Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Lions Club

　　I joined the Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club and attended the commencement ceremony with my wife today. My mentor advised me to enroll in the Lions Club which he belonged to. I didn't know much about the club, but I thought it's never bad to follow him.
　　The Lions Club was established in 1907 in Chicago, proposed by Melbin Jones who used to be a member of the Rotary Club. While the Rotary Club serves society individually or as each job group, the Lions Club was set up for serving by strengthening its teamwork. It appears in the difference between the Rotary Club's motto, "I Serve" and the Lions Club one, "We Serve". Each letter stands for Liberty, Intelligence, Our Nation's Safety.
　　In Japan, the first Lions Club was established in 1952, being sponsored by the Manila Lions Club. It increased year by year to reach 3311 by the end of March, 2010. For your information, the number in the club is 45740 in the world at present. It performs lots of social welfare campaigns. My first activity will be to clean up one of the main tourist attractions in my hometown.
　　Anyway, I don't know exactly what it is, but I feel a sense of anticipation as a new member of the Lions Club.

(Vocabulary)
enroll [自] (学校に) 入学する, (講座に) 登録する, (組織に) 入会する
enroll in sth  ＜…＞に登録する
He plans to enroll in college in the fall. 彼は秋に大学に入学する予定でいる．

Farewell

　　We enjoyed walking in the castle though it was hot outside and there was no air conditioner inside the castle. Some members were playing Japanese drums in the picture. It was funny that the drum became one of the jazz instruments when they played. The rhythm was that of jazz. On the top of the castle, most members looked like they didn't want to go down because the breeze was comfortable and the view was wonderful.
　　A and I took our guests to their hotel and there we parted. They had to rehearse for the concert. I attended the concert that night with my parents and really enjoyed it. They appeared to do the Japan Tour once every several years. We'd be happy to have another opportunity to welcome them.

 

Stone Wall

　　Now, we started for the entrance of the castle. As you can imagine, we traced the way along which the enemy would have run up to the castle once a military conflict broke out. We saw lots of traps and crenels on the walls.
　　One of the guides started to talk about the structure of the stone wall and how secure it had been. Just at that time, a person, who I knew later, was the drummer of the Jazzchor Freiburg, began to scale the wall. He was really limber and promptly climbed up to three times higher than his height. Naturally it was dangerous and if the guard had found him, he would have been admonished. There was a signboard saying that you should never climb up the wall. However, it was written in Japanese. I mean, it was nothing but useless for him. I was afraid that he would get injured, but he successfully went down. Free climbing might be one of his hobbies. Anyway I was really surprised at his movement.
　　To tell the truth, I have a sad and funny memory about this stone wall, and I wrote about it before. I'll link this sentence to the entry that dealt with another story about the wall. Please read it. I think that you'll understand the reason why I referred to Saneyuki Akiyama, the hero of the Japanese-Russo War, in the last entry.
　　I've been waiting for some response from him via our guests, but I got no e-mail from him. However, I decided to post this picture in my blog without his permission. If the Japanese police found this picture, they'd never launch a manhunt all the way to Germany.

(Vocabulary)
crenel / embrasure / gunport  銃眼
limber (体などが)しなやかな, 柔軟な
limber up  準備体操をする, 筋肉をほぐす [同意] warm up
admonish (人)を訓戒する, 諭す
admonish sb for (doing) sth
nothing but useless  無用の長物で
manhunt  (犯人・脱獄囚などの) 捜索（活動）
launch/mount a manhunt   捜索に取りかかる

 

Sakano Ueno Kumo

　　"Sakano Ueno Kumo" is a really famous novel, which deals with the Japanese-Russo War (1904-1905). Three young men are the heros in the novel, and they were born and grew up here in Matsuyama in the Meiji era. One of them is Shiki Masaoka, the founder of modern haiku (a kind of Japanese literature), and the others are the Akiyama brothers, who were the heros of the war. This war is estimated to be the first war in which colored people defeated white people, who were invading Asian and African developing countries in those days. If Japan had lost it, all the Asian countries would still be slave countries even now. Naturally, most African countries would still be under the control of the superpowers now. Hence, the war is extremely important for colored people. If the Akiyama brothers hadn't been born in this era, what would have become of Japan?
　　By the way, this novel was dramatized into a trilogy and started airing last year. It will be on air at the end of this year and next year too. The scene of the first episode was Matsuyama City. On this account, Matsuyama City is under the spotlight now. The drama appears to have been shot in the castle.
　　I'd like to have explained this drama and the war to our guests, but I was too busy listening to the English guide at that time. I'm going to write about Saneyuki Akiyama in the next entry.

See also　http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2009/07/bridge-of-mikas.html

(Vocabulary)
be in/under the spotlight  注目を浴びている

Matsuyama Castle

　　We got to the entrance of Matsuyama Castle Park, one of the major tourist attractions of Matsuyama City. We heard from a receptionist that Jazzchor members had already started for the castle. We headed up to the castle immediately to catch them up.
　　The castle is located on the summit of Shiroyama Hill and there are three ways of climbing up the hill; that is to say, the lift, the gondola or just walking. We utilized the lift to breathe fresh air and enjoy the wide view. After I got off the lift, I took the following picture by turning backward. She's Michaela.
　　We found the group who got to the hilltop earlier than us just after our arrival at the top. They appeared to have had a short rest around the lift station.
　　They were guided by several volunteers who could speak English. We got together and enjoyed sightseeing with English guidance. I, of course, knew the outline of the castle, but it was the first time to have an English explanation. It was very useful to listen to their translation, because it had some historical terms which I never hear in my daily life. How should I translate lots of historical items into English, was what I was wondering when I wrote entries of this blog. I had written several entries about the castle. I hope you'll read them, too.

(Vocabulary)
tourist attraction 観光スポット(名物)

http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/03/wonderful-meeti.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/03/wonderful-mee-1.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2008/02/training-sessio.html

Ishite-ji Temple

　　I live on one of four big islands of Japan, which is called Shikoku. About 1200 years ago, a famous Buddhist monk, Kukai, was born in the small village of Zentsuji on Shikoku. He was unbelievablly talented. In later years, people started a pilgrimage to the temples associated with him. The number of temples was 88 and this pilgrimage got to be called "Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage". Every temple is given its number from 1 to 88. Visiting the temples in order of the numbers is believed to lead the pilgrims to heaven, so the pilgrimage is very popular among aged people, though some of the temples require the pilgrims to have physical strength to reach them.
　　In my city, there are several temples on the list of the 88 pilgrimage. We took our guests to the 51st temple, Ishite-ji temple, the biggest and most noted one of them. Several temples are located far from the lively districts of Matsuyama, but Ishite-ji temple is very accessible.
　　Lots of people want to go on the pilgrimage, but some can't, for example because of their illness, disabilities or economic condition. For them, a miniature of the 88 pilgrimage route is built in a cave behind the main hall of Ishite-ji temple. Those who can't make the pilgrimage due to something can get the same effect from going through the cave. Naturally, we passed through the cave, which means we will qo up to heaven on the day of reckoning.
　　The picture was taken just in front of the gate of the temple. This gate is open on all sides to the weather, but it's one of the national heirlooms. A local lady took it for us. If you walk on the route of the 88 pilgrimage in an ancient way, you'll find that you can save lots of money, because the local people show great hospitality. It takes about three months to walk all the way without any transportation. People provide places for sleeping with extremely low prices, or free. You can freely eat rice balls and drink sweet juice, tea and mineral water that is spewing out from the earth. Japanese people grow up being taught to trust even strange people and serve them. Good old Japanese customs exist at least on the 88 pilgrimage route.
　　In the second picture, Pablo is ringing the big bell. Lots of people get together here on the last day of the year to ring the bell. They ring the bell praying for countless amounts of happiness. It's also one of the Japanese traditions. If we had enough time, I wanted to show other buildings and mysterious items, but it was about 10 o'clock. We hurried to Matsuyama castle, where other members of Jazzchor Freiburg were supposed to visit.

(Vocabulary)
palmer / pilgrim  巡礼者
accessible (場所などが)行きやすい, 近づきやすい
The island is only accessible by boat.  その島はボートでしか行けない.
day of doom / day of reckoning  最後の審判の日
be open on all sides to the weather  四方雨ざらしの状態である
national heirloom  国宝

Bocchan (Botchan)

　　At first, look at the pictures below. The room where we were in the pictures was named after the well-known novel, Bocchan, which I'm going to tell you about later. This building is built of wood and is a three-layer structure. It was constructed before World War 2. Mr. Soseki Natsume, whom I wrote about in the previous entry, loved to spend time in this corner room with north and west facing windows. He might have been plotting his novel here. "Bocchan" means a boy from an upper crust family. I thought one of our guests must be a Colombian "Bocchan" judging from his sophisticated way of talking. To tell the truth, I wanted to tell him that Bocchan was just like him, but I didn't. I was afraid not to be able to continue the following story in English. Mr. Natsume appeared to write the work getting a hint from his real life in Matsuyama.
　　Bocchan lives his lively life here in Matsuyama and always sides with the weak and crushes the strong. The story is really piquant. When you talk about Matsuyama City, you never avoid referring to Bocchan and Mr. Soseki Natsume.
　　I wanted to take pictures in which both this room and our guests were shot at once, and I went out of the building a few minutes earlier. I'm very happy to have shot these pictures.
　　See also this entry.

• (Vocabulary)
• corner room with north and west facing windows　北西の角部屋
• upper crust family 上流階級の家庭
• develop an idea 構想を練る
• plot　（小説・映画などの）構想を練る
• side with the weak and crush the strong 弱きを助け強きをくじく
• side against sb (ほかの人とともに) ＜人＞に反対する
• side with sb (論争・訴訟などで) ＜人＞に味方する
• piquant ぴりっと辛い; 痛快な, 魅力的な[同意] intriguing
• a piquant sauce ぴり辛ソース

 

Dogo Onsen Spa

　　Dogo Onsen Spa is located 5 km away to the east from my house. This district was out of the target zone of the U.S. in World War 2, and the main building was able to survive the war. It is said that U.S. military personnel wanted to bathe in the spa after the occupation. Anyway, no matter what the reason was, we were lucky to see the historical building now. We took our guests to the oldest building, which is also a historical heritage site in Japan. Amazingly, this spa is spoken of in Japanese mythology, in which this spa is said to have been found by an egret and used by some ancient "Ten-noh". You might be astonished, but during the Japanese-Russo War, war prisoners from Russia were allowed to use the spa freely. Japanese people in Matsuyama showed genuine hospitality to them. I'm writing about this hospitality in another entry later. Anyway, Dogo Onsen Spa is very famous, and you can easily find its entry on the internet.
　　By the way, we were in the spa for some time and the following picture shows us in the yukata, a kimono-like bathrobe. Our guests are sitting between A and me. After a short rest, we had a guided tour of the special bath for the royal family. To our regret, no photography was permitted there.
　　The bath was used only by "Ten-noh" and his family. (I wrote about "Ten-noh" before, and I'd like you to read it.) At present, there are lots of gorgeous hotels around here, and the special room for the royal family is found in one of those hotels. The bath which we looked at had been used only a few times and was already a historic heritage site. An orifice of exquisite workmanship appears to have spewn out the hot water at that time, but now it's stopped. It's apparently due to the 17 wells used to pump up the hot water for public use. The living room and the lavatory were also open to us. They must actually have been gorgeous in those days, but my house was much better than the royal room.
　　The place where we were in the picture wasn't equipped with an air conditioner, but a comfortable breeze came in. The design of the building must have been drawn deliberately. A noted writer loved this breeze 100 years ago. His name is Mr. Soseki Natsume, who was teaching English in Matsuyama high school during the Meiji era. I'll write about him and one of his representative works, Bocchan in the next entry.

• (Vocabulary)
• personnel (複数扱い) (集合的に) 職員, 社員, 人員
• hospital personnel  病院職員
• mythology 神話
• egret 白鷺 しらさぎ
• entry [C] (日記の) 記述, (辞書などの) 見出し項目
• her diary entry for May 5 彼女の5月5日の日記の記述
• photography [U] 写真術, 写真撮影; (雑誌・展覧会などでの) 写真 (集合的に用いる); (映画の) 撮影
• black-and-white/color photography モノクロ［カラー］写真撮影
• aerial photography 航空写真
• wildlife/landscape/portrait photography 野生動物の(風景，肖像)写真
• of exquisite workmanship 凝ったつくりの
• exquisite 極めて美しい, 実に見事な; (感覚などが)敏感な, 繊細な
• workmanship (物作りにおける) 腕前, 技量, 仕事(ぶり)
• deliberately 意図的に, 計画的に, 故意に;[同意] on purpose;[反意] accidentally ;慎重に, じっくりと
• representative work 代表作品

Miscellaneous Thoughts about Meals for Guests

　　When we came back home, breakfast was ready. My wife didn't know what to prepare for them, and cooked both Japanese and western-style food. I heard some foreigners didn't like the smell of miso (fermented soybean paste) soup, which is one of the most traditional Japanese soups. I should've asked them about their preferences before coming to Japan via e-mails. After they left for the next place where their concert would be held, we thought that it was an option to serve Okonomiyaki or Takoyaki, which were the representative Japanese fast foods. It might be fun to cook such food with them over chatting. We are thinking of serving Okonomiyaki or local dishes in Ehime prefecture, if we have another guest from a foreign country in the future. We're afraid that he or she'd hate the dish, but in such a case, we may prepare a small amount of bread or something.
　　One of our guests was born in Colombia and lived in Freiburg. It was regrettable that I didn't know much about his country. Even the spelling of Colombia was new to me. I didn't know it until I wrote this entry. I took it as Columbia for a long time. I barely remembered the name of the capital city, Bogota, while talking with him. The news from Colombia is almost always bad news, like abductions and the production of illegal drugs. However, he was a really nice guy. As I wrote again and again in my blog, there're both good and bad people in every country. I want to enjoy chatting with those good people in the world.
　　The picture shows our guests, my wife, Annlie and me at the entrance. We didn't have a tripod and the camera was placed on the brick wall. My wife couldn't get a day off, and so Annlie and I took them to several places. I'm showing some pictures in the following entries with complete comments that we couldn't provide them with at the scene.
　　After taking a picture, we visited Dogo Spa, which is the most ancient hot spring in Japan, and Ishite-ji temple, on the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage. Then, we got together with other members of Jazzchor Freiburg at Matsuyama Castle Park. I took some funny pictures here too and I'll post them. Please wait for them with anticipation.

• (Vocabulary)
• tripod  三脚

"Shimeru"

　　I got an e-mail from our visitors who had gotten back to Germany. It says that they don't mind posting their pictures and profiles into my blog.
　　I'd like to make my incomplete description clear in this blog. I couldn't interpret the Japanese term "Shimeru" at the fish market. I hoped that they'd understand what I wanted to tell them at that time.
　　When processing food animals such as cattle, I think that they should slaughter animals instantly from the ethical view. It means a comfortable death. However, it has another aspect. It is also for the purpose of protecting the meat. The convulsive struggle from the pain harms the meat. Generally speaking, the meat from trapped animals is worse than that of shot animals. The trapped animals struggle to get out of the trap for some time, and serum lactate produced in the muscles will spoil the meat during their struggle.
　　As for fish, it is the same. The act of killing fish and preserving it fresh without pain, struggling and convulsions is called "Shimeru" in Japanese. I tried to explain this word, but couldn't do it properly. The personnel of the fish market told us that they pierced special points on the fish's vertebra to stop the metabolism of the fish in an instant, and actually, when we were watching, he demonstrated the technique for us. An about 10 kg yellowtail stopped its motion just in front of us.

• (Vocabulary)
• animal used for food / food animal 食用動物
• comfortable death 安楽死
• harm (環境・評判など)に損害を与える, を傷つける
• Building the dam will not harm the environment. そのダムの建設は環境破壊にはつながりません．
• trap (動物)をわな［捕獲器］で捕まえる
• They trap rabbits and birds for food. 彼らは食料にするためにウサギや鳥をわなで捕らえる．

Fish Market

　　I took our guests to the fish market, where the consumer public couldn't buy any fish. The market was for dealing between retailers. If someone goes to the market, he can't get any seafood there. I didn't know how they would feel about it, but I guided them around the market.
　　When I looked for the favorites or popular things for foreigners who visit Japan, Tsukiji Fish Market was on the top of the list. That's why I showed the market to our guests. Various, perhaps all kinds of seafood are transported into the Tsukiji Fish Market from all over the world. This market is what you call the kitchen of the metropolitan city, Tokyo. People can get seafood from the satellite shops of the market, and even eat there. They can choose the fish that they want, and ask the shop to cook it immediately. It sounds very good.
　　The hometown of our guests is Freiburg, which is located in the center of Europe, I mean, it is so far from any of the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. The raw and naturally live fish from the Seto Inland Sea might be attractive for them. Speaking of fish, I ate the horrible sushi in Freiburg with my daughter and wrote about it before. Anyway, the retailers were bidding silently, using their special gestures with fingers. Their response to the announcement of the auctioneer was really unique, though I couldn't understand them.

• (Vocabulary)
• consumer public　一般消費者
• Mediterranean Sea 地中海
• auctioneer 競売人

Special Wine, But....

　　A and I went to the City Hall to pick our guests up. We introduced each other there. I'd like to tell you about them, but I'm not permitted to write their detailed profiles in this blog, so the description might be sometimes vague in my entries for these couples of days.
　　They were a young man and woman. We took them to the park where the European castle-like observatory stood. It's a 20 minute walk from our house. To our regret, we were late and the entrance was closed. We just enjoyed the scenery from under the observatory, and I took the following picture in which they and A are visible against the backdrop of the observatory.
　　We had dinner outside, and I served a wine which I like. However, it was German wine. I like German wines, but they were from Germany. I should have provided Japanese wine, especially Ehime-brand wines to them. I spaced out.
　　A is only 18 years old and has never lived in an English-speaking country, but she is really good at English. We enjoyed chatting over their jobs, families, country and so on.
　　At that time, I proposed several places that I could show them on the next day. To my surprise, they wanted to visit a certain place which I thought they would never show any interest in. Besides they have to get up by 4:30 a.m. to visit there. Anyway, we went to bed at 9 o'clock. Where did we visit? Check the next entry!

• (Vocabulary)
• space out ; to stop paying attention and just look in front of you without thinking, especially because you are bored or have taken drugs: 抜かっていた、抜けていた

See also;
http://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/kanko/1179548_1021.html
http://yakei.jp/db/summary.cgi?row1=matsuyama
http://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/lang/en/sightseeing/other.html#CENTRALPARK