Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Miserable Accident

　　A serious bus accident occurred on January 15th in the mountainous region of Japan, which claimed 15 lives. Most of the victims were young. This accident would be recorded as one of the most miserable accidents in Japan. The full-scale investigation into the accident is still underway.
　　In addition to the poor driving technique and the possible breakdown of the braking system, it is said that the background of the accident might be caused by the wrong policy of the Government, the loosening of regulations. The relaxation of various regulations made it easy for ordinary people to build new companies. Consequently, too many bus companies were established and this boosted the cutthroat competition among smaller companies. Anyway, I'm going to keep an eye on the investigation.

(Vocabulary)
easing / loosening / relaxation of regulations 　規制緩和
cutthroat competition / dog-eat-dog / excessive competition　過当競争

Unprecedented Snowfall

　　The weather agency issued the long-range weather forecasting of this winter last autumn, and it said that we would have a mild winter in the coming winter. As they said, it has actually been warmer than the usual year.
　　However, Japan was hit by a fierce cold wave today. Okinawa, which is located in the subtropical zone, had its first-ever snowfall since it started to record meteorological data 115 years ago. It didn't snow in my hometown, as it faces the Seto inland sea and has a rather warm climate, but some districts in the suburbs had snow, partially heavy.
　　I make it a point to change the tires of my car into winter tires every year as I want to go anywhere whenever I want. Most people around me, however, take no precautions against snowfall. The following pictures show the scene of my commute. I usually drive my car at the speed of 80 km/h here, but today, the traffic was jammed. It took an hour for the distance that I drive in 5 minutes on usual days.
　　As for my car, it left nothing to be desired thanks to the new winter tires. As I wrote in the previous entry, I gave up visiting Canada in the spring vacation and so I'm wondering about Hokkaido as the destination of the vacation even if it had heavy snowfall.

Summer Vacation

　　About four years have passed since I visited Canada last time. I was eager to visit Whistler again this March for skiing, but the schedules of my friends didn't match. I had to give up the trip. Eventually I decided to make a trip to Hokkaido by CAR in March. You'll see beautiful scenery here in March. I booked the ferryboat from Maizuru to Otaru in Hokkaido. Maizuru City is located at the west coast of Japan and is known as the base of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. I'm going to wander around the base.
　　By the way, where do I visit in summer? A schoolgirl from Malaysia stayed at my house for a week last December and she talked to us about her country so much. She was from Miri City on Borneo island, which reminded me of the marine resort city of Kota Kinabalu. While wondering where to go during summer vacation, several brochures from travel agencies reached me. It was the best timing. There were so many places on them that attracted me. It's not easy to choose one out of them.

Mercedes-Benz SSK

　　I have a Mercedes-Benz SLK200 and I thought "K" of SLK stands for "convertible" without deliberation, because "C" in English words are often replaced into "K" in German words. If it's translated into French, it's Cabriolet.
　　I knew on strange occasions that the car which Lupin the 3rd, a hero in Japanese manga, uses was Mercedes-Benz SSK and it was also convertible. I'll show you a picture quoting from the net. Seeing the style of his car, I thought "K" of SSK must also stand for "convertible".
　　I investigated several websites concerning cars for confirmation, and found my idea totally wrong. "K" is the abbreviation of "kurz" in German, which means "short" in English. SLK seems to be the short version of SL.

(Vocabulary)
on strange occasions　 ひょんなことで

Entdeckung

　　Es gibt das gekannte Manga, Lupin Ⅲ, in Japan. Der Held ist ein Dieb, der Wertsachen mit viel Witz stiehlt. Das Auto, das Lupin im Manga fährt, interessiert mich sehr persönlich. Ich habe den Namen des Autos im Internet gesucht und das war Mercedes Benz SSK. Ich dachte nicht, dass es dieses Auto wirklich gibt.
　　Mein Auto ist der Mercedes Benz SLK200. Die beiden Autos sind Cabriolets und haben "K" in ihren Namen. Schon lange habe ich gedacht, dass "K" das englisch Wort "Convertible" bedeutet, weil "C" in englischen Wörtern oft durch "K" in deutschen Wörtern ersetzt wird.
　　Das heißt, ich dachte, der SLK wäre der Cabriolet-Typ des SLs. Der Gedanke war völlig falsch und "K" bedeutet "kurz". Das heißt, der SLK ist der kurze Typ SL!

Mild Winter

　　Japan has had an extraordinarily mild climate these days, which has been said to be linked to El Nino. They say that winter clothes sales apparently aren't strong.
　　The warmth of the winter makes the growth of vegetables rapid and a considerable amount of vegetables are in the market now. As a result, the prices of various vegetables are getting low, which would be good for consumers, but a nightmare for producers. Additionally, the serious reservation about the shortage of vegetables in March became a reality. The following picture was clipped out of a news program. The Japanese words in the picture mean cabbage, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and Japanese radish from the left. The figures along with them tell us the percentage of the decrease of the price. As you see, the price of cabbages dropped by more than 30%. A Malaysian school girl stayed at my house for a week and one of her ambitions was to try skiing in Japan, but there was very little snow even in the mountainous area. I was so sorry that she was not able to enjoy skiing.
　　However, it suddenly got as cold as usual today. I suppose that winter should be cold.

(Vocabulary)
El Nino  エルニーニョ現象

LSD (Long Slow Distance)

　　The topic, LSD, isn't about the hallucinatory drug here. It's a training method for a marathon to make the distance you can run in one time longer, or to get used to the distance itself.
　　I joined my friends to do the LSD training on Jan. 11th. The distance was 25km. They usually run at the pace of more or less 5 minutes per km and they would run the distance at the pace of 7 minutes per km. This pace was actually slow for them, but my best record of 10km is 73 minutes. That works out to 7 minutes and 18 seconds per km. That is to say, 7 minutes per km was not "slow" for me but beyond my ability, but I tried to follow them and was able to finish the distance of 25km along with them.
　　The result is shown in the following picture. I took a rest on the way three times for hydration, urination and lunch break. The watch was halted during these times including waiting time for stoplights. The watch says my average pace was 6 minutes and 47 seconds!

(Vocabulary)
hallucinatory  (薬物などが) 幻覚作用のある
hydrate;
to supply someone or something with water to keep them healthy and in good condition

Blu-ray Recorder

　　After the hard disc recorder was broken two years ago, I've not replaced it and utilized the recording function of the tuner. It was not bad, but the tuner wasn't able to copy the contents into discs. Eventually I bought the up-to-date model of the Blu-ray recorder. I simply thought that the Blu-ray recorder has way more storage capacity than conventional hard disc recorders and it was the only merit of the Blu-ray.
　　When I heard the salesperson's explanation at the appliance dealer, I was amazed at the marvellous functions. The Blu-ray recorder which I chose records automatically all the programs of 6 channels all day and keeps them for 2 weeks in addition to programs which I recorded individually.
　　Another function which attracted me was to be able to watch the recorded programs with my tablet or smartphone everywhere in the globe as long as I'm connected to the net. It's really wonderful. I record educational programs associated with four languages, English, German, Chinese, and Korean. Then I watch them in my office in various bits of free time. This practice is very handy for people like me who don't have enough time to sit in front of the TV.

80th Birthday

　　Japanese people have common milestones of their lives, such as the year of 40, 60, 70 and so on. Just to let you know, they are called Fuwaku, Kan-reki, Koki respectively. Some people throw congratulatory parties when turning those ages. Today, I attended just such a kind of party, which is called Sanju, one's eightieth birthday.
　　About 20 years ago, I was doing the research work in graduate school to get my Ph.D., and my then boss was the professor of the biochemistry department. He retired at 65 and turned 80 and so his former students, including me, his colleagues, and the former staff members of his research laboratory got together to throw the party for him.
　　The following picture was shot just before the party. As you see, tables and chairs were set on tatami mats. It was a bit peculiar to prepare them in such a Japanese- style room, but it was for his physical condition. I reunited with several people after 20 years and enjoyed chatting with them.

(Vocabulary)
reunite 《[他]通例受け身形で》〈人〉を再会させる
be reunited with somebody ＜人＞と再会する
[自] 再会する, 再結成する
[他] 〈組織・地域など〉 を再統合する[同意] reunify
[自] 〈国・組織などが〉 再統一する
reunion
[C] (家族・同窓生などの) 再会の集い, 同窓会
a family/high-school/college reunion
家族再会の集い［高校の同窓会，大学の同窓会］
[C,U] 再会, 再び一緒になること [＋reunion with]
his reunion with his wife 彼の妻との復縁

Ungewöhnlicher Vorfall

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein gutes neues Jahr!

Meine in Tokyo lebende Tochter ist nach Hause heimgekommen und wir haben ein ruhiges Jahresende und -anfang mit der ganzen Familie und meinen Eltern verbracht.

Nun, wie warm es jetzt ist! Diese Wärme ist für Januar nicht normal. Jedes Skigebiet hat aus Mangel an Schnee finanzielle Schwierigkeiten. Man vermutet, die ungewöhnliche Wärme stammt vom El Nino. Der Wettervorhersage nach scheint es am Wochenende kälter zu werden, aber wie wird das Wetter?

Das Auto mit Winterreifen ausgestattet, warte ich auf Schnee.

New Year's visit to a temple

　　At the instant when the year turns new my family stays home together and exchanges new year's greetings and then goes to bed. Though it has been an untold rule, I was invited to the New Year's midnight visit to a temple and a party after the visit. My wife didn't want to visit a temple at midnight, so I joined them alone. It comes naturally to even ordinary Japanese people to visit a shrine or temple at the beginning of the new year. However, I've never visited them at midnight.
　　I couldn't even anticipate what's going to happen in a temple at midnight. The temple which we visited was Yasakaji Temple, the 47th temple of Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage. At about 23:30 hours the Buddhist priests started to blow conch shells. I'm not sure, but it must have a certain religious importance. Then the visitors started to toll the bell, which should be originally tolled 107 times within a passing year and one more in a new year, but the priests seemed to allow all the visitors to toll the bell. I also tolled the bell once and prayed for the happiness of people all over the world in the main building of the temple.
　　After the New Year's visit, we had a party. One of us was a professional pianist, who played for us, "When You Wish Upon a Star", and the host was a stickler for serving high quality wines to guests. He was also a good cook. We enjoyed chatting, nice live piano music, nice dishes and wines. The picture shows a Louis Roederer crystal champagne 2006, which was served first.

(Vocabulary)
除夜の鐘を英辞郎で調べると
the bells on New Year's Eve
とあったが、これだけでは伝わらないだろうなあ
conch shell　ホラ貝
ホラ貝を吹くって、、、blow or play?