Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Daiwa Ryokan

     Hokkaido has so many hot springs. There are some hot springs around Toyako Lake where we are now. And there is a rider's house with a hot spring here. We lodged at that rider's house. I guess that the rider's house is maybe unique to Japan, especially to Hokkaido. I'll explain the system of it and how it works later. The 1st picture shows "Daiwa Ryokan", a Japanese style hotel with a rider's house where we put up at. All around Toyako Lake they had catastrophic damage from the eruption of Mt.Usu in 2000 and the reconstruction of this area is still underway. Only a corner of the town, where some gorgeous hotels are located, is full of people and the other area, including our lodging site, is empty in the evening. I just imagined that our hotel had decided to open one floor to riders with a cheap price, due to the tough management situation brought on by the decrease of tourists.
     I took a snapshot at the central tourist site (2nd picture). It was just the start of the festival. I could enjoy fireworks too. I thought I was lucky to be here on the festival day at first, but I heard that the festival was held every day during the summer. It must be an event to pull in more tourists. Someone invited me into the circle of the Bon dance (Japanese traditional dance), and I joined in. After the dance, I got a canned coffee as a token of gratitude for joining in. It was fun.

(KW: 大和旅館 洞爺湖 温泉 ライダーハウス)

Sukayu Hot Spa

     I was riding my bike on and on on route 394 and reached Sukayu Spa. I didn't take a rest for about 2 hours because the riding in this area was too comfortable to stop my bike. Consequently, to my regret, I couldn't take snapshots around here. I might have to equip my bike with an onboard camera which I can use during riding.
     Let me explain Sukayu Spa. The source of hot water of this spa was found 300 years ago. Then the history of this spa started. This spa was nicknamed "Sen-nin Buro", which means that 1000 persons can bathe at once. As you see in the photo in the URL above, this spa is mixed. Misawa Base of the U.S. Air Force is near here, about 1 hour by car. I met several Americans here. I felt that those Americans living in Aomori Prefecture were lucky to be able to bathe here.
     We were going to stay at the campground attached to Sukayu Spa. In order to do so, we prepared newly bought tents. But the campground was under renewal work, so we coundn't sleep under canvas.
     Out of necessity, we put up at the Sukayu Onsen (Japanese traditional style hotel). The photo shows the motorcycle parking lot of Sukayu Onsen Hotel.
     You'll find some bikes in the photo. The one on the extreme right one was made in Germany. Yes, it was a BMW. I was moved by the equipment, beauty, and decency of this BMW. I decided to get a BMW in the near future. Maybe I'll go touring next time with a BMW. The destination at that time will be Korea or Karafuto (Sakhalin).

(Vocabulary)
canvas　テント地　画布　（カンバスに描いた）油絵　《海事》帆　テント
put up  宿泊させる 宿泊する 宿を貸す［提供する］ 泊める 泊まる

 (KW: 酸ヶ湯温泉)

Neputa

     What do you think this photo shows? It's called a "Neputa". This is used at local summer festivals. The frame is made of wires and bamboo. Papers cover the frame, and then the design is painted on the surface. Some neputa are 22 meters high, 6 meters wide, and weigh 17 tons. All neputa have lights on them and look so vigorous. If you look at the picture carefully, you'll find a looped slope along the wall around the neputa. I visited the neputa museum which was built in Goshogawara City recently. A couple of neputa were exhibited in the musium. I saw a neputa live for the first time. It was the structure of the museum that I was surprised to see. It was like a secret base of "Mobile Suit Gundam". When I saw the neputa for the first time in the museum, I wondered how they put them into the museum. You can see the building at http://www.tachineputa.jp/top.html (sorry, it's in Japanese).

     Lo and behold, one wall of the building moves and slides aside like a door. It's just like a secret base which you can see in an SF movie. The Neputa Festival in Aomori is very famous. There seems to be no power line on the road that the neputa would go on. I felt Aomorism.

(Vocabulary)
vigorous  〈活動などが〉活発な, 盛んな 〈人が〉元気な, たくましい, 〈植物が〉よく育つ
saw a neputa live 生で見る
Lo and behold　驚いたことに、驚くなかれ、これは驚いた、何ということか、そしてなんと、あれよという間に◆会話で相手の注意を引くために使われる
power line  電線   送電線
Aomorism  青森県民気質

(KW: 五所川原市　祭り　ねぷた)

Baseball Championship

     A perfectly ordinary day started this morning again. I am sitting and standing by in the consulting room. It's just the beginning of seeing patients. A short time later I noticed something different from usual about the atmosphere in the OPD.
     Yes, there are so few people in the waiting area. If it's always like this, my hospital will go bankrupt. A while later, one of the staff members found the reason why.
     There's a ballgame of high school students. Today's game is the semi-final of the championship in Ehime Prefecture. The winner of this championship will go to the national tournament as a representative of 60 high schools in Ehime. The National High School Baseball Championship is held at Koshien Stadium and most high school baseball players dream of appearing at Koshien.
     This championship evokes a summery image. Lots of people get crazy and feel themselves purified by watching the refreshing sight of fairplay.

(Vocabulary)
evoke　〔感情・記憶などを〕呼び起こす、喚起する、想起［連想］させる
summery  夏向きの　夏らしい
refreshing sight　爽やかな光景

Yumeji

     Good sake and tasty appetizers ... this is heaven.
     I was called for dinner by my co-workers from the previous hospital where I worked.  Because I drank too much 2 days ago, I'd like to have said no!  However, I couldn't refuse their call.  I might be a born alcohol drinker.  The name of the Japanese style pub is "Yumeji".
     Mr. Yumeji Takehisa is a painter from the Taisho Era and famous for paintings of beautiful ladies.  Yumeji-related goods and paintings were exhibited on the wall of the pub and the pub's atmosphere was different from that of an ordinary pub.  I liked it.  The food was good. Next time I visit, I'll be sure to take a snapshot inside the pub and show you.

Yoga

     In recent years yoga has really boomed in Japan. Besides, the number of TV programs that handle the issues of health are increasing. In every program, they say that some foods, some exercise, some ways of life, and some habits are good for health. Some of them often show how to do yoga. They say doing yoga has the effect of reducing weight and keeping fit.
     By the way, watching such TV programs, my daughter started doing yoga. She is doing yoga every morning and night for 5 minutes. It seems like kind of warm-up exercises. People who do yoga display flexibility in their body. I sometimes thought that their flexibility might be a kind of disease as their bodies were unbelievablely flexible. I've been thinking yoga was a kind of religion because I saw some religious Indians doing crazy yoga. I don't like yoga because my body is like a lead pipe, or barrel. However, because my daughter strongly advised me to do yoga, now I'm doing yoga to reduce my weight for skiing in Canada. You can never tell what might happen or might not happen.

Valentine's Day

     I know there are many ways to celebrate Valentine's Day in the world. In Japan women usually give chocolates to the men they like. However, in many offices, female staff members sometimes give obligatory chocolates to their male co-workers. It has been a custom in Japanese offices. My hospital is like that. I received some chocolates out of a sense of social obligation.  I wonder what should I do in return?

(Vocabulary)
obligatory chocolates  義理チョコ

Storm of Influenza

     Today is a national holiday. A kind of Independence Day. An Independence Day is an annual celebration commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another state. Most countries honour their respective independence day as a national holiday. In Japan the purpose of this holiday is to commemorate the establishment of the nation and to promote love for the nation.
     By the way, my hospital is open today. Because most hospitals in this city are closed, my hospital is thronged with people who have something wrong with their health. 80% of the patients have a common cold with a high fever. Some of them are suffering from influenza. I gave the same explanations to the patients again and again and am dead tired.

(Vocabulary)
unilateral declaration of statehood　一方的な国家宣言
statehood　州［独立国家］である状態［の地位］
throng　～に群がる
assumption   (フォーマル) (責任などの) 引き受け, (権力などの) 掌握

Confucism

     I attended a special lecture at Matsuyama Univ.
     The topic was a Korean Confucist, Kanhan, who had brought Confucism to Japan in 1597. He was captured by the Japanese sea forces and confined for ten months to Ozu city, which is near my hometown. After that he was transfered to Kyoto which was the capital area in those days. He met the most sophisticated people there.  He enlarged the number of his friends and lots of people got to show him deep respect. He taught them the fundamentals of Confucism and wrote some textbooks.  Those books were the sourcebook which was passed down the generations. After the death of the absolute ruler, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, he got his freedom and could go back to Korea.
     Confucism was a backbone of the nation in the Edo era and in modern Japan.
     In 1868, the last Edo Shogun returned political power to the Emperor, and the Emperor began to rule once again. Then feudal policies such as the land-owning and class systems were abolished and a new constitution was established.
     This was a bloodless revolution without any bleeding.  There is no revolution in the world that can rival it. I suppose this bloodless revolution could be achieved because of the confucian ethic that every Japanese kept in their heart.
     The post world war 2 reconstruction in Japan was successful. I believe this was because of the confucian values which every Japanese had. The U.S.President Bush said, Iraq and Japan are similar, and so Iraq can make a recovery like Japan. He doesn't know the spiritual difference between Iraq and Japan. I was mad at him after hearing him tell such a silly thing. He is nothing more. Our Japanese had been getting kind of an education of the confucian ethic for about four centuries.
     Confucism is a backbone of Japan again. I'm ashamed I didn't know how Confucism was born in Japan at all. Besides, such a great historical event had something to do with my prefecture "Ehime".
     There are lots of pending issues between Korea and Japan. However, I hope both countries get close to each other from the bottom of my heart. We are alike. I really felt so today. 

儒教

松山大学の特別講演を聴いた。演題は韓国人儒教学者「姜沆」。１５９７年に日本へ儒教を伝えたとされる人物である。秀吉の朝鮮出兵の際に囚われの身となり日本へ連れてこられ、大洲市に幽閉された。その後、京都へ移送され日本の文化人と交流を深め、多くの日本人から尊敬のまなざしで見られるようになる。彼は日本人に儒教を教え、書物も書き残している。これはその後、何代にもわたって伝わっている。秀吉の死後、自由を得て本国に帰国した。

儒教は江戸時代そして現在の日本でも国家の屋台骨となっている。１８６８年、最後の将軍が皇室へ政権を返した。明治維新と呼ばれるこの改革は全くの無血革命であった。世界に類を見ないもので、日本人の心に儒教の教えが生きていたためだったと考えられる。

日本の戦後復興はうまくいった。これもまた日本の持っていた儒教的な価値観によるものだろうと思っている。米国ブッシュ大統領が、日本とイラクは似ている、だからイラクも日本のように解放、改革できるといった。アホである。何世紀もにわたり、安定した平和な暮らしの中で、儒教の教えに浸かっていた我々日本人をイラク国民と一緒にしてもらっては困る。

重ねて言うが儒教は日本の精神である。この儒教がどのようにして日本で始まったのか、知らずにいたことが恥ずかしい。ましてやこの歴史的な事件が我が郷土に関係していたとは。

Shinto (religion)

     Today, I saw the movie "Princess Mononoke" (1) (2) which is a famous animated movie all over the world. While watching the movie, I had a brainwave. If foreign people see this movie, how do they feel about the Japanese culture, especially about Shinto. In the movie a wild, enormous boar often attacks some rural villages, kills people there, and damages crops. Villagers get together to capture, kill, and eat him. This kind of thing happens all the time. You don't know the half of it.
     After that, villagers establish his shrine, and they honor him. Why?
     Most foreigners will take their behaviour as honoring him, but in fact they are just sealing a boar into the shrine as a calmed being.  In Japanese traditional beliefs, those who die a tragic death can become furious demons, known as onryo. For centuries, Japanese people have considered that the more powerful a living person was during their lifetime and the more tragic their death was, the more powerful and cruel a demon they could become.  Such furious demons were thought to cause all sorts of disasters, including earthquakes, plagues, famines and warfare.
     I hope the leaders of China or Korea would see this movie and consider the Japanese culture carefully.  Shrines were built to calm down their wrath and anger. Shinto priests voice holy words, compliment and honor them to prevent their horrible curse.

神道

 　今日、世界的に有名なアニメ映画「もののけ姫」を見ていて、突然ひらめいたことがある。 (http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mh/　 http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hn7y-mur/mononoke/ )

　この映画を外国人が見た場合、日本文化は、特に神道はどのように映るのだろう。映画の中で、巨大な野生のイノシシが村々を襲い、人々を殺し、作物に被害を与える。村人は集まって、このイノシシを捕らえ、食べてしまう。

　と、ここまでの話は良くある話であるが、話はここからである。なんと村人達はその後、神社を建て、こともあろうにこのイノシシを祭ったのである。

　いったいなぜ？

　ほとんどの外国人は彼等のこの行為を祀り(honorは不適当な単語かもしれない）と考えるだろう。しかし実際に彼等が行ったのは、イノシシを神社に封じ込め、鎮められた存在(英霊)とすることである。日本では悲劇的な死を遂げたものは怨霊と呼ばれる猛々しい悪魔になると伝統的に信じられている。生前の力が強ければ強いほど、その死が悲劇的であればあるほど、怨霊の力は強くなると何世紀にもわたり日本民族は考えてきた。そしてこの怒り狂った怨霊は様々な災害、例えば地震や疫病、飢餓や戦争などを引き起こすと考えられたのである。

　今望むのは、中国や韓国の指導者達がこの映画を見て日本の文化を注意深く考えることである。神社は非業の最期を遂げた人々の怒りを静めるために建てられ、神主達は祝詞、賛辞を唱え、彼等を祀り、怖ろしい呪いを防いでいるのである。

 

Kid's Tea Ceremony

     I attended the kid's tea ceremony.
     The junior high schools are encouraging students to have various experiences through school club activities. My youngest daughter belongs to the tea ceremony club of her junior high school. Today a tea ceremony party was held. The party was hosted by kids who belong to the tea ceremony club of their school or learn it privately.
     British people are famous for loving tea. In fact, they take their tea seriously, but they don't have to go to college for a long time. In Japan, if you want to know how to handle the tea ceremony, you have to have someone as your private teacher and you will be given a diploma.
     By the way, the guests were shown to their seat after paying the entry fee. They had to conduct themselves decently. Just after taking a seat, Japanese traditional candies were served to everyone by kids who behaved modestly and decently. All the kids were so polite.

     The tea ceremony party (Chanoyu) is a drama as well as a drink.  Watching the precision of my daughter --- folding and re-folding the napkin, wiping the bowl, ladling the water and whisking the tea --- makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
     I turned my bowl, once, twice. I drank. The tea (matcha) was bitter, but perfect after the sweets.
     The tea ceremony must be one of the great traditions of Japanese culture.

     The photo shows my youngest daughter.  The photo was taken by an additional camera of my cell phone, so the image is not clear.