Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Long Time No See

　　I couldn't write entries for two months because I've had busy winter days. More patients, the aged particularly, suffer more of an array of serious health problems in winter than other seasons due to pandemics of flu, norovirus and MRSA. They had run riot in Japan. When hospital personnel took care of patients, they had to change clothes and wash hands thoroughly patient by patient for the prevention of infection to other patients. The procedure was cumbersome and took extra time on the rounds. Moreover, in March, the news of the outbreak of bird flu in around Shanghai came up which is connected with my hometown of Matsuyama City by regular commercial flights. In the case of the outbreak in Japan, I had to learn how to cope with it. I had gone through such tough days, but I received a week off and enjoyed a Taiwan tour with my wife. I'm going to write about the tour for some time along with past things.

(Vocabulary)
run riot（伝染病などが）猛威をふるう
cumbersome 〈手続き・やり方などが〉 面倒な, 煩わしい; 〈物が〉（重くて）扱いにくい, 運びにくい
take extra time（主語の事柄を行うのに）余分な時間がかかる

Constitution of Japan

　　Today, I'll write about the peculiar aspect of the Constitution of Japan, which was drafted in 1946 under the occupation of the U.S. after World War Two. Japan was supposedly founded in 660 B.C. and has survived various hard times and existed continuously on the globe since its start. Precisely speaking, however, it's not correct. Japan didn't exist for a certain span of time, from the defeat of the war to Apr. 28th 1952, during which time Japan was called "Occupied Japan". On the items which were produced in Japan during this period of time, this phrase was carved, "Made in Occupied Japan". As you notice, the Constitution of Japan was made while Japan didn't exist. Then, who made it?
　　General MacArthur and his subordinates did it. They were simply military personnel and not members of the legal bar. The Constitution of their making was for the purpose of weakening Japan and controlling the Japanese people. When Japan became independent on Apr. 28th 1952, it should have been thrown away, but it's still alive. I don't know why, but it might be the effect of the biased education imposed on Japanese young boys and girls by the U.S.
　　Now, with the passing days, such brainwashing by the U.S. became gradually diffused and people began to know the real history. Japan would change its basic attitude toward foreign countries in the very near future.

(Vocabulary)
drafted 〈手紙・報告書など〉の下書きを書く,〈演説など〉の草稿を書く,〈法案など〉を起草する

Spring Festival

　　Spring has come. One of the distinctive features of Japan is its vivid transition between the four seasons, each of which has its own distinctiveness, and "spring" evokes warmth, beautiful flowers, cherry blossoms, the start of newcomers to lots of companies, and so on. I remember the springs like it was only yesterday when I entered medical school and I became a doctor.
　　Today, I joined an annual activity of Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club (336-A 1R 3Z), associated with Matsuyama City Spring Festival. In order to make the festival more enjoyable, we held an outdoor tea ceremony at the foot of Matsuyama Castle Hill for citizens and tourists. We also handed out pairs of red and white rice cakes which are thought to be auspicious and are consumed particularly in the beginning of the year in the hope of good fortune. Cherry trees are usually in full bloom at this time of year, but this year the period of the blossom has already passed by. However, a number of tourists were swarming around us.
　　Another attraction was "the period procession" in which some three hundred people dressed in costumes representing various periods paraded through the streets. Some of the pictures show the preparations of the parade. A popular actress is featured as the queen, the wife of the local lord every year and I was lucky to see her preparing just before the start of the parade.

Impression of Taiwan

　　We were supposed to join the guide who would take us to the airport in the hotel lobby. We were taken to every place by car during the trip and it was really time-saving, but it's also fun to utilize public transportation even in a strange place. For about 30 minutes, while waiting for the guide to show up, I took a brief look inside Taipei Railway Station, which must have been the hub station of Taiwan.
　　The station was connected with my hotel, Caesar Park Hotel Taipei, by an underground passage and I was amazed the moment I stepped into the station, which was modernized, clean and far from my impression that I had felt from the exterior appearance of the station. I walked around as long as the time allowed to see the ticket office, platforms, shopping malls and so on, though, to my regret, I couldn't see the high speed train, which we call the Taiwanese Bullet Train. Anyway I felt I would be able to travel all over the country without asking professional guides.
　　One of my pleasures in Songshan Airport, which had been constructed recently, was to have a coffee break in the airline's lounge open to members. I took a picture of the signboard at the entrance and show it to you below. It was the second time for me to enter the lounge for international travelers after the lounge in Toronto Pearson International Airport. And, my impression? Disappointed!
　　On the way back to Japan, our plane flew over the Senkaku Islands, but thick cloud interfered with viewing the islands from the sky. I was so sorry. You can see the route here.(link) This trip was my first visit to Taiwan and it gave me and my wife a good and nostalgic impression. Taiwan, which is sometimes called "Formosa", was literally beautiful and retained lots of items from the old good days. People in Taiwan were kind in general and all the dishes were nice and delicious. Its history was closely related with that of Japan. It seemed that the security wasn't bad. I will be back in Taiwan soon, and I'd like to visit the southern part of Taiwan next time.

(Vocabulary)
decrepit  老衰した, よぼよぼの; 老朽化した, おんぼろの



http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/Taiwan0404_2.html
From Taipei to Tokyo：

Wandering in the City

　　I wanted to see a street, DiHua St., where more than 90% of Taiwanese medicine wholesalers supposedly gather. I headed for the street, checking where we were on the map on my smartphone. Incidentally, I came across a monument and a memorial hall on the way, both of which were unfavorable views for me. I'll show you the pictures of them with some remarks.
　　According to its description, the monument was built in commemoration of the victory in the war against Japan. Historically strictly speaking, however, it's undoubtedly untrue. Japan was defeated by the U.S., and stopped fighting on all the fronts. The weapons which the Japanese army was forced to abandon were utilized by the Chinese Communist Party and they expelled Guomindang into Taiwan, which was the opening of the darkness of the originally beautiful Taiwan, which is still stuck in the darkness.
　　The big hall in the picture was named after Sun Wen, who is said to be the Father of China. However, for people who know the real history, he was only a con man.
　　Now, DiHua St. was extraordinary for me. There were numerous curious items here and there. Some of them didn't look like medicine or even things that we took in orally - just a wooden rod, insect larvae' carcasses and so on. I wished I could have spoken in Chinese and communicated with people in those wholesalers.

Wandering Route in Taipei:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/Taiwan0404_1.html

(Vocabulary)
wholesale dealer  問屋
Guomindang government（中華民国）台湾の国民党政府
Chiang Kai-shek  蒋介石
larva  a young insect with a soft tube-shaped body, which will later become an insect with wings
carcass  the body of a dead animal

The Last Day

　　I noticed that I hadn't written about breakfast in the hotel. It was very nice. On the last day of the trip, we spent a slightly longer time in the hotel restaurant over a cup of tea, checking the plan of walking in the streets in Taipei. Another guide, different from the one who had guided us until the previous day, was supposed to pick us up in the hotel lobby and take us to the Taipei Songshan Airport at 1400 o'clock. We had a free time until the pick up.
　　There was the Taipei Railway Station just in front of the hotel. We started walking from here and dropped in at 228 Peace Park. "228" derives from the huge conflict between the original Taiwanese and Chinese from mainland China, which broke out on February 28th in 1947 and continued for about 40 years. A large number of original Taiwanese had been killed by the Chinese government. I learned about the complexity of the country's history in the 228 memorial museum in the park and understood why this museum wasn't included in the ordinary tour course. I was interested in the history and visited it. The last picture shows the building of the Taiwan Government, which used to be the office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. I marveled at how beautiful and awesome it was.

(Vocabulary)
marvel at/over something  ＜…＞に驚嘆する
I marveled at my mother's ability to remain calm in a crisis. 危機に際して落ち着いていられる母の力に私は驚嘆した．

Sechuan Cuisine

　　Taiwan is also known as a gastronomic country. Fresh ingredients from the non-polluted mountains and sea are sold everywhere in the cities. All kinds of ingredients are served using beautiful Taiwanese ceramics, the home of which we visited on the day of our arrival in Taiwan as I wrote before. They were really nice. I'd like to get some, but I was afraid that they could get broken on the way back and hesitated over purchasing any of them. Anyway, food is surely one of Taiwan's major tourist attractions.
　　Our guide steered us to a noted Sechuan Cuisine Restaurant in the Ambassador Hotel Taipei after the Martyrs' Shrine. The picture shows the set menu for tourists. All tourists who were taken to this restaurant by our travel agency would be served this menu. We couldn't fully understand the menu, but it was fun to imagine each dish from the Chinese characters on the menu. Every single dish was entirely satisfactory. We were sure to be back in Taiwan. To tell the truth, I was going to take pictures of dishes, because it was not unusual in Japan, but we were in Taiwan. I refrained from shooting each dish considering a possible breach of manners.
　　After lunch, we climbed up the observation deck of the Taipei 101 building. The view from the deck was beautiful. In the original plan, we were supposed to be taken there after dinner to enjoy the night view of Taipei City, but the weather was unstable and we dropped in at it before it started raining. We couldn't see the night view, but alternatively enjoyed the magnificent landscape. I was sure to visit the country again at that time.

(Vocabulary)
gastronomic  relating to the art of cooking good food or the pleasure of eating it:
steer sb into/toward/to sth ＜人＞を＜場所＞の中へ［の方へ，まで］案内する
She steered me into the room. 彼女は部屋の中へ案内してくれた．

Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠

　　We finished the museum tour earlier than scheduled. The next destination was the Martyrs' Shrine, where people who had fought and died for the sake of the country were honored. Presumably the guide might take into account the schedule of the change of the guard in the shrine. We arrived at it just in time for the attraction of the change of the guard.
　　As we followed the guards, I took pictures and mimicked the way the soldiers walked. It seemed that it was not so hard if for a short distance, but actually it would be tough work to walk a few hundred meters in a ritual way and stay still for an hour on the pedestal in full view of everyone.
　　Inside the shrine, people were classified according to the military conflicts in which they were killed. Among them there were people who were killed in the anti-Japan conflicts in a curious way, because there had been no war or anything like that between Taiwan and Japan.
　　When I talked about the shrine with a Facebook friend, who is Taiwanese, he told me that people honored at the shrine died for the Republic of China and not for Taiwan. I fully understood the whole picture of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China from his words. I sincerely hope for the independence of TAIWAN.

(Vocabulary)
take into account sth (take sth into account とも)  ＜…＞を考慮する, 考慮に入れる
Architects must take the needs of disabled people into account. 建築家は障害者の要求を考慮に入れなければならない．
pedestal　（円柱・彫像の）台座, 柱脚;（胸像・花瓶を載せる）台
in full view of everyone 　衆人環視の中で
in a curious way  妙な［不思議な］ことに

National Palace Museum 国立故宮博物院

　　We joined the guide in the hotel lobby and headed to the highlight of this trip, the National Palace Museum. Various items of historical significance were displayed, but we went out after a short tour. It was enough for us to look closely at the most famous piece of the Jadeite Cabbage with insects which is carved into the shape of a Chinese cabbage head with a locust and katydid camouflaged in the leaves. We were annoyed by the incredibly uncomfortable noises of Chinese tourists. I felt sick.
　　I learned that most of the items on display had been moved from Mainland China, surviving from stealing and destruction by Chinese people. Who do you think protected Chinese historic treasures? The Japanese Imperial Army served to preserve Chinese historic treasures in the midst of the chaos in World War 2. It was regrettable that there was no such detailed description about the history of the museum itself in the pamphlet given by the museum.

(Vocabulary)
Jadeite 《鉱物》ヒスイ［ひすい］輝石、硬玉、翡翠（ヒスイ）jadeの中で軟玉nephriteに比べて硬く、希少価値の高いもの。主にミャンマーで産出する。薄緑色のものが多いが、白・褐色・紫色のものもある。
locust バッタ, イナゴ
katydid (北米産の) キリギリス

Xingtiangong, Bopiliao and Longshansi (行天宮、剥皮寮、龍山寺)

　　We returned to Taipei from Yeliu and stopped at Xingtiangong shrine at first, which honors Guan Yu, the ancient Chinese warrior. It was swarming inside with not only sightseers but local people. I felt interested about a few differences from Japanese shrines. There were several tables arranged in the 10 meter-square space in the grounds, which is all in all sacred and calm, provided only with minimum stuff in Japan. On the tables, there were various items, such as clothes, toys, snacks, boxes of candies, stationery for kids and so on. Those were placed there for charity by someone, and anyone who wanted them could take them away showing their gratitude to the deities. I was viewing with interest how people behaved around the tables for some time.
　　Our next planned place was the oldest Taiwanese temple of Longshansi and after visiting, we were supposed to have dinner. The lunch was delicious and moreover filling, however, and we asked the guide to walk around the city to make room for dinner in my stomach. Then, he dropped us near the ancient street of Bopiliao. This wasn't included in our plan, but it was so wonderful. There seemed to be a holiday and all the shops in the street were closed, but it was a nice place to wander around.
　　As for Longshansi, it was a curious mixture of Buddhism and several other religions like Daoism. Might the hodgepodge be a part of Taiwanese culture?

(Vocabulary)
Guan Yu  関羽
Daoism, Taoism  道教

台北市内の観光ルート
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/Taiwan0402_2.html

Chinese People

　　We had to buy the tickets to enter the geological park. I was going to get them by myself because I wanted to talk in Chinese which I had been learning since last year, but the guide stopped me, pointing to the ticket office. Around the office was crowded with Chinese people and completely in chaos. They seemed to hate to line up and squeezed in the crowd in front of the office with screaming. The guide told me that it's tough work to buy the tickets. He showed his ID or something to the clerks and got the tickets at a different wicket. It might be a privilege as the professional guide.
　　Additionally, when we went out of the park, the guide took us to an unnoticeable exit other than the main exit. As far as I saw, people who passed this gate were non-Chinese. Why? I understood the reason in no time, viewing a shopping arcade for local people just outside of the exit, where lots of marine products were displayed and all of them were available for just tasting. If Chinese tourists walked along the market, they would eat up the sample foods. At the end point of the market, a political group was campaigning against the People's Republic of China, raising various picket signs. I took pictures of their signs, some of which had terrible photos of victims of the Chinese Communist Party, and show you one of them below.

(Vocabulary)
wicket (米) (切符売り場などの) 窓口
picket  　when a group of people stand or march in front of a shop, factory, government building etc to protest about something or to stop people from going in during a STRIKE:

Yeliufengjingqu（野柳風景区）

　　Do you know the Rock Sites of Cappadocia in Turkey on the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites? I've never been there, but I've seen the scenery on TV or something. Where we were brought to next was such a place, though its scale was far smaller. The area was called Yeliu Geopark. There is also a similar place in Japan, and I'll show you it(link). Anyway, the park is located at the nearest part to Japan in Taiwan, so you can find where it is on the map. We walked around and enjoyed the interesting appearances of various rocks.
　　Our guide gave us some information and advice on the way; More than 90% of the tourists of the park are Chinese who came from Fujian, China and stay in Taiwan for a day or two and will move to Okinawa, Japan by ferry. It's the regular route of the package tours for Chinese people. They are so rude and noisy, and sometimes spew sputa out. You'd better keep away from them.
　　We followed him in the park all the way, because he knew every curious rock and funny stories about the area. No policeman and no guard was seen only a decade ago, but now they were positioned from place to place. It seemed that a few Chinese had died here, ignoring the regulation lines a few years ago. The Chinese groups are sure to spend money in Taiwan, but they are probably uninvited guests.

Cappadocia in Japan
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/08/hotokegaura-jap.html

Jiufen（九份）

　　Next, we visited the small native Taiwanese village of Jiufen, one of the principal tourist attractions around Taipei City. The name of this village derived from the fact that there were only nine households in this area in the late 19th century, for "Jiu" in Taiwanese means nine. I found some shops and inns run by native Taiwanese in back streets away from streets teeming with sightseers. I'll show you one of those shops. The guide advised us to try some Taiwanese tea and we dropped in at a tea shop along the narrow busiest street. The next two pictures are of boxes of the tea we bought and the tea lecturer. I could communicate with her in Chinese with the assistance of the guide, although it was only several words, but I was happy.
　　Arranged by the travel agency, we had genuine Taiwanese cuisine at a historic restaurant(阿妹茶楼) in the picture. I'm not sure, but a well-known Taiwanese movie was apparently shot in this restaurant. Several Taiwanese were taking snapshots in dramatic poses inside. The atmosphere, the way the waitresses behaved and the interior design in the restaurant were similar to those of Japan and we felt relaxed.
　　By the way, Chinese food hazard has become widely known in Japan and we have avoided drinking Chinese tea, such as oolong tea, but the tea in the picture was Taiwanese. I really liked it.

Google Images

Pingxi Line 2 (平渓線）

　　I'll continue the topic of the last entry. I referred to the stuff in the first picture as a kind of tent, but a fire balloon might be more suitable. The base of the tent was made of thin bamboo with a thin wire across it as you see in the picture. What was attached to the center of the wires were fuel sheets. Writing the prayers on the balloon, setting fire to the fuel on the base of it, and holding it on the ground, then the preparation was done. The second picture shows the moment just before the launching. Do you notice someone  squatting on her heels behind the balloon. She was just about to ignite the fuel. An old man was passing by chance, and he helped us hold the balloon. We had to hold it until the limit that we put up with the increasing heat of the balloon. At the next moment, the balloon flew far away. You can see the fire in the balloon in the picture.
　　By the way, a Fire Defense Law is strictly in place in Japan. How is its equivalent in Taiwan? It's unbelievable to fly things with fire. This area was in the midst of the subtropical forests and seemingly wet all the time. Forest fire might not break out. I asked the guide about it. He replied, "Mountains don't burn, but the houses burn." I took a snapshot toward the direction he pointed, which is shown below. The balloon which was launched from the adjacent shop flew into the third floor of the shop we dropped in at, but people looked indifferent. I admired their easygoing way of life.
　　In Japan, walking on the train track is banned in any case. However, it seemed that people in this village didn't mind such a thing. I'd like to have seen how they behaved when a train was coming, but I had to move to another point due to the time constraint.

Pingxi Line 1 (平渓線）

　　On the second day in Taiwan, it was about to rain in the morning. When we joined the guide in the lobby, he rearranged the sightseeing route due to the unfavorable weather. Taipei City is surrounded by mountains and we headed for the eastern mountainous area. You can retrace our route on the map(link). After an hour's drive, we reached Jingtong Station, which was built about 80 years ago and is still in service even now. There were several coalmines around there and the station was prosperous at that time, but now most passengers are sightseers who want to feel nostalgia for the good old days. The historic coalmine museum was adjacent to the station, which, to my regret, was closed on a regular holiday. One more thing, I noticed the remarkable resemblance between this station and Nagahama Station near my office. I'll show you its picture later.
　　We enjoyed the scenery of subtropical forest and native people's villages from the train for some time and reached Shifen Station. An old custom still remained alive around there, in which you write your prayer on a kind of tent and fly it, then the prayer will be answered. They came in various colours and the shop owner chose a white one for us, hearing our wish to be healthy. The picture shows my wife's writing, meaning her wish for everyone's good health. I'll tell you how it works in the next entry.

Dinner, Night Market and Beauty Salon

　　We had dinner in a packed restaurant "鼎泰豊", which is shown in the first picture. The dinner was included in our tour and even the dishes were set. As you see, it was so crowded and a waiter was checking the number of customers of each waiting group outside the restaurant. It seemed that he'd like to utilize the seats as efficiently as possible. As far as I saw, a half of the customers were Japanese. I thought that the restaurant had something of a pact with our travel agent. I tasted some real Taiwanese cuisine and it was very satisfying.
　　After dinner, the guide took us to a famous night market, which was busy and swarmed with lots of sightseers. We found various unfamiliar food items there, but we were sorry to be too stuffed to try some. The moment when we went down to the underground, we got caught by an unbearable stench of rotten food. We thought we were near a garbage storage room at first, but it was the smell of a particular kind of tofu. Anyway, it was an unbelievable smell.
　　Lastly for this day, the guide took us to a beauty parlor or something. The massage of the sole of the feet was included in the tour and additionally, following the advice of the clerks, I had my layers of dead skin removed, and my wife got an elaborate face treatment. Their pampering was nice!

(Vocabulary)
pamper  to look after someone very kindly, for example by giving them the things that they want and making them feel warm and comfortable:
She spent her childhood as the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.

National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall （中正記念堂）

　　Next, we visited National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, who is well-known also in Japan. Presumably our guide arranged the order of the sightseeing sites. When we arrived there, the changing of the guard, which was the principal tourist attraction of this facility, was just about to begin.
　　After we followed the guards for a few minutes, our guide took us to the floor where the statue of Chiang Kai-shek was placed ahead of the guards by another route. Just the moment we reached the statue, the guards appeared before us using the elevator. Their brisk movement and posture gave us a kind of refreshing feel.
　　While watching their movement, I thought of the history of Taiwan. Why was he honored in such a way? What do the Taiwanese think of him? He got away from China after the humiliating defeat against the Chinese Communist Party and invaded Taiwan. Moreover, he perpetrated a massacre, the genocidal killing of intellectual Taiwanese figures. I pestered our guide for his sincere opinion. "Taiwan is under the control of the Chinese now", he answered regrettably.
　　The URL below is linked with a map showing my flight route from Tokyo to Taipei. I'd like to have seen and taken aerial pictures of Senkaku Island, which China wants, but thick clouds prevented us from seeing below, and the route of the flight veered off the island.











Flight Route to Taipei:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/TtoTaiwan.html

(Vocabulary)
a humiliating/crushing/heavy defeat  屈辱的な［決定的な，手痛い］敗北
a narrow defeat  際どい敗北

Streets in Sanxia and Yingge （三峡と鶯歌）

　　We wandered along the streets in Sanxia and Yingge for some time without our guide. Those streets were apparently old, but tidy. It was fun to see various new things there. At that time, an odd sensation crept over me. It seemed as if we had been in Japan of the old days. Most buildings along the streets dated back 100 years, when Taiwan was a part of Japan. In the Great East Asian War, the U.S. avoided invading Taiwan and a huge fortune was preserved and left intact, though they finally fell into Chiang Kai-shek's lap. There was a toy shop where some toys which I had used to play with when I was a child, were displayed. Antique shops were also fun. I was sorry that the time given us for walking around was only 30 minutes as it was too short.
　　Yingge is famous for its beautiful ceramics. The streets were lined with so many pottery shops. I found a pair of really nice cups in a shop, but they were a little high in price. I gave up.
　　Without our guide, I had some difficulty in communicating with ordinary people in Taiwan, though there were surely some personnel in our hotel who could understand Japanese or English. I keenly felt the need to learn Chinese. Before the next visit, I will.

(Vocabulary)
creep over sb〈感情などが〉＜人＞の胸に込み上げる
A cold realization was creeping over them. 無情な現実に彼らは気づき始めていた．
Chiang Kai-shek 蒋介石
line [他]〈道など〉に沿って並ぶ
be lined with sth〈道などに〉 ＜…＞が並んでいる
The street was lined with small shops. 通りには小さい店が並んでいた．








For your information:
http://mykafkaesquelife.blogspot.jp/2011/03/sanxia-taiwan.html

Qingshuizushimiao (清水祖师庙)

　　The picture shows Qingshuizushimiao, the mausoleum of the high priest Qingshuizushi who lived 900 years ago in the Sòng period. We entered inside after finishing a croissant ice cream. No entry fee and anyone was allowed to step in freely. There were seemingly no staff members or policemen. The facility must have been valuable. I wondered how easygoing the Taiwanese were. According to my travel guide, the building had to go through tough days of repeated warfare for a long time and had been repaired after the Great East Asian War. Some were similar to the equivalent of Japan, but most parts of the mausoleum were different from Japanese ones.
　　What attracted me most was its elaborate sculptures. It was really nice. The red items of a crescent shape in the picture were used to tell your fortune. Our guide showed us how to use them, and we tried and got a slip of paper also in the picture. The slip told us "not bad", according to our guide's words. I presumed that the possibility to pick up the good slips would be higher than the bad, but took it back Japan to examine what it means looking it up in the dictionary.
　　In the open space before the mausoleum, there were various people in a peaceful atmosphere. It was only 2 hours after setting foot on Taiwanese soil, but I felt relaxed.

(Vocabulary)
mausoleum 壮大な墓, 霊廟
high priest  (ある宗教の) 大祭司; the most important PRIEST in some religions
the high priest of something  ＜…＞の指導者, 権威者
Sòng　宋（960年 - 1279年）
crescent shape / crescentic form  三日月形
tell/ divine sb's fortune  （人）の吉凶を占う

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Croissant in Chinese

　　I wrote about the Croissant ice cream in the last piece. When I dropped in at the stall and found the Chinese name of the croissant ice cream written over the counter, I felt a curious mixture of fun and a sense of anxiety. I'm going to mention this feeling of anxiety in this entry. As you see in the picture of the last entry, a croissant is written as 金牛角, each character meaning "golden", "bull" and "horn" respectively. Who decided or figured out this expression by Chinese characters? In the case of Japan, the word "croissant" is easily and automatically at the same time translated into Japanese, using Katakana, the Japanese phonogram. This is not a big deal, of course. It's just about a croissant.
　　However, how would they cope with new highly technical words, like new medicine, high-molecular compound, and so on. About 20 years ago, a religious cult perpetrated massive terrorism against ordinary people in Tokyo using sarin gas. Almost all the people in Japan seemingly didn't know the name of sarin gas at that time, but the news was spread across the country and people knew sarin gas by its name described in Japanese. I wonder how the word "sarin gas" was translated into Chinese? This task wouldn't be easy. Isn't it rather difficult to do research of cutting-edge technology? I admired Katakana, the phonogram, seeing 金牛角.

(Vocabulary)
a curious mixture of joy and fear　喜びと恐れの交じった妙な気持ち
phonogram  表音文字
high-molecular compound 高分子化合物