Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

New Daypack

     As I wrote before, my favorite daypack was broken at its fastener. It was impossible to be mended and I decided to throw it away and get a new one. I'd used it for about fifteen years, and it must be its life span.
     I'll leave for Germany soon, and I bought the one in the picture. I bought it at an outdoor gear shop. I thought that all the daypacks were made for outdoor activities like hiking or climbing. It's not the case about this one. This daypack has a special space made for mobile PCs inside. It's suitable for me. I'll take my mobile PC to stock pictures, GPS data and trip notes so as to guard against the danger of memory overflow. I'll transfer their data into my PC and send them to the storage space on the internet every day in case of the loss of the PC, digital cameras and luggage. Even if I lose my possessions somewhere, I'd like to secure our memory.
     At any rate, this daypack seems to be made for city tourists rather than wilderness trekkers.

Tibetan Children's Villages

     NHK is a famous broadcasting station in Japan. It is supported by the TV reception fees of people in japan, whereas some of NHK's top officials are brainwashed by Chinese Communists and various facts have been emerging one after another lately. NHK has been supporting Chinese policies and I dislike the station, but I was surprised to watch a program of NHK today. The program was about Tibetan Children's Villages. China is struggling to remove the Tibetan culture from the earth, but their culture will never perish.

(Vocabulary)
TV [television] reception fees  受信料
emerge  (物陰などから) 現れる, 出てくる
perish  (文) 突然死する, 非業の死を遂げる; (フォーマル)(ゴム・皮・木材などが)劣化する, 腐食［腐敗］する, (食べ物が)腐敗する; (文)(活動・制度などが) 消滅する, 崩壊する

Trial of New Rain Jacket

    I had used a heavy duty rain jacket made for mountaineering for the last twenty years. It was extremely light. It was natural. It was specially designed for climbing up to the globally highest level of mountains. The air permeability had already been damaged by my sweat and blots and it couldn't be used in a high mountains anymore, but it was still of use in my daily life. I set it on the pocket of my scooter in case of the sudden rain. I liked it, but it was destroyed by a dog as I wrote here before. (link)
    I told the owner of the dog at that time that it was okay because the jacket was old enough to be thrown away. It used to cost alot, but now it was not expensive though I'd like to say, "I really liked it!" I knew such a complaint was nonsense.
    After that, I bought a new one a few weeks ago. I thought I wouldn't have a chance to climb up difficult mountains. I chose the second best class rain jacket. The next week, an insurance agent came to me and told me that the owner of the dog really hoped to compensate me for it. Eventually I got half of the money spent on the initial cost of a twenty year old jacket. The old torn jacket turned into some money. It might be kind of lucky.
    It was raining outside at noon and I decided to test it today. The picture is the jacket and a roadside park on the coast line near my hometown, where I'm taking a rest. The result was very nice and more than I expected. The development of this field is also wonderful.

(Vocabulary)
air permeability  通気性
blot 汚れ
compensate sb for sth 賠償する, 補償する, 償う

Chinese Communist Propaganda

     The other day, I got a comment from an English native speaker who maybe came from the U.S. and is working as an assistant language teacher in Japan. I exchanged some messages with him and was so surprised to know the fact that Chinese propaganda prevails in the world. You can read his opinion here. (link) I'd like to rebut his opinions one by one. I hope that he'll accept the facts that I'll present.
     He insists that Japanese forces had committed massacres in Indonesia. Japan actually fought military actions on the land of Indonesia, but they never fought against Indonesia. They were just struggling to eliminate the Dutch from Indonesia, who had ruled and exploited them for 300 years. You know, Indonesia was one of the Dutch colonies. If Indonesia was an independent country, Japan could have had a good relationship with them and bought natural resources from them. Japan was really short of them. There might be some small offenses committed by Japan because all the Japanese soldiers weren't gentle and modest and besides it was during World War Two, but I think that most intellectual Indonesians would agree with me. In the war, a considerable number of Japanese soldiers got to love Indonesia and the Indonesian people and they really wanted the independence of Indonesia, not for the benefit of Japan but from the bottom of their hearts. When Japan lost the war, the Japanese soldiers hid their weapons from the alliance forces and stayed there, ignoring the return order of Japan. They were afraid that the Dutch forces would come back to Indonesia and start exploiting Indonesians again. They helped Indonesians establish their own forces and taught the use of their modern weapons to the people in Indonesia. Most of those Japanese soldiers died or went missing in the battles for the independence of Indonesia and have been commemorated every year in the national graveyard, Taman Makam Pahlawan Kalibata, where only nationally acknowledged heros are permitted to sleep eternally. Would this be possible if Japan had committed a massacre in Indonesia?
     Does the history textbook of an American boy tell this fact? Does he know about Ahlone Camp in Burma? He insists that Japan also commited a massacre in Burma. It was just propaganda from the alliance forces to hide inconvenient historical facts in the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals. I'm going to write about this cruel Ahlone Camp later.

(Vocabulary)
rebut (フォーマル)(意見・批判など) に反駁(はんばく)する, 反論する
exploit (けなして)(人・労働力など) を私的目的に利用する, 食いものにする, 搾取する
offense [C] 罪, 違反, 犯罪(行為）
considerable 相当な, かなりの
a considerable amount/number of sth  かなりの量［数］の＜…＞
Ahlone Camp  アーロン収容所
Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals 東京裁判

Mottainai

     The question, 'what is it' in English, often springs to my mind in daily life and I have a long lasting quesition. How can I express the meaning of the Japanese adjective "mottainai". I sometimes ask native speakers who live in Japan this question. Every answer was correct, but wasn't enough. There might not exist the exact word in English. I looked for the opinion of the professional translators but couldn't come across what I wanted.
     In general, "mottainai" means the waste of something; waste of time, waste of money, waste of effort,,,. If you brush your teeth in running tap water in an ordinary Japanese  family, you'd surely be told that it's a waste of water. Water is "mottainai". On this occasion, it doesn't simply imply that you are wasting or throwing away the water. That is, clean water was made and transferred to you by numerous people and GOD. You should use it meaningfully. You never use it unwittingly. You should always use it with gratitude. "Mottainai" contains such a significant meaning. An American showed me "shameful waste", but it isn't enough either.
     In decent families in Japan, children will be scolded like this when they leave just a grain of rice in their rice bowl. "Oh, I can't believe that you would do something "mottainai" like that. You must learn how hard the farmer's work is. Your eyes will be damaged by God." It is a typical phrase in this case.

(Vocabulary)
spring to someone's mind（思いや考えなど）ふっと思い付く
spring to (somebody's) mind (＜人＞に)ひらめく, ふと思い浮かぶ
scold  'skould'  〈特に子供〉 をしかる

Imprinted?

     I've been devoting more time to learning colloquial German for the last couple of weeks. Naturally, it's because I'd like to enjoy the trip in Germany and I feel absolutely delighted to learn German though I'd got through a tough time in learning German in my student days. The German was nothing but a pain those days. I wonder what's the difference. It must be due to being with or without a motive. There's one more thing that surprised me. I didn't know, but I remember many German words and grammar deep in my mind. Is this my subconscious awareness? The word "imprinted" might be used on such an occasion. If I didn't dig these words out from the depths, the hard work I'd done in medical school would be useless. Also in this sense, this trip will be fruitful.
     I've already got my round ticket to Frankfurt and reserved the Savoy hotel in Frankfurt, and now I'm looking for a hotel in Freiburg. The main destination is Freiburg and places around the city like Basel, Strasbourg and Lake Constance (Bodensee). I'll stay in Frankfurt just a night when I get to Germany, so I will have only three to four hours for sightseeing in Frankfurt. I'm wondering where to go and have dinner now. I prefer the local cuisine.

(Vocabulary)
devote sth to sth (時間・努力など)を(…)に傾ける, 注ぐ
devote your time/energy/effort to sth
自分の時間［エネルギー，努力］を＜…＞に注ぐ
devote yourself to something  ＜…＞に専念する
devote something to something ＜…＞を＜…＞に充てる, 割く
The author devotes a whole chapter to the subject.
existence or nonexistence / with or without  有無
subconscious / subconscious awareness  潜在意識
fruitful 実り多い, 有益な, 効果的な
a fruitful discussion  実り多い議論

Party for Friend

     One of my friends got promoted to the head of a branch of the local bank. I don't remember when we met, but I met him in a offline meeting of the social network service for the first time close to 10 years ago. He's a motorcycle freak as well as a professional economist. PC buddies got together today and threw a party for him. We went downtown and dropped in at a nostalgic inn. The inn specialized in chicken dishes. The most popular dish at this inn were two kinds of roast chicken, which were shown in the picture. The upper is the roast adult chicken and the lower is the young chicken. The adult one is a little hard and we had to use a pair of scissors, but it was delicious and hit the spot for beer. http://homepage2.nifty.com/zebo/etc/2009-09-04/frame.html

(Vocabulary)
specialize  (学問・業務などを) 専門にする, 専攻する
specialize in sth  ＜学問・業務など＞を専門にする

Japan and Other Asian Countries, Sep. 11th (2)

     Historically speaking, what's the distinct difference between Japan and other Asian countries? There might be many ways of thinking, but I think of whether the nation had been ruled by superpowers or not. Thailand is also a country that has no history of being governed by another country, but this nation was just allowed to exist as a buffer between the British and French colonies.
     Japan had enjoyed a striking level of prosperity in the Edo era (1603-1867). Japan developed its own culture. People lived in an unbelievably safe society. The development of modern society had never been obstructed in spite of repeated disasters like famines, earthquakes, plagues and volcanic eruptions. In this era, people acquired high level of morality and literacy.
     In 1868 the tycoon, Yoshinobu Tokugawa, peacefully returned his political power to the Emperor. Do you know any other peaceful revolution in the world? The capital city, Edo, remained intact during this revolution, which was the restoration of Imperial power. It was really lucky for the development of Japan. Japan started building their national military system at that time against overwhelming superpowers, which were filled with ambition to occupy and rule Japan. Finally, Japan got to beat Qing (China) 30 years later and defeated Russia 10 years after the victory against Qing.
     Eventually, Japan acquired two colonies, Taiwan and Korea. Japan committed a huge amount of capital to the project that would make them develop to the same level as Japan. Japan's policy on the colonies was to raise the level of their civilizations while that of the superpowers was just to exploit them. In 1945, the school enrollment rate of Taiwan was 95%. They had been ruled by Japan for 50 years, whereas in Indonesia, which had been dominated for 300 years by Holland, the literacy rate was only 2%. Japan had encouraged the people in Taiwan and Korea to learn. The highest level of education was equally given to anyone, no matter where he or she came from.
     Japan was forced to wage wars against the U.S. and started the Greater East Asian War to eliminate the superpowers from Asian countries. Japan lost the war, but the initial purpose was fulfiled.
     Getting back to the last entry, a few days after the 9.11 terror attack, the then U.S. President Bush declared war against the terrorist groups and its sponsors, implying that the mastermind was the al-Qaeda network. He compared the terror attack to Japan's raid on Pearl Harbour. He continued, "We can give freedom to Islamic nations. We did it to Japan half a century ago." He thought that the Japanese people were the same as the people who had been educated only to read and memorize the Koran. This eposode tells us that his mentality is terrible and horrible. He should have learnt world history more seriously.

(Vocabulary)
enjoy a striking level of prosperity  特筆すべき繁栄を謳歌する
literacy 読み書き(能力), 識字
literacy rate  識字率
be filled with ambition 野望に燃えている
Qing  清
exploit (けなして) (人・労働力など)を私的目的に利用する, 食いものにする, 搾取する
(school) enrollment ratio [rate] / percentage of school attendance  就学率
fulfill (夢・目的など) を実現する, 果たす
mastermind  首謀者
al-Qaeda network  アルカイーダ
Koran  コーラン

Sep. 11th

     The day of Sept. 11th is coming soon again this year. Twenty-three Japancese people were killed at that time. I still clearly remember that I was too stunned to say anything after seeing the TV news. I assume that most people in the world would be more or less like that. However, I have something that astonished me more a few days after the terror attack. You know or remember the scene in which the then U.S. President, Mr. Bush, vowed revenge while raising his fist at ground zero.
     By the way, do you remember his message at that time? I don't remember his exact words, but it was roughly a declaration of hostility. The U.S. could liberate the Japanese people, who attacked Pearl Harbour and started the war, from militarism half a century ago. This time the U.S. will use it.
     Hearing this message, I deeply realized how stupid he was. At first, he declared that this was not a terror attack, but a war. This idea prevented the U.S. from placing the criminals before U.S. judges. They would be treated as POWs. The U.S. would be regulated by the Geneva Convention.
     Next, Japan is completely different from Islamic countries. Japan is never compared to those countries. Besides, I'd like to ask him, "do you remember Vietnam?" Anyway, Bush's comments revealed his shallow knowledge about the history of international affairs. I'm going to write about this issue next.

(Vocabulary)
clearly remember 鮮明に覚えている
declaration of hostility  宣戦布告
militarism  軍国主義
prison/prisoner of war (POW)  戦争捕虜
Geneva Conventions  ジュネーヴ諸条約