Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Worship and Japan

　　"Bushido, the Soul of Japan," written by Inazo Nitobe is a great book and is always referred to when you mention the mentality or the morality of Japanese people. Do you know what stirred him to write this book? He was reportedly asked by his acquaintance how Japanese people learned morals when they didn't have any religion. Japanese people are often said to be irreligious in many ways, and some Japanese declare that they are non-believers, but is that true?

　　Most Japanese commoners say "Itadakimasu" just before starting to eat or drink something and say "Gochisousama" just after finishing it. These words represent deep thanks for their food and originate from the idea of Buddhism. Japanese people, in general, are widely regarded as people who obsessively love cleanliness. This national character can be derived from the traditional Shinto religion. Considering this way, Japanese people are never indifferent to religions such as Buddhism. The concept of religions varies between nations. If you want to discuss the religious devotion of Japanese people, you have to take into account the everyday life of Japanese people.

　　I watch not a few news items associated with religions almost everyday, and all of them are bad news. Why do even religious people have to kill others under the name of their God. I wonder how long religious wars have been repeated. Japanese vagueness about religions sometimes might be a good lesson.

(Vocabulary)
devotion [U] 信心, 帰依
religious devotion  厚い信仰心

(Vocabulary from comments)
atheist  無神論者
come into being/be brought into being  生じる, 成立する, 誕生する
The law first came into being in 1912. その法律は1912年に初めて成立した．
stymie (インフォーマル) …をじゃまする
dumbfound 〈人〉をあぜんとさせる
impression 《[U], a/the ~》誤った印象, 思い込み, 誤解
be under the impression (that)   (誤って) …と思い込んでいる, 勘違いしている
I was under the impression that you were the manager.  てっきりあなたが経営者だと思い込んでいました．
detriment  [U] 損害, 損傷, 損失
preach  [自] 説教する
preach to sb  ＜人＞に説教する
disciplined  訓練された, しつけのよい, 規律正しい

(Japanese Translation)
　新渡戸稲造が書いた武士道は日本人の精神性を語る上でかならず言及される素晴らしい書である。彼がこの本を書いた動機は、知人に日本人は宗教を持たない、どうやって道徳教育をするのかと問われ、日本には武士道があるのだと思い立ったことによる。

　日本人は外国人から宗教心が薄いといわれることがあり、自ら特定の宗教を持たないと言う日本人も多い。しかし、食事の前と後の「いただきます」や「ごちそうさま」は仏教由来の食べ物への感謝の気持ちを表す言葉であるし、清潔好きな国民性も神道の清めにルーツを求めることができる。その意味では、日本人は日々、仏教や神道を実践しているとも言える。宗教の概念は文化によって大きく異なり、日本人の信仰心を語る場合はその点を踏まえておく必要があるだろう。

　宗教により、よいことも起こるが、日常の報道では悪いニュースが目立つ。ユダヤ、キリスト、イスラム教の聖地が寄りによって一カ所にあるなんて、不幸なことだと思う。宗教による戦争がこれまで何度繰り返されてきたことか？宗教に対する考え方の緩さとでも言おうか、日本を見習うとよいのではないか？

（いつもは先に英文を書いてから和訳を考えている。そうすると、和訳は英語に引っ張られて変な日本語になってしまうが、今回は日本語を書いてから翻訳している。少しはまともな和訳になったか？目標としている「読んでもらえるのは２５０単語まで。なので２５０単語で全てを伝える。」は相変わらず難しい。）

 

Nuke Disaster Drill

　　My hometown is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, which is located in Shikoku, the smallest island of the four main islands of Japan. As you know, Japan has experienced a series of huge earthquakes, tsunami and the serious nuclear plant accident last March.

　　Japan has more than 50 nuclear reactors across the country and three of them are in Ehime. Those reactors belong to Ikata Nuclear Power Plant. My office is located within the circle of 30 kilometers in radius from the plant. Today, a massive nuclear disaster drill was conducted. My personal opinion is that the plant is substantially secure against disasters. The reactors were built with Japanese highly advanced nuclear technology. On the other hand, the reactors damaged by the tsunami in Fukushima were introduced from the U.S. at the still early days of nuclear power technology. It means they were old-fashioned. It would be the company's fault that they didn't concern themselves over the expected lifetime of the reactors. They should have replaced the reactors.

　　Anyway, the magnitude of the drill was unprecedented. I don't know how much money was channeled to the drill. Lots of townspeople; authorities like police, town officials, hospitals, every kind of school (primary, nursery,, ,), besides physically challenged people. Some were transferred by buses and boats. Others were picked up by choppers of the Self-Defence Force and the Coast Guard. Hospital personnel were engaged in the decontamination work of radioactive substances. It was just like a scene from a film.

(Vocabulary)
conduct an evacuation / an emergency drill 避難訓練をする
substantially  かなり, 大幅に [同意] considerably;  本質的に, 実質的に [同意] essentially
concern 《受け身形不可》〈人〉に関係する, 影響する
How I vote doesn't concern you.  私がどう投票しようとあなたには関係ない．
concern yourself with sth  (フォーマル) ＜…＞にかかわる, 関心を持つ
channel sb/sth into sth  ＜資金・人など＞を＜…＞に流す, 回す
channel sth to sb  ＜資金など＞を＜人＞に提供する
decontamination  除染

Janitor Satellite

　　I found an interesting news item about an artificial satellite, called the Janitor Satellite, which is planned to be launched by Swiss scientists. The title of the news which caught my eye was very nice. I admire the sense of humor of the editors. It's "A Roomba for space!" The url of the news is as follows. Please check it.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-15/news/31064905_1_satellite-orbit-debris

　　Additionally, I investigated other medias to know the details of the project. According to the news, about 16000 items of space debris, such as the ruins of rockets and satellites, which are more than 10 cm in diameter, are floating and orbiting around the earth at the speed of 18000 km/h. This debris could destroy the satellites in orbit and kill the astronauts.

　　The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) worries about the growing risk of space waste and developed the satellite, "Clean Space One". This satellite is supposed to catch space waste, re-enter the atmosphere with them and finally burn itself up. The price of this satellite is estimated to be 10,000,000 Swiss Franc (10 million in US dollars). Switzerland's commitment to nature is beyond question over the years. Knowing about this project, I deeply regarded Switzerland with admiration. Then a simple question came up; who would pay the cost of the project? I believe that China should be mainly responsible, because it intentionally destroyed some satellites in 2007 for military purposes, causing six astronomers' temporary evacuation from the international space station last year.

(Vocabulary)
janitor  (学校・病院などの) 管理人, 用務員

Beans In My Garden

　　I cleared up my garden today. My house stands near the central park of the city, and dead leaves from the trees in the park always blow into my garden. In this season, I often realize that the choice of the positioning of my house was wrong. However, it's too late now for regret. I continued sweeping up dead leaves.

　　While sweeping, I found lots of beans scattered in the garden. Instantly I knew that those beans were scattered in the bean-throwing ceremony which must have been held a few days ago, when I was staying at my hospital overnight. Why beans, though? I doubted again. I have never noticed any beans in the garden before though my family performs the bean-throwing ceremony every February. This ceremony is called "Setsubun" and is one of the Japanese traditional events. It has been observed to pray for the family's happiness and to ward off evil spirits.

　　I became sad to have noticed something. It's Mocha, my dog. I understood
who had cleaned up the garden after the annual ceremony. He had been eating
beans, misunderstanding that the beans were fed to him.

　　The ornaments associated with the New Year were alike. The picture shows the branches with dried bread-like pieces of wheat gluten. Mocha liked to break the pieces and eat them. Now, he is absent and these, his related objects, never disappear and make me sad.

(Vocabulary)
sweep up dead leaves  枯れ葉を掃く
dried bread-like pieces of wheat gluten  麩

 

Japan Year 2672

　　Today is Feb. 11th, the National Foundation Day of Japan. 2012 minus 2672 equals -660. That is to say, Japan was founded in 660 B.C. and the story was written in Japanese mythology. We Japanese could be proud of our own history, but lots of Japanese people don't know that due to the abhorrent Douglas MacArthur. However, my family, who had successfully evaded his plot, hoisted the national flag.

(Vocabulary)
abhorrent   嫌悪感を起こさせる
hoist 〈重いもの〉を持ち上げる, つり上げる, 〈旗・帆〉を掲げる

Japanese Way of Thinking

　　The craftsman's name, which I picked up in the previous entry, is Mr. Masahisa Tsujitani. I'll continue the story about him in this entry.
　　To tell the truth, he was invited from a foreign manufacturer of the shots, offering 20,000 dollars per week under the condition of passing the technical license of making shots.
　　"I rejected it. My shots wouldn't be crafted without the cooperation of casting professionals and the techniques of Japan-original must be protected", he said. It's a strong will that pursues a goal, never gives up and overcomes difficulties with originality and ingenuity. Great!
　　A profound sense of humility to state that his achievement is not accomplished by himself even in front of big temptations. Japanese people will regard his way of thinking as beautiful. On the foundation day of Japan, I hope that such a way of thinking will survive forever.

(Vocabulary)
originality and ingenuity  創意工夫

Shot

　　Today's title is about shots of the shot put. Don't you have anything which you know nothing about but you want to know something about it. Shots are one of those objects for me. Golf ball manufacturers are supposedly competing for the longest reach for their golf balls. Then, how about shots? Are you indifferent? Shot putters would desperately want to get the shot which flies farther.

　　According to a sports-related magazine, in both of the Atlanta (1996) and the Sydney (2000) Olympic games, a craftsman's-made shots swept all the prizes; gold, silver and bronze. In such cases when Japan is exclusively too excellent, the rules are often modified. In the shot put world too, the regulations for the shots were changed. However, the craftsman never became downcast and in the next Olympic Games in Athens (2004) his shots swept all the prizes again.

　　What would become of his shots in the next Beijing Olympic Games (2008)? You might be convinced of his shots' landslide win, but the craftsman didn't offer his shots to the Beijing Olympic Games, even though he elaborately crafted them. He witnessed the Japan-bashing in the AFC Asian Cup in China and the Chinese people's stone-throwing at the Japanese Embassy and he felt that China wasn't qualified to be holding the Olympic Games. That's why he denied offering his shots.

　　He is going to offer his shots to the London Olympic Games this year. I hope you'll recall the craftsmanship embedded in the shots.

(Vocabulary)
shot putter  砲丸投げの選手
downcast  ふさぎ込んだ, 意気消沈した
bashing  (人・団体などに対する) 激しい批判, バッシング

Punctuality

　　I'm commuting from the capital city, Matsuyama, to a rural town by train. Taking account of the time for access to the station and waiting for the train, my car is faster than the train, but I prefer the train for usefully utilizing the commuting time for something.

　　My train starts from an eastern rural city as the first train of the day and transports people and drops them off at Matsuyama station. Shortly thereafter, it restarts to the south.

　　This morning, I found my train being fixed just before departure. After all the passengers got off and the simple check and cleaning was finished, this train was supposed to run south with me.

　　This morning, however, the door was closed and passengers, including me, weren't allowed to get on the train. One of the doors apparently didn't work. The car has 2 doors on each side, so it didn't matter for the transport itself, I thought. I'm really an easygoer, but they should have to go by the book.

　　The designated departure time has passed. How do they inform passengers who are waiting for the train at the stations which have no company personnel of the delay. The train is always extremely punctual and it means that the passengers might look for another way to get to their destination. Do they have another car for us? Or can they use a bus for us? I didn't know.

　　The Japanese Rail Company is proud of its security and punctuality. In fact, my train is always on time and is never late by more than 30 seconds. It's true even of the Shinkansen Bullet Train which runs at the speed of nearly 300 km/h.

　　Finally, my train left 15 minutes late. My train is designed for short commuting and has no lavatory, so 10 minutes' rest is scheduled halfway. No one wanted to go the lavatory today and the driver cut the rest time. After all, I could get to my destination on time.

(Vocabulary)
punctuality  時間厳守
drop sb/sth ↔ off (車から) ＜人・荷物など＞を降ろす, ＜物＞を置いていく

Stupid Sea Shepherd (SSS)

　　A long time has elapsed since the escalation of the anti-whaling movement.

　　Cetaceans are said to be smart, being typified by dolphins. Is that the reason why the SSS is against whaling? Someone says that whales weren't included on Noah's ark. They say that God doesn't regard whales as food for human beings. Were whales just too big to be accommodated?

　　I knew of this story as follows; a small amount of oil obtained from the brain of whales is highly prized as the most useful oil on the globe. It has been utilized in the gyroscope bearing to maintain the position of missiles.

　　The U.S. used to be a whaling nation. It is said that the U.S. changed its attitude toward whaling to prevent other countries from getting that valuable oil. The U.S. has reportedly stored enough oil for 100 years. The progress of GPS might have diminished the importance of the oil, but such excellent oil can be used in many ways. Anti-whaling activists wouldn't know that anti-whaling, supposedly insisting on the importance of life, is associated with the production of weapons.

　　Even if SSS's purpose is genuinely to preserve nature, how do they cope with the outbreak of anisakis in the whaling-prohibited ocean. The number of anisakis used to be controlled by whaling. The amount of fish catches around the Antarctic Ocean will decline due to the change of the food chain. Can we not say that the activity of the SSS is the apotheosis of arrogance, forgetting that human beings are also members of nature.

　　Human beings need other creatures' lives to live. I can't understand their appeal that you can eat livestock like cows, but never eat whales. Because whales are smart? How about the tradition of eating dogs in China and Korea? SSS is full of deception.

　　To claim lives instantly without giving pain, and receive them with thanks, honoring them; it's the Japanese way and far different from simple slaughter.

　　This is the scene of seal slaughter in Canada. People control the number of seals for their livelihood. I don't want to criticise them. What does the SSS think of it?
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/canadian-seal-slaughter.aspx

　　Next, I'll present you a picture and movie from Denmark. They are slaughtering numerous dolphins in a small bay in Denmark. Dolphins are gradually dying. Isn't it cruel? Dolphins are surely suffering pain. What comments does the SSS issue? I hope that people try to remove pain from dolphins.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-371086?ref=feeds/latest

　　As for my personal opinion, the SSS seems to be obsessed by the notion of racial discrimination, just like the former U.S. president, FDR. I can't help feeling like that.

(Vocabulary)
elapse (フォーマル) 〈時が〉 経過する
cetacean クジラ目(もく)
include…を含める, 加える, 盛り込む
include sth in/on sth  ＜…＞に＜…＞を加える
We've included some music in the evening's program. 夕方のプログラムに音楽を盛り込みました．
Noah's ark  ノアの方舟
prized 大切な, 貴重な
highly prized  珍重される
fish catches  漁獲量
catch  [C] (魚の) 捕獲量, 漁獲物
the Antarctic Ocean  南氷洋
food chain  食物連鎖
apotheosis [名] [U](フォーマル)  極致; 頂点
deception  だますこと, 詐欺行為
claim a life/victim 〈事故・病気・戦争などが〉 人命を奪う［犠牲者を出す］
slaughter  [名] [U] (家畜の) 食肉処理, 畜殺;(けなして) (人間の) 大量虐殺
livelihood  生計
We depend on tourism for our livelihood.  我々は観光業で生計を立てている．