Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Matsuyama Station (JR)

     When I went to Okayama city by train the day before yesterday, I took this picture. It is Matsuyama Station of JR (Japan Railways). The weather was cloudy and the picture is not bright enough. The station is shabby for the scale of the city. Reconstruction of the station has been in the planning stage for these past 10 years. Things are not going well because of various factors.
     It takes the same amount of time (about 3 hours) to travel to Okayama city by train and by car. I usually use a car because I can start whenever I like, but I chose the train today.
     I had to stay 2 successive nights at my hospital. I got tired and a little sleepy. It was the reason why I chose the train. I fell asleep just after leaving and was jolted awake by a train conductor at Okayama station. I had 3 hours' good sleep. I recovered completely.

(Vocabulary)
shabby  ぼろぼろの, 使い古した, みすぼらしい
jolt
[自] 〈車両などが〉 ガタガタ揺れながら進む
[他] …をガタガタ揺さぶる
[他] 〈人〉 にショックを与える
jolt somebody into/out of something
＜人＞にショックを与えて＜…＞させる［をやめさせる］

A Wake-up Call

     My old friend came back to Okayama University as a professor this April, where we graduated from a quarter of a century ago. I was happy to hear that and went to Okayama city to see him and say "Congratulations!" We met for the first time in 25 years.
     We invited a teacher who taught us a lot of valuable lessons when we were university students. He is about 80, and has an eye problem. We felt sorry to see him because he was very active and passionate or crazy about many things; skiing, hunting, bowling, water-skiing, baking cakes and teaching young people,,,in those days. I had thought he would never get old.
     However, the story of my old friend was uplifting. He had gone to Indonesia for three years to study malaria just after getting his PhD in postgraduate school. In Indonesia he thought it was not enough to treat people one by one and he was eager to treat a whole area of people. He got to want to handle administration-related tasks. Consequently, he was warmly welcomed to the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry after his research in Indonesia.
     After a while, he was sent to Geneva as a WHO official. Finally he began to work on the frontiers of world hygiene science. He was going to work there the rest of his life, but Japan didn't permit his desire. He didn't talk about this, but I imagine that Japan needed his ability. AIDS, SARS, Bird Flu,,,. He might be in step with the times.
     We had a common acquaintance. In about 1996, a classy middle-aged lady visited my house. She was a former American diplomat and the wife of the WHO Secretary General. She had a strong interest in the Shikoku 88 temples pilgrimage and she was asking information about the pilgrimage using the CompuServe Bulletin Board Service. Shikoku is my home. I found her comments on the board but I just kept watching because I didn't have any confidence in CompuServe communications and I thought someone would help her. However, no one replied to her comments, so I tried to post my comment with my chin up for the first time. CompuServe was an American-based computer network service and very few Japanese access it, I thought.
     Anyway she actually came to Japan. I didn't know anything about her except her name until I met her. I had only imagined that she was a kind of young backpacker. So, when I met her for the first time, I was very surprised at her Japanese and gentleness. She could speak Japanese very fluently. "Why?" "My husband is Japanese. I was a diplomat and learned some languages." "Wow..!"
     My parents' house is big and Japanese-style and maybe attractive for Americans. I proposed that she stay one night with us if she wanted. She replied that she'd like to, but she had an appointment with Mrs. Hilary Clinton in Beijing the next day and had to leave here that day. I was at a loss for words. "Have a teatime with Mrs. Clinton?! Who is this lady?" That year was the International Women's Year and the international meeting was held in Beijing.
     I talked to my old friend about these stories in more detail. The world might not be so large as we think.
     He showed me the miserable situations of the Third World. I'd like to do something if I can. Now I have three ball-and-chains, I mean daughters! After they are independent, my time will come!
     This meeting was a wake-up call for me. I must be more and more trained.

(Vocabulary)
uplifting  (人を) 幸せな気分にする, 気持ち［精神］が高揚する（ような）
in step with  ～と歩調を合わせて［そろえて］、～とともに、～に一致して、～と調和して
leader who is in step with times  時代が求めるリーダー
walk with one's chin up  顔を上げて（明るく元気に）歩く
ball and chain 《常に単数形で》束縛, 足かせ; (囚人を拘束しておく) 鎖付きの鉄球, 足かせ; (ユーモラス) 夫［妻］, お荷物
trained 〈人が〉 訓練を積んだ
a trained nurse 訓練を積んだ看護師

(Key Words: Martha Nakajima, Shikoku 88 temples pilgrimage)

Shortness of Water

     I'd like to show you a graph of the changes in the Ishite-gawa Dam reservoir water.

     http://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/koeikigyo/water/graph1.html

    It's one of the pages in the municipal official website. It's written in Japanese and I'll try to explain it in English.
     The left longitudinal axis shows the rate of reservoir water. The vertical scale of it is written as a %. The right side is the amount of precipitation. The scale is in millimeters. The horizontal axis shows the month in each year.
     The blue line is the rate of reservoir water from April 2006 to March 2007. The Japanese fiscal year is from April to March. Anyway, the green line is in 1994, the drought year and the red line is this year. The bar chart of each color shows the precipitation of each month in each year. The stair-like line plot shows the average year.
     I think you can understand visually how serious our water supply situation is.

(Vocabulary)
precipitation  [C,U](専門) 降水（量）, 降雨［降雪］（量）
line plot 折れ線グラフ

Beautiful Morning, but...

     I got up at about 6:30 this morning. The weather is clear. I walked my dog as a matter of routine.
     My house is 15 minutes' drive away from the center of the city, but is surrounded by greenery. My hometown is about 500,000 in population and is not such a big city. The scenery in the morning around here is very beautiful. I've no words for describing it, especially after the rain in the leafy month of June. The weather forecast I heard last night was saying, "It will rain tomorrow morning. The chance of rain is 70% in the morning." I expected a lot of rain because we, the citizens of Matsuyama city, are short of water. However the rain seemed to stop very early in the morning.

     I'm afraid of what will happen this summer.

(Vocabulary)
as a matter of fact  実は、実を言うと［言えば］、実際のところ、何を隠そう
as a matter of courtesy  礼儀として、礼儀上
as a matter of course  当然のことながら、もちろん
as a matter of convenience  都合上、便宜上
greenery  青葉, 緑の草木
leafy  葉の多い, 葉の茂った; 〈町・公園などが〉 緑の多い, 緑豊かな

Low Pressure Service Water (LPSW)

     LPSW has just started today. The pressure of the water supply is being lowered from today. This is the first munincipal step to save water. It'll take a little longer to fill the bathtub, but it won't influence our daily life so much, the authorities say. I checked the website of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to see the status of the Ishite-gawa dam reservoir that supplies water to my city. Today's water storage rate is 53.8%, while it is 89.5% in an average year. We need a lot of water to plant rice just now. I'm afraid a drought has just started. If we didn't have enough rain now, we wouldn't be able to avoid cuts in the water supply. This summer is the season that we miss typhoons.

A Concern

     A former gangster who shot and killed a member of the Special Assault Team and injured a police officer, plus his own son and daughter, during a 29-hour hostage stand-off at his home in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, surrendered to police in the evening on May 18th.
     This incident occurred near my second daughter's apartment. It was three km away from her. I was so afraid that this incident might influence her life because two universities and two compulsory schools for kids are closed and many inhabitants were prohibited from going out for two days around the scene, but that concern luckily proved unfounded.
     I had free air tickets presented by ANA (All Nippon Airways) at that time. The next moment I found  myself making a reservation for a flight to Nagoya, my second daughter's city .
     I'm going to leave for Nagoya this afternoon.

A Drought

     The weather has been sunny or occasionally cloudy lately. I mean, we have little rain these days. Matsuyama city, my hometown, experienced a serious drought like ten years ago. The citizens had to survive on little water for a month in the summer of that year.
     I'm going to write about the situation at that time. The municipal swimming pools and all school pools were closed. All sports gyms closed their pools and shortened their working hours. Matsuyama city is famous as the city of hot springs, but all the hot springs facilities were closed too. I couldn't wash my cars. The water for the plants in my garden was cut short. I went back and forth many times between my bathroom and my garden with a bucket of water to feed the remains of the bathwater to the plants. I had to use the restroom water for the plants. All the swimming beaches were closed to save the shower water. Authorities cut the water supply for each household for the most part of the day. You know, I put a big bucket in the restroom in my house for flushing the toilet. Anyway, I had a hard time during the drought.
     It's rice planting season around my hometown. As you know, rice planting needs a lot of water. The water in the resorvoir will decrease this season. My hospital has its own water well that was drilled just after the heavy drought, but the underground water will decrease unless the rain comes. The surgery needs a lot of water. I'm afraid that a serious drought has come again.

     You can see the status of every reservoir around my hometown:
     http://www.river.or.jp/shikoku/dam-zu.gif  (It's described only in Japanese.)

(Vocabulary)
back and forth
前後に、あちこちへ［に］、行ったり来たり（して）、行きつ戻りつ、往復して

(KW:松山　大渇水)

Mocha Came Back

     Mocha came back from his school. He has been there for 2 months because of his bad behavior. He has been trained by a professional trainer who raises police dogs and service dogs, like guide dogs.
     The trainer told us, "He looks like he's under a spell and it isn't really him. It's important to keep him under this magic spell all the time. Petting him is completely different from spoiling him." Those are meaningful words.
     He got so calm with other dogs and people. It's fun to walk him in the early morning. It might be good medicine for my status. As I wrote before, I'm on the border between the metabolic syndrome and the normal range.
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/04/metabolic-syndr.html

(Vocabulary)
guide dog 盲導犬
under a spell  呪文で縛られて、魅せられて、言葉の呪縛にかかって
pet ～をかわいがる

Car Wash

     I took my car to the car washing station this afternoon. When I had my house built, I designed my garage myself and I meant to make it easy to wash cars. However I don't really feel up to washing my car myself. It took a lot of time and I feel it's rather a waste of my time. Washing cars is different from cleaning my room. I mean, anyone can wash my car. I sometimes ask someone to wash my car.
     The photo shows the inside of the car washing station which I often visit. You can see a PC, which is connected to the internet. I'm writing this entry on it. At the same time, I can read e-zines here over a cup of coffee. I have a Gmail account. I like the web mail because I can read and write e-mails anywhere like this.

(Vocabulary)
feel up to it
その気になる、気分が乗る◆通例、否定・条件・疑問の形で。

Lasik

     I've been studying the effects and side effects of Lasik, eye surgery for vision correction. My eyesight is failing and this is very inconvenient when I ski or ride a motorcycle and I want to enjoy various types of sunglasses.
     I fully understood, after two weeks' investigation, that Lasik is an extremely safe operation and very effective. I decided to have Lasik.
     Today I consulted an ophthalmologist near my hospital, taking an hour off. I wanted to have a second opinion from a specialist. He showed me some technical papers on the complications of the Lasik operation. Those complications occurred in only the early period of the introduction of Lasik surgery. I felt relieved to hear that. However, he added, "Is your work ok?". "What do you mean by that?", I answered. He continued that Lasik will give me better eyesight and I will feel refreshing and it will be good for outdoor activities, but it's only for far sight. I will need some pairs of glasses for the near and very near side. It might be inconvenient for my job. When working, my eyesight must be focused on around my hands when I stretch my arms for 5 or more continuous hours.
     At the last moment, I gave up having the eye surgery.

(Vocabulary)
vision correction  視力矯正
eyesight  視力、視覚; 見ること、視界、視野
fail  [自] 〈視力・健康などが〉 衰える
My father's eyesight is failing. 父の視力は衰えつつある．

Home Visitation By A Teacher

     The chief teacher of my youngest daughter visited my house today. My wife took a half day off and was home in the afternoon. The teacher took charge of her class this spring, so it was the first time for her to talk with him privately. He seemed to be a nice guy to talk to and seemed to look as if he had been around the block according to my wife.
     My wife heard about the daily activities of my daughter in her school and felt relieved. My daughter seems to be doing fine and enjoying school life.

(Vocabulary)
around the block  〔長く生きて〕人生経験を積んで、酸いも甘いもかみ分けた
have been around the block  経験を積んでいる

Rodeoboy2

     I got an exercise machine, rodeoboy2 that you can see in the photo. As I wrote before, I'm on the border of the metabolic syndrome. I decided to exercise with it. It doesn't make noise, so I can use it while watching a TV.
     Japanese electronics giant, Panasonic, manufactures the similar machine, joba, which means "riding a horse" in Japanese. It costs more than 1000 dollars. To tell the truth, I'd like to use it because joba has various moving patterns and has reliable evidence that it can reduce the weight. On the other hand, the price of rodeoboy2 is 200 dollars. Though the rodeoboy2 has no research data, the movement of it is similar to joba, so I bought it.
     Some of my friends are waiting for my report. If it turned to be effective, they are supposed to buy it.

My Daughter on Radio

     I was listening to the NHK radio program tonight. I was astounded to hear my eldest daughter's voice on the radio waves. The program is gathering Tanka (Japanese traditional poetry) from teenagers and criticizing them, then selecting the best one live. My daugher was one of the judges. It might be kind of a side job for her. Anyway, I have to ask her why she was in the NHK broadcasting station.

Change of Generation

     I went to my wife's parents' house today. My wife's mother passed away 15 years ago and her father 3 months ago, so their house was vacant after her father's death. My brother-in-law (my wife's brother) moved to the house today. My wife and I helped them out all day. http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/01/my-father-gone.html

     When my wife's parents were fit and well, my family stayed at their house a few days a year, especially in the summer, because the climate is cool and comfortable. We have left my wife's goods that she had been using in her single days. My family was using her room after our marriage when we visited the parents' house. However, there wouldn't be many more times to visit the house from now. We took them back to my house today. Is the change of generation always like this?
     A lot of goods that my wife's father had been using got to be done away with. His clothes, shoes, furniture and daily necessities, all such kind of stuff will be thrown away. Is the change of generation always like this?
     A tatami mat is enough for a man to lie on, a half is enough to sit on. This is a Japanese proverb that implies that we must be modest, never arrogant. No man can carry his own stuff to heaven.
     Today was the day I was obliged to think about many things deeply.

(Vocabulary)
do away with　〔不要な物を〕処分する、捨てる、排除する　〔制度などを〕廃止する

A Fire

     A fire broke out near my hospital today. It was about noon. My hospital is located in the heart of the city and the streets were heavily packed with business people going out for lunch. The fire occurred in a building that was being pulled down, so the damage was not so much, I think. The building is at the busiest corner in the city. There is the headquarters of the main local bank and the branch of the Japan National Bank at the opposite side of the corner. This intersection was locked for a couple of hours. It was like a scene from a movie. It was the first time I had seen an aerial ladder truck actually working. A firefighter was on the top of the ladder, at about the 8th-10th floor level. I'm scared of heights. I admired him.

(Vocabulary)
aerial  航空機からの, 空からの; 空中にある, 空中を動く
aerial photographs  航空写真

(KW:シャトーテル松山)

Trash Collection Site

     It has been warm recently, but today was cold and rainy. It was snowing in the mountains, a 2 hours' drive from here. It's fairly unusual. Various forms of highly unusual weather have been occuring worldwide. I feel gloomy about the abnormal climate.
     Today is paper garbage collction day. We must separate recyclable from non-recyclable trash. We have to put paper trash into a paper bag and bind it with paper lines. It is prohibited to put it into plastic shopping bags or cardboard boxes, because they are not disposed of in the same way as paper. I'm afraid that the paper trash will gain weight absorbing the rain today.
     The other day, I got an e-mail from the UK. It seems that all the trash is not burned up and thrown into the landfill in the UK. Consequently, they don't have to separate the trash in the UK. I was surprised to hear that. I'm not sure, but the UK has a certain reason why they don't burn it up.
     On the other hand, in the case of Germany, I sometimes post entries at a couple of German blogs. The owner of one of those blogs kindly reads and corrects my writing in German. He told me about the collection of garbage in Germany. There are some kinds of containers in front of each house, with a larger container for apartments or dormitories. People throw garbage into the containers according to the rules; burnable or non-burnable and what it is made from. Which reminds me, I've seen such trash containers at Whistler in Canada. These containers can prevent the trash from getting wet on rainy days and keep bears or birds away from us. I think it's good, but I don't like to see those dirty containers all the time.
     The photo shows the waste collection site that my family uses. It is just across the street from my house. It is raining today. Though the trash is wet and looks like a mess, it will be collected until 9 o'clock in the morning and the site will be tidy.

(Vocabulary)
gloomy  憂鬱(ゆううつ)な, 重苦しい
line 綱, ひも, 糸, ロープ
She was hanging laundry on the line. 彼女はロープに洗濯物を干していた．
dispose of sth
＜始末に困るものなど＞を処分［処理］する, 始末する
How did he dispose of the body? 彼はどうやって死体を始末したのだろう

(KW:ゴミ　分別収集　再利用)

Seeing Mocha

     All my family went to see my dog, Mocha, who lives in the training school. It was the first time in 20 days. I found he had become more friendly. It was fun for me to talk with his trainers. I realized that the experts know best. Better leave it to a specialist.
     When I left the school, I was missing him. He's going to come back at the end of this month. I'm looking forward to seeing him.

See also;
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/03/mocha-go-to-sch.html

Long Distance Express Bus

     Though Japan is a small country, there is a long distance express bus network between big cities and medium-sized local cities. You can move by bus from Matsuyama city (my hometown) to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Kyoto and vice versa. All of them are scheduled to leave at night and arrive at their destination in the morning. As you can see, the passengers sleep in the bus. They can work in the daytime. The transportation fee is set a little lower than that of any other transportation company. I've never used those buses, because I thought I couldn't sleep well in the bus. The vibration and the noise of the engine and tires would disturb my peaceful sleep. It's true that we can save time, but I like to see the scenery from the window of trains in the daytime or like to move by plane in a short time.
     However, my wife doesn't hate long rides on buses. She tried to use the bus. She left for Nagoya at 7:30 in the evening on Friday and came back at 9:30 in the morning on Sunday. That is to say, she arrived at Nagoya city at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday and left at 10:30 in the evening. She spend the daytime with our second daughter. It seemed that the bus was equipped with a restroom and more comfortable than she expected. She said to me, "Why don't you try it?"

(Vocabulary)
vice versa　〈ラテン語〉逆に、逆もまた同様、反対に

(KW:高速バス)

Go On or Come Off

     I've been to Nagoya city with my family for 2 days. I set up a new residence for Yuri, my second daughter. I received the room key from the real estate agent and the goods from the movers. Though I and my wife wanted to stay there a couple of days longer, we have jobs, so we had to come back to Matsuyama city on Sunday night.
     The accident happened on the way to Nagoya. There was a three-car pileup on the expressway just before the Takarazuka Interchange. I came off the highway with a moment's thought having seen the jammed traffic ahead. My car is equipped with a navigation system. I didn't worry about getting lost though I was stranger around there. About an hour later, I looked up and found the traffic getting better when we were in the midst of the traffic jam. Because too many cars went out of the express way and went onto the national road, a new traffic jam occurred. The national road was small, so the capacity was limited. We wasted 2 hours there. If I had stayed on the highway, the loss time would have been within an hour. We were so exhausted.

(Vocabulary)
pileup　(車の) 玉突き［多重衝突］事故

Eri Came Back

     My eldest daughter, Eri, came back home today. She lives in Tokyo and attends a big name university. She usually uses airplanes, but this time she came back by train.
     I'll introduce a unique ticket of JR (Japan Railways). JR is the biggest railway company in Japan. They issue a "Youth 18 ticket", which she used this time. It contains the word "youth", but anyone can utilize this ticket, even aged people.
     JR has various types of trains. Some of them request additional tickets, for example an express ticket, a super-express ticket, a berth ticket,,,etc. "Youth 18 ticket" is only for ordinary trains except these trains. Ordinary trains stop at every station and take more time than express trains, so "Youth 18 ticket" is for people who have enough time. When we turn 18, we graduate from high school and some go on to universities or technical colleges. Generally speaking, they are not rich, but have a lot of time. JR wants them to travel across Japan. 18 of the "Youth 18 ticket" is named this way. As far as using ordinary trains, you have only to get one "Youth 18 ticket" per day.
     Eri utilized this ticket this time. Direct flights between Tokyo and Matsuyama cost 25000 yen, but a "Youth 18 ticket" is only 1600 yen. She saved big money. She left her dormitory at about 4 o'clock in the morning and got on the train at the nearest station at about 4:30. She ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the train and finally reached Matsuyama city just before the date changed.

(Vocabulary)
berth   (船・列車などの) 寝台