Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Party for Friend

     One of my friends got promoted to the head of a branch of the local bank. I don't remember when we met, but I met him in a offline meeting of the social network service for the first time close to 10 years ago. He's a motorcycle freak as well as a professional economist. PC buddies got together today and threw a party for him. We went downtown and dropped in at a nostalgic inn. The inn specialized in chicken dishes. The most popular dish at this inn were two kinds of roast chicken, which were shown in the picture. The upper is the roast adult chicken and the lower is the young chicken. The adult one is a little hard and we had to use a pair of scissors, but it was delicious and hit the spot for beer. http://homepage2.nifty.com/zebo/etc/2009-09-04/frame.html

(Vocabulary)
specialize  (学問・業務などを) 専門にする, 専攻する
specialize in sth  ＜学問・業務など＞を専門にする

Iberian Pig

     Iberian Pig; I didn't know about it, but many co-workers did. It seems that it's very famous, though I didn't know it. I looked it up on the internet. Iberian Pig is a kind of pig. It is bred only in the western part of Spain. It has usually black feet and nails. They freely feed on natural cereal crops like acorns in the forest of oaks, cork oaks, or they are sent to graze grass, seeds and grass roots. Its fat contains olein acid derived from their food, acorns.
    Last night, I attended the meeting of doctors in the neighborhood. After that, we dropped in at a wine bar and found a thing just in front of us that I'd never seen before. It was a leg of the Iberian pig. I'll show you in the picture. Pictures were taken by my cell phone camera and its resolution is terrible, but look at it. I thought it was just a kind of ornament at first glance. The owner told us that it was an Iberian pig and to try it. The second picture was the plate with some slices of the pig on it. It was the first time for me to eat it and it was not bad to eat with wine.
     Japanese pigs are bred on food that is common for humans, but Iberian pigs aren't. I thought it's reasonable or useful in case of a food shortage.

(Vocabulary)
cereal crop  穀物
oak  樫
cork oak   《植物》 コルクガシ
send ~ to graze  （家畜などを）放牧する
graze  [自] 〈家畜が〉 生草を食べる
[他] 〈家畜〉 に生草を食べさせる, 〈土地〉 を牧草地として使う
[他] 〈皮膚など〉 をすりむく
oleic acid 《化》 // olein acid  オレイン酸

(KW: イベリコ豚)

Instant Cappuccino

     I have a bad habit that I put everything into drawers that isn't necessary right now, like pamphlets, pens, nail clippers, erasers and so on. Consequently, I always mess up the drawers.
     When I cleaned up my drawers today, I found a package of instant cappuccino, which is shown in the picture. I don't remember how it got in my drawer. French words are written on the package and it might be a souvenir from my wife's business trip. I checked the number of its bar code. It starts with 38 as you can see in the picture. I transcribed the code from a website for reference.

Country Code & Country
0 ～ 9     U.S.A. & Canada
20 ～ 29  For retailer use
30 ～ 37  France
38.0    Republic of Bulgaria
38.3    Republic of Slovenia
38.5    Republic of Croatia
38.7    Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
40 ～ 44.0  Germany
45      Japan
------ Skip ---------
49      Japan
50      Great Britain

     Where is the number 38? Was this product made in Bulgaria or the former Yugoslavia? Or, is the number wrong? Though French words are written on the package, should it have read Bulgaria? Anyway, the manufacturer is reliable and it's not from China. I decided to drink it. I never trust products from China.
At that time, I found the number "02/2009". It must show the recommended use-by date. It apparently exceeded its best-before date. What should I do? It was carried all the way from the back side of the earth. I tried it and it tasted good.

(Vocabulary)
transcribe  ～を転記する
Bulgar  ブルガリア
Republic of Slovenia  スロベニア共和国
Republic of Croatia  クロアチア共和国
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ボスニア・ヘルツェゴビナ
the former Yugoslavia  旧ユーゴ
(recommended) use-by date  賞味期限
read (vt)
〔文字などを〕読む、〔書かれている内容を〕読み取る
〔文などを～であると〕解釈する、理解する
〔記号や楽譜などを〕読む、読み取る
exceed its best-before date  賞味期限を過ぎる

Weltenburger

     I didn't have any urgent work and I accompanied my wife to the nearest supermarket. While she was looking for stuff for dinner and some necessities, I just walked around and found an unfamiliar beer. Its label showed that it had been produced in Germany. The next instant, I found myself slipping the bottle into my wife's cart. I added some roast beef and nibbles and rushed to my house. While the bottle got cool, I checked it on the internet and found the website of the company; http://www.weltenburger.de/content/view/9/8/
     As many people know, Germany is the beer country. I'm making my first visit to Germany with my second daughter next month. I can't wait. I'm learning German now and this beer became enough motive for learning German. I'm going to record my trip in this blog. Don't miss it!

(Vocabulary)
slip something under/into/through something
＜…＞を＜…＞の下に［の中に，を通して］そっと滑り込ませる
nibble 少しずつかじる, つつく
nibble at/on something  ＜食べ物など＞をちびちび食べる
nibbles 《複数扱い》(英)(インフォーマル) おつまみ, スナック
Don't miss it!  お見逃しなく！／お楽しみに！／乞うご期待！

(KW: ドイツビール)

Granddaughter

     My daughters, who are the granddaughters of my parents, look adorable to their grandparents, though my daughters have already grown up. As soon as they heard their first granddaughter, Eri, was coming back home, they prepared for a party to welcome her. They invited some relatives and hosted the party. It was fun grabbing a beer with them.

Table Manners

     My wife found a newspaper ad about the table manner class today. Our second daughter, Yuri, is at home for her spring vacation now and we decided to apply for it. Yuri has attended such a class from her high school before, but our youngest daughter, Ann, has never experienced this kind of lecture.
     Our formal lunch started with a potage soup, followed by an appetizer, two main dishes, one of which was meat and the other was fish, and some more. While tasting dishes, the chief chef came out of the kitchen and gave us a lecture for about 20 minutes. His lecture was really nice and useful. My wife and I think that our daughters must acquire formal ways of eating, wearing kimono, tea ceremony and similar things as an adult. We are going to make them try something difficult to eat, such as fish with bones, oysters with shell, lobsters, and so on next time.

Today's Dinner

     A practitioner that has about fifty inpatients asked me to stay 24 hours at his hospital, because he had to visit his daughter's dormitory in Tokyo. He isn't allowed to go out of the hospital without a substitute doctor. He earns big money, but I felt sympathy with him. He is deprived of his free time.
     The picture is of my dinner tonight. It is the dinner for ordinary patients. I'm supposed to have a breakfast for patients with cerebrovascular disorders tomorrow. Salt is removed from it and the breakfast will taste awful.  (Mar. 21st.)

Last Note of this Trip

     We enjoyed this trip to our hearts' content. I was glad to spend a few days with my daughter. The plane for Matsuyama was being prepared for take-off in the first picture. The second picture was of the meal in the plane. It was not good, but it's ok because I had many good memories of this trip. Through this trip, I began to feel friendly for South Korea. I will visit the country again and again. Next time,,,, I would maybe choose Jeju Island.
     By the way, look at the third picture. It was of the display in the cabin. Dokdo was displayed on it. I couldn't help laughing at it. As I wrote about this small island or rocks several times before, I won't repeat it here. However, it will take more and more time for Korean to grow up. If you want to read it, click the archives for "Korea" and search "takeshima". You'll find nine entries about that.
     When I switched on my cellular phone in Matsuyama Airport, I received an e-mail from my daughter with the last picture attached. I bought her an iPOD in a duty free shop in Incheon Airport. She told me that the manual for it was written in Korean. It was a nice punch line at the end of the trip.

Wandering in Incheon Airport

     I had to kill time in Incheon Airport. I thought about how to do it. Going out of the airport flitted througn my mind, but I was afraid I could lose my way back and I gave that up. I took a walk in the airport.

     I heard a tuneful melody of traditional Korean instruments. It was the booth for experiencing Korean culture. Some people were trying to make some crafts or use writing brushes. However, it was not unfamiliar to me. I enjoyed just the tune of the instruments.

     I saw the sign on the gate saying "TASHKENT". This city isn't so well-known in Japan. I realized that this airport was specifically an international hub airport. At the same time, I remembered the miserable history of some Korean people. Stalin adopted the migration policy of Korean people and many Koreans were forced to move into Central Asia about 70 years ago. Many descendants must have lived in Tashkent. Stalin did lots of horrible things against surrounding countries, but the present Russian Government hasn't apologized about them. What a lack of morals!

     This is the information board for international departures. Every time I see it, I feel my heart beating loudly. There are many places in the world and I hope that I can visit as many places as possible. I'm just thinking about visiting Freiburg, the sister city of my home town, this summer. It is only a plan now, but I'd like to make it come true.

     I tried some Korean traditional clothes on. These clothes sounded like they were for the nobles. There were many beautiful clothes for ladies here, and I regretted that my daughter had already left.

     This picture was of my lunch, ramen. This ramen was so-so, but it was intersting that kimchi wasw added to all the food in South Korea.

     After getting tired from walking, I moved to my depature gate. At that time I found a wonderful network service. I'll show you two pictures about it. It was called Naver Square. Naver is a famous network service in South Korea and offers free access to the internet around here. I dropped in at the square with a canned coffee and took my PC out of my daypack and turned it on. My pc was easily connected to the internet. It was very useful. I read some news in Japan while I was in Seoul. I checked my e-mails and replied to some of them and started writing these trip notes.

(Vocabulary)
flit through someone's mind   考えなどがチラッと（人）の心をかすめる
writing brush   毛筆
international hub airport   国際ハブ空港

(KW: 仁川空港) 

Departure

     We got out of the hotel at about 7:00. My flight was at about 15:00 hours, but my daughter's was at about 11:00. We had to start for the aiport this early because Incheon Airport was 2 hours' drive from our hotel.
     After having arrived at the airport, I looked for the coffee shop for our breakfast. I'd like to have chosen a Korean style one, if I could. Finally, we found a rice cake shop. We had breakfast here. To my surprise, the shop was the same as the shop we had dropped in at in Insadon the day before. It seemed like they were chain stores. I took the second picture for my trip notes. The first picture shows the entrance of our hotel. When I arrived, it was dark and when I went out, I walked out of the basement and so it was the first time I had seen the main entrance of the hotel. The last picture shows our breakfast on our last morning in South Korea. These rice cakes would hit the spot. Traditional Korean tea and these rice cakes were the best match.
     After breakfast, I sent my daughter off to the departure gate. She left for Tokyo alone.
I used Incheon Airport this time for the first time. I had four more hours until my flight and enjoyed sightseeing in the airport, though I knew the airport was huge.

Dinner & Casino

     We decided to have dinner at our hotel on our last night in Seoul. I chose the traditional Korean style dishes as I'm showing below. As many high-class hotels are like this, however, the price of dinner was expensive, but not so delicious. I was disappointed. After the dinner, we tried the black jack at Seven Luck Casino in the hotel. It was our first time, but we enjoyed it. We lost about 3000 yen for one hour, but it was fun.

Insadong (인사동 仁寺洞)

     We were shown Insadong, next. This area is well-known as the center of the Korean culture. There were many fancy shops and restaurants. We got 30-minutes' free time and walked around. Look at the first picture. The Korean letter "떡" attracted me. This means "rice cake". Rice cake is also made  in Japan when they celebrate something, such as a new year, weddings, newly-built houses and so on. It sounds like both Koreas have the same culture, but Korean rice cakes have much more variety than those of Japan. This was introduced on an educational TV program of the Korean language, which I watched and learned Korean from. That's why I was intersted in Korean rice cakes. I bumped into this shop by chance, but it might be a logical consequence gifted from the God of "learning".
     I entered the shop without a second thought and found a few tables inside. It seemed like we could try rice cakes with some drinks. I chose two rice cakes and ordered the traditional Korean tea, which I wanted to try after seeing it on the TV. There were many kinds of rice cakes and teas, but I didn't have enough time to choose and followed the suggestion of the waitress. It was great and I recorded the name of the shop with my digital camera. There were many stalls outside. Eri was curious about it. I wanted to visit there again and recorded the name of the street with my camera.

(Vocabulary)
as a logical consequence    必然の結果として

Lunch in Seoul

     I expected the lunch because the guide told us that she would show us this nice restaurant where a black pig, produced in the Jeju-do island, would be served and delicious. Besides, I'm now interested in the history of the island and am learning about it. These reasons made me joyful. The restaurant was clean and tidy. The atmosphere of it was far away from that of the Namdaemun Market. Actually, the dish was very delicious and I enjoyed it.
     At the end of this entry, I'm showing five pictures. I'm sure you can understand what the dish was like from the pictures. It was a fully Korean style lunch. Metal chopsticks and a spoon were put in the paper bag being placed longitudinally in the second picture. In the next picture, the specialty was written in Kanji. These types of characters are commonly used in Korea and Japan, though people from other places than both countries might feel curious. Japanese and Korean language surprisingly resemble with each other grammatically. It means that it's easier to learn each other's language for Korean and Japanese people, than other people.
     The last picture shows the price list. If you are a Japanese person, try to convert them into Japanese yen. 9900 won changes to be 750 yen. Our lunch cost 750 yen with endless helpings of rice and accompanying dishes.

(Vocabulary)
convert  （通貨を）換算する
accompanying dish  おかず

Namdaemun Market (南大門市場 남대문시장)

     We visited Namdaemun Market, next. I'd never seen a place like there. It was so crowded, chaotic and muggy. There was everything there. I don't have suitable words for describing the area now. Just imagine what I want to write. While we were walking in the market, we were frequently spoken to like this, "We have perfect fake stuff. Come into the shop!" We didn't accept their offer, it must have been an illegal business, but we enjoyed seeing various shops. I'll show three pictures here.
     The first picture shows a stall on the street. I really love these kinds of stalls. I wanted to get something and have a canned beer with them, but remembering the words of our guide, I barely held back to stretch my arm. Eri was attracted by the stall in the second picture and bought something. She is twenty something, but looked like a little kid before this stall. We strayed into a sea food area. The last picture shows the exit of the market. This market wasn't connected to any seaport, but the fish looked fresh. The kinds of fish were just the same as Japan. However, thinking of the pollution of the yellow sea, off the coast of China and South Korea, I didn't feel like eating them. Actually, we didn't eat shore fish during our stay.

(Vocabulary)
chaotic  混沌とした
muggy  蒸し蒸しする
shore fish  近海魚

 

Samgyetang 삼계탕

     We chose Samgyetang (蔘鷄湯 삼계탕) as our dinner at the end of the day. The restaurant was located in Myongdong and specialized in serving Samgyetang. I had a reason to select the dish. I'd had it in Japan and wanted to confirm in Seoul whether it had been a real traditional one or not. I'd written about a Korean restaurant in my city. http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2008/06/korean-eating-h.html The result was, it was just like the dish that we had in Japan. I ate a silky fowl and Eri ate a plain old fowl. It was nice but inexpensive, I thought. When I talked about it to a friend who knows more about South Korea, however, he told me that it was the tourist price and it was usually lower in price. I was surprised to hear it and felt the influence of strong yen and weak won.
     The third picture is of Eri and the signboard of the restaurant. I took it for a memo of the restaurant's name. I was full with this dish, but Eri didn't seem satisfied enough and she bought a cake on the way to our hotel. Incredible! It might be, I thought, because of her youth. It was just a few days before White Day. I thought that White Day was the original event of Japan, but it was the same in South Korea. Eri looked like she was being pulled by the sign saying "White Day".

(Vocabulary)
at the end of the day  結局は､最終的には
silky fowl   烏骨鶏

Wondering Where to Eat

     We felt various things were inexpensive. Things weren't cheap, but inexpensive. Eri bought a baggage first to bring things back to Japan in it.

This picture was taken just after getting her new shoes at ABC MART, which is a well known shoes chain shop in Japan, too.

The next two pictures were of Myeongdong Seongdang(明洞聖堂 명동성당), the most famous Catholic Church in South Korea. I was a man of curiosity and entered it. After listening to a few carols, we went out. We were busy seeing around the street.

I stopped at a stall. Stuff on the table looked nice. I thought I stayed there for about ten minutes, but finally I gave up those, following the advice of the travel agent. I thought that heated stuff was secure, but Seoul heavily had yellow sand a week before. Yellow sand might pollute the stuff on the stalls. It was the advice of the agent. I remember, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Eri was checking clothes here for about 20 minutes, saying "good, low-cost, nice, , ," in Korean, but didn't buy anything. Coming to me, she simply said, "It was a good lesson, I could listen to prices!" I know, Listening to numbers in Korean is difficult for beginners due to its liaison, but,,, I felt bad for a shop man.

I came across a sauna bath. If I'd had enough time, I could have tried it!

I found a warning plate of SECOM, which my house is signing on with.

They spoke to me in Korean first. When I was thinking about how to reply, they changed it to Japanese, but it was not enough to communicate. Lastly we could chat in English. They were from Turkey. I feel affinity about Turkey and had a bite. It was delicious, but I don't remember the name of it. I'd like to write about Turkey later.

(Vocbulary)
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ばかは天使が歩くのを恐れる所へも突進する。／君子危うきに近寄らず。
sign on with  ～と契約する

Lunch

     I sometimes took pictures as a kind of note. The first picture was taken as a record of the route that our bus took. It looked like our bus took a different route from the route up to Panmunjom. As you can see from the signboard in the picture, we came here along the Jayuro road, but our driver took a straight route at the next crossroads. Finally our bus stopped at a small, lonely village. It was the restaurant for today's lunch. The signboard in the second picture at the parking lot said that this was a beef restaurant. Eri sat on the floor in a Korean formal way with one leg upright, though it was a horribly rude way in Japan, but it was ok because we were in Korea. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. However, to tell the truth, I was embarassed to wonder if the lady at the left of Eri might think how rude she was. In Japan, we never arrange the chopsticks and spoon longitudinally, but it was formal in Korea as you can see in the picture. We, Japanese usually think that it's bad manners to leave served food uneaten, but this was also the opposite in Korea. They never stopped serving till I asked them to. We tried to eat them up so as not to make leftovers, and they continued to serve many helpings to make us feel full enough. We enjoyed the lunch. It was delicious. We looked like quick-eaters and were given 30 minutes until the departure and went out for a walk. It was a comfortable walk and I'll write about it in the next entry.

(Vocabulary)
lonely   寂れた　人里離れた

North Korea!

      Finally, we ended up viewing the ground of North Korea. I'm showing three pictures in this entry. What do you think when you see these pictures? The first one is the view at 37°48'46.82"N 126°41'8.15"E. As I heard before, the mountains and hills in North Korea didn't have trees and exposed their ground surface. When North Korea was hit by a harvest failure and starvation in the 90's, people ate the bark of trees and the stripped trees died off. Besides, trees are cut also for fuel in the winter, but they never plant trees after cutting them down. It's miserable, I thought, from the bottom of my heart. Both Koreas are ruled by the same people, so how did this difference build? As the road was quite wide enough for traffic, the bus zipped along in top gear. The road was four lanes in each direction until the check point at the entrance of the Unification Bridge. I hope this route will be main artery connecting both Koreas.
     In the third picture, our guide is questioning us. Why do some hills have trees? The answer is, those hills are under the control of the military. There are hidden depots. Tanks, ammunition and similar things are concealed under the trees.

(Vocabulary)
harvest failure  凶作
belt along / in top gear / progress smoothly / zip along  快調に進む

 

Breakfast at Lotte Hotel

     We looked for a coffee shop or an eating house near the Lotte Hotel, but couldn't find one. Finally, I went into the hotel and decided to have breakfast in a buffet style restaurant in the basement. To tell the truth, I don't like such a restaurant, but there was no choice. There are two reasons why I didn't want to choose that restaurant. One is that breakfast in such a restaurant costs a lot. Another, is that breakfast is standardized in hotels. We were in South Korea, so we wanted to have a Korean breakfast.
     About 80% of foods were westernized as I expected, and more than 50% of the customers were white or black. Fortunately, however, there were some Korean domestic foods. We tried some of them. In the picture you can see rice gruel containing abalone, which is one of the famous Korean cuisines. It was also my first experience to handle Korean chopsticks and a spoon. The Korean spoon was just like ours, but the chopsticks were made from metal.

(Vocabulary)
gruel  オートミールの粥（かゆ）= porridge
abalone  アワビ

 

On The Street

     The first picture shows the Lotte Hotel and the Lotte Department Store. The next is the street just in front of the hotel. Some street stalls were being prepared. We were hungry before breakfast, but our travel agents who we had met the day before advised us to refrain from eating food from these stalls. Even if they were cooked, Seoul was attacked by yellow sand a few days before and might be contaminated with it. I obeyed their words, but my daughter was reluctant and stayed near the stall. Then, a breezy stall man gave her some of his products. It made her happy. These trifle things would make foreign people favorable towards South Korea.

(Vocabulary)
reluctant to do   気が進まない、不承不承の、心残りがする
breezy    a breezy person is happy, confident, and relaxed