Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

"Shimeru"

　　I got an e-mail from our visitors who had gotten back to Germany. It says that they don't mind posting their pictures and profiles into my blog.
　　I'd like to make my incomplete description clear in this blog. I couldn't interpret the Japanese term "Shimeru" at the fish market. I hoped that they'd understand what I wanted to tell them at that time.
　　When processing food animals such as cattle, I think that they should slaughter animals instantly from the ethical view. It means a comfortable death. However, it has another aspect. It is also for the purpose of protecting the meat. The convulsive struggle from the pain harms the meat. Generally speaking, the meat from trapped animals is worse than that of shot animals. The trapped animals struggle to get out of the trap for some time, and serum lactate produced in the muscles will spoil the meat during their struggle.
　　As for fish, it is the same. The act of killing fish and preserving it fresh without pain, struggling and convulsions is called "Shimeru" in Japanese. I tried to explain this word, but couldn't do it properly. The personnel of the fish market told us that they pierced special points on the fish's vertebra to stop the metabolism of the fish in an instant, and actually, when we were watching, he demonstrated the technique for us. An about 10 kg yellowtail stopped its motion just in front of us.

• (Vocabulary)
• animal used for food / food animal 食用動物
• comfortable death 安楽死
• harm (環境・評判など)に損害を与える, を傷つける
• Building the dam will not harm the environment. そのダムの建設は環境破壊にはつながりません．
• trap (動物)をわな［捕獲器］で捕まえる
• They trap rabbits and birds for food. 彼らは食料にするためにウサギや鳥をわなで捕らえる．

Fish Market

　　I took our guests to the fish market, where the consumer public couldn't buy any fish. The market was for dealing between retailers. If someone goes to the market, he can't get any seafood there. I didn't know how they would feel about it, but I guided them around the market.
　　When I looked for the favorites or popular things for foreigners who visit Japan, Tsukiji Fish Market was on the top of the list. That's why I showed the market to our guests. Various, perhaps all kinds of seafood are transported into the Tsukiji Fish Market from all over the world. This market is what you call the kitchen of the metropolitan city, Tokyo. People can get seafood from the satellite shops of the market, and even eat there. They can choose the fish that they want, and ask the shop to cook it immediately. It sounds very good.
　　The hometown of our guests is Freiburg, which is located in the center of Europe, I mean, it is so far from any of the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. The raw and naturally live fish from the Seto Inland Sea might be attractive for them. Speaking of fish, I ate the horrible sushi in Freiburg with my daughter and wrote about it before. Anyway, the retailers were bidding silently, using their special gestures with fingers. Their response to the announcement of the auctioneer was really unique, though I couldn't understand them.

• (Vocabulary)
• consumer public　一般消費者
• Mediterranean Sea 地中海
• auctioneer 競売人

Special Wine, But....

　　A and I went to the City Hall to pick our guests up. We introduced each other there. I'd like to tell you about them, but I'm not permitted to write their detailed profiles in this blog, so the description might be sometimes vague in my entries for these couples of days.
　　They were a young man and woman. We took them to the park where the European castle-like observatory stood. It's a 20 minute walk from our house. To our regret, we were late and the entrance was closed. We just enjoyed the scenery from under the observatory, and I took the following picture in which they and A are visible against the backdrop of the observatory.
　　We had dinner outside, and I served a wine which I like. However, it was German wine. I like German wines, but they were from Germany. I should have provided Japanese wine, especially Ehime-brand wines to them. I spaced out.
　　A is only 18 years old and has never lived in an English-speaking country, but she is really good at English. We enjoyed chatting over their jobs, families, country and so on.
　　At that time, I proposed several places that I could show them on the next day. To my surprise, they wanted to visit a certain place which I thought they would never show any interest in. Besides they have to get up by 4:30 a.m. to visit there. Anyway, we went to bed at 9 o'clock. Where did we visit? Check the next entry!

• (Vocabulary)
• space out ; to stop paying attention and just look in front of you without thinking, especially because you are bored or have taken drugs: 抜かっていた、抜けていた

See also;
http://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/kanko/1179548_1021.html
http://yakei.jp/db/summary.cgi?row1=matsuyama
http://www.city.matsuyama.ehime.jp/lang/en/sightseeing/other.html#CENTRALPARK
 

Reception

　　Two German people are supposed to come to my house tomorrow. My family is a little nervous about welcoming them. We have never accommodated foreigners, so we don't know how to provide for them. They are members of Jazzchor Freiburg, which plans to do their concert tour in Shikoku, which is the smallest island of the four big islands of Japan.
　　I looked for some information on the favorite dishes for foreigners who recently visited Japan. The result was unbelievable for me. Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Ramen, Udon,,, ,these are not bad, but very cheap. I wondered why they didn't want to eat Japanese traditional dishes like Kaiseki, which is though a little expensive.
　　I ascertained their schedule. They'll hold the concert at first in Kochi prefecture, which is on the Pacific coast. They will have Sahachi, Kochi's local dish, which consists of various fish from the Pacific Ocean. After the concert in Ehime, they will move to Kagawa prefecture, which is well-known as the "Udon Country" across Japan. We omitted seafood and noodles from our menu. After so much thinking, we were at a loss, and finally we chose the easiest plan; broiled meat in the garden.
　　Next, we prepared a Japanese-style room for them. It has a tatami and an alcove where art or flowers are displayed, and would be interesting to them.
　　Anyway, we are really worried or frightened about them, because we are eager to make them happy but we don't know what they want to do and see here in Matsuyama. My wife will take a half day leave tomorrow. She'll start preparing dishes from noon. A and I will go to the City Hall to pick them up. Both anxiety and expectation that we'll have a good time lie in my mind.

• (Vocabulary)
• reception 　歓迎会, 祝賀会, (結婚などの) 披露宴; 歓迎, 出迎え, もてなし
• provide …を提供する, 供給する, 用意する
• The university should provide more facilities for disabled students. 大学側は障害のある学生のための設備をもっと増やすべきだ．
• provide sth for sb ＜人＞に＜…＞を提供する
• Free parking is provided for hotel guests. ホテルにご宿泊のかたは無料駐車場をご利用いただけます．
• provide sb with sth ＜人＞に＜…＞を提供する
• We were provided with food and drink. 食べ物と飲み物を出してくれた．
• provide sth to sb ＜人＞に＜…＞を提供する
• The water company provides services to eight million people. その水道会社は800万人に水道用水を供給している．
• at a loss 途方に暮れて
• alcove アルコーブ (壁の一部を入り込ませた空間)

Kashu, My Birth Place

　　Kashu is the name of a small village where my parents lived in their twenties. I was born there 52 years ago. Even now it is considerably far away from the prefectural capital city, so this village must have been an extremely rural place in those days.
　　We dropped in at this village and looked for the house which my parents rented 50 years ago. The scene completely changed and they managed to find the place where our house was built, but the house had been demolished and a storage shed was there. I was sorry not to be able to see the house, but my parents found a woman who used to be their neighbor. She remembered me, and told me a fantastic story about the day I was born.
　　In the tiny isolated village, there was no doctor. Old ladies who had experienced their own deliveries used to attend the delivery as a so-called midwife. The delivery wasn't always safe. After giving birth to me, a midwife advised my father to feed my mother something nutritious, like carp. There was naturally no supermarket. He went out to a nearby pond whose size was about twice as large as the average ballpark. The purpose? Of course, in order to catch a carp for my mother.
　　You know what, he caught a big enough carp to amaze the village people. The midwives and neighbors seemed to believe that this baby must be gifted.

• (Vocabulary)
• shed  物置, (物置)小屋; (電車の) 車庫, 倉庫, 作業場
• a tool shed 道具小屋
• birth attendant / maternity nurse / midwife 助産師

Old House

　　The age of this house is more than 50 years old. You might say, "Why did I find it out?" That's because I had lived in this house for a year 50 years ago. When my parents rented this house, I was only one year old. Naturally, I have no memory about this house in the tiny fishing village. However, listening to my parents' talk, I could imagine their good old days.
　　The domestic fridge wasn't common in those days. My parents couldn't keep fish fresh and could get raw fish from the fishermen only when they came back from the fishery. My father told me with deep feeling that the fish were very good. The fish were more valuable than those at present. My parents didn't have a TV. Not having a TV was inconvenient, judging from the present life style, but it was never unhappy, my father continued. I thought it might be.
　　In this 50 years, we surely have acquired many useful and convenient things, but, I thought, we might have lost as many good things.

• (Vocabulary)
• speak with deep feeling 感慨深げに語る

 
(KW: 瀬戸町足成)

Gozega Pass

　　Did you find the gutter-like structure on the stone table in the first picture of the last entry? This gutter is the method for serving someone. A small bunch of somen flew out into the gutter and people skimmed it from the flow. I don't know who figured out this way of eating somen, but it was a nice breakfast in the natural cool breeze.
　　After breakfast, we went up the valley, of course by car. The picture shows the highest point of the road, Gozega Pass, from which we could see both the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

• (Vocabulary)
• gutter 雨どい
• skim sth off/from sth ＜表面に浮いた油・あくなど＞を＜液体など＞から取り除く
• skim through sth＜…＞をざっと読む

Heikedani Valley

　　One hour after leaving Matsuyama, we called in at Heikedani Valley. There are lots of places called Heikedani across Japan. I'm going to tell you about it at first.
　　About 1000 years ago, there were two enormous armed groups and they were called Genji and Heike respectively. They were struggling to take power for a long time. They fought several times and finally Genji won power. Genji were afraid of Heike's revenge and chased up Heike to the last person. On the other hand, Heike got away ready to pay back someday, and they hid in the thickly forested mountains and valleys. These places are called Heikedani ("dani" means valley), where people had lived extremely modest lives not to be found by Genji. On account of this, most Heikedani are located in isolated places. The Heikedani where we visited also hid in such a place. No sunshine comes in Heikedani. The Heike people had to choose such miserable places as their habitation areas, and seekers would never suspect that someone might live there.
　　However, it wasn't all bad. Even in the severely hot daytime, people could survive the heat there. At present, quite a few amusement facilities are located at Heikedani. In the Heikedani where we dropped in, they run a somen shop. Somen is a kind of noodles as you can imagine from the resemblance between somen and ramen.
　　By the way, guess how to eat somen here, judging from the pictures. I'll write the answer in the next entry.

• (Vocabulary)
• chase up（人や動物を）追い詰める
• to the last man 最後の一人まで
• it isn't all bad 悪いことばかりではない

Yawatahama City

　　We continued to drive in a blistering heat. It's been hot for more than 4 weeks. It looked like it was record-breaking, but my car had enough power to cool us. We enjoyed driving on the long-forgotten road. You would think that there would be a water shortage in such conditions, but we got a lot of rain in June and the mountains stored the water that we got in the rainy season. The orange trees were vividly green, which are the famous product of this area.
　　We got to Yawatahama city. This city is located to the south of Matsuyama city and has been known as a prosperous fishing harbor since long ago, but is now suffering from a declining population. My parents had worked near this city about 40 years ago and seemed to have frequently gone to the city. They often ate "Chanpon", a ramen-like noodle, in those days. To our surprise, the "Chanpon" shop was not closed and still operated at the same place. About 20 years ago, the bypass was constructed around the city and we hadn't entered the city since then. Today, we got into the city for the first time in about 20 years and found the shop. The shop was renovated but the atmosphere of the shop must have reminded my parents of the old days. As for me, the taste of the "Chanpon" was alive deep in my memory.

• (Vocabulary)
• fishing harbor 漁港
• fishery [C] 漁場 / [C] 養殖場 [同意] fish farm /[C] 漁業, 水産業
• prosperous 裕福な, (経済的に) 成功した, 繁栄している

 

Ole?

　　I found a new instant pan-fried noodles. I'll show you it below. "JFA" on the face stands for "Japan Football Association". You can see a soccer ball in the lower left corner. It is rooting for the Japanese national soccer team. The supporters who actually go to South Africa to cheer for their team might take this. By the way, I found the word "Ole" in the upper left corner. What does it mean? I looked it up in the dictionary, but I couldn't find it. It must be a Japanese-made English word. I suppose it means "Hurrah!"

• (Vocabulary)
• pan-fried noodles 焼きそば

Space Food

　　My daughter had a trip somewhere and brought a retort beef curry back for me some time ago. It was space food that I'll show you below. It was made by one of the leading Japanese food companies. The package says that JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have something to do with this product. I imagine that JAXA helps the company develop the space foods.
　　I tasted it today. It was average. If I ate it in space, it might be delicious. The company seems to plan to develop about 100 items of Japanese space food. I'm afraid that all of those might be of the same quality. Anyway, has the era come that ordinary people could enjoy a space trip?

• (Vocabulary)
• retort food  レトルト食品
• the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) 宇宙航空研究開発機構
• 「宇宙空間」の意味ではspaceは数えられない名詞なので定冠詞theは付けない．単にspaceを用いる．

Bistro Baden

　　It's a curious naming of a small wine bar. "Bistro" is a French word and "Baden" is the name of the provinces of southwestern Germany. Freiburg City, where I had stayed for a week last month and now where my daughter is living, is located in the midst of the Baden area. I heard that Badish(adj. of Baden) wines were served at the bar. I took my friends out for dinner. The bar had a nice atomosphere and a large stock of German wines. I will be an eager repeater.

　　I'll show you the night view from the bar, and if you want to see the menu and other pictures, go to the following url that was edited by my friend.

http://zebo.la.coocan.jp/etc/2010/2010-05-15/main.html

(Vocabulary)

the provinces 《複数扱い》地方, 田舎

take sb ↔ out for sth　＜人＞を＜食事など＞に連れて行く

 

 

Yufka

　　The last meal in Freiburg was Yufka, the Turkish flatbread. Meat and a few kinds of vegetables were enveloped in this flatbread. It was nice and was my favorite. Additionally, there was a chinese fast food shop next to this Yufka shop, and the owner looked relaxed. I felt like trying the Chinese fast food in Germany, and ordered the dish on the first line of the menu that I showed you in the last picture. It was also nice. Suppe stands for soup. The dish was noodle soup with vegetables.

 

Lunch

　　Have you seen the dish in the first picture? It was escargot. I saw it for the first time. The plate is called escargotiere in French and is specially made for cooking escargot. As for the French dishes, foie gras and escargot are famous as unique cooking ingredients. I have wanted to try them for a long time and I ate escargot in a small restaurant in Riquewihr. It was just like scallops or clams and tasted good. Escargot is called snail in English. I had thought any escargot was all right for cooking as long as it was snails, but my idea was completely wrong. Edible snails are limited to two kinds and snails that grew up in vineyards are said to be best for cooking. I was in the midst of a vineyard at that time, and it meant that I was in a desirable location.
　　The last picture is of the main dish. I felt that it was really roughly made. Various kinds of meat were just put on a fistful of Sauerkraut in an offhand manner. I like Germany, but I'm not fond of this German traditional dish. It was totally at the other end of the spectrum of Japanese traditional dishes. If German people visited Japan and had an opportunity to see our traditional food, they would be surprised about the subtle work of cooks.

(Vocabulary)

escargot〈フランス語〉エスカルゴ

escargotiere〈フランス語〉エスカルゴ皿

foie gras〈フランス語〉〔ガチョウの肝臓〕フォアグラ

cooking ingredient 食材

scallop  ホタテガイ

clam 食用二枚貝

vineyard (ワイン製造のための) ブドウ園

snail [C] カタツムリ

edible  食用になる, 食べられる

desirable (フォーマル) 望ましい, 好ましい

Sauerkraut ザウアークラウト(塩漬けキャベツ)

in an offhand manner 無造作に

offhand 《[名]の前でのみ》 うっかりした, 思いつきの; そっけない, ぶっきらぼうな

It was only an offhand remark. それは単なる失言だった．

at the other end of the spectrum その対極にある

spectrum　《[C]通例単数形で》 (変動の) 範囲, 幅

a broad/wide spectrum (of something)  （＜…＞の）広い範囲

a wide spectrum of opinion 広範囲にわたる意見

subtle 巧みな, 手の込んだ; 繊細な

 

Alsace Wine Street

　　Alsace Province is located on the western border of France and noted as the production area for vintage wines. A road that runs north and south through the area along the Rhine river is called Alsace Wine Street. We set out for Riquewihr that lies about midway on the Alsace Street. To tell the truth, I wanted to see the scenery of the street last autumn, but I couldn't because of the last-minute cancellation of the sightseeing bus. So, the offer from Mr. D was really great. Pictures were taken through the windshield. Almost all of the things in the pictures are grape vines or terraces of vines. It was a magnificent view under the warm sunshine.
　　I almost forgot. I bought 10 bottles of jam in Colmar for my family and friends, which are shown in the last picture. I didn't know about them at that time, but Mr. D advised me to get them. This jam seemed to be famous world-wide. They were fine flavored and wonderful. I'd never eaten such tasty jam.

(Vocabulary)

vintage   (ワインが) 当たり年の, 極上の

north and south　〔日本語と語順が逆〕南北に

midway 中間点

windshield　《車》〈米〉フロントガラス

grape vine / vine ブドウの木

terraces of vines ブドウの木の段々畑

I almost forgot. 忘れるところだった。

 

 

 

French Bread

　　Once I entered Franch territory, I was urged to try genuine French bread. Luckily, a bakery was open and we had a bite there. The taste was really nice. When I got my bread, I talked in English. Yuri and Mr. D were chatting with a young girl at the counter in German. She looked more fluent in German than in English. According to what I heard later, the French kids in Alsace province seemed to learn German and French in compulsory education. I wished that I could talk in many languages.

(Vocabulary)

genuine/ real 本場の

Dry Sushi

　　We got back to downtown Freiburg and went to the huge shopping center that I wrote about in the former entry. Yuri didn't have a desk lamp and we looked for one, but in vain. We couldn't find what we needed, but found packs of assorted sushi there and tasted them. They were incredibly bad. The rice was dry and I could see the air space between the grains of rice. I couldn't believe it. The title has the Japanese words like Edogawa, Arakawa and Bento, and it meant that Japanese had something to do with them. German people might have thought that this was  sushi, but if so, I'm very sorry. I wish they could eat sushi in Japan or Vancouver. Sushi is really nice there.

(Vocabulary)

desk lamp / desk light  電気スタンド

grain of rice 米粒

Shelf in my Room

　　At first, look at the picture. A sandwich and a can of salmon on the shelf in the picture was my supper today. I bought them at the nearest supermarket which Yuri would frequently use from now. I wanted to buy something at this supermarket and there was no restaurant around the dormitory. Moreover, Yuri didn't have dinner, because the amount of lunch was too much for her stomach. I had to eat supper in solitude in my room.

(Vocabulary)

in solitude 寂しく、一人で

 

March 31st

　　This day was March 31st and April 2nd was Holy Friday, one of the national holidays in European countries. That meant I had only two days left for Yuri's essential procedures in Freiburg, but didn't finish any of them. We visited the city office again that had been closed the previous day and managed to complete Yuri's residential registration. Then, we met a Japanese whom I asked to help her live in Freiburg. He had lived in Freiburg for 10 years. I don't have permission to use his name, so I will call him Mr.D for now.

NORDSEE

　　"NORDSEE" is famous as a seafood restaurant in Germany. "Nordsee" also means the North Sea in German. So, it's the best name, I think, for a restaurant handling seafood. The North Sea is just in the north of Germany. By the way, this restaurant is located just in the center of the old city, "Alt Stadt" in Freiburg. We dropped in at this restaurant to check the taste of seafood from the North Sea, but as I imagined, there was no fresh seafood. I didn't tell them that I'd come from the land of sushi, but if Freiburgers think that this was fresh, it would be sad.

　　We didn't feel like eating what they call fresh fish and ordered heated and cooked ones that you can see in the following pictures.