Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Long Slow Distance (LSD)

　　LSD is one of the training methods of marathons and it means the slow running of long distance. The point is to continue working for a long time. The Ehime marathon is just around the corner and I'm looking to breaking my own record in the previous Ehime marathon. I jogged today for about 20km.
　　What I like most about this training is that I can see strange scenes. As I run not only on big streets but small alleys with a little faster speed than walking, I often notice something I had missed for a long time even on the streets on which I had frequently driven my car in everyday life. The speed of vehicles is too fast to see around.
　　If something catches my eye, I stop and check it. I ran today toward the coast and looked into the cool boxes of several anglers, then I saw the landslide scene which had occurred the other day and watched the preparation work for the coming local shrine festival for some time. I spent a really relaxing time today.

Wandering with My Camera

　　I'm learning the shooting technique from professional photographers now. Naturally, I'm not going to become a professional photographer, but I'd just like to take nice pictures as one of my hobbies. The theme of the lecture which I'm taking now is how to use the standard lens. My camera is APS-C and 30mm lens is supposed to be the standard. I went out for a walk around Matsuyama Castle to take pictures, which is one of the principal tourist spots in my hometown.
　　There are several ways to the top of the castle: by gondolas, lifts and just walking. I climbed up from the back side of the castle where there usually are few tourists. I'll show you the pictures below. As I'm understanding the mechanism of cameras, my shooting seems to be changing for the better.

Preparation for Winter

　　It's getting cold, and I replaced my car's tires with winter ones which had been stored at a tire shop. The tire shop's owner told me that both the winter and summer tires were nearly expired. I should buy new ones next season. My car's odometer shows about 74000 km and I was wondering about the replacement of my car itself these days, but I don't have enough down payment for my next favorable car. I decided to use my present car of SLK 200 of Mercedes-Benz for 4 or 5 more years. That means I have to buy new summer tires next spring and winter tires next winter. My money flies away~~.

A Social Gathering

　　My Lions Club, Matsuyama Century Lions Club, held a social gathering, inviting international students and sojourners in Matsuyama City. They enjoyed picking a few kinds of fruits in a member's orchard, pounding rice cakes and climbing up a small hill. I was surprised to know the variety of the countries of the visitors. I got several findings from conversations with them. I met a student from Zambia, formerly Rhodesia, who had attended the gathering last year. What I had known about Zambia was just its famous tourist spot of Victoria Falls. That was all shamefully, but I got information about the southern part of Africa from him. Today was very fruitful for me and would be so for all the participants. This gathering will be planned next year. If you are interested in the meeting, feel free to contact me.

(Vocabulary)
social gathering　交流会、懇親会
sojourner　滞在者