbed during growth.
     However, thinned wood is extremely versatile and it's a waste to use it as chopsticks. Additionally, Chinese-made chopsticks have the concern that some poisonous chemicals might have been used in the process of bleaching, coloring and sterilization. I decided to stop using disposable chopsticks and carry my own chopsticks. It is one of my small actions against global warming.
     That said, I didn't have to get chopsticks urgently, so I have dropped in at chopstick shops sometimes over these three months. Then, today, I found nice chopsticks in a special fair in a department store. A famous craftsman, who came from Kyoto, a noted historic city, was advertising and selling his products.
     I listened to his lesson about chopsticks and realized how little knowledge I had about chopsticks that I had used almost every day since I was in short pants. During his lesson, I tried to pick some food up with various chopsticks. A small piece of konjac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac), Udon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udon), a julienne carrot, a small fishbone, , , these were hard to pick up with ordinary chopsticks. The craftsman said, "If you carry your own chopsticks all the time, the chopsticks must be multipurpose. If you use disposable ones when you eat Udon at a restaurant, it would be nonsense to take along your own chopsticks." For subscribers who have not eaten Udon with chopsticks, disposable ones are more useful to pick up and cut the noodle rather than ordinary lacquered chopsticks. The craftsman wanted to emphasize that I shouldn't use disposable ones even when I eat Udon. Finally I bought one of his suggestions that cost 12000 yen, about 120 U.S.$.!
     Can you believe the price? I'm explaining the material of the chopsticks in the next entry. 

（Vocabulary)
disposable chopsticks   割りばし
That's a waste.   もったいないよ
lumber from thinning // thinned wood  間伐材
utilize waste materials   廃物利用をする
thinning // tree thinning  間伐
thin the forests  間伐する
That said, とはいえ
julienne （野菜などが）千切りの
lacquered chopsticks  塗りばし

　外国人には奇異に思えるかもしれないが、日本人は普通家庭では個人専用の箸を使う。しかし、外食や行楽時には割り箸を使う。

　割り箸は間伐材から作られていて、もともと不要な材木から作られている。またこれらの材木は二酸化炭素を吸って成長しているからこれらを燃やして出る二酸化炭素は温暖化の原因にはならないと考えていた。しかし、間伐材は箸の他にもいろいろな用途があり、使い捨ての箸として使うのはもったいない。温暖化防止のために小さな努力をしたい、間伐材がもったいないということでマイ箸を持ち歩くことにした。

　とは言っても、急ぐ話ではないし、この３ヶ月ほど閑なときには箸を売っている店に寄ってみていた。そして今日、素晴らしい箸を見つけた。職人が自分の作品を展示、説明していたのでその説明を聴いた。いろいろな食材も置いていたのでそれらをつまんでみた。驚いたことに箸によってつまみやすさが異なり、安い箸だとつまみ上げることが出来ない場合さえあった。また普通の塗り箸で掴めないようなものでも掴める箸が存在した。そしてその素晴らしい箸の価格は１２６００円。

　この価格を信じられるだろうか？次の記事でその材料について書くことにする。

A Picture from Yuri

     Yuri is my second daughter and 20 years old. She is a college student in Nagoya city, one of the biggest cities in Japan. She is learning German culture.
     A picture arrived today from her. A cell phone with a digital camera is really useful. Yuri is a girl with a green skirt at the furthest right in the picture. She was visiting a folk museum with her classmates. I was relieved to see her smile.

(Vocabulary)
folk museum   民族博物館

　yuriは次女の名前で、２０才。名古屋でドイツ文学を勉強しています。今日、写メが届きました。犬山市にあるリトルワールド(野外民族博物館)でドイツの民族衣装を着ています。一番右にいるのがそうで、元気そうなのでホッとしました。

 

August Rush

     I watched the movie "August Rush" on the flight to Japan in March. Robin Williams starred in the movie and he is one of my favorite actors. He is always the protagonist, but he wasn't in this movie.
    Anyway, I have wanted to catch it again. I found the ad poster on the street today. This movie had already been released in my city in June, but I didn't notice it because of an inappropriate translation. "August Rush" is the name of the hero, so the title in Japanese should be オーガスト・ラッシュ (August Rush) without changing it. For your information, the Japanese title is "A miraculous symphony."

(Vocabulary)
for your information  ちなみに

　オーガスト・ラッシュという映画を３月、帰国便の機内で見た。ロビン・ウイリアムス主演の映画で、彼は好きな俳優の一人でもある。彼は常にいい役だが、この映画ではそうではなかった。

　ま、とにかくまたみたいとずっと思っていたのだが、今日、歩いていてたまたまポスターを見つけた。なんと、６月に既に封切りになっていたのにタイトルの翻訳がうまくなくて気づかずにいた。オーガスト・ラッシュというのは主人公の名前なのだから、日本語でもそのままタイトルにすれば良いのにと思ったがどうだろう。ちなみに、日本語のタイトルは「奇跡のシンフォニー」だった。

School Trip

     A will leave for Hokkaido for the school trip next week. I hope she will have a good memory of it with her friends, but I have a concern. As you know, the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit will be held in Hokkaido at the same time. The Japanese Government will have elaborate plans against terrorist plots, but I'm afraid A could be involved in the terror. A group of parents were insisting that the trip be put-off for security reasons and to avoid the packed airport and jammed traffic. Their opinion is acceptable, at least for me. However, that wasn't the case in the eyes of A. She said they should visit there just now, because it is a rare chance to see what the summit meeting is like.
     Her way of thinking is just like me. Opportunities are not always in our reach. Her life will be active and aggressive in a good way.

Bucket List

     I often feel that I'm lucky to have learned English. While watching American movies, I really get the feeling. I caught the movie "Bucket List" starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. I think both are great, talented and are the people who were born to become actors. By the way, the original title is translated into Japanese with a different title. The Japanese title is 「最高の人生の見つけ方」. If retranslated into English the title would be "How to find the best way of life". Japanese and English are completely different languages and such a translation of the title might be inevitable.
     When Morgan wrote "Bucket List" on the memo pad, "棺桶リスト" which means "coffin list" in English, appeared on the Japanese subtitles. I wondered why bucket had the meaning of coffin or the translater might have made an association of ideas from bucket to basket and next casket. As soon as Jack found the note, he shouted "kick the bucket" blah, blah, blah. I dare to expound my opinion here to get the criticism of native speakers.
     There's a phrase "kick the bucket" that means "die". To tell the truth, I had an image about "kick the bucket" in which a man trips over a bucket and fall down and finally hits his head and dies. I investigated the real meaning of this phrase in the big etymological dictionary and found the origin of the phrase. The bucket indicates the stepstool of the hanging platform. If you kick this stepstool, you would be hung up from the tree or something. If so, "kick the bucket" would mean only suicide, but this phrase looks like it's used in any type of death, like death from illnesses, accidents, or even murders. It's funny, but coming back to the right track, let's think about the kicking. Just after kicking the bucket, the man will die. That is to say, kicking the bucket is the last intentional action in his life. This is my conclusion. Can I express things that we want to do at the end of our life as the buckets? 

(Comments from my teacher in Canada)
"To kick the bucket" does indeed mean to die in a general sense, but it comes from rhyming cockney slang.

(Vocabulary)
be translated into Japanese with a different title
原題とは異なるタイトルで日本語に翻訳される
make an association of ideas　連想する
trip over a log　丸太に蹴つまずく
etymologic(al) dictionary 　語源辞典
ladder // platform // step ladder // stepstool　踏み台

　英語を勉強していて良かったと思う瞬間がある。アメリカ映画を見るときがそうだ。
　先日、「Bucket List」というアメリカ映画を見た。邦題は「最高の人生の見つけ方」だ。これを更に英語に訳すと、「How to find the best life」とでもなるだろうか。映画のセリフは原題とは異なるタイトルで日本語に翻訳される。これは仕方のないことであろうが、残念なことだ。

　Morgan Freeman がメモ用紙にBucket Listと書いたとき、字幕では「棺桶リスト」と出た。bucket にそんな意味があったのか？bucket からbasket、そしてcasketというような連想で間違えたのではないかと。その直後にJack Nicholsonがbucketの意味を言っているのに翻訳者はその語感を訳出できていない。ネイティブの批判に晒すために敢えて英語で持論を述べてみる。

　"kick the bucket"という慣用句がある。バケツを蹴飛ばすということだが、これが死ぬことを意味する。数年前まで長い間、バケツにつまずいて転んで頭でも打って死ぬと言うことかと思っていた。この言葉がジャックの口から発せられたので改めて語源を確認した。バケツは首つりの踏み台であり、これを蹴飛ばすことで死ぬことになる。では自殺することを意味するのかというとそうでもなく、病死でも事故死でも使えるのが不思議だが。で、改めて語源を考えてみると、バケツを蹴ることはその直後に死ぬことを考えると、死ぬ直前に意志を持って行う最後の行為ではないか。つまりbucket listとは死ぬ直前にする最後の行為ではないのか。そして映画ではそのリストについて描かれている。きれいな理論ではないだろうか？

Tsingtao beer

     I was astonished to see the picture of Tsingtao in the Herald Tribune this morning. I didn't have permission from the Herard Tribune, but I'm putting up the picture from the paper below.
     My image of Tsingtao was like this; beautiful scenery and a suitable place for a holiday resort. In the early 20th century, Germany was holding this district by lease and gave the Chinese the know-how to run the brewery. Tsingtao beer originated with German brewery technology and has now become the most popular brand beer in China. The Germans at that time must have thought that Tsingtao's water was very clear and suitable for making beer. The quality of the water is the soul of alcoholic beverages.
     What do you say after looking at this picture? Here is the competition site for the water sports in the Beijing Olympic Games in a month. I am eager to know why the committee chose China.

青島ビール

　今日付のヘラルドトリビューン紙を見て驚いた。同紙の許可は頂いていないがここに転載する。まあ、ご覧あれ。　青島についての僕の印象は、美しい、澄んだ空、きれいな水、リゾート地、といったところだろうか。２０世紀初頭に青島がドイツの租借地であった時にドイツ人はシナ人にビールの醸造法を伝えた。そして今、青島ビールは最も飲まれるブランドとなった。当時のドイツ人は青島の水が上質でビールの醸造に適していると考えたのであろう。質の良い水は酒の命である。　ところがどうだ、この景色は！この場所でボート競技が行われるのである。オリンピック委員会がこの国を選んだ理由を是非とも知りたいものだ。