Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Das Ende Erziehung

　　Ich habe drei Töchter. Die jungste will die Universität im nächsten Monat absolvieren. Und ab April will sie als Ärztin zu arbeiten beginnen. Ich empfinde vermischte Gefühle mit Freude und Verlassenheit.
　　Vom 6-8. Februar hat das Staatsexamen für Ärzte stattgefunden. Für einen Monat bis zur Bekanntmachung der Ergebnisse fällt der Unterricht aus. Es sind Ferien für die Studenten, die ihre Examen abgelegt haben.
　　Sie will nach Südamerika in die Ferien mit zwei Freudinnen reisen. Also habe ich sie zum Flughafen begleitet. Ich habe ihnen eine gute Reise gewünscht.

Plane-philia; Besessener Flugzeugliebhaber

　　I went to the local airport on account of some business. Today was the National Foundation Day of Japan and the airport was swarming with people. Some people were waiting for several celebrated conservative controversialists, who deliver addresses in the National Foundation Day Memorial Assemblies. I wanted to see them directly, not through the TVs or pictures, but I went up on the roof to see planes because the sky was clear without any clouds.
　　The airport of my hometown is not so big and people can see planes in the vicinity. An Boeing 787 of ANA was sitting in front of me. I noticed that I had not gotten on a flight for some time. The last overseas trip was a cruise.
　　I make it a point to list favorite places which I find as I see newspapers, magazines, or other media. Among this listing, I pick a place up for the next destination considering seriously the season, security and the cost of the trip. Northern Vietnam had been at higher rank of the list for the last several years, but the anti-China riots which broke out a few years ago held me back. I was wondering if I would go there, i.e. Ha Long Bay and some battle sites of Indochina Wars, next summer or not. However, a place jumped onto the top of the list. It is Kota Kinabalu! A Malaysian school girl was staying at my home for a week last December, and she told me about the Malaysian resort of Kota Kinabalu. She'd like to guide my family around the resort. I saw the pictures of the resort on the net, and became eager to visit there. One thing, however, I have to get on board the Malaysian Airlines,,,. I'll discuss carefully whether to go or not.

(Vocabulary)
on account of some business ちょっとした所用のため
on account of sth ＜…＞の理由で, ＜…＞のために
He doesn't play golf now on account of his health. 彼は健康上の理由で今はゴルフをしていない．
celebrated controversialist 著名な論客

 

Besessener Flugzeugliebhaber


Am 11. 2. Donnerstag bin ich nach Matsuyama Flughafen gefahren, weil das Wetter schön war. Ich sehe gern Flugzeuge starten und landen. Wegen des Feiertages gab es viele Leute im Flughafen. Ich bin die Treppe zum Dachgarten hinaufgestiegen und sah verschiedene Sorten Flugzeuge. Mein Lieblingsflugzeug, Boeing 787, war auch da. Ich bin lange nicht geflogen. Ich möchte, eine Reise unternehmen. Meine letzte Auslandsreise war eine Kreuzfahrt.

Ich habe eine Liste der Reiseziele aufgestellt und wähle eines davon mit Rücksicht auf Jahreszeit, Sicherheit, und Kosten.

Neuerdings hat ein Reiseziel auf den ersten Platz vorgerückt. Es ist Kota Kinabalu. Die malaysische Oberschülerin, die im Dezember bei mir zu Gast war, möchte uns Kota Kinabalu zeigen. Was mache ich?

Today's Breakfast

　　The picture shows a breakfast served in a 24/7 fast food restaurant this morning. It looks simple, but keeps the right nutritional balance at the minimal cost, though you might not value such fast food Japanese dishes. Not to mention it, but it's very unusual to have breakfast in such a restaurant. My wife actually, was out at my usual breakfast time.
　　My wife drove my youngest daughter to her university early in the morning. She was going to adjacent Takamatsu City by bus with all her classmates to take the national examination for medical practitioners. While eating breakfast, I recalled the days when I had undergone the exam about 30 years ago.

Unprecedented Snowfall

　　The weather agency issued the long-range weather forecasting of this winter last autumn, and it said that we would have a mild winter in the coming winter. As they said, it has actually been warmer than the usual year.
　　However, Japan was hit by a fierce cold wave today. Okinawa, which is located in the subtropical zone, had its first-ever snowfall since it started to record meteorological data 115 years ago. It didn't snow in my hometown, as it faces the Seto inland sea and has a rather warm climate, but some districts in the suburbs had snow, partially heavy.
　　I make it a point to change the tires of my car into winter tires every year as I want to go anywhere whenever I want. Most people around me, however, take no precautions against snowfall. The following pictures show the scene of my commute. I usually drive my car at the speed of 80 km/h here, but today, the traffic was jammed. It took an hour for the distance that I drive in 5 minutes on usual days.
　　As for my car, it left nothing to be desired thanks to the new winter tires. As I wrote in the previous entry, I gave up visiting Canada in the spring vacation and so I'm wondering about Hokkaido as the destination of the vacation even if it had heavy snowfall.

Mild Winter

　　Japan has had an extraordinarily mild climate these days, which has been said to be linked to El Nino. They say that winter clothes sales apparently aren't strong.
　　The warmth of the winter makes the growth of vegetables rapid and a considerable amount of vegetables are in the market now. As a result, the prices of various vegetables are getting low, which would be good for consumers, but a nightmare for producers. Additionally, the serious reservation about the shortage of vegetables in March became a reality. The following picture was clipped out of a news program. The Japanese words in the picture mean cabbage, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and Japanese radish from the left. The figures along with them tell us the percentage of the decrease of the price. As you see, the price of cabbages dropped by more than 30%. A Malaysian school girl stayed at my house for a week and one of her ambitions was to try skiing in Japan, but there was very little snow even in the mountainous area. I was so sorry that she was not able to enjoy skiing.
　　However, it suddenly got as cold as usual today. I suppose that winter should be cold.

(Vocabulary)
El Nino  エルニーニョ現象

Blu-ray Recorder

　　After the hard disc recorder was broken two years ago, I've not replaced it and utilized the recording function of the tuner. It was not bad, but the tuner wasn't able to copy the contents into discs. Eventually I bought the up-to-date model of the Blu-ray recorder. I simply thought that the Blu-ray recorder has way more storage capacity than conventional hard disc recorders and it was the only merit of the Blu-ray.
　　When I heard the salesperson's explanation at the appliance dealer, I was amazed at the marvellous functions. The Blu-ray recorder which I chose records automatically all the programs of 6 channels all day and keeps them for 2 weeks in addition to programs which I recorded individually.
　　Another function which attracted me was to be able to watch the recorded programs with my tablet or smartphone everywhere in the globe as long as I'm connected to the net. It's really wonderful. I record educational programs associated with four languages, English, German, Chinese, and Korean. Then I watch them in my office in various bits of free time. This practice is very handy for people like me who don't have enough time to sit in front of the TV.

Ungewöhnlicher Vorfall

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein gutes neues Jahr!

Meine in Tokyo lebende Tochter ist nach Hause heimgekommen und wir haben ein ruhiges Jahresende und -anfang mit der ganzen Familie und meinen Eltern verbracht.

Nun, wie warm es jetzt ist! Diese Wärme ist für Januar nicht normal. Jedes Skigebiet hat aus Mangel an Schnee finanzielle Schwierigkeiten. Man vermutet, die ungewöhnliche Wärme stammt vom El Nino. Der Wettervorhersage nach scheint es am Wochenende kälter zu werden, aber wie wird das Wetter?

Das Auto mit Winterreifen ausgestattet, warte ich auf Schnee.

New Year's visit to a temple

　　At the instant when the year turns new my family stays home together and exchanges new year's greetings and then goes to bed. Though it has been an untold rule, I was invited to the New Year's midnight visit to a temple and a party after the visit. My wife didn't want to visit a temple at midnight, so I joined them alone. It comes naturally to even ordinary Japanese people to visit a shrine or temple at the beginning of the new year. However, I've never visited them at midnight.
　　I couldn't even anticipate what's going to happen in a temple at midnight. The temple which we visited was Yasakaji Temple, the 47th temple of Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage. At about 23:30 hours the Buddhist priests started to blow conch shells. I'm not sure, but it must have a certain religious importance. Then the visitors started to toll the bell, which should be originally tolled 107 times within a passing year and one more in a new year, but the priests seemed to allow all the visitors to toll the bell. I also tolled the bell once and prayed for the happiness of people all over the world in the main building of the temple.
　　After the New Year's visit, we had a party. One of us was a professional pianist, who played for us, "When You Wish Upon a Star", and the host was a stickler for serving high quality wines to guests. He was also a good cook. We enjoyed chatting, nice live piano music, nice dishes and wines. The picture shows a Louis Roederer crystal champagne 2006, which was served first.

(Vocabulary)
除夜の鐘を英辞郎で調べると
the bells on New Year's Eve
とあったが、これだけでは伝わらないだろうなあ
conch shell　ホラ貝
ホラ貝を吹くって、、、blow or play?

YCE (Youth Camp Exchange)

　　YCE is one of the activities of the International Lions Club, which aims to initiate young people to experience another country's culture. They stay in an unfamiliar country and live communally with foreign people. Then, consequently, they will learn to respect the difference between each other. My youngest daughter was dispatched to the Netherlands two years ago by the YCE program, and I felt her personal growth when she came back.
　　I'm not sure about the details, but the YCE headquarters of the International Lions Club sounded the headquarters of Shikoku out in November about the possibility of welcoming two high school students from Malaysia. FYI, Shikoku is the fourth biggest island of Japan, and its population is 4,14 million. After consideration, Matsuyama Chuo and Matsuyama Minami Lions Club were set as the host club for them. Two students were supposed to spend two weeks in Kyushu and then move to Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku and stay there for two weeks. Thus, a Malaysian high schoolgirl was to stay in my house for a week. My wife was worried about food, wondering if she was a Muslim or not. According to her short profile from the headquarters, she was Catholic. We were all relieved at the news.
　　They flew into Matsuyama City on Dec. 13th and their welcome party was held on the next day. Pictures show their self-introduction and the funny performance of Mochitsuki, rice-cake pounding. I hope their stay in Japan will be a great experience for them.

(Vocabulary)
sound sb/sth ↔ out ＜人・組織など＞の考えを探る［聞き出す］, に打診する, ＜考えなど＞を探る
sound sb ↔ out about/on sth ＜…＞について＜人・組織など＞の考えを探る［聞き出す］

YCE (Japanese　日本語のサイト)
http://www.lionsclubs.org/JA/our-work/youth-programs/youth-camp-and-exchange/

Jugendaustausch

　　Ich bin dem Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club angehörig. Der dient der Gemeinschaft auf verschiedenen Feldern und eins davon ist der Jugendaustausch. Dieser ist die Tätigkeit, die Jugend durch das Netzwerk des Klubs in Ausland die Möglichkeit zu bieten, mit Familien zusammenzuleben oder andere Kulturen zu erleben.
　　In diesem Monat wird eine Oberschülerin aus Malaysien zu Besuch kommen und für eine Woche bleiben. Ich freue mich, sie zu sehen.

松山中央ライオンズクラブに在籍している。いろいろな奉仕活動をしているが、そのひとつにＹＣＥがある。これはライオンズクラブのネットワークを使っていろいろな国から若者に集まってもらって共同生活をさせたり、また派遣された国の文化に触れさせる活動で、１２月に我が家へマレーシアから高校生が来ることになった。我が家への滞在は１週間。どのような高校生がやってくるのか、今から楽しみだ。

 https://www.lions.de/lions-youth-exchange

 

Nuclear Disaster Drill

　　Do you know a technical term, "UPZ; Urgent Protective action planning Zone", whose concept was established by IAEA and it indicates the area within approximately a 30km radius from an atomic power plant. The government is strongly required to bolster countermeasures against nuclear disasters in UPZ.
　　My office is located within this UPZ of Ikata Atomic Power Plant and I had to attend the practice session concerning the emergency treatment for nuclear polluted people last year (link). Today, the nuclear disaster drill was carried out in a fairly wide area. As soon as news about the nuclear plant accident came to my office, all the staff members shut all the windows and ventilation fans. That's all we did, but people who lived close to the plant underwent pollution checks and were actually evacuated to even Kyushu by ferries or Navy vessels.
　　Lots of people were killed or went missing by the tsunami in the Great East Japan Earthquake, but nobody was killed by the radiation itself. The seven services of the bullet train, which were on their highest speed, stopped safely when the earthquake broke out. Japanese people have learnt much every time they suffered huge disasters after recorded history. I believe Japan's atomic power plants will be far safer by this unprecedented disaster.
　　The picture of the plant was taken by myself when I visited Okinawa in March this year.

(Vocabulary)
the Great East Japan Earthquake 東日本大震災



http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2014/01/nuclear-hazard.html

Star Wars Exhibition

　　Since its first installment, the Star Wars series has been popular also in Japan and I watched the first one in a movie theater in my student days. Its newest installment will be reportedly released soon in Japan. As a probable promotion of the movie, the Star Wars Exhibition was opened in the Ehime Prefectural Museum.
　　Props and costumes that had been actually used in the movies were displayed and those gadgets reminded me of my younger days when I watched the movie. I found a costume of R2D2, which was a short human-like-hearted robot and an essential character of the movie, and I was surprised to see it, because I assumed that R2D2 was a real robot controlled by radio. Judging from the existence of the costume, someone must have been in the costume. Taking pictures was not allowed and I don't have any pictures of the exhibits. It's really regrettable. I just took some pictures in the lobby.
　　Plus another story about an SF movie. Do you remember a movie "Back to the Future"? This year 2015 is the year that was set in the movie as the future. I recalled that I had wondered how I would be after 30 years in 1985. I got a picture which was cut out of the movie on the net, and I'll show you it below.

Peanuts

　　My office is located in a small fishery-farming town. Most of the patients who consult me are engaged in these primary industries. Some of them bring a gift to me, expressing their thanks. Their gift is various vegetables or seafood like sweet potatoes, cucumbers, oranges, fishes, and so on. A patient gave me peanuts which will be shown below. She raised and roasted them. They were warm when I received them. As you see them, they look not so good, but the taste was great.
　　While I'm on the subject of peanuts which a patient gave me today, I recalled my childhood. My maternal late grandmother often roasted peanuts which she cultivated herself for her grandchildren. It's the story of about a half century ago. The smile of my grandmother came to my mind with the lingering rustic taste of peanuts.

Winter Is Coming

　　The winter rolled around in a relatively warm region of Nagahama in which my workplace is located. A unique natural phenomenon sometimes takes place in the early and cold morning under a clear sky in the town. I got up early and I climbed up the hill behind my office today to take a movie of this phenomenon. I'll upload it below and you can see it! You can see the cloud or fog bank flowing from the mountainous region to the sea. It's like a river of fog.
　　When this phenomenon appears, it suggests the winter is just around the corner. Days with strong cold winds increase and  infections will break out. It leads to a sudden rush of my business.

(Vocabulary)
bank: a large mass of clouds, mist etc:
a fog bank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJBUXNXmqM&feature=youtu.be 

Relay Marathon

　　I joined the Ojoka relay marathon. It became popular and now might be called a seasonal event of my hometown. Facing the rapid increase of applicants, the organizer decided to hold the event for two days. The first day was for groups of friends and the second was for workplace teams. My team was made up from members of the Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club and their friends. We were assigned to the first day. In the relay marathon several runners ran a circuit of 1.5km in turn with a sash in which an IC tip was sewn for recording the time and the lap numbers. I'm carrying it in the following picture. It was a good exercise and the get-together at night was a lot of fun.

(Vocabulary)
sash たすき
hand one's sash to the next runner  次の走者にたすきを渡す.

Sports Day

　　My workplace is adjacent to a primary school where kids from 6 to 12 years old learn. Today is Sunday and the school is routinely off, but it's bustling with loud marches and cheers outside. Climbing up on the roof, it was the sports day of the school. Lots of kids, their families, and local people got together and were enjoying seeing kids' performances or doing exercises themselves under the clear sky. I took pictures of the scenes from the roof. Though lots of strives happen around the globe, this village is far from those bloody issues.
　　Seeing a kid who was fairly behind in the 100 meter run, I recalled my own childhood. I was poor at gymnastic exercises and hated to run, but was able to learn the emotion of losers. I cheered in my heart "Hang in there! Boy!" May the era those kids enter be better and more peaceful than the present age.
　　However, what makes me uneasy at present is their injuries. If someone got hurt, he will be sure to be taken to my consulting room.

My Trip and Jinx

　　"Jinx"; this word has been introduced into Japanese and is used prevalently in daily life. Thumbing through the results of the search of sentences including "jinx" on the net, apparently "jinx" is used only in a bad situation. However, the Japanese word "jinx" is used on good occasions too. As for me, I make it a rule to eat natto, fermented soy beans, before serious operations, which is my good jinx to avoid the patients' death on the operation table.
　　I'm often called "Ame-otoko" by my friends, which is literally "rainman". When I set out for trips or start something or join events, there is a distinct possibility that I will get rained on. I want to deny the fact, but I feel that it's true.
　　The first day in Hokkaido was heavily rainy and windy. On arriving at Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, I found my plane in a torrential rain and several train services were suspended. The service to today's destination of Otaru City was operated at a lower speed, but was better than being suspended.
　　We couldn't dine out on a seafood dish, one of the specialties of Otaru City, due to the severe weather conditions. We ended up having dinner in a restaurant in the same building as our hotel, which had very little to be said for it. My wife said to me, "You are surely a rainman." I'll show you the picture of the T.V. screen with the weather forecast.

Awa-odori Dance

　　Awa-odori Dance is one of the most popular summer events of Japan. It's held in Tokushima Prefecture, next to my prefecture, Ehime, but I've never seen it live. I've heard that the origin of the dance dates back to the late Edo period, 18th century. There are other theories, of course, but it's true that the dance came from a rather old era. To add a comment, videos or photos didn't exist in those days and so the original melodies, rhythms, and movements don't accurately come down to the present. The movement of the present Awa-odori dance was designed to encourage disappointed people after World War 2nd.
　　The Awa-odori dance has two types of movement, which are called men-type, and women-type respectively. Men never dance in the women-type way, but women are allowed to dance in the men-type way. The movement of the dance is humorous or funny, but dynamic in men, and charming in women at the same time.
　　Tokushima City, the capital city of Tokushima Prefecture, is swarming with local people and lots of sightseers during the period of the dance, from Aug 12th to 15th. The hotels are naturally fully booked. I asked the travel agency to get a room on the final night in April far in advance and enjoyed the dance with my wife and daughters. It was a lot of fun.

Destroyer Abukuma

　　I drove my car to Yawatahama City with my father. The Destroyer Abukuma was open to the public in the city as one of the PR activities of the Japan Self-Defence Force(JSDF). Japanese people extremely hate warfare and weapons due to being brainwashed by the Japanese Constitution drafted by  General Douglas MacArthur and his subordinates. Ordinary people have not thought of the JSDF since its establishment, but not now. Arrogant Chinese behaviour has completely woken us Japanese up. The number of visitors to the exhibition was seemingly at a record high.

Eggplant

　　To level with you, I've never raised plants in my life, though I turned 56 this year. I'm such a person, but I decided to try to grow eggplants today.
　　My friend runs a plant nursery as an associate and I visited the shop to see how it operated. I found there a cluster of nursery stocks of various kinds on display. The nursery stocks of eggplants were among them. I like eggplants whether pickled or roasted or cooked in another way. It said, planted in summer and harvested in autumn! I found myself taking it to the cashier.
　　I didn't have enough skills for farming, but I knew it needs special soil at least. I dropped in at a do-it-yourself store to get the best soil for eggplants. I was not able to select one due to a lack of technical knowledge, so how, do you think, I chose the soil? I picked a package on which a picture of an eggplant was printed.
　　I'll show you pictures of the nursery stock of eggplants and a package of soil below. When I'm able to raise eggplants successfully, I'm sure to upload pictures of them. If you don't see my report of eggplants in the blog, you can safely assume that I failed.

(Vocabulary)
plant nursery 　種苗店
associate / partner 　共同出資者
operate [自]〈会社・企業などが〉操業する, 営業する
The company operates in more than 50 countries. その会社は50か国以上で営業している．
[他]〈会社・企業など〉を運営する, 経営する
His family operated a corner drug store. 彼の家族は小さなドラッグストアを経営していた．
nursery stock 苗木
do-it-yourself store ホームセンター
leal soil/mold 　腐葉土