Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Frankfurt Hbf

Today's Route

     We got to Frankfurt Hbf in ten or fifteen minutes. I saw the train schedule board by us and was surprised to know the variety of its destinations. Trips by trains in Europe must be fun without hyperbole. I like to watch cable TV programs featuring trips. On cable TV, programs on trips by trains in Europe were frequently aired and this scene was what I'd always seen on the screen. However, actually viewed, the magnificence of this station was overwhelming.
     By the way, we hadn't met any conductor in the train. Was it ok? We didn't need to buy any tickets, did we? Come to think about it, the number of ticket vending machines was a whole lot smaller than that of passengers. If a conductor wanted to check tickets, it would be almost impossible to walk through the packed train. There was no entrance and exit of the platforms either here.

(Vocabulary)
without hyperbole  掛け値なしに
hyperbole = exaggeration
conductor （バスや市電、列車の）　車掌
Come to think about it  そういえば

Platform

Today's Route

     The picture shows the platform where the S-bahn (train) to Frankfurt Hbf starts. After getting our tickets, we directly came here without having our tickets checked. There was no entrance gate to the platform.

Ticket-Vending Machine

Today's Route

     It's fun to recall things about our trip. I often took pictures and notes during the trip. This is also for this blog.
     We got through the exit and went down to Flughafen Regionalbahnhof (Airport regional station). Destination boards were simple and understandable, but the ticket-vending machine was hard to use. To tell the truth, this machine was in our guidebook and I had read and understood how to deal with it. I pressed Yuri to read it before leaving Japan, but she didn't seem to have done it. I asked her to get our ticket from the airport to Frankfurt Hbf. Getting back from taking pictures around there shortly afterwards, she was gazing at two young ladies. She was going to learn from them, but to the consternation of Yuri, they were also strangers there.
     I showed her how to input the number of our destination from the list on the left and choose the type and number of ticket and lastly put money into the machine. It was just the opposite of the Japanese way. By this she could fully understand this machine.

(Vocabulary)
ticket-vending machine  券売機
destination board  行き先表示板
shortly afterward(s) ((フォーマル) そのあと少しして
consternation 非常な驚き, ぎょうてん
to sb's consternation   ＜人＞がひどく驚いたことには

Feel German Most

Today's Route

     What is the most German-like stuff? If you ask me this question, I'll answer that it's Porsche and there is no substitute. While walking to the baggage claim in Frankfurt Airport, I found Porsche. Something that has a high potential is beautiful. I really love this car though I can't affort it.
     On the other hand, my daughter looked happy to be surrounded by the German language. She had been learning German for more than two years. She would be the boss in this country.

Landmark

Today's Route

     I expected to see many landmarks between Japan and Germany though I didn't know the exact flight route. I had a rough idea about the route like the Korean Peninsula, Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, the Urals and Eastern Europe. I picked up some places that were thought to be seen from the plane. I memorized the shape of the land and their terrain, but in vain. I couldn't see the Great wall of China and Lake Baikal. When the plane reached the north of Lake Baikal, I looked for something recognisable below, but clouds were hanging low. I could only see the mountainous area in the north of Lake Baikal. I tried to find something for about ten minutes. I was not sure, but the area that was seen to be like a white plain might be Lake Baikal. Judging from the flight information that was shown on the screen, I believed it. However, I could see the cold desert of western Siberia breaking through the clouds. The flight was very smooth and comfortable.
     I had something to worry about. It was the setting of my data logger and its software. This device had to record two types of movement in one day. One was the moving that moves smoothly at a speed of up to 1000 km/h and never stops and turns at a right angle. The other was a man's walking that sometimes stops and turns in every direction and its speed was only up to 6 km/h. This data logger was set to record the position every second and the software displays the route on the screen after thinning out the data. This procedure of thinning out is necessary for ordinary personal computers. It takes a huge time to plot all the data on the screen. I haven't achieved mastery of this software and can just use it automatically. I'll post the route of this day here: http://kumo.typepad.jp/Euro09/Osaka_Frankfurt.html
     As I expected, the radiowave from the GPS satellites was unstable in the midst of high buildings, trees and underground. I think the data might be modified to some extent, but it's beyond me now. I'm showing our trace from now on and understand it sweepingly.

(Vocabulary)
terrain  (ある特色を持った) 地形, 土地
difficult/rough/mountainous/rocky terrain
困難な地形［起伏の多い土地，山地，岩地］
recognisable すぐにそれとわかる, 見覚えがある
hang low 雲が低く垂れ込めている
plain  平原
cold desert / tundra 〔通例the ～〕  ツンドラ
breaking through the clouds 雲の合間から
at a right angle  直角に
thin out  （苗木などを）間引く
achieve [acquire, gain] a mastery of  ～に精通する
to some extent/to an extent   ある程度
sweepingly  おおざっぱに

Flight Information

Today's Route

     I sometimes took pictures of the screen of the flight information. I only knew many names of places, but I felt happy to think that I was just near those places. When the places I knew were coming near, I looked down from the window, but I didn't find anything that would be some landmark like Lake Baikal or the Great Wall of China.

(Vocabulary)
Lake Baikal  バイカル湖
Chinese Wall / the Great Wall of China 万里の長城

Rice Balls

Today's Route

     The picture is the beer that I drank with a rice ball. Rice balls were served whenever I wanted them all the way. Rice balls are called "Onigiri" in Japanese, but is this word "Onigiri" well known in the world? The menu says so in the part of English and German. I heard of some apparently German ones called "onigiri". It might be possible because the German people in this plane must have stayed in Japan for a certain number of days or years.

Lunch

Today's Route

     The menu in the picture was delivered two hours after the boarding. What do you think of this menu? I didn't expect much because an in-flight meal was an in-flight meal. It had been cooked a few hours before and would be ready only by heating just before serving. I didn't think that it could be delicious, but I was wrong. The lunch was not bad. I had a small bottle of beer and two cups of red wine. I enjoyed them and thought of Germany that I'd never been to.

(Vocabulary)
in-flight meal 機内食

Toilet

Today's Route

     The pictures show the toilet in the center of the fuselage. Do you know where it was? It lay under the cabin. It was interesting to me and I took pictures. Some attendants looked at me and were smiling. "OK, All right, I'm a country boy," I mumbled with a smile.

(Vocabulary)
fuselage  (飛行機の) 胴体, 機体
country boy 田舎者
mumble [他] …を［と］もぐもぐ言う, つぶやく

 

A340-600

Today's Route

     The title is the type of the plane that we boarded. "A" might stands for Airbus, the European aircraft maker. I didn't have any experience to use this type, and so it was also my pleasure to get on this plane.
     When I saw the inside, my first impression was neat and tidy. This plane had just arrived from Frankfurt, but it was kept clean. I'd used Air Canada and the former Canadian Airlines four or five times totally but I didn't feel like this. Something trivial like this made us happy.
     The thing that I was astonished at next was its audio system. I could pick my favorite movie out of like twenty movies also on Air Canada, but they seemed to be running all the time. That was to say, I couldn't start watching them whenever I liked. Naturally I couldn't pause them. However, Lufthansa's was different. It looked like every seat had their own DVDs and a DVD player. I could start watching movies anytime, and could pause it anytime. When something was served or I was spoken to, this function was gratifying.

(Vocabulary)
pause  [他] 〈CD・ビデオなど〉 を一時停止にする

Lufthansa

Today's Route

     We got to the airport. As usual, I took the FOMA card out of my usual cell phone and inserted it into another cell phone, M1000. The FOMA card was a kind of IC card in which my ID was imprinted. My usual phone can't be used overseas and I had to change the phone. After that, we changed our money into Euros. I saw Euro bills for the first time. The thing that we did next was to get an outlet adaptor. The shape of the Japanese outlet is different from that of Germany. But for this, I can't plug in any electrical devices. Additionally, the German voltage is 230V to the Japanese 100V. Most of my rechargers of my mobile PC, electric shaver, cell phone and digital cameras were made for use between 100V to 240V. I knew the reason at that time. It means that it was produced for world common usage.
     In the following several entries, I'm going to write about my impression of Lufthansa, the plane itself, meals and the route of the flight.

(Vocabulary)
outlet (米) (電気の) コンセント, 差し込み口
plug in  コンセントにつなぐ
recharger 充電器

GPS Receiver

     We were showed into a first class cabin. This trip was a precious opportunity and I didn't want to lose it. I mean, I was afraid of the theft of our luggage. It was the main reason that I picked this room. This room was designed for two people equipped with bunk beds and wasn't bad, but I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this room.
     I set the GPS Data Logger on at first. Next, I changed my clothes into yukata (simple kimono) and had a light meal and a beer in the restaurant. The Data Logger is a device for recording your position. The data that was recorded by it will be shown below. This is from when I switched on off the coast of Matsuyama to when I exchanged batteries into long-life ones at the Kansai International Airport. The discontinuity is due to battery exhaustion. When I happened to wake up, I found it and exchanged them. After getting off the ship, I took a tram at the port and next got in a taxi to the nearest station of Nankai Railroad. The driver made a mistake and this device recorded it. I think you can find where he made a mistake. The picture shows our ship. Our route from Matsuyama city to Kansai International Airport was like this: http://kumo.typepad.jp/Euro09/Home_Osaka.html

(Vocabulary)
bunk beds / double-deck bed  二段ベッド
bunk
[C] (列車・船などの) 寝台, 寝棚
[C] 二段ベッドの一方 = bunk bed

Digital Camera

Today's Route

     Our plane will take off at 10:20 on Sep. 26th from Kansai International Airport(KIX). There's a flight from Matsuyama that arrives at KIX at about 9:00, but if something happens and the domestic flight was delayed, we can't get on the plane. Thinking about this, we chose the ferry as a sure transportation between Matsuyama and Osaka.
     I usually do the overseas trip preparations to divide our possessions into three parts. The first is the suitcase. It's for the stuff that I don't need in the plane and can live without for a few days. The second is the daypack for carry-on. As I wrote before, I got a new one the other day. This is always with me and essential stuff are put in. Lastly, I carried some necessities; a wallet, credit cards, a watch, a pair of glasses, a cell phone and so on into my pockets. Just when I was doing this, my parents visited my house to give their granddaughter, Yuri, 500 Euros. While we were chatting with them, I failed to put my digital camera in my pocket.
     My wife sent us to the port and when we were about to get on the ferry, I found I didn't have my digital camera. I was so surprised and asked my wife to fetch it. It's about fifteen minutes' drive between my house and the port. The depature time was 21:10 and it was 20:30. She went back in haste and came back at 21:05. I received it on the street and ran and ran and ran to the ferry. It was a breath-stopping run.

I'm Home!

     I'm writing this article on Oct. 4th in my office. I came back to Japan yesterday and started working today, but I'm suffering from serious jet lag now. Fortunately, it is Sunday and the ward is stationary. I can take a nap. When I visited Canada before, I was always like this for two days. The flight toward the east seems to be worse for me than toward the west. When I was going to Canada, I usually tried to sleep enough during the flight so as to enjoy skiing from the first day, but this time I took it lightly and didn't sleep well to see the scenery from the window of the plane. Under the light of the moon, from the jet plane moving at the speed of 900 km/h, I took pictures. What are they like? I'm going to post them after specifing their locations from the data of the GPS.
     I took rough notes during the trip and I'm going to write up articles from them and post them at the time and the date when I recorded those notes. Now, shall I start to write about the incident that happened when we were just about to leave Matsuyama city.

(Vocabulary)
take it lightly  軽く考える
specify the location of ～の場所を特定する
write up the report レポートを清書する

Leave

     I'm taking a leave for about a week and will re-start writing around Oct. 5th. I'm going to report lots of things about my trip. I'll write at least ten articles with pictures per day after coming back to Japan.
     I'm not sure, but I can't read e-mails in Germany. I don't know whether I can connect to the internet during my trip and moreover, numerous kinds of beer are waiting for me in the midst of Octoberfest.

My rough schedule:
Sep. 25th    Leave for Osaka
26th  Leave for Frankfurt and stay in Frankfurt
27th~30th  Stay in Freiburg
Oct. 1st Move to Frankfurt
2nd  Leave for Japan

German Keyboard

     My computer is set for the Japanese and Korean languages. Beside them, I added German as you might imagine. You might think that the letters in German are the same as English, but some of the German alphabet has a specific code, an umlaut. I had to modify the language system of my PC. After the modification, I typed every key and found where the keys of umlaut and another special letter are. At this time, I found the exchange of Z and Y. I was surprised to know that. At first I suspected that my PC didn't work well.
     To think calmly, it is natural. The frequency of the usage of Z and Y in German is far different. The appearance of Z is a whole lot more than that of Y.
     A few decades ago, the same number of keyboards as the languages must have been required though I write something in Japanese, Korean and German with one single keyboard now. The effect of software is really wonderful, I believe.

Bus Tour

     As I wrote several times before, I'm planning to visit Germany for the first time. My destination is Freiburg City. It is a small city which is located near the Black Forest in the southwest of Germany. I picked the city from among many places because the city is the sister city of my hometown. If the city is big or famous for sightseeing, there would be ready-made tour programs from lots of tour companies. However, to our regret, the city is not so big as Frankfurt and not so famous as Schloß Neuschwanstein. It means that we had to set it up all by ourselves.
     Germany has been the country of dreams for me since I started to learn German about 30 years ago, but I didn't have an opportunity to visit. My second daughter, Yuri, is majoring in German culture and told me this Spring that she wanted to visit the country. Consequently, I attended the reception for the friendship mission from Freiburg this April and figured out the outline of the city.
     Yuri is a beginner learner of German and I plotted to get her to make the plan during our five day stay in Freiburg. She tried to communicate with a tour company in German and it was maybe successful, I think though I made sure by an e-mail written in English. (grin)
     The essential reservations, like air tickets, hotels and trains were already done, but we have something to worry about. The number of passengers of the bus tour isn't enough for the company at present. If the number doesn't reach a certain amount, the tour will be cancelled. We had to think about a replacement.

(Vocabulary)
essential  不可欠な, 必須の

A Funny Story About My Misunderstanding

     At first, look at the picture. They are my casual shoes. I usually put on them when I go out of my house. When I bought them, the salesperson emphasized the ease of wearing them. You can figure out the shoes have fasteners on their inside wall. Actually I didn't need to tie the shoelaces when I get my feet into the shoes. However, the professional shoemaker told me that this idea wasn't right. He continued that the shoes exist for walking or running, not for the act of wearing. Exactly. I literally agreed with him. These shoes had caused me a blister after only three hours' walk. This fact shows that my feet are unstabe in the shoes.
     Anyway, all shoes are for walking, not for containing feet.

(Vocabulary)
shoelace 靴ひも

Wonderful Shoes

     I knew that my shoes haven't worn down flat since long ago. They always started to wear down from the outside. Everyone has their own way of walking and I didn't worry about it at all, but I realized that I easily got blisters. I wrote about my blister here. (link)
     Last year, I knew a German Meister about making shoes. He appeared in the German educational program which I was watching to learn German. He accommodates individualized orders from their way of walking. He says, "It's not uncommon that the size of both feet differs." While watching the program, I got to want to undergo his consultation, but he lives in Tokyo. It was not easy to commute to his office.
     The other day, I found the Meister's associated shop here in Matsuyama by chance. I dropped in at the shop and had a total check of my feet. As I expected, my way of walking is not good. No one had pointed it out, and I didn't feel any pain in my ankles, knees and hip joints. However, the sizes of both feet are different. The length of my feet are the same, but there's a difference in diameter at the Lisfranc and Metatarsophalangeal joints. I was surprised and decided to have some shoes made.
     The picture shows my new shoes. I tried to walk for about 40 minutes with them on. I don't know how to explain the feeling of the shoes, but it's like wearing the best ski boots. They fit my feet up to the plantar arch. On the other hand, how about their design? They are very good functionally, but do they look nice? Why can't craftsmen make them fashionable? Is it the German way?
     At any rate, I can't wait to take a walk on the stone-paved streets in Germany with them on.

(Vocabulary)
accommodate
1 [他] 〈建物・乗り物などが〉 …を収容する, 〈ホテルなどが〉 …を宿泊させる
The hotel can accommodate 200 people.
そのホテルは200人宿泊できる．
2 [他] 〈意見・要求など〉 を受け入れる
3 [他] 〈人〉 に便宜を図る
accommodate individualized needs  一人一人のニーズに合わせる
in diameter  太さが違う
Metatarsophalangeal joints  中足趾節関節
Lisfranc joint
Tarsometatarsal joints 足根中足関節
arch of a foot（足の）/ plantar arch  土踏まず

Generic Drugs

     I often dither for confidentiality reasons when I'm going to write about a topic concerning the medical field. I've written about them as general issues. Today I'll write about generic drugs.
     At first, I'll explain generic drugs. When a pharmaceutical company successfully develops a new medicine, it is given a patent of the medicine and other companies can't make it for the term of the patent. It costs a lot to create a new profitable medicine, so this issuance of a patent is natural. After the patent ends, other companies get to be allowed to produce a generic copy. These patent-ceased generic copies are called generic drugs. In general, the price of generic drugs is far lower than that of the original one.
     Original drugs have to get through lots of strict tests before getting a patent and the results of those tests ensure the safety and efficacy of the drug. However, newly-made generic copies aren't required to be tested. The generic companies just say it's the same as the original ones, but I feel it's wrong and there's something different between them on my empirical basis. I have not used them for my patients, but now the number of patients who want generic drugs has increased. Is it due to economic stagnation?
     I'm afraid that if the sales of the original drugs goes down, the development fee for new drugs would be cut in high-profile companies.

(Vocabulary)
dither  躊躇(ちゅうちょ)する, 迷う
for confidentiality reasons  守秘義務上の理由で
confidentiality  守秘義務
generic  (製品などが) (登録)商標のない, ノーブランドの, ジェネリックの
pharmaceutical company  製薬会社
issuance of a patent  特許の発行
ensure the safety and efficacy  安全性および有効性を保障する
on an empirical basis  経験的に
empirical  経験による, 実証的な