Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Tokushima Air Station

　　I visited Tokushima Air Station of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 3 hours from my hometown by bus, with a group of veterans of the Japan Self-defense Force. The weather was clear and ideal for demonstration flights. Several kinds of choppers, a US-2 rescue flying-boat, a P3C antisubmarine patrol aircraft, and others were displayed.
　　There were lots of amazing things and what most impressed me was the movement of the AH-1 antitank helicopter. If once someone was targeted by them, he would never flee from them. Even John James Rambo, played by Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, would never conceal himself.
　　I was also permitted to get into the air traffic control room, where staff members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces were actually controlling not only military planes but also civilian planes. I learned that Tokushima Airport was used as both a commercial and military airport. I compared the actual radar screen just in front of me with the screen of an Android application of the Flightradar24 Pro on my smartphone. It was fun.

(Vocabulary)
rescue flying-boat  救難飛行艇
civil aircraft, civilian airplane　《航空》 民間機
commercial airport  民間機専用空港

Texas Daddy

　　An Italian American had been attracting my interest for the past three years. I happened to find his motion picture on YouTube while seeking for information on Sea Shepherd to handle it in my blog. I don't remember exactly when, but I was profoundly impressed with his straightforward way of talking. He wasn't a big name then, but who was he? He didn't seem to be a political figure and was nothing but just one of the ordinary people in the U.S. After a while, I knew about his enthusiastic supporters in Japan and also his website, with which I immediately linked my blog. Naturally, I started checking his motion pictures on a regular basis. What he said was always clear and wholly understandable. His name is Tony Marano, also known as Texas Daddy or Propaganda Buster in Japan.
　　One day, I learned about his visit to Japan. I juggled my schedule and flew to Tokyo to attend his welcome party. First of all I, along with him and his supporters, visited Yasukuni Shrine. Then I attended the party and enjoyed chatting with him and folks at the party.
　　The next day, Sept. 23rd was my 55th birthday. What I had done first on the day was jogging around the Imperial Palace. This route was getting popular year by year and I was eager to run. I was happy to talk with Texas Daddy the previous night, and starting with this jogging my 55th year was also great.

(Vocabulary)
juggle (曲芸などで) ジャグリングする;
[他] 〈時間・仕事など〉 をやりくりする
It's hard trying to juggle a job, kids, and housework.  仕事，育児，家事を全部うまくやりくりするのはたいへんだ．
juggle sth with sth  ＜…＞と＜…＞の両立を図る
[他] 〈日程・予定など〉 を調整する, 変更する

Rescue Training

　　I've been involved in motor sports for over 30 years. I attended lots of rallies as both a driver and a navigator. When I was young, even though my car broke down, I could maintain my car because the mechanism of the car was simpler than today. It lead to saving the cost of keeping a rally car. Now, however, the mechanism of the cars has become too complicated for an amateur to repair the car. It became costly to maintain a rally car and I gave up driving it. I'm enjoying the rally as one of the enthusiastic supporters or a course marshal now.
　　Today one of the rallies of the Japan Championship was held near my hometown and I attended as a member of the rescue team. My task was to stay in the car called FIV - First Intervention Vehicle - at the starting point of the special stage. The regulation strictly requires that medical personnel should be ready for an emergency in FIV. Following the headquarter's instruction, I was supposed to step onto the course first prior to other cars like wrecker trucks and investigate the condition of the entrants and the course itself.
　　The last picture shows the rescue training. A driver played the role of a spine injured driver. The rescuers removed his helmet and HANS device. They protected the injured driver with K.E.D. The injured driver was taken out of the car and was being placed on the spine board in the picture.

Typical Scenes

　　In the history of Japan, there was a 265 years of peaceful time span, called the "Edo era". The government then was called the Edo Shogunate. The shogunate strictly limited international trade i.e. with only the Netherlands, via only Dejima, a small area in Nagasaki, which is known today as a victim city of the U.S.'s atomic bomb. The shogunate got global information through the Netherlands on one hand and stopped harmful people and Christianity from coming into Japan on the other hand.
　　Edo, which is today called Tokyo, had a population of a million and was the biggest city in the world. The security was incredibly good and the number of policemen was only twelve! Consequently, numerous cultural assets were born and developed into more sophisticated ones. Stage theater like Kabuki, Bunraku, Noh, lots of art crafts like ukiyo-e paintings, sculptures and cultural items like the tea ceremony, amusement trips, and so on. Was there any country in which a woman could enjoy a trip alone in this era? Practical education like arithmetics, writing and reading were offered even to ordinary people. A sense of morality was highly prized at the same time.
　　Around the same time in the world, numerous native Indians were slaughtered on the American Continent. In Europe lots of wars broke out. Many African and Asian countries were being turned into colonies of the European superpowers. The national isolation policy was really nice at least in this era.
　　However, the 19th century saw a rapid rise of seeing foreign ships around Japan. Threatened by their overwhelming military power, Japan had to enter into unfair treaties with the superpowers. These various incidents drove people in Japan to conduct the Meiji Restoration. What do you think was the driving power to proceed to the Meiji Restoration? It's my personal opinion, but it is the higher education.
　　After 40 years of struggling, during which Japan had to experience wars against China and Russia, Japan finally revised the unfair treaties and moreover built an alliance with Great Britain, which was the most powerful nation in the world at that time.
　　Also after the Greater East Asian war, Japan was restored from its complete devastation. Japan owes much of its current prosperity to education. I evoked such a feeling seeing the following picture, which shows two classes in 1945 and 2011.

(Vocabulary)
closed-door policy / national isolation policy  鎖国政策
turn into
1 turn into something ＜…＞になる, 変化する
These growths could turn into cancer. これらの腫瘍(しゅよう)はがんに変化するかもしれない．
2 turn sb/sth into sth ＜…＞を＜…＞に変える
Stein turned the garage into an artist's studio. スタインは車庫をアトリエに改造した．
3 turn into sth (魔法で) ＜…＞に変わる
4 turn sb/sth into sth (魔法で) ＜…＞を＜…＞に変える
5 days turned into weeks/months turned into years etc.  数日が数週間になり［数か月が数年になり］
enter into sth
1 enter into an agreement/a contract  契約を結ぶ
2 ＜問題など＞に取りかかる enter into discussions/negotiations  議論[交渉]に入る
3 ＜考慮・判断など＞に影響を及ぼす
Money didn't enter into my decision to leave the company. 会社を辞めたことと金銭的なことは関係なかった．
enter into the picture  考慮の対象となる
4 enter into the spirit of sth  (さほど関心がなくても) ＜試合・パーティーなど＞の気分に浸る
owe sth to sth  ＜成果・成功など＞は＜…＞のおかげである
The island owes much of its current prosperity to tourism. その島が今日繁栄しているのは主に観光のおかげだ．

German Fair

　　My hometown of Matsuyama City has been the sister city of the German city of Freiburg for 25 years, which is located in the south-western part of Germany. I've been to the city twice. The city is near the border with Switzerland and France, and so I visited Basel crossing into Switzerland and also Alsace-Lorraine Province and its capital of Strasbourg, stepping into France. Naturally I began to feel some affinity for Freiburg and southern Germany.
　　By the way, do you know Jazz Chor Freiburg, a chorus group consisting of the citizens of Freiburg. The group's Japan Tour was conducted this year and they dropped in at my city after a three years' interval. On the occasion of their visit, Matsuyama City held a PR event for Germany and particularly Freiburg. I was asked to take part in the event as a member of the Matsuyama-Freiburg Association. My task was to chat with people who were interested in Germany and if possible to collect new members. As you see in the following pictures, there were several concessions which sold various goods related to Germany. Some members of Jazz Chor Freiburg suddenly appeared at a corner of the event park and performed a few cuts from their concert just before the opening of the concert.
　　I heard that Matsuyama City would dispatch a municipal official envoy to Freiburg marking the 25th anniversary of their sister city treaty and recruit its members. I wonder if I should apply for it.