Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Dinner

　　Every meal is one of the most attractive events on the cruise trip. Particularly for my wife, she was keen to have it. I was asked by her to take pictures of dishes and to keep menus for future reference. She is a good cook and my everyday meal might be even better from this experience. However, waiters and waitresses weren't fully able to understand Japanese. They were from the Philippines. They could only use minimal Japanese words for serving. My wife wanted to ask something about dishes like its ingredients, cooking techniques, but they couldn't answer them at all. They didn't know the names of the materials in Japanese. There's two restaurants on the ship and another restaurant was for upper class passengers. Our restaurant was for the lower class, which was one of the reasons for such people to serve us. I asked one of the waitresses some questions in English. She knew what I meant, but she was not educated about the detail of dishes. If I were the captain of the ship or the manager of the company, I would strictly train them.
　　After dinner, we took a brief walk around the ship. There were shops, amusement facilities, bars, a beauty salon, laundry, pool, movie theater, library, tea ceremony room, etc. We could also enjoy the night view of the west coast of Hokkaido.

Evacuation Exercise & Bon Voyage Service

　　All the passengers were required to get together on the promenade deck on the 4th floor. It was the first announcement from the captain, which was about the evacuation exercise. Following his advice, my wife and I went up to the promenade deck. The place where we had reached was the 2nd lifeboat station as the following picture shows. Our boarding pass said that our boat was No.4 on the port side and we were guided to the 4th station by a crew member. Then we listened carefully to the evacuation siren. If we heard it during the cruise, that means, we were requested to be ready here to leave the ship with a lifejacket on. After we listened to the crew's lecture here, we attended the departure ceremony preformed on the opposite side.
　　Bon Voyage Service, which I heard for the first time. I didn't know what it meant. When we looked down on the starboard side, a glass of champagne was served on the deck with paper streamers. I took a green one and threw it to the land. As you see in the pictures, a local band of traditional musicians played something for our security during the cruise.
　　Now, coming back to our room and reading the day's bulletin carefully, we talked about what, when and where we should do this night.

(Vocabulary)
port side 左舷, 左側 (反）starboard side
streamer (飾りに用いる) 色テープ

 

Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery

　　Actually I'm writing this entry on Sep. 19th after coming back home. This year the terms from Sep. 19th to Sep 23rd is called "Silver Week" and are consecutive holidays. This naming is from not being longer successive holidays than "Golden Week", which is from the end of the April to May 5th. My colleagues set out for their vacation trips and I have to be cooped up in my office all day for the period of the silver week. I'll finish the story of my trip in this term.
　　Coming back from Kamuimisaki to Yoichi again, I took my car to the shop and visited Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery, which I visited last year with my motorcycle friend and left something undone. At the distillery they serve visitors a variety of alcoholic drinks for free or at minimal costs. I couldn't try to taste them, because I had to ride my scooter last year, but not so this time. I tried several kinds of their products, and one more! You can see it in the picture, a Japanese dish "Shabu-shabu", thinly-sliced tender beef and various vegetables cooked in a brass pot, usually served with a few kinds of dipping sauce. The ingredients are usually boiled in hot water, but they are boiled in whisky and wine here. I was eager to try one. If it was served in an ordinary restaurant, it would cost a lot. Here in the distillery, there must be lots of wine and whisky to throw around. Additionally one thing, an apple brandy "Hirosaki" 12 years! I bought it last year and liked it. I searched it on the net, but it was limited only for the visitors of the distillery. However, the brandy was sold out and I couldn't get it. I asked them to deliver it.
　　The answer to the question which I asked you in the previous entry why I didn't rent a car in Otaru City is for tasting various kinds of whiskies and brandies. I went back to Otaru City by train from Yoichi.
　　At Yoichi Station I noticed that my Suica money was short for the fare to Otaru City. Suica is one of the electronic payment systems operated by East Japan Railway Company. As for me, the system is installed in my smartphone. The money is sent from my VISA card to the smartphone and the sum of money was paid by VISA, which is naturally added to Airline mileage points. It's advantageous compared to cash payment. In such case, I immediately move money from VISA to Suica, but I'd locked myself out of my Suica accounts. I couldn't remember my password due to the effect of alcohol. My wife's ironical comments were a pain to my ears.

Morning Walk

　　The first picture shows Otaru Station from my room. The rain eased off in the early morning and finally stopped during my preparation for walking. I enjoyed walking in the street. Otaru City used to be the starting point of the development of Hokkaido in the Meiji Era, the 19th century, and so there are lots of historic buildings. Storage facilities along the Otaru canal are one of the best tourist attractions in the city. This area will be swarming with tourists in the daytime. I saw a patrol ship of the Japan Coast Guard, which was equipped with an automatic cannon. The patrol ships around my hometown are generally smaller and are designed for policing the illegal fishery. The automatic cannon reminded me of the city facing Russia and North Korea.
　　While walking, the sun appeared in the clouds and I was surprised to see the sun. Because Otaru City is located on the west coast of Hokkaido, I assumed that you couldn't see the rising sun from the city. It's the city where you can see the sunset. I examined the map elaborately and understood the precise location of the city.
　　Breakfast was included in the hotel fee and it was really gorgeous, though the hotel fee was not so high. Otaru was really the city of seafood as I had expected. Soon after breakfast, we left for Yoichi town by train.

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

Ehime Maru

　　After departing from Hiburijima Island, our boat dropped in at a tiny island and a clam farming site. I'll show you pictures of clams called "hiougigai", which were served to us near the farm. The 2-hours reaches around Uwajima City are well-known as its fishery products. These clams are one of them.
　　Japan is usually seen as a developed country which has the cutting edge in various departments. The young people have the tendency to shy away from getting into the primary industry, but it's not the case around here. In Japan's educational system, everyone has to finish the compulsory 9-year schooling. Then you can choose courses as you like. Not a few students here go up to the fishery school. Do you remember the collision of the fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru and the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Greeneville in 2001? Then the Ehime Maru started here and now lies on the sea bottom off-shore of Hawaii. It was on the education voyage for learning deep-sea fishing.
　　Its replacement was built later and I saw it moored at the port on the way back. I'll upload its picture. The story of the accident has been passed down to the present and the memorial service has been held every February when the accident happened.

hiougigai

Hiburijima Island, My Spiritual Home

　　Our boat proceeded toward Hiburijima, the farthest island from Uwajima City, on slightly high waves. Hiburijima Island is located far out of the indented coastline and is directly hit by the rough waves from the Pacific Ocean. The bay of the island, however, is guarded from them and the surface is usually like a mirror.
　　After landing on the island, we climbed up a hill to see Sumitomo Memorial Park. It has been said for a long time that Hiburijima used to be the home of the pirate Sumitomo Fujiwara in the first half of 10th century. No evidence has been found that indicates the historical facts, but the tradition extends to the present. There's a roughly-made stone wall ruin, which must have been built by humans, and it is thought to be the ruin of the pirate's castle. I wondered why the educational board or a body like that doesn't embark on some exploration.
　　Sumitomo Memorial Park is located on the top of a small hill behind my primary school which I had attended from 7 to 9 years old. As the collateral evidence of its site of the pirate's castle, the prospect from the top was great! The scenery around the school has remarkably changed from that of 48 years ago, but the school stood in the same place.
　　Lots of trees prevented me from viewing the school itself, but I was able to see the playground. Numerous memories came up to my mind. Looking at the off-shore of the school, there were many fish farm tanks floating in the sea. Can you find two types of tanks in the pictures? Square ones are for yellowtails, sea breams, and other fish of such sizes. Circular or oval ones are for tuna up to middle sizes. Some of them will be transferred to another huge tank later. Thanks to the culture technique, the originally high-priced tuna became affordable fish.
　　I got back to the boat 10 or so minutes earlier than other members and took a short walk around my former playing sites. I felt that everything has become small and realized how long the 48 years were. I remembered that my 2-year-old brother had developed encephalitis in Hiburijima, but there was no clinic. He was immediately taken to Uwajima City by fishery boat and had a narrow escape without any after effects. He is now a known journalist.
　　Turning 9 years old, my family moved to another isolated place, Misaki Town, the western point of Shikoku. Misaki was also a deserted small fishery town. Thinking back to the old days, these two places seemingly made me start a new chapter of my life, i.e. I made up my mind to become a physician through the inconvenient and medically unsafe life in Hiburijima and Misaki. Hiburijima island and Misaki Town would be apparently called my spiritual home.

(Vocabulary)
spiritual home 　心のふるさと
collateral evidence 　傍証

Tojima Island

　　On the way to Tojima Island, our boat hove to by a preserve for yellowtails. A fisherman showed us the scene of feeding yellowtails. Uwajima City and the area around boasts a fishery industry like pearl culture, fish farming and seafood processing. Yellowtails farmed on Tojima island are transported live to even Tokyo by trucks. Their prices are lower than natural ones, but their taste is not bad. The fish farming technology is surely helpful for the Japanese diet.
　　The decrease of tuna is a worldwide issue which should be solved immediately. Japanese cuisine of eating raw fish has spread all over the world in recent years, causing the possible depletion of tuna. As you may know, tuna run a vast water body and it has been said to be impossible to raise tuna artificially in a restricted area, but Japanese researchers developed the technique of farming tuna several years ago and Uwajima City is one of two prime tuna-farming places. I'll upload pictures of the tuna-farming facilities in the next entry about the next island we visited.
　　Our lunch was served in a community house near the fishery port by local housewives. They didn't want to make money for it and generously offered their product. It was really wonderful. After lunch, we started for Hiburijima, the farthest island from Uwajima City.

(Vocabulary)
heave to: if a ship heaves to, it stops moving
pearl culture/farming 真珠養殖
seafood/fish/fishery processing 水産加工業

Guanyin

　　The area in which my office is located is only a tiny village, but it has a long history as a key traffic junction, which connected the land-locked Ozu Basin and the Seto Inland Sea. One of its icons is the sculpture of Guanyin carved in the 10th or 11th century. It has been preserved elaborately, blocking out light. People can see the sculpture only on April 17th, the day of the local festival.
　　During lunch break, I went out for the festival. I was going to take pictures of the sculpture, but it was prohibited. Anyway, what people were waiting for most was the rice cake scattering. It is said that rice cakes have the power to summon happiness, so people will try to get more and more rice cakes. I got only three, but ate them during lunch time. Something good would happen or not?

(Vocabulary)
Guanyin　観音様
key traffic junction 交通の要衝
land-locked 〈港・湾などが〉陸地に囲まれた；〈国・地域などが〉海岸線がない;〈魚が〉淡水にすむ.

Sake Lovers' Meeting

　　My Lions Club has been holding meetings concerning alcoholic beverages four times a year. Every meeting has its theme. In addition to the major classification of alcoholic drinks, like sake, wine, beer, whisky, and so on, the drinks are chosen by its birthplace, its ingredient, or by the season in which the meeting is held. Naturally, delicious seasonal dishes accompany the beverage.
　　The theme this time was "whisky". There are two kinds of descriptions of whisky, i.e., "whisky" and "whiskey". In Japan "whisky" is more frequently used. Japanese whisky is descended from Scotch, and the Scotch-like description without "e" is used.
　　Five major areas for the production of whiskys are Ireland, Scotland, America, Canada, and Japan. A Japanese had brought the technique of producing whisky from Scotland in the latter half of 19th century and his story was broadcast recently. He is the founder of Nikka and father of Japanese whisky. Now Japan is experiencing a boom in whisky.
　　The lecturer was the branch manager of Suntory Co.Ltd, the other company of the two major whisky companies in Japan. His story was full of wit and was enjoyable. I learned lots of things about not only Japanese whisky but also other ones.
　　You see a little bottle of Maker's Mark on the table, it was a souvenir. The lecturer told us what the logo and its seal meant. They were added to my whole stock of knowledge.

(Vocabulary)
Sake Lovers' Meeting 　ほろ酔い会（松山中央ライオンズクラブで開催される年に４回の酒飲みたちのイベント。毎回種々のアルコール飲料が用意され、専門家たちの蘊蓄に耳を傾け、アルコールを楽しむ会）
connoisseur　専門家、(美術品などの) 鑑定家, (その道の) 通, 玄人,食べ物・酒・音楽など特定の分野についてよく知っている人
a wine connoisseur　ワイン通

Asahiya Inn 2

　　"Asahi" of Asahiya means sunrise. The inn faces east and I could have seen the magnificent view of the sunrise the next morning, but a thin veil of cloud hindered us. A house lizard bugged my wife last night and she was short of sleep this morning. I went out walking around the inn alone. It was so serene and there was nothing civilized around. No car passed during my hour's walk.
　　The field where the inn's owner was raising crops for guests was just in front of my room. The crops must be safe and healthy to be harvested in such an uncontaminated soil.
　　Today's plan is to drive down along the west coastline from Hedomisaki Cape, the northern end of Okinawa Island, and we headed for it in the first place.

Asahiya Inn

　　Today's inn is really interesting whether in a good or bad way. Okinawa is generally divided into two parts; one is best for sightseeing and marine leisure activities in the southern half of the island, and the other is rich in untouched nature. Today's inn is located in the latter.
　　Our room was stark and equipped with the requisite minimum; no ornaments, no air-conditioner, though I found a tiny fridge. It was apparently built by amateur carpenters. A month before, I saw an article featuring this inn on the net, and chose it as the third inn in Okinawa. The article gave credit for the beautiful sunrise from the window. At least I agreed with that, for the inn stood on a cliff facing east. It must be beautiful, but the room was so shabby and my wife grew a little angry at me for my choice.
　　The owner's policy was to be nature-friendly in all respects and not to harm the environment as much as possible. Naturally, they don't use artificial detergent, fertilizer, transgenic crops, and avoid everything which seems to be unhealthy.
　　No TV, no internet access both in wired or wireless, no phone line, of course. No sounds without the sound of the continuous waves and unknown sound from the wood. We spent a leisurely night free from daily chores. The inn was acceptable for me, but my wife's scream might have interfered with the sound sleep of our neighbors. A house lizard intruded my room after midnight.

(Vocabulary)
whether in a good or bad way 良い意味でも悪い意味でも
requisite minimum 必要最小限 拡張検索
transgenic crop 遺伝子組み換え作物
in all respects あらゆる点で
house lizard ヤモリ

Guest House

　　I'll write about our inn in which I stayed on Mar. 28th. Several types of hotels or inns are in Japan and the type of our inn was "Minshuku", which is B&B-like accommodations. It's B&B plus a simple supper to quickly describe "Minshuku". Ordinary households offer beds and two meals. Naturally the stay fee is lower than average, but it was to enjoy conversation with local people in Itoman City rather than for cost-saving that I had chosen "Minshuku". Now in Okinawa, several big issues on national defense are being discussed. I wanted to ask indigenous people on these issues. I was happy to know that the opinions of the owner couple were just the same as me. Its dishes were richly Okinawa's. We enjoyed them.
　　By the way, the title of "Guest House" might be a mal-translation of "Minshuku". I selected it as the English description of "Minshuku". Is that
right?

Cooking Class

　　The Matsuyama-Freiburg friendship association, which I belong to, offered citizens the opportunity to cook German cuisine of "Frikadele" and "Himmel und Erde" under the instruction of a local famous Chef. Frikadele is a hamburger patty in English, and I thought it was from the German city of Hamburg and naturally all German people should know that. However, "hamburger patty" seemed not to be understood in Germany. One more thing I admired. "Himmel und Erde" means "Heaven and Earth" in English. Can you tell what the dish is cooked from. The ingredients are apples and potatoes. Both are staple food for German people. "Himmel und Erde" is braised apples and potatoes. I wondered about the naming of the cuisine. The crops on and under trees are compared to sky and soil. Their way of thinking is great.
　　The ingredients were portioned to every 6 persons. When I noticed that, I was a little tense, because I'm not a good cook. I decided not to be directly involved with the part which has an influence on the taste itself. It might be good for me to be away from the important part of cooking and the dishes were delicious. On the way home, I dropped in at a supermarket and got some seasonings for my own next trial.

(Vocabulary)
Frikadele ドイツのハンバーグ
Himmel und Erde ジャガイモとリンゴの蒸し煮
a hamburger patty ハンバーグ

"My Boom", Special Interests

　　Special interests? I don't mean something political with it. I'll write about a Japanese word "my boom" originated from English. Every language will have its own specifics and one of these of Japanese is its ease of adopting and using foreign words as Japanese words. Someone who recently started jogging could say "My boom is jogging, or jogging is my boom. Taking the meaning of "boom" out and adopting it into Japanese.
　　Now, if you ask me what my boom is at present, it's dry fruits! They are always on my desk in my office. The following picture shows dried mangoes, papayas and prunes. When I'm a bit hungry, I snack on them. I wonder how much their nutritional value is. Is it the same as fresh ones?

(Vocabulary)
ease of something  ＜…＞のしやすさ
The ease of access to information is increasing. 情報はますます簡単に手に入るようになっている．
for ease of something  ＜…＞しやすいように
The pictures are numbered for ease of reference.  写真には検索しやすいように番号が振ってある．
snack  間食する, 軽食をとる
snack on sth  間食に＜…＞を食べる
nutrition value; nutritional quality/value; nutritive quality/value 栄養価

Commemoration

　　One of the members of my Lions Club, who was nearly 90, had passed at the end of the year 2014. He loved Japanese sake and rakugo, which is traditional comic storytelling performed solo. You know rakugo? Seated on a zabuton cushion, a comic tells a story, energetically speaking the dialogue for all the characters. To clearly distinguish one character from another, rakugo performers use various speech patterns and physical mannerisms.
　　A unique party for remembering the deceased was held today, called by his friend, a full-fledged rakugo master of Katsura Koharudanji "桂小春団治". People who gathered honored his memory enjoying wonderful rakugo and Japanese sake, which were offered from more than 30 sake producers all over Japan.
　　Next, a young rakugo performer, Katsura Koume "桂小梅", accompanied Katsura Koharudanji from Osaka and showed his rakugo before Katsura Koharudanji. I didn't expect much of him, but it was fairly good. In the party, his seat was next to me and I heard of his daily life. I had a good time with him. I'd like to visit his homeground, Hanjo-Tei "繁昌亭" in Osaka in the near future.

Udon Noodles

　　I'm not good at cooking. I seldom cook at home, but a cooking class of udon wheat noodles, whose lecturer was my friend, was held today. I attended it with my second daughter. Udon wheat noodles are used in various dishes and people usually get the noodles from shops. Today's class was meant to make the noodles themselves.
　　Udon is one of the traditional foods in Japan. Specifically, Kagawa Prefecture, next to my home Ehime Prefecture, boasts the greatest consumption of udon wheat noodles among all the prefectures in Japan. With its dry climate suitable for growing wheat, it was an ideal location for udon production. It's been going on here for over 300 years.
　　I'll write how they're made. The ingredients are simply wheat flour, salt, and water. The first step is making salt water. The amount of salt is adjusted carefully in accordance with the day's temperature and humidity. The salt water is mixed with the flour to make the dough. The kneading must be done thoroughly by hand to squeeze out any excess air from the dough. The dough is then tramped on. By applying pressure on it like in the picture below, the protein in the dough forms a sticky substance called gluten.
　　Normally, the dough has to rest overnight, but our class was restricted in time and the dough was left for an hour and cut to the suitable size. Even so, the taste was great!

 

 

 

 

Peanuts

　　I don't have much luck with lotteries, but I received a fairly large amount of peanuts today. It was the award from the organizer of the marathon. When I took part in the Chiba Aqualine Marathon, which I wrote about here, I put a slip of paper with my name and address filled in into a collecting box. The slip was handed out at souvenir shops around the finishing site. I had forgotten about it and it took some time to realize the reason for the arrival of the peanuts.
　　Anyway, all of the different kinds of peanuts were nice and they went well with beer. While drinking my beer and eating the peanuts, I thought to myself how funny it was that idioms containing peanuts belittle things, for example, "work for peanuts" or "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys", but actually, winning peanuts as an award is really great! (grin) FYI: Chiba Prefecture is famous for the production of peanuts.

(Vocabulary)
peanuts [U](インフォーマル)  はした金, すずめの涙ほどの金
work for peanuts  はした金のために働く
if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys   はした金ではまともな働き手は集まらない
belittle  〈人・努力・重要性など〉を軽視する, 見くびる, けなす

An Acquaintance From Germany

　　When I traveled to Freiburg in Germany and Italy with my second daughter last year as one of the members of the friendship tour organized by Matsuyama City, I met a young guy who worked in the DB, the German railway company, at the reception party held by the Freiburg-Matsuyama Association. He was going to visit Matsuyama in a year at that time and actually came to my hometown on 0ctober 2nd. It appeared that he had begun learning Japanese with a Japanese just after the party.
　　His travel plan was to stay in Matsuyama City all the time for two weeks and make day trips around there. I offered some sightseeing plans to him, like a karst landscape, Spa resorts, a huge active volcano and small islands in the Seto Inland Sea. He chose the islands without a second thought so I took him on a day trip to go around the inland sea utilizing a ferry service and more than ten bridges. On the last night of his stay in Matsuyama I took him to a small restaurant which serves traditional cuisine of Japan, specifically in Kyoto, but it might have been a wrong choice. He was twenty some years old and must prefer meat to vegetables. Kyoto-style traditional cuisine hardly uses meat except fish. Anyway, he looked to have enjoyed his stay. Nothing beat it.

Space Food

　　I got a set of space food of Neapolitan Ice Cream, Pudding, and Takoyaki. Neapolitan ice cream was new to me. Takoyaki is a famous food in Japan and is a ball-shaped pancake with bits of octopus. The dramatic point is its taste, which was not bad. I admired the developers' techniques. They were available for more than a few years. Naturally, the texture was far different from their original ones, but judging from its condition to be eaten in space, they were acceptable.

(Vocabulary)
Neapolitan /nìəplətn || -pl-/ [名] [C] ナポリ人; [形] ナポリ（人）の
Neapolitan ice cream ナポリタンアイスクリーム《色と味の違うアイスクリームを重ね合わせたもの》.

　良く見ると実際に宇宙飛行士の食用に供されているものではないと書いてありますね。こんなものだけで良いとは思えなかったのでホッとしました。実際のものを食べてみたくなりました。