Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

My Wife Injured

　　My wife got heavily injured early this morning falling down the stairs. I was awakened by her weak cry and rushed to her and found her collapsed at the foot of the stairs, bleeding from her head. She has a chronic high blood pressure and dyslipidemia, so I assumed that she suffered a brain infarction and fell down before she got hurt in her head.
　　I spoke to her and got a normal response from her. Then I found out that the laceration was due to a simple bruise. Her respiration was normal and she was able to walk. I decided not to call an ambulance. After astriction, I took her to the emergency hospital. She got a small laceration also on her left lower leg and got surgery. If I am active (I mean not-retired) and am working in a hospital, I'd like to treat her. Anyway, she had bruises at several parts and the X-ray test found out that the first rib was broken at the point close to the backbone. If she got injured at the cervical spine, she might have suffered paralysis from the neck down. It will take time to become recovered perfectly, but her recovery is sure and this is one consolation.

 

A Scene In My Car

　　I'm in Kochi Prefecture. I took on a task from a hospital and came here. I arrived fairly early and I parked my car at the multi-story parking lot of a nearby shopping center to avoid the sunshine. Watching a YouTube program, I'm checking my e-mail and writing this entry in the car. It's comfortable to stay in the electric vehicle. Even if you are using an air-conditioner, there's no noise and no uncomfortable vibration. That's not the case in cars with combustion engines. I became less hesitant to eat something in my car, even if it is greasy, so wet tissues and plastic gloves are always ready in the car not to get my hands dirty or greasy.
　　I felt the change of my life after getting my car. It sounds funny, but I felt the same feeling when a dog came into my family. The speed of life seems to become slow around me.

English and My Car

　　I don't have so many difficulties in reading English newspaper articles, but I'm not good at speaking. Suitable words even in my vocabulary don't promptly come up into my mind in every situation. Anyway, it would be inconceivable to you that my poorness in talking is connected to the fact that I own a Tesla car now. 　　When I visited Honolulu in Hawaii in 2018, I noticed a Tesla dealer shop along Kalakaua Avenue. I'd never entered a car shop abroad and something like valor began to rise up within me at that time. It urged me to get into the shop and try to speak to a salesperson, and I did it following the voice of someone in my mind.
　　Just after entering the shop full of my courage, I suddenly felt deflated, because the salesperson who attended me was a Japanese guy. He offered an opportunity to test-drive a Model-X during my stay in Honolulu and I drove a Model-X in Honolulu. The result? Its performance was superb and I became unable to get it off my mind. The price of the Model-X was too expensive for me, but I started to save money for the down payment for the car.
　　The more than one-hour test-drive was like a sightseeing tour. Some Japanese celebrities own their home in Honolulu, and the salesperson showed me those during the test-drive. His parting words were "See you again next year and I'll take you to another area in Honolulu!"
　　I revisited the dealer in 2019 and I saw a Model 3 at that time. I didn't know about this car. The same salesperson advised me to take a test-drive and I was amazed at its functions and price, which was narrowly within my reach. In addition, the sales of it would start in Japan two months later. I promptly ordered a Model 3. The company offers three types of Model 3 and I opted for the longest range type.
　　It's been two and half years since my last visit to Hawaii. I've never been to a gas station in these two years. Arriving at my house from my work, I insert the charging plug into my car. By the next morning, the charging has finished. The charging is done in the night and I don't mind how long it takes. It's very convenient and I love this car.

(Vocabulary)
deflated がっくりした, 自信をなくした;〈風船・タイヤなどが〉 空気の抜けた, しぼんだ

Replacement of School Building

　　My house is located near my alma mater, to which I had gone for 6 years from 12 years old. Young students of my alma mater pass by in front of my house every morning and afternoon. The new building of this school has been under construction since two years ago and it's finally completed. After the move, its old building started to be pulled down. This building was built 49 years ago, and I remember how things were at that time. I was in the second year at that time and spent it in the first generation of building until July in 1972 and moved to the second one, which is now being pulled down. It's been 49 years since then, and the building in which I learned a lot handed over the baton to the newest one. I viewed the whole picture of the school from a hill nearby. There were lots of things that happened over the 49 years. Some of my friends are already in Heaven. Time flies, I felt deeply what this phrase meant.
　　A huge effort was required to enter the school and it might not be that different today from back then. Before entering this school, I was in a deserted rural district. When I visited the school for the first time to take the entrance exam, I felt like I was in another country. I seldom saw people from other countries in my district, but I found several Spanish people in the school grounds. The first principal always had his heart in the right place. His bronze is smiling now from the pedestal.

 

Chanthu Passed

　　The 14th typhoon of this year, called Chanthu internationally, passed over my prefecture last night. I was afraid that it would bring a heavy disaster to my hometown, but it didn't. I heard that some houses had their roofs peeled off, but no one was killed by the typhoon. Anyway, I was relieved.
　　Then, it's very hot today. The sky is completely clear. My smartphone indicates the temperature in my car to be 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). My car's internal temperature is set to be controlled under 100 Fahrenheit by using the air-conditioner, but if not,,, I don't want to think about it.
　　My hometown has got enough water to survive until the next rainy season, so I don't want another typhoon to come, but about 20 typhoons come or pass close to Japan every year. I still have to reckon with them for some time from now on.

 

Green Book (Netflix)

　　I watched a movie, Green Book, on Netflix and I came to know about the Green Book through this movie. I'd like to actually hold it to see inside and looked for it on Amazon. I found many of them. They were cheap on the American Amazon site, but expensive on the Japanese site for getting them only out of curiosity. I gave up feeling the real history of persecuted black people.
　　My generation in Japan learned that democracy was brought by the U.S. for the first time after the defeat in the Pacific War, but it was a terrible lie. As this movie tells, real democracy didn't exist in the U.S. even after the Pacific War. In addition, the war in which Japan fought the U.S. and its allies was called the Great East Asian War in Japan. Japan had to fight them to expel the superpowers from their colonies in Asian countries. The U.S. changed the war's name itself into the Pacific War to conceal Japan's justice.
　　Anyway, I was surprised by the fact that this movie was based on a real heart-warming story. I love these kinds of movies which leave lingering happy emotions.
　　As for not only Netflix but other movie distribution systems, I'd like to send the developers applause. Thanks to them, I can watch movies anytime and anywhere.

 

Low-water Crossing

　　I felt a sense of confinement and drove my car nearby. The following picture shows a distinctive bridge connecting small clusters across the river. As you can imagine from its design, when the water level of the river becomes extremely high, this bridge can avoid the strong pressure from the flow. By sinking into the water, the bridge can avoid the collision with driftwood. It's the wisdom of people who had lived along the river. FYI, this river is well-known as the clearest river in Japan.
　　This bridge is called "Sinking Bridge" literally in Japanese. I googled the name of this type of bridge to write this entry, and I knew the word, "low-water crossing". The internet is really handy, and a new online trip will start often when I find something interesting.

(Vocabulary)
cluster 集落
driftwood [U] 流木

Virtual Trip

　　All the people living in Japan are requested not to move for non-urgent and unnecessary issues due to the pandemic. I have wanderlust, so this request from the municipality is a hardship. I've been enjoying online trips these days to ease my impatience. This trip is free of charge and doesn't require any reservation of hotels, transportation, and so on. It's really stress-free. However, I'm so sorry not to enjoy the local cuisine or specialties. To tell the truth, I'm planning to set out for a short trip in November. I suppose and hope that the pandemic will be under control at that time. The destination is where there are few cases of the coronavirus infection.
　　When on earth can we go back to the original life?

Prime Minister Race

　　The election campaign for the next prime minister has just started. The possible candidates are three of them. One of them is a female and she might become the first women to get the premiership. I have been supporting her since long ago and I really hope that she will become the next prime minister.
　　Her policy is conservative and I think she can be compared to President Trump in the U.S. She is very popular, but the media in general hate her and try to hamper her success in the election. I recalled the presidential election of the U.S. that took place since last autumn to this February.

 

The 5th Wave

　　The population of my prefecture is 1.3 million and the number of infected people topped 5000 the other day. The number was under 3000 until the 4th wave, so 2000 people got newly infected during the 5th wave of the pandemic. How long will this condition last? I wonder if the 6th wave will come up next winter or not.
　　The restaurants and bars in downtown have to stop serving alcoholic drinks by 20:00 hours. Many municipal facilities are closed and to my perplexity, the nearest branch of the public library is also closed. I keep two books from the library and they are already overdue, but I'm not urged to return them. It's ok, but I can't borrow books newly.
　　It's getting cooler day by day and various events are on schedule in autumn. I've enjoyed some of them every year, but all of them would be suspended or cancelled. I would just have to wait for the end of the pandemic.

(Vocabulary)
perplexity (特に書き言葉) [U] 困惑, 当惑;《[C]通例複数形で》難題, 難局

911

　　This topic isn't for a Porsche car and is about the terrible or indescribable terror attack which occurred in N.Y. on Sept. 11th in 2001. The anniversary ceremony will be held tomorrow in Japan's time. I watched the scene on T.V., and the preparation of the ceremony was going on. The monument caught my eye and victims' names were carved on its face. I recognized again how many people were involved in the terrorism. They must have wanted to live more. I'm so sorry.
　　I wonder who or what produces terrorism. Poverty? Exclusivity? Fundamentalism? or some other reason? I don't know the true reason, but these factors are found extremely rarely in Japan.
　　Lots of people return to their original home on around Aug. 15th to celebrate the "bon festival", which is from Buddhist culture, and visit shrines at the very start of every year, which is from Shinto culture. In addition, they celebrate Christmas also. What do you think of this religiously irresponsible behavior of Japanese people? People who have roots in other countries can celebrate their special occasions in their favorite way in Japan. Japan is one of the countries in which terror attacks hardly happen.
　　I hate fundamentalism. It's simply egoism. Watching how the prep for the commemorating ceremony is going, I conceived as above.

 

Paralympic's Over

　　I seldom watch the paralympic games. I'm not interested in their sports, but this is not the single reason. The long and short of it is that I have become too sorrowful to bear seeing the games. Even if someone set a record high in some games - of course, it's surely joyous - his/her record is, in many cases, created by setting categories. Their record might be changed by their tools or categories. I'm totally indifferent to their records, but I admire their tremendous effort. I'm not confident to continue to exercise like them with physical handicaps.
　　On the other hand, I have another paradoxical viewpoint. I cannot help comparing handicapped athletes with other people with disabilities. People with disabilities will have hardships for living itself. They must have been struggling to make a living. Once a handicapped athlete rises to fame, he/she would get some financial support and also get exempted to work, then he/she would be able to concentrate on his/her sports. I had been seeing ordinary handicapped people in my daily life as a health care worker, who couldn't afford to start with their favorite sports. How do gold medals glitter among such a few number of players.

 

Japanese Alcohol, Sake

　　My son in law sent me a nice sake. He seems to have a somewhat special route to the manufacturers and often gets me nice difficult to obtain sake. I've enjoyed many kinds of excellent alcohol drinks from the world and sake is equal to them. This sake is preserved a degree below zero for five years waiting for the sake to get mellow. This sake seems to have been produced by the frantic efforts of manufacturers. I'll drink it with respect to the manufacturers.

(Vocabulary)
be equal to sth
1 ＜…＞に対応できる [同意] be up to sth
I'm sure he's equal to the task. 彼はその仕事に対応できると確信している．
2 ＜…＞に比肩する
The museum's collection is equal to any in Europe. その美術館の収蔵品はヨーロッパのどの美術館にもひけを取らない．

My Granddaughter

　　My first grandchild turned 6 months. Her pictures have been sent to me almost every day. I want to see her, but can't due to the pandemic. The Government requests us to refrain from moving at present. The picture shows her picture with which the following caption was added. "She is dreaming of traveling by air."
　　I wondered if a baby who has never seen a plane would dream so. Placing it aside, anyway, I love the expression of her face, which looks proudly with a little shyness.

Belated Mass Vaccination

　　I attended the mass vaccination today. The applicants were from hospitality industries of my prefecture. Senior citizens and people with chronic diseases or high risks for infection are prioritized in the official mass vaccination by the Government, so the young generation have been put off.
　　The president of the industry group is my friend from junior high school, and he was meaning to take various steps for recovery from the pandemic in the industries, and one of the steps was the vaccination. That's why this mass vaccination was planned and I was asked to check every applicant's condition if they were all right to get vaccinated, or not. Staffs of accommodations, restaurants, actors and actresses from show businesses, , , people who were tasked with many roles in the hospitality industries got together.
　　After the perfect preparation of the vaccination, however, it was postponed. Can you guess the cause? It was because the contamination of the vaccine, Moderna, was reported. Consequently, a major part of our stocks of Moderna which were seemingly possible to be contaminated judging from its Lot number were collected. I was afraid if the foreign body was something biological, but it was a micro piece of stainless steel which had been apparently peeled off from the production machine. Anyway, the mass vaccination had to be postponed and it finally started today.

(Vocabulary)
put sth off ～を先延ばしにする

 

September 1st

　　September 1st is the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake which occurred on Sept. 1st in 1923. Tokyo was devastated by the quake at that time, and the day of Sept. 1st was designated as the disaster drill day in the wake of the quake. Japan has been hit by many kinds of disasters so far and it recovered each time. Japan is on the volcanic belt and also on the usual route of typhoons. Japanese people are fated to make efforts to build a disaster-resistant land.
　　I reckon with those disasters and the necessities of life for the period of three days are stored in my house. Even if the lifeline was destroyed, relief supplies would be delivered within two days anywhere in present Japan. Drinking water can be preserved for 10 years at room temperature. Several kinds of canned food, rice and a gas cartridge stove are also stored. Two flushing toilets in my house would be unusable, but I can dig a hole in my garden.
　　Anyway, September in Japan will see some typhoons. I hope that Japan doesn't meet strong ones.

(Vocabulary)
relief goods/supplies 　救援物資