Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Secret Pickled Vegetables

　　Pickled vegetables, a type of preservation food, are seen in various countries these days and they are very traditional and essential especially in Japan. The northern part of Japan is covered with heavy snow and is short of fresh vegetables in the winter. That's why food preservation has been a high-priority issue since ancient times. The regular breakfast in Buddhist temples is traditionally rice porridge, pickled Japanese radish, and miso soup. However, there's an unavoidable problem with pickled food. You might notice, it's salt. The intake of too much salt does harm to health. People in Japan are said to have a tendency to ingest more salt than other countries.
　　In case of ordinary inpatients, the salt in their diet is strictly controlled to under 10 grams per day. If there are severe cardiopulmonary problems, the permissible amount could be under 3 grams per day or 0. The meal which is served to me on night duty is the same meal as ordinary inpatients', so the taste is awfully plain. I will have to stay in hospital tonight and so I bought pickled cucumbers and eggplants in the supermarket near my hospital. I secretly brought them back so that nutritionists don't discover my behaviour. The following picture shows a bag of pickled eggplants.
　　I have to throw the bag away tomorrow as cool as a cucumber.

(Vocabulary)
rice porridge 　お粥
ingest 〈食物・薬など〉を摂取する
(as) cool as a cucumber 　とても冷静に, 落ち着き払って, 涼しい顔をして

25th Anniversary of Sister City Treaty

　　My hometown, Matsuyama City entered into a sister city treaty with the southern German city of Freiburg 25 years ago, so this year is a quarter century anniversary. Several officials, including the mayor and city council members of Matsuyama City, and a few dozen citizens are planning to make official visits to Freiburg to attend the event comemorating the 25th anniversary.
　　Today, citizens of Matsuyama City who had an interest in Germany got together and enjoyed German wines and gorgeous dishes to get to know each other better. Some of them would visit Freiburg in November. Additionally three students from Freiburg were invited to the party. They could speak in Japanese and seemed to enjoy chatting with people who love Germany. So many topics were mentioned. One of them really wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan and recently listed as a World Natural Heritage Site. I'm not sure now, but if several people wanted, I'd arrange the climbing plan next summer. Climbing is one of my hobbies. Freiburg seemingly has a cold climate at this time of the year. I could imagine how cold it is from the latitude of Freiburg, which is no less than 4 degrees in latitude further north than Japan's northern city of Sapporo. For your information Matsuyama City is located in the southern part of Japan and is relatively warm except in January and February. I'm afraid my possessions will become more and more, because of lots of winter clothes.

(Vocabulary)
no less than 〔数詞などを伴って〕～ほども多くの
He speaks no less than five languages.  彼は５種類もの言語を話す。

　
　

Microwave Oven and Toaster Oven

　　I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't fully understand the differences between a microwave oven and a toaster oven until this day. When I called my wife and ask how to use it, she laughed at what I had done.
　　The story is like this. I went to the nearest supermarket to get some late-night snacks in the afternoon as I had to stay overnight at my hospital. I was allowed to sleep, but if there was an emergency, I couldn't sleep and would get hungry at that time. So, I prepared something, which is shown in the picture. It was a set of small frozen pizzas, the diameter of which is about 10cm, and the description said, "You should use a toaster oven to thaw and cook them." My room is provided with a microwave oven and I thought I could cook them with it. I put a piece of frozen pizza in themicrowave oven and heated it. The result was....the pizza was barely edibleand the taste was terrible. I found that toasting and heating is completely different.

(Vocabulary)
thaw 〈人・物などが〉〈氷・雪など〉を解かす；〈冷凍食品〉を解凍する, 戻す（＋out）
～ （out） frozen food before cooking 冷凍食品を調理前にもとに戻す.

Beer Train

　　My commute route is really nice, running between the downtown and a rural town, through the forest, along the seaside, and it has a wide variety of scenery. One of those beautiful scenes is the setting sun on the Seto Inland Sea.
　　The transportation company, JR, recognized that it has a commercial potential and prepared a special type of train, which is shown in the picture. Though I don't know what I should call it in English, this car has no windows and not even walls. Just a roof was provided. The train makes a round trip from Matsuyama City to Nagahama Town in two and half hours, which is my commute route, and passengers are served as much as they want beer or soft drinks with a packed supper. You are allowed to bring nibbles or anything into the car. It was really fun to have a beer party, viewing scenery from the train.

Yumoto Onsen Hot Spring

　　We took up our lodgings in a Japanese traditional inn at Yumoto Onsen Hot Spring located deep in a mountainous region in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The scenery from our room is shown in the first picture. A small town in a drizzle creates a nice atmosphere. The town is tiny, but has long been noted for its superb quality of hot spring water. Our inn had several types of hot tubs, but I couldn't take pictures as others were in, so I'll show you some pictures from the inn's website. The 2nd picture is of the oldest public bath facility, which has been rebuilt several times in the recent several hundreds of years. The town developed around this building.
　　While walking embraced by a peaceful atmosphere, we found various kinds of beer whose names were from or associated with the Meiji Restoration. Yamaguchi Prefecture was the epicenter of the movement to destroy the shogunate system in the mid-19th century. We bought every kind of beer and had a party.

(Vocabulary)
drizzle 霧雨; 霧雨が降る
create an atmosphere 雰囲気を醸し出す

Shimonoseki

　　Other members of this long ride were the instructors of the driving school which I had belonged to several years ago for a month to acquire a driving license for unlimited motorcycles. In Japan's driving license system, motorcycles are categorized into some groups by their displacement and there's a high wall between over 400 cc and others. I had been allowed to drive motorcycles whose displacement was up to 400 cc since I was 18 years old. Thanks to their instruction, I was allowed to drive any kind of motorcycle in Japan. Anyway, this time, as one of the motorcycle freaks, we got together to enjoy riding motorcycles.
　　The ferry boat docked at Kokura Port at 5 o'clock. We slept until 7 o'clock and got off the boat. The first destination was Karato fishery market,which is well-known for its largest amount of catch of "fugu", blowfish in Japan. Pictures show the market and the Kanmon Straits which lies between Kyushu and Honshu, the biggest island of Japan.
　　After a considerably lower priced, but rich breakfast, we took a walk for a while and came across a historic building, which is shown in the lastpicture. Look at the building behind the pine tree, on the right side in the picture. It is the site where the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed by then Japan's ambassador plenipotentiary Hirobumi Ito and China's counterpart Li Hung-Chang in 1895, which made Korea independent from China and incorporated Taiwan into Japan.

(Vocabulary)
dock 　[自]〈船が〉波止場［埠頭］に着く,ドックに入る
dock in/at sth  ＜港＞に着く
ambassador plenipotentiary; plenipotentiary　（特に外交上の）全権大使
Cambodia's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Japan  駐日カンボジア特命全権大使
Li Hung-Chang  李鴻章

No Lunch

　　There's a physician who is still working as the administrative director of St. Luke's International Hospital at the advanced age of 101! The majority of Japanese people would know about him. Not only his achievements but also his way of life interests a lot of people. I'm one of his fans. He is great as a human being and as a physician. A few years ago, a TV program featured him and I learned about his diet; one slice of bread with jam and a cup of coffee for breakfast, two cookies and a cup of milk for lunch, and a normal portion of dinner. He can seemingly work energetically on such a small diet. When I saw him on TV, I thought that metabolism differs with age. However, I wanted to experience his diet and decided to cut back on total calorie in-take by skipping lunch which I started doing on Mar. 13th.
　　Two and a half months has passed since then. I'll write about the differences I've noticed. I feel hungry for a short time in the afternoon, but I have noticed some favorable points. My body weight has decreased by approximately 2 kg, though it is still far from my ideal weight. I now have additional time at noon which was previously used for lunch, and furthermore, the drowsiness after lunch has disappeared. This diet might be suitable for me. I'm going to continue it for at least another 6 months.

(Vocabulary)
learn 　(フォーマル) [他]〈情報・知らせなど〉を知る, 聞く
learn of/about sth  ＜…＞を知る
diet [C,U] 日常の食物, 食生活, 食事
intake 《常に単数形で》(飲食物などの) 摂取量
Try to reduce your intake of fat.  脂肪の摂取量を減らす努力をしなさい．

Sechuan Cuisine

　　Taiwan is also known as a gastronomic country. Fresh ingredients from the non-polluted mountains and sea are sold everywhere in the cities. All kinds of ingredients are served using beautiful Taiwanese ceramics, the home of which we visited on the day of our arrival in Taiwan as I wrote before. They were really nice. I'd like to get some, but I was afraid that they could get broken on the way back and hesitated over purchasing any of them. Anyway, food is surely one of Taiwan's major tourist attractions.
　　Our guide steered us to a noted Sechuan Cuisine Restaurant in the Ambassador Hotel Taipei after the Martyrs' Shrine. The picture shows the set menu for tourists. All tourists who were taken to this restaurant by our travel agency would be served this menu. We couldn't fully understand the menu, but it was fun to imagine each dish from the Chinese characters on the menu. Every single dish was entirely satisfactory. We were sure to be back in Taiwan. To tell the truth, I was going to take pictures of dishes, because it was not unusual in Japan, but we were in Taiwan. I refrained from shooting each dish considering a possible breach of manners.
　　After lunch, we climbed up the observation deck of the Taipei 101 building. The view from the deck was beautiful. In the original plan, we were supposed to be taken there after dinner to enjoy the night view of Taipei City, but the weather was unstable and we dropped in at it before it started raining. We couldn't see the night view, but alternatively enjoyed the magnificent landscape. I was sure to visit the country again at that time.

(Vocabulary)
gastronomic  relating to the art of cooking good food or the pleasure of eating it:
steer sb into/toward/to sth ＜人＞を＜場所＞の中へ［の方へ，まで］案内する
She steered me into the room. 彼女は部屋の中へ案内してくれた．

Jiufen（九份）

　　Next, we visited the small native Taiwanese village of Jiufen, one of the principal tourist attractions around Taipei City. The name of this village derived from the fact that there were only nine households in this area in the late 19th century, for "Jiu" in Taiwanese means nine. I found some shops and inns run by native Taiwanese in back streets away from streets teeming with sightseers. I'll show you one of those shops. The guide advised us to try some Taiwanese tea and we dropped in at a tea shop along the narrow busiest street. The next two pictures are of boxes of the tea we bought and the tea lecturer. I could communicate with her in Chinese with the assistance of the guide, although it was only several words, but I was happy.
　　Arranged by the travel agency, we had genuine Taiwanese cuisine at a historic restaurant(阿妹茶楼) in the picture. I'm not sure, but a well-known Taiwanese movie was apparently shot in this restaurant. Several Taiwanese were taking snapshots in dramatic poses inside. The atmosphere, the way the waitresses behaved and the interior design in the restaurant were similar to those of Japan and we felt relaxed.
　　By the way, Chinese food hazard has become widely known in Japan and we have avoided drinking Chinese tea, such as oolong tea, but the tea in the picture was Taiwanese. I really liked it.

Google Images

Dinner, Night Market and Beauty Salon

　　We had dinner in a packed restaurant "鼎泰豊", which is shown in the first picture. The dinner was included in our tour and even the dishes were set. As you see, it was so crowded and a waiter was checking the number of customers of each waiting group outside the restaurant. It seemed that he'd like to utilize the seats as efficiently as possible. As far as I saw, a half of the customers were Japanese. I thought that the restaurant had something of a pact with our travel agent. I tasted some real Taiwanese cuisine and it was very satisfying.
　　After dinner, the guide took us to a famous night market, which was busy and swarmed with lots of sightseers. We found various unfamiliar food items there, but we were sorry to be too stuffed to try some. The moment when we went down to the underground, we got caught by an unbearable stench of rotten food. We thought we were near a garbage storage room at first, but it was the smell of a particular kind of tofu. Anyway, it was an unbelievable smell.
　　Lastly for this day, the guide took us to a beauty parlor or something. The massage of the sole of the feet was included in the tour and additionally, following the advice of the clerks, I had my layers of dead skin removed, and my wife got an elaborate face treatment. Their pampering was nice!

(Vocabulary)
pamper  to look after someone very kindly, for example by giving them the things that they want and making them feel warm and comfortable:
She spent her childhood as the pampered daughter of a wealthy family.

Sanxia （三峡）

　　We joined one of the tours planned by ANA, All Nippon Airways, and we were told to reach Taipei by ourselves. We were supposed to get together with other members of the tour in Taipei SongShan Airport. Just after getting out from the baggage claim, we met our guide, but there weren't any other tourists. That is, the guide and the driver were there for us only. The car had been changed from a minivan to a Mercedes E280, which was so luxurious. The tour fee was not so expensive and we felt a little sorry, but it was not our fault. We got in the luxurious car full of joy.
　　It was cloudy and muggy. We realized that we actually were in a subtropical zone. Our car went south on the highway to Sanxia and Yingge. On the way, the guide told us about various things about Taiwan, every item seen through the windows, the traffic regulations, the climate, the country's history,,,
　　We arrived at the busiest site in Sanxia for about an hour. The driver dropped us and our guide there, and drove the car away. The guide took us to a stall famous for its original croissant icecream. It was nice and tasty. If you are Japanese, look at the first picture elaborately, and find the Chinese translation of croissant. Then I came up with a significant idea, and I'll write about it in the next piece.

Departure For Taiwan

　　My wife and I went abroad together for the first time. My wife had several business trips to Europe and I visited several countries with some of my daughters, but we've never travelled together. We wondered if we had been killed by plane accidents or something, who would have taken care of our daughters? However, all our daughters have grown up and I believe they can live alone respectively. This is why our overseas trip was the first time.
　　We left the hotel at 6 o'clock and arrived at Haneda Airport before 7 o'clolck, rather earlier for the boarding. It was also the first time to leave Japan from Haneda. We are premier members of Japan-based Airplane company of ANA and wanted to look around the airport and see how the ANA exclusive lounge was. In the lounge, we could have a variety of foods from Japanese cuisine to Western ones. We had a filling breakfast there. I didn't expect that some meals would be served in flight, because the flight time was only three hours or so. However, an in-flight meal was served. It was over enough.
　　I had one more expectation on the flight, which was the possibility to be able to detect Senkaku Islands by  naked eye. The islands are undoubtedly Japanese territory, but China has been trying to invade them since 40 years ago. We hear news on the islands almost everyday. The cloud, however, was too thick to look down on the islands.

(Vocabulary)
by naked eye 　肉眼で

Tsudumi

　　There's a Japanese restaurant named "Omotenashi-dokoro Tsudumi" 500 meters from my office as the crow flies. The location is so close, but I rarely eat there. Can you imagine why? It is always booked up and you have to make a reservation three months in advance. That is, it's too late to decide on the restaurant at noon, for dinner that night. Can you decide where to have dinner three months before? You would surely shout "That's incredible!" to hear that. To avoid the extreme rush of booking, its telephone number is not listed in any book. The information of the restaurant travels by word of mouth.
　　The number of seats in the restaurant is only six. Six is the maximum. Besides the owner receives only a single booking per day. He used to be the chief-chef in the ANA hotel which is the highest level hotel around here and he returned to his original home to take care of his almost bedridden mother. He decided to open his own restaurant in his hometown and serve one single group a night with all of his skills. His plan was successful and his restaurant became a huge hit. People indulge in tasting the lavish dishes.
　　The other day, I was able to have dinner there because of a sudden cancellation, so I immediately booked it for dinner. When we started talking about the porcelain during dinner, the owner brought out some old sake flasks and cups which had been produced 100 years ago. The conversation with such professionals is always fun.

(Vocabulary)
decide on/upon sth [句動詞] (多くの選択肢の中から) ＜…＞を選ぶ, 決める
Have you decided on a career (×decided a career) yet? もう仕事を決めましたか．
複数の選択肢の中から1つを選ぶ場合はdecide on/upon somethingを用いる．
by word of mouth 口コミで
indulge (飲み食い・無駄遣いなど)（思う存分）楽しむ, 羽目をはずす
indulge in sth ＜…＞にうつつを抜かす, ふける

World Citizen Festival

　　The annual event called "World Citizen Festival" was held today in my hometown. My hometown is a city with a population of 500,000 and is also the capital city of Ehime Prefecture. A few universities are located in the city and not a few foreign people live. Lots of people from overseas got together for the event. Some of them talked about the characteristics of their nations. Some people cooked and sold their ethnic dishes. Some performed their own traditional dances and songs. Lots of Japanese people who love overseas cultures played foreign musical instruments whose name I didn't know or performed Tahitian and Hawaiian dances. The picture shows one of the dances that was performed by Japanese people.
　　I almost forgot to write the reason why I joined the event. That is, my youngest daughter was one of the volunteers. She helped a Malawian guy to communicate with Japanese people who couldn't use English. He had recently arrived in Japan and couldn't understand Japanese yet. On the other hand, all that I knew about Malawi was its rough location in the African continent. So, his presentation concerning his country was interesting to me.
　　Later, I tried several light meals new to me. The pictures show SAMOSA and HALWA of Indian origin and tacos in the Mexican booth. As for SAMOSA and HALWA, I'd like this time to be the last time.

Ryukyu Dynasty

　　After the sunset, we visited the illuminated Shuri Castle, which had been the seat of power during the period of the Ryukyu Dynasty. The last picture was shot in a traditional restaurant in which we had dinner. The local musicians of cojaco and her friends were playing various Okinawan music and they were full of hospitality and really nice.

(Vocabulary)
Ryukyu Dynasty　 琉球王朝

At Fishery Market

　　The pictures show a fishery market in downtown where we visited first after our arrival in Naha, the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture. As we expected, we found a few dozen kinds of fish and seafood, some of which were of flashy colors or rather larger than those I see in my everyday life. I didn't really want to have them, but just tried some of them. We had several fishes cut to slices, sashimi in Japanese, and had a big shrimp roasted. The roasted shrimp was good, but the sashimi was terrible. I was sure that the flesh of the sashimi was fresh, but the taste wasn't so good. Those who are used to eating fish and seafood captured in Seto Inland Sea would feel like me.

Enjoy Preparation (Japanese Spirit 2)

Joel Robuchon continued:
Customers have an expensive dinner in a stiff and formal way. He had never been satisfied with his own restaurant. He wanted to open the type of restaurant in which he could enjoy cooking and chatting with his customers.
　　He got inspired after seeing a sushi restaurant around 15 years ago in Tokyo. He was taken there by his Japanese friend who was also a food critic by trade. A chef was preparing fishes just in front of him and he was surprised to notice that there was no uncomfortable fishy smell and the chef's working space was kept considerably clean. Enjoying the conversation with customers, the chef served his own prepared dishes to them. Everything was new to Mr. Robuchon and every time he visited Japan, he had dinner there. Cooking ingredients and the chef's skills were exposed to customers. Japanese food preparation involves good cutting skills and watching them must have been fun to customers. Before customers, he changes even the cutting method to prevent blood, scales, or other unfavorable stuff from scattering towards his customers. It would be the key to counters that customers and chefs could chat at ease face to face.
　　His first visit to Japan was in 1976. He seems to have been overwhelmed by its overall cleanliness at that time. Knowing the harsh training of Japanese chefs and their respect to their own occupation, he felt happy.
　　How did the counter come into existence in Japan? I'll write about it in another entry.

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/13-reasons-why-i-fell-in-love-with-japan/
(Vocabulary)
stiff and formal  堅苦しい, よそよそしく形式ばった
Japanese food preparation involves good cutting skills. 日本料理の調理には高度な包丁さばきが必要です。
at ease リラックスして, 安心して, 打ち解けて

Counter In Japanese Restaurant (Japanese Spirit 1)

　　Bar counters where alcoholic beverages are served are found worldwide, while ones where you can eat dishes are seen only in Japan. Outside Japan, dishes are prepared in another room dubbed a kitchen and brought to the customers. You can find them in hamburger shops such as McDonald's and Tim Hortons, but it is designed as a place just for passing food items to the guests. The guests frequently take seats at the counters facing the walls or outside through windows, so it should be acceptable that the guests could eat hamburgers facing the staff members of the shops, but that case is extremely rare or non-existant. Considering why, you could feel the Japanese way of thinking. To tell the truth, it's not until seeing the TV interview with French chef, Joel Robuchon, who has been frequently referred to as the best chef in 20th century, that I found the Japanese spirit in the counters of Japanese restaurants.
　　I'll sum up his story from now. He closed his three-star restaurant in Paris in 1996 and opened a new restaurant, in Roppongi, one of the busiest areas in Tokyo in 2003. He introduced the counter style into his FRENCH restaurant. In the interview, he talked about his intention. I thought he might know Japanese spirits better than I. I will also show you the URL of his restaurant, which has an English page. You can see inside his restaurant. I'll be sure to drop in at his counter style restaurant on my next visit to Tokyo.

(Vocabulary)
sum sth up （＜…＞の）要点を述べる,（＜…＞を）要約する

Cycling and Taiwan

　　One of my friends proposed a wonderful plan for people who went skiing together in Whistler last March to get together and enjoy cycling along the Shimanami cycling path connecting Shikoku and Honshu, the smallest and biggest islands of the four main islands of Japan. It was great and the day of action was set for Nov. 3rd.
　　We rented our bikes at the Shikoku side of the path. I have my own bike, but I rented one. When one of us got exhausted, we could return the bikes at the nearest rental point and get back by bus or something. That's why we utilized the rental system of the bikes.
　　This cycling path is well known for the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea. The first picture shows a poster of the path put up on the wall of a rest house. Did you notice that it's written in Taiwan style Chinese? I recalled that Taiwan was the home of Giant Manufacturing. I suppose that cycling would be popular in Taiwan too.
　　I searched for famous places for cycling sites in Taiwan and found RiYueTan (日月潭), which has a circular path around the lake. It looked really nice and I became eager to visit there.
　　Another picture is of an outdoor tea ceremony which was held in the grounds of Kosanji Temple on the way. It was an accidental invitation and I got nervous, but enjoyed it.

(Vocabulary from comments)
put sth forward ＜提案・論拠など＞を提出する, 述べる, ＜計画・意見など＞を提案する, ＜学説など＞を提唱する=propose
The committee is meeting to discuss suggestions put forward by members. 委員が提出した提案を話し合うために委員会が開かれている．

Edible Chrysanthemum and Water

　　A parcel from an acquaintance arrived today. What the first picture shows were the contents. They were edible chrysanthemums and I've never seen that kind of chrysanthemum until today. They originated from Yamagata prefecture, which is located in the northern part of Honshu which is the biggest island of the Japanese archipelago. My acquaintance privately obtained their seeds and raised them by himself. They seems to be a highly appreciated expensive ingredient in Japanese cuisine. My wife prepared them following the way he suggested. Its crispy texture and aroma were great. Japanese cuisine must be emphasized with it.
　　Japan is a small country, but has a variety of climates due to its longitudinal shape from the subpolar to the subtropical region. Moreover, Japan has an abundant supply of water nationwide. The success of the cultivation of this kind of chrysanthemum would be attributed to the diversity of climate and abundant clean water.
　　Talking of water, when I joined an event which was held by the joint association of Japanese sake breweries around my hometown on October 5th, the bottles shown in the next picture were served at first. They were bottled water which had been used for producing sake in respective breweries. Producing nice sake absolutely requires clean water. Those bottles of water were the pride of each brewer. I am really thankful that Japan is rich in water.