Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

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

 

Anniversary of The End of The War

　　August 15th rolled around again. Showa Ten-noh declared the defeat of the Great East Asian War on this day in 1945. This day is deeply engraved in the mind of most Japanese, though the official signing day was Sept. 2nd. Since then, the Japanese have been brainwashed by biased historical education, but now lots of Japanese people came to learn the real history and became proud of being a Japanese.
　　There is a shrine called "Gokoku" in every prefecture. "Gokoku" means the protection of the country and numerous people who lost their lives for the sake of Japan are honored in the shrine. I was going to visit Gokoku shrine in my hometown, but I was afraid to be close to other people in the grounds. Then, I visited the Army's graveyard in my neighborhood to avoid crowded circumstances. I expressed my sincere gratitude for the present peaceful environment in my hometown.

Heavy Rainfall

　　Heavy rain has been continuing across Japan like in the rainy season, which is from June to mid-July in a usual year. A part of Kyushu got devastated by a landslide and inundation above the floor level.
　　This abnormal weather is said to continue for a week judging from the pressure pattern. It seems timely for the Government which requests its nationals to refrain from going out for nonessential and nonurgent business, but the expansion of damage is concerning.
　　The sectors of transportation, sightseeing, hotels, restaurant business, and so on are already suffering hardship. Then, this heavy long-lasting rain is added. I hope that they will survive the hardship and live up to the expectation of people who are itching for a chance to set out for trips.
　　I got an e-mail today from the organization consisting of all the hotels in the Dogo Onsen Spa area, which is the most popular tourist spot in my hometown of Matsuyama City. They asked me to assist in the mass vaccination, which is scheduled next Thursday, of the staff members of tourism industries in Dogo Onsen Spa. I replied OK promptly.

(Vocabulary)
inundation 浸水, 氾濫(はんらん)
live up to sth [句動詞]《受け身形不可》＜期待など＞に添う
The movie didn't really live up to expectations. その映画は実際のところ期待はずれだった．
be itching to do sth (inf) ＜…＞したくてうずうずしている
be itching for sth (inf) ＜…＞が欲しくてたまらない

 

Cancellation of My Trip

　　I had a plan to visit Hokkaido this summer vacation to see my youngest daughter. She works in a hospital in Hokkaido as a resident and she is a postgraduate student of Oxford at the same time. She temporarily came back from the U.K. last summer avoiding the pandemic in the U.K., and she is going to re-visit and stay in the U.K. for at least two years. If the pandemic should cease next summer, I'm sure to visit Oxford next summer vacation with my wife, but its possibility might not be high. We'd like to see her in Hokkaido, but we had to give up the plan due to the surge of the Wuhan virus infection.

 

Car Dealer Tour

　　My daughter's couple who got married last February are going to buy a brand new car. It's the first time for them to buy one and they asked me to accompany them to the dealers. They've already narrowed down the option to two cars, but they are wondering which of them to buy. They are thinking of an SUV whose price varies from $30000 to $40000. I know the cars manufactured by the Japanese companies are generally wonderful. Additionally, I admired the progress of the driving assistance system of each company.
　　The systems of both cars were superior to the Mercedes SLK200's, which I bought 5 years ago. The system was installed only in expensive cars those days, but the system is now provided to ordinary popular cars. Amazing! For instance, when another car approached my car from diagonally behind, my SLK200 alarmed me by the blinking of the light imbedded in the door mirror of the car-coming side. If I didn't notice the alarm and tried to change lanes toward its side, the car set off the alarming sound and added the resistance to the steering wheel to hinder my operation. When I knew these functions, I was astonished by its progressiveness. Naturally, those functions were expensive five years ago, but now such functions have become essential to most cars.

(July 22nd)

My First Granddaughter

　　My eldest daughter gave birth to a baby girl in March and the baby turned 4 months in July. She will be 5 months old soon. My daughter sends me and my wife the images and motion pictures of the baby almost every day. Her face varies day by day and I feel happy to view her faces. If the pandemic hadn't happened, I would visit Tokyo frequently to see my granddaughter.
　　I sent a 5-month birthday present to my granddaughter the other day. What do you think I sent? My present was "Weaning Food" for 5 and over month babies.

https://youtu.be/oGxtvsGqOYo

 

Depression

　　It might be due to the confinement that I feel depressed these days. I stopped all the exercise including jogging and muscular workout last December when I suffered an inguinal hernia. After the surgery in March, I finally feel better and I think I can do exercises from now, but it's sad that I can't visit various unfamiliar places.
　　My daughter who is a postgraduate of Oxford University is now working as a resident in a hospital in Hokkaido, taking lectures through the remote system from Oxford. When the university decided to utilize the internet technology to avoid the negative effect of the pandemic last year, she came back to Japan to avoid rapid expansion of the infection and to make money for her study. She is an ordinary student in the U.K., but a physician in Japan.
　　She will stay in the U.K. for at least two years from October again. As she might not have time to come back home, my wife and I planned to visit her in Hokkaido in August. To my surprise, however, the flight which we had booked was cancelled due to few passengers. Originally, in this season of the year, lots of people make trips, and travel-related industries should be on season in August. We were able to get alternative transportation, but I felt compassion for ANA, All Nippon Airways.
　　Anyway, my daughter had already lived two years in Oxford, and I don't worry about her life in Oxford, but what will become of the pandemic in the U.K. I've no other way but to send her off with a smile.

(Vocabulary)
compassion 哀れみ, 思いやり, 同情

Netflix

　　I'm under contract with Netflix and I admire it. When I have time, I can enjoy movies anytime and anywhere. The newly produced ones aren't on the list, but it's a question of time when those films are put on the list. I'm planning a camping trip using my car. See this link:

https://electrek.co/2018/07/31/tesla-party-camper-mode/

　　My car generates no poisonous gas and no noisy sound in operation, so it can function as an air-conditioner, the movie theater and electricity supply in an isolated site. I can't wait for camping with my granddaughter, who is only 4 months old now, though.

 

Wandering in My Memory

　　My wife and I took a drive to Misaki, which is located at the westernmost part of Shikoku. I spent 2 years there during my childhood. A regular liner connects this town and Saganoseki, which is the easternmost town of Kyushu. In other words, the liner operates between the shortest distance between Shikoku and Kyushu. I've often dropped in at this town on the way to Kyushu, but I've never got into the town itself. I just stayed at the pier for 20 minutes or so waiting for the ferry.
　　I sneaked into my beloved home today. Old narrow alleys and ruined houses whose active image I remembered evoked nostalgia. I came across the kindergarten which my youngest brother went to. I used to pick him up there. The kindergarten also had become one of the ruins. Faces of old friends came up to my mind. Faces which I remember were of 50 years ago. If I met them, I wouldn't recognize them. "How are they doing?" I uttered unconsciously.
　　We entered a famous restaurant, "Shirasu" Park. "Shirasu" is a kind of whitebait in English. I understood that the restaurant was usually so crowded, but today was a weekday and we were able to take seats outside. The "shirasu" bowl for my lunch was great.

(Vocabulary)
a regular liner 定期船
alley (alleyway とも) 路地, 裏通り

My Bed 3

　　My bed was delivered yesterday. I tried to lie on the various beds in the furniture store the other day and I selected this, a little hard one with a simple frame. The frame hasn't drawers and there is a space under the bed. The reason why I chose this frame was for the robotic cleaner, Roomba, to work smoothly. As I expected, the Roomba came to move smoothly in my room.
　　The hardness of the mattress was a nice fit for me. I was able to get a good sleep last night. It was very easy to get up from the bed. It would be helpful when I get older to avoid accidents from orthostatic hypotension.
　　However, I have one thing to solve. I wonder where I can put my things around my bed. I can buy bedside tables, but I would sometimes drop my things from the table being half asleep, but anyway, I should have had my bed much earlier.

(Vocabulary)
being half asleep 寝ぼけて

Weaning Ceremony

　　My wife flew into Tokyo this morning leaving me at home. If I can, I'd like to follow her, but I wasn't able to make my work schedule adjustments. Our first granddaughter was born in March, and she turned 100 days. There's a tradition to hold a weaning ceremony called "Okuizome" in Japanese at about 100 days after her birth. It celebrates the end of feeding milk and the start of eating the same food as adults, though actually milk feeding continues along with mushy pulpy food.
　　Sea bream, prawns, rice boiled with red beans, ,,,those are foods which are believed to be auspicious. They are laid out just before the baby, and each of them are touched to her lips. It's just a ritual, but our granddaughter is stepping one after another on the way of growth. This is our sheer joy.

(Vocabulary)
wean〈赤ん坊・動物の子〉 を離乳させる
wean sb off/from sth ＜人＞に＜…＞を徐々にやめさせる
She wanted to wean him off junk food. 彼女は彼がジャンクフードを食べるのを徐々にやめさせたかった．
be weaned on sth 幼いころから＜…＞に慣れ親しむ
the generation that was weaned on TV 幼いころからテレビに慣れ親しんだ世代
mushy どろどろした, (粥(かゆ)のように) 柔らかい
pulpy 〈食べ物などが〉 軟らかな, どろどろの

Indian Spicy Curry

　　My wife is out now attending the weaning ceremony of our first grandchild. It's the chance I was waiting for. For what? It's spicy Indian Curry day! I decided to have dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. My wife doesn't like spicy foods, but I love those. We can't go along with this point, so today is my day.

Care of My Parents

　　Today was taken for the care of my parents.
　　My mother has a serious dementia and is receiving good care in a nursing facility. A physician regularly visits the facility and takes care of inhabitants. As my mother broke her eyeglasses accidentally the other day, my brother and I took her to an eye doctor for the examination and the prescription of the eyeglasses. What she talks about was ambiguous and it was not easy to check her eyesight, but finally I got the prescription of her eyeglasses.
　　Then we took her to another facility in which my father is admitted. He is bedridden, but his cognitive ability is still maintained. Due to the pandemic, they weren't allowed to see each other face to face and their meeting was via iPad. Their meeting was after an interval of more than 6 months. To our grief, my mother didn't remember my father. Her symptom is called "mottled dementia". "Mottled" means, two phases of the normal and impaired cognition vary from time to time. The moment when she saw her husband would be in the impaired cognition phase. Her attitude would disappoint my father. My brother and I thought that it was our fault to take her to my father's facility.
　　After I sent her to her nursery home, I dropped in at my regular optician and asked to make her glasses from the prescription.

(Vocabulary)
mottled dementia まだら痴呆

 

My Bed 2

　　This entry is continued from the previous entry. I occupy one room in my house as my private room, but when I sleep, I move to another room, which is designed in a Japanese traditional style. My futon is laid out in this room. Fundamentally the futon must be folded and put into the closet every morning and it is laid out every evening. This make the room enabled to be used for other purposes than the bedroom. In my case, however, I leave it as it is. My wife hates this condition. She awfully loves cleanliness. My daughters are for her and completely against me. They seemed to keep me off from the Japanese style room no matter what.
　　I came to buy a bed in the long run and the bed is set to be placed in my private room. My wife and I visited a furniture shop, which has overwhelmingly lots of beds. I didn't decide which to buy, and proposed to get back and come again later, but my wife didn't allow me to retreat. When the salesperson knew the reason why I unwillingly had to buy a bed, she looked so happy with my story. Anyway I bought one and it will be delivered on 26th. I'll show you my bed later.

 

No Stock

　　I've sometimes written about a wine importer based in Osaka. A sales person of the company, whose main purpose is to find a new market in my hometown, drops in at my house about twice a year while he is in my hometown to sell wines to me. I'm a good customer for him over recent years. However, he wasn't able to come to my house this spring due to the restriction from the pandemic. Consequently, my wine stock ran out. As you may agree with me, you can't know the taste of wines by its labels or prices. That's why I make it a rule to get wines from him after tasting.
　　There's no other way and I got some bottles of wine at a nearby department store. The following picture shows one of them, which is produced in Kofu in Japan. It was not bad, but not the best for me. Finally I ordered the same wines online as I bought last time from my salesman.

https://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2020/11/wine-tasting-.html

 

Fun Driving

　　Today was a day-off and I went out for a drive to a restaurant located in the mountainous area. It was about an hour drive from my house. My car has no engines and is driven by electricity, which means the inside is very quiet. You can even hear the birds' sound during driving. Additionally, the car-driving assisted by its autopilot function was unspeakably comfortable.

My Bed 1

　　I've never used my own bed whole in my life. Are you surprised? When I stay at a hotel, I use it naturally, but I've never owned one myself. That doesn't mean I hate a bed and I'd rather like it than otherwise. The reason is very simple. A futon, Japanese traditional bedding, is usually laid out directly on the tatami mats. If I explain this condition with the western items, the surface of the bed and the floor will be at the same level. This make it possible to put my things around me when I'm on my futon. For example, books which I'm reading and my table lamp stand on my right side and a tissue box, a small waste basket, and a memo pad and something to write with on the left, and sometimes, drinks at the top to avoid spilling by my rolling over.
　　Imagine the scene. My wife says, "You are sleeping in the center of the garbage." My daughters also say that ironically. However, this situation is very handy to me. I can reach them anytime when I need to. You might think that I leave them as they are for a long time, but no. I move all those things around me onto the futon every Monday morning before work for my robotic cleaner. It automatically works at 18:00 hours every Monday just before my coming back. Don't you think it's wonderful?

(Vocabulary)
bedding (集合的に) 寝具; (動物が寝るための) 寝床, 敷きわら

Virtual Happy Hour

　　Just after my bath, I found a popular TV program on air. You are sure to wonder if the program is a fun one, but actually this program is popular in Japan. In the program, a poet just drinks and eats in small, friendly and neighborhood-based Japanese-style bars, chatting with other customers and employees. To tell the truth, my wife and I have come across him during a trip and I feel familiar with him since then. I came to want to drink with him and took out a Japanese sake bottle which was presented from my son-in-law.

https://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2015/09/encounter-peach-aviation-and-canadian-rouge.html

Lift Restriction

　　My hometown of Matsuyama City has been under strong restrictions on daily activity against the coronavirus pandemic. The health care system was strained to handle a rapid hike in coronavirus cases. Big commercial facilities had been closed for two weeks and the restaurants and bars in which alcoholic drinks were served were closed during the days of restriction. People who run those places would have gone through inconceivable difficulties. However, the cooperation of citizens seems to be very effective and the number of newly infected people has been decreasing. Finally, the authorities lifted the restrictions in my hometown yesterday. The shortening of the work hours is still imposed on restaurants, bars, or some places in which they serve alcoholic drinks, but I think that the present condition of my hometown is on the right track to normal.

(Vocabulary)
inconceivable 想像を絶する, 考えも及ばない

Golden Week

　　About consecutive 7 days - the number of the days depends on each year - from the end of April to the start of May are called "Golden Week". Lots of people will get free from their work and enjoy their own time across Japan. My family usually used to make a trip for some days so far, but things have changed this year. Yes, it's due to the epidemic of coronavirus. Taking my occupation into consideration, I'm never permitted to get infected. My wife finished daily shopping expeditions in a short time. It was to the mail box at the entrance that I went out of my house for the longest during the Golden Week.
　　I had assumed that I would be bored out of my mind during confinement into my house, but the time was not enough for my mundane work. I cleaned my room up thoroughly, and found old DVDs, pictures, and much rubbish which at least others would think so, but are precious for me with various memories. I checked each of those and I often stop to see them and wonder if I should throw them away or not. Anyway, my room recovered its tidiness after a long interval.