Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Camping Car Show

　　I joined a camping car show in Makuhari Messe in Tokyo. The scene took me back to my childhood.
　　In my childhood, my family often made camping trips. I think that it was mainly for saving money, but the camping trips were a lot of fun for the kids. Our family's first car came to my house when I was 10 years or so. Since then, the camping trip has become our family's standard way to spend vacations. The effects of my parents being avid campers are still living in my soul.
　　After his retirement, my father remodeled a van into a camping car by himself and enjoyed domestic trips with his wife. I thought that it was an ideal living on pension experience. Around that time, the car navigation system started in Japan. I presented a portable car navigation device to him. It made him happy in a big way, because his wife didn't want to see maps in a car as she got carsick easily. The device helped him drive on the pre-planned route.
　　However, the portable batteries of those days didn't have enough ability to be used on camping trips. If the present portable batteries and various electrical components for camping were to have been developed 10 years early, my parents would have been interested in camping cars before me.

Kappabashi Dougu Street and Alsace Restaurant Gentil

　　I went to Tokyo to attend an exhibition of camping cars on a large scale. Lots of gorgeous and large motor homes didn't interest me and I wanted to check only several small cars equipped with various electrical components like a cooler run by DC 12V, a fridge, and a microwave. If I looked around all the cars, it would take more than 6 hours, but I didn't have so much time. Therefore, the exhibition was open at 9 a.m. but I dropped in at Kappabashi Dougu Street on the way to the exhibition. My wife and I strolled around the street. This street is well-known worldwide. Various buyers from overseas gather at this street to find handmade artisan items. We were going to get a Deba knife specified for cutting fish and stopped by a knife shop where some tourists were asking something to shop staff. One of them seemed to be a chef from the U.S.. He was saying that he made it a rule to buy his knives at this shop. He was an avid user of the shop's products. Dull knives have a high risk of injury, so we bought one.
　　I recalled how dull the set of cooking knives in my condominium in Hawaii was. Every time I visited my condominium, we asked the hotel manager to give proper maintenance to the knives. Nothing changed, however. On the condominium users' bulletin board on the net, it's described that the visitors should bring cooking knives from your home and we have done so every time. Seeing the showcase of cooking knives, an idea came into my mind. The knives which we thought were dull might be common in the U.S., therefore some professional chefs are fond of using ones made by Japanese craftsmen. My idea would be correct. The url of the street is at the end of this entry.
　　Then we headed for an Alsace Restaurant called Gentil, which we had happened to see on T.V. We ordered some traditional dishes which would take time for cooking yesterday in advance. To tell the truth, I had visited Alsace with my second daughter in March in 2010. The trip memos are on this blog. I remember having eaten escargot in Riquewihr in Alsace and I wanted to eat them again. The restaurant was really crowded and that was the token of its popularity. The Gentil's staff members were kind and gentle. The delicious dishes are rather obvious things to say. On the next trip to Tokyo, we'll swing by this restaurant.

https://www.kappabashi.or.jp/en/

https://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2010/04/lunch.html