Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

National Boundary Between Belgium and Germany

　　I sometimes have to stay awake at midnight in my office. It's a fulfilling task to save the lives no matter what the circumstances are, but just waiting for the mortal moment of incurable patients is nothing but a pain and it makes me sleepy. Reading books isn't helpful in such cases.
　　Netsurfing is useful to me for warding the sleepiness off at midnight. I suppose that it's because netsurfing has something active in its nature whereas reading is a simply passive act.
　　I had such a time last night and found an amazing fact. Guess what!? I was viewing Germany on the Google Map. The boundary line between Belgium and Germany was double! There were two boundary lines and the train tracks were built between the two. The area in which train tracks run was the territory of Belgium, and the both sides of the tracks were German territory. Why on earth was such a situation born? Probably, it has some serious or historical issues. I'd really like to know the cause of the double boundary lines.
　　I'm learning German now and am attending a German class twice a month. I'm going to ask the teacher about this fact in the next class, but I have to explain it in German. It's another problem.

3.11 Disaster

　　A memorable day for Japanese came around again. March 11th in 2011 would be handed down as the day of one of the most disastrous earthquakes, followed by the huge tsunami, which claimed more than 15000 lives including related deaths and more than 4000 people are still not accounted for. We have to bolster disaster-prevention countermeasures. It would be the desire of the people who weren't able to survive the disaster. Literature and archaeological studies revealed that Japan has suffered enormous natural disasters repeatedly since ancient times. It's naturally lamentable, but can we not say that the very effort to survive or minimize the damage by the disasters with the collected folk wisdom is the test of the level of the nation's civilization.

(Vocabulary)
unforgettable  (すばらしさ・美しさなどの面で) 忘れられない
memorable 記憶に残る, 忘れられない
the collected wisdom of many generations いく世代にもわたって蓄えられた知恵
folk wisdom  (受け継がれる) 庶民の知恵

Guidebook

　　I consider a number of options about my summer vacation at this time of the year. You might feel it's early, but I have to apply for the leave to my boss at least two months before I actually want to go out for a vacation, and generally speaking, the earlier you book, the lower the price of the tour is. I picked Malaysia as the destination of the coming summer vacation.
　　I ordered a guidebook online at amazon and it was delivered yesterday in two days after the ordering. The online shopping is really handy. When I have no time to go to a bookstore, I can get the book that I want in a few days. Even if I could visit the bookstore, there might be nothing in stock. The guidebook that was delivered is shown in the following picture. I spent a slow night on duty last night, and I thumbed through it. Reading guidebooks makes me leave my stress behind and unwind.
　　Anyway, I go for trips in a big way. I'd like to go to various places, talk with local people, eat local foods, and learn their history and culture. I want to learn several languages to order what I want to eat and to move by public transportation measures. I attained that level in Korean, Mandarin, and German, but I wouldn't visit anti-Japan nations like both Korea and China any more. By the way, what language do I pick up next?

March

　　March has come and the region which I live in is getting warmer. Along my commute route the field mustard grows in clusters. March is the season of the commencement and lots of young people sketch their road map for the future.
　　Japan has four seasons and the spring makes me feel happier, coming through the bitter winter. This spring, especially, made me joyous, because my youngest daughter will break into the world of medicine and leave home for her own future plan.
　　As for me, I'll take a spring leave for 10 days toward the end of March, and I'm going for a drive all the way to Hokkaido with my wife. I'll take a ferry to Hokkaido and be back by land. I'll get on board the ferry at least three times. Anyway I'll write about my trip on the blog after coming back home. Enjoy it, please.

Selfie

　　It seems like the idea of a selfie stick was first developed in Japan decades ago. All the same, the concept was too early to be accepted by people. The following picture was shot by my digital camera which was controlled by my smartphone via WiFi. It's my way of napping in my office.
　　When I take a nap, direct air from the air conditioner is uncomfortable. Likewise the electric heater warms a localized part of my body which faces the heater. It's also uncomfortable. Consequently, I figured out this way of napping. The seat heater of my car gave me a cue for this style. As you see, the heater is set behind my back.
　　This outdoor chair can be folded not to take up space and can be reclined, but I use it in the upright position to receive the heat to my back from the heater. You might see it tight, but it's really comfortable. The compact and light seat with electric heater costs only 3000 yen. It's really cost-effective.

(Vocabulary)
selfie; a photograph you take of yourself, usually so that you can put it on a social networking site （ロングマン英和には載っておらず、ロングマン英英から）
All the same,,, それでも、、、

The Ninth Year

　　The race for the U.S. presidency is heated now and I'm paying attention to what the runners are saying. No matter who will get into office, the result will have a powerful influence on the way the world goes. It seems that Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton will be the candidates for the Republican and Democratic Parties respectively. Both candidates are showing their anti-China attitude. They'll put China through a torrid time.
　　The next year is 2017, which is the 9th year after the Beijing Olympics. When an autocratic or totalitarian state puts on the Olympic Games in modern history, it collapsed in the 9th year after the Olympics. Generally speaking, the Olympic Games is held at the peak of the nation's strength and it will go down after the Olympics.

Berlin Olympics 1936; Hitler regime fell down in 1945.
Sarajevo Olympics (Yugoslavia) 1984; Yugoslavia disappeared in 1993
Moscow Olympics 1980; USSR broke up in 1989

Beijing Olympics 2008; China will be disassembled in 2017 or not?