Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

YCE (Youth Camp Exchange)

　　YCE is one of the activities of the International Lions Club, which aims to initiate young people to experience another country's culture. They stay in an unfamiliar country and live communally with foreign people. Then, consequently, they will learn to respect the difference between each other. My youngest daughter was dispatched to the Netherlands two years ago by the YCE program, and I felt her personal growth when she came back.
　　I'm not sure about the details, but the YCE headquarters of the International Lions Club sounded the headquarters of Shikoku out in November about the possibility of welcoming two high school students from Malaysia. FYI, Shikoku is the fourth biggest island of Japan, and its population is 4,14 million. After consideration, Matsuyama Chuo and Matsuyama Minami Lions Club were set as the host club for them. Two students were supposed to spend two weeks in Kyushu and then move to Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku and stay there for two weeks. Thus, a Malaysian high schoolgirl was to stay in my house for a week. My wife was worried about food, wondering if she was a Muslim or not. According to her short profile from the headquarters, she was Catholic. We were all relieved at the news.
　　They flew into Matsuyama City on Dec. 13th and their welcome party was held on the next day. Pictures show their self-introduction and the funny performance of Mochitsuki, rice-cake pounding. I hope their stay in Japan will be a great experience for them.

(Vocabulary)
sound sb/sth ↔ out ＜人・組織など＞の考えを探る［聞き出す］, に打診する, ＜考えなど＞を探る
sound sb ↔ out about/on sth ＜…＞について＜人・組織など＞の考えを探る［聞き出す］

YCE (Japanese　日本語のサイト)
http://www.lionsclubs.org/JA/our-work/youth-programs/youth-camp-and-exchange/

Pamphlet on Cruise Ship

　　One of my friend works at a branch of one of the leading travel agencies. Reading my blog entries on my cruise trip to Karafuto, he sent me several pamphlets on cruise ships. I have to say it was really perfect timing, just after giving up visiting Canada next spring. On the last trip, I happened to see the Nippon Maru and applied for the trip. I didn't look for another option. Seeing the pamphlets, I was surprised to know there were several cruise ships in Japan. I'm most interested in the tour from Naha on Okinawa island to Taipei for three nights and 4 days. It looked gorgeous and relaxing.

Kobe Luminarie

　　I went to Kobe City by car on Sunday, taking a half day off on the next day. My wife and I have long wanted to see Kobe City's seasonal event of Kobe Luminarie. At the same time, I had to talk with my friends, who were in Kobe, over the next ski tour to Canada. FYI, "luminarie" is originally Italian word.
　　Firstly I'll write about the origin of the Luminarie. Do you remember the immense disaster of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which broke out in the area which centered on Kobe City, in 1995. It started in December in 1995 for the repose of victim's souls and a commemoration of the departed. It was also tasked to recall sightseers to the devastated former tourist destination of Kobe City. Look at the first picture. It says in Japanese, "The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial" and "1995. 1. 17 MEMORIAL" though the reflection of the lights interferes with reading it. While some people think that the memory of the unprecedented disaster should not be forgotten, others think they don't want to recall the agonizing happenings. That is to say, some people feel pained to remember the day of the earthquake seeing the beautiful scene of the Luminarie. I sympathetically understand both opinions.
　　After visiting Minatogawa Shrine, which I wrote about in the last entry, we got together with our friends at Kobe station. They live in Kobe and guided us to the best position to enjoy the Kobe Luminarie. Then, we moved to a historic Korean restaurant. Their selection of the restaurant was great and we enjoyed chatting. As for the ski tour to Whistler next spring, we decided to give up. Our schedules are fully different and first of all our family members don't want us to go overseas due to the prevalence of terror attacks. Canada isn't the target of ISIS at present, but they didn't look happy about our plan.
　　While terror attacks are sure to disappear someday, Whistler is always waiting for us. I made up my mind to believe so.

(Vocabulary)
Luminarie (イタリア語 luminarie) 《luminariaの複数形》 イルミネーション。電飾。
repose (文) 休息

Minatogawa Shrine

　　William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928), who was invited to teach science and stayed in Japan from 1870 for 4 years, wrote "The Mikado's Empire". He tells in the work that his Japanese students and his friends replied "Masashige Kusunoki" to his question; who do you think the most honorable figure is in Japan's history? However at present, how many Japanese people know about even only his name? After World War II, Japanese people were brainwashed by the United Nations. Education was also controlled by the winner. The myths, lots of historical facts, and everything that was inconvenient to the Allies were concealed.
　　I went to Kobe City with my wife to join a party, about which I'll write about in the following entry, and dropped in at Minatogawa Shrine. Enshrined here is the guardian deity of Japan, Masashige Kusunoki himself. He had lived his life for the Imperial Court and killed himself at the place where the shrine is now built. I wish you'd get his information in detail from the internet or something.
　　Because the present Japanese people have been taught distorted history, I wouldn't be surprised if I barely saw people in the grounds, but there were lots of people who prayed for something or happiness for newborn babies, or celebrated the growth of their children or grandchildren. It's a well-known event called shichi-go-san, literally seven, five, and three. I made many wishes and offered thanks concerning everything around me. Then, I visited his tomb and joined my hands in prayer.
　　I think Japan will change drastically, as the internet is getting widely used and people can easily get information directly from the net.
　　I'll upload my photo with a picture of a monkey dressed like a noble person. It's because next year is the Monkey's Year in the Oriental Zodiac.

Exchange of Tires

　　I exchanged all the tires of my car, Mercedes-Benz SLK200, for winter ones. I had to buy new tires with wheels and it cost a lot, but I prepared for snow so that I could set out for a drive whenever I'd like to.
　　Come to think of driving in the snow, I have a reservation about the SLK200. It's the rear wheel drive. I have used 4 wheel drive cars the past 20 years. Until the last minute I had been torn between SLK200 and Audi quattro TT, which was the 4-wheel drive. Eventually, I took the SLK200 from various points of view.
　　To my regret, however, there's no snowing presently. I want to drive my car to the nearest ski area with my ski boots and poles. My skies are too long to carry with my car and I'm going to rent them there.

Depth of Sleep

　　I'm utilizing a PC application of Evernote every day. It's designed for the storage of documents, pictures, motion movies, and so on. I make it a point to scan every kind of paper, like documents concerning my job, receipts, postcards, letters, favorite articles from newspapers and magazines, even some books like my alumni address book. Once those papers are scanned and stored, you can pick up the documents which you want to see anytime and anywhere as long as you are connected to the net.
　　Anyway, a direct mail came to me from the Evernote company. It says, "Evernote is useful for keeping fit!" The company advised me to record my status of sleep using my smartphone.
　　Though I wondered how the smartphone can detect the status of my sleep, I tried to use one of the applications for smartphones which they recommended and I'll show you the result of it. The following two pictures show the sleep status on Nov. 25th and Dec. 1st. on which I had been in my office throughout the night.
　　It records when I went to bed and got up with the depth of my sleep. Actually it's when I was called to the ward that the level of the sleep became shallow. I was surprised at the speed I fell into deep sleep.