Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Wonderful Shoes

     I knew that my shoes haven't worn down flat since long ago. They always started to wear down from the outside. Everyone has their own way of walking and I didn't worry about it at all, but I realized that I easily got blisters. I wrote about my blister here. (link)
     Last year, I knew a German Meister about making shoes. He appeared in the German educational program which I was watching to learn German. He accommodates individualized orders from their way of walking. He says, "It's not uncommon that the size of both feet differs." While watching the program, I got to want to undergo his consultation, but he lives in Tokyo. It was not easy to commute to his office.
     The other day, I found the Meister's associated shop here in Matsuyama by chance. I dropped in at the shop and had a total check of my feet. As I expected, my way of walking is not good. No one had pointed it out, and I didn't feel any pain in my ankles, knees and hip joints. However, the sizes of both feet are different. The length of my feet are the same, but there's a difference in diameter at the Lisfranc and Metatarsophalangeal joints. I was surprised and decided to have some shoes made.
     The picture shows my new shoes. I tried to walk for about 40 minutes with them on. I don't know how to explain the feeling of the shoes, but it's like wearing the best ski boots. They fit my feet up to the plantar arch. On the other hand, how about their design? They are very good functionally, but do they look nice? Why can't craftsmen make them fashionable? Is it the German way?
     At any rate, I can't wait to take a walk on the stone-paved streets in Germany with them on.

(Vocabulary)
accommodate
1 [他] 〈建物・乗り物などが〉 …を収容する, 〈ホテルなどが〉 …を宿泊させる
The hotel can accommodate 200 people.
そのホテルは200人宿泊できる．
2 [他] 〈意見・要求など〉 を受け入れる
3 [他] 〈人〉 に便宜を図る
accommodate individualized needs  一人一人のニーズに合わせる
in diameter  太さが違う
Metatarsophalangeal joints  中足趾節関節
Lisfranc joint
Tarsometatarsal joints 足根中足関節
arch of a foot（足の）/ plantar arch  土踏まず

New Daypack

     As I wrote before, my favorite daypack was broken at its fastener. It was impossible to be mended and I decided to throw it away and get a new one. I'd used it for about fifteen years, and it must be its life span.
     I'll leave for Germany soon, and I bought the one in the picture. I bought it at an outdoor gear shop. I thought that all the daypacks were made for outdoor activities like hiking or climbing. It's not the case about this one. This daypack has a special space made for mobile PCs inside. It's suitable for me. I'll take my mobile PC to stock pictures, GPS data and trip notes so as to guard against the danger of memory overflow. I'll transfer their data into my PC and send them to the storage space on the internet every day in case of the loss of the PC, digital cameras and luggage. Even if I lose my possessions somewhere, I'd like to secure our memory.
     At any rate, this daypack seems to be made for city tourists rather than wilderness trekkers.

Trial of New Rain Jacket

    I had used a heavy duty rain jacket made for mountaineering for the last twenty years. It was extremely light. It was natural. It was specially designed for climbing up to the globally highest level of mountains. The air permeability had already been damaged by my sweat and blots and it couldn't be used in a high mountains anymore, but it was still of use in my daily life. I set it on the pocket of my scooter in case of the sudden rain. I liked it, but it was destroyed by a dog as I wrote here before. (link)
    I told the owner of the dog at that time that it was okay because the jacket was old enough to be thrown away. It used to cost alot, but now it was not expensive though I'd like to say, "I really liked it!" I knew such a complaint was nonsense.
    After that, I bought a new one a few weeks ago. I thought I wouldn't have a chance to climb up difficult mountains. I chose the second best class rain jacket. The next week, an insurance agent came to me and told me that the owner of the dog really hoped to compensate me for it. Eventually I got half of the money spent on the initial cost of a twenty year old jacket. The old torn jacket turned into some money. It might be kind of lucky.
    It was raining outside at noon and I decided to test it today. The picture is the jacket and a roadside park on the coast line near my hometown, where I'm taking a rest. The result was very nice and more than I expected. The development of this field is also wonderful.

(Vocabulary)
air permeability  通気性
blot 汚れ
compensate sb for sth 賠償する, 補償する, 償う

Daypack

     Finally, my favorite daypack got broken. I bought it in Whistler in 1994. I took a ride on a snowmobile for the first time that year. I didn't bring my backpack from Japan at that time and I got one there. When I moved onto the snowmobile, I had to carry my stuff with me. Though this daypack was nothing special and was a very common one,  my mother especially liked it and took it to more than ten countries with her. The zipper jammed and couldn't be repaired. It's a shame, but I decided to throw it away.

(Vocabulary)
The zipper jammed. ファスナーが引っかかった

Pendulum Clock

     I put a wonderful wall clock in my living room, which is controlled by radio and driven by light. It means that this watch never shows a bad time and never stops due to the outage of juice. It has worked impeccably these last two years. Besides, it's not expensive. However, I found that it's not always true that the more advanced, the better.
     I saw a nostalgic pendulum clock today. It reminded me of my maternal grandparent's house, which I frequently visited in my childhood. Both of my maternal grandparents have already passed away but their shadows are still in my mind. This pendulum clock made the shadows of their former selves vivid.
     I've not seen this type of clock for a long time and I looked at it for a while and found that it said on the face "QUARTZ". What? The pendulum was a mere ornament and this clock wasn't driven by a spiral spring but controlled by quartz and AA batteries. It was just a fly in the ointment.
     All the same, something nostalgic wasn't bad.

(Vocabulary)
pendulum clock　振り子時計
be out of charge（電化製品などが）バッテリーが切れている
be out of juice（電池式の器具などが）〈俗〉 バッテリーが切れている
impeccable  申し分のない, 非の打ちどころのない, 完璧(かんぺき)な= perfect
paternal / maternal  父方／母方の
a shadow of one's former self　昔の面影
clock face / face of a watch / dial / dial plate　時計の文字盤
main spring / power spring / spiral spring　ぜんまい
a fly in the ointment  興ざめ

 

A Dog Vandalize

     I put on my favorite rain jacket and took off for work in the sign of rain this morning. The rain jacket was one of my climbing gears and I really liked it. I hung up my jacket on the steering of my scooter after parking it to dry it up in the garage at my office. A few hours later, I was called and knew the situation of my scooter as you see in the picture. It was done by a dog that my boss kept.
     While a staff member was away from the dog, leaving the dog free in the garage, the dog did that. The dog seemed to have pulled my jacket on my scooter. It started to rain outside and he must have cut corners to walk the dog.
     I was so upset, but that was what was done by a dog. Besides, the damage of my scooter was minimal. It looked like the most fragile part was protected by my jacket. However, my rain jacket was miserable as you also see in the pictures. I guess that it can't be helped.

(Vocabulary)
vandalize 《[他]通例受け身形で》 〈公共物など〉 を故意に損壊［汚損］する
hang up a coat  コートを掛ける
can't be helped  仕方ない

Digital Gadget

     I don't know what you call a person like me who loves small gadgets such as portable GPSs, data loggers, palmtop PCs, cellular phones and so on. Gadget freak? Anyway, one of those gadgets has been always on my mind for a year. It is the Google Phone, which was unveiled in Europe and the U.S. last year. I'd been eager to see it directly and I heard a few months ago that it would be on sale in Japan in several months. I couldn't wait for the day.
     A few months have passed since then and today was the day when it went on sale. Needless to say, I rushed to the shop and bought it. I'll show you the picture, in which a case for the phone shows up. This case is made by Piel Frama and is specially designed for the Google Phone. It fits comfortably in my hand.

(Vocabulary)
on sale  販売されて
go on sale  発売される
show up  写っている(写真などに)
fit comfortably in one's hand   手になじむ

(KW: グーグルフォン)

GPS Receiver

     I'm planning to visit Freiburg in Germany this autumn. I accessed the website of Freiburg City and got information for tourists. They sent me lots of pamphlets about Freiburg and around the city. I'm showing you them. I'm scouring these pamphlets now. I'm kind of a nerd. I have a great attention to detail and have to have everything perfect.
     I found that Freiburg was located ideally. I mean, the city is very convenient for sightseeing. I'm going to wander Basel in Switzerland, Strasbourg in France and around Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). Basel is on the border of Switzerland, Germany and France. Lake Constance is likewise the border of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I will take a billion pictures and I was afraid that I wouldn't know where each picture was taken, so I bought a GPS Logger, which shows me where I was at any time later. It links pictures and places where the picture was taken by reconciling the time that the picture was shot. The second picture is of the GPS Logger. This device can record where I am every second for a continuous seven days. Can you believe it? I've only to put both pictures and my log into my PC and the PC makes up my album automatically. I'm sure that it will be open to the public in this blog.

(Vocabulary)
reconcile data  データを照合する

BOSE QuietComfort 3

     Finally I bought BOSE QuietComfort 3 today. I wrote about these noise canceling headphones in the following entries. I've been eager to get them for the last two years, but they were expensive. I was expecting that the price would become lower someday, but the price has been kept the same. No discount for two years. When I saw the article about the campaign on the internet, I gave up waiting for the discount. The manufacturer said, "If you buy it now, you'll get a backup battery for free." This was what made me decide to buy it.

http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/viva-hokkaido.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/at-matsuyama-ai.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/return-flight.html

 

Wadachi

     Today was really windy. We seldom have such storm-like days except for when there is a typhoon. So I just kicked back at home. I've seen google maps moving on some private web pages. I really wanted to know the way to make up such web pages and was surfing on the net. I eventually found some fantastic software called "Wadachi". This Japanese word means tracks. I downloaded this software at once and made the following web page. It is the report of my short tour on April 19th. See http://kumo.typepad.jp/wadachi/kinzan_shussekiji_temple.html It's wonderful and just what I wanted to make up. Some parts are written in Japanese, but I think I can modify the template into an English version by myself for everyone in the world. Please enjoy my report, zooming the map in and out, and you'll know where it is on the globe.

(Vocabulary)
kick back = relax
at once  すぐに
eventually  結局は, 最後には

Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

     I've installed and have been using a wireless keyboard and mouse for a few weeks now. Though the former ones weren't broken, I just wanted to use them. If I had to criticize the former keyboard and mouse, the noise of typing was irritable and the cords of the keyboard and the mouse were annoying.
     My impression is that they are great. I've never thought of the advantages of the wireless accessories. It's easy to clean up the desk. When I wipe the desk, I temporarily can put them away. I can type the keys while leaning back on the chair. It means that it's convenient when I watch a movie on the PC. I often changes subtitles between Japanese and English. Watching American movies is also one of the ways of learning English. I can learn some expressions with their situations around. The words on the pages of the dictionary seem to be as dry as an old bone to me.

(Vocabulary)
If I had to criticize,   強いて言うなら
as dry as an old bone  無味乾燥な

 

VMAX

     The picture is of VMAX, a 1200cc motorcycle, which is my brother's. I borrowed it this afternoon and took a short ride. I got an unlimited license for motorcycles recently. It was not easy, but I got it in order to ride this motorcycle. This is so heavy that I managed to put up the center stand only after a great deal of effort. However, once it started, it was so light. I felt a comfortable sound and beat from the heart of the motorcycle. Its accelerating force was so amazing that I've never felt before. I became eager to have my own super-big motorcycle. I almost got addicted to its power.

(Vocabulary)
after a great struggle / after a great deal of effort 辛うじて
accelerating force/power  加速力

(From the comments)
in-laws  婚姻による親戚(しんせき), 義理の親
load up （＜車・トラックなど＞に）荷物［貨物］を積み込む
load sth up with sth ＜車・トラックなど＞に＜…＞を積み込む
She loaded up the car with camping gear.  彼女は車にキャンプ用品を積み込んだ．
go off 出かける
hightail it  一目散に逃げる
seaboard  沿岸（地帯）
the eastern/western/Pacific seaboard  東部［西部，太平洋］沿岸地帯
be hot on sb's trail/tail/heels  ＜人＞のすぐあとを追いかけている
hail [U] ひょう, あられ
sideways 横向きに, 斜めに
in the middle of nowhere 辺ぴな所に
cover (長い行程の一部として) (ある距離を)進む, 移動する, カバーする
They were hoping to cover 40 miles yesterday. 彼らは昨日40マイル進みたいと思っていた．
cover a lot of ground  長い距離を進む
That's about it. まあそんなところだ。／こういったところだ。／それが限度だ。

 

Annual Event

     I was busy with the maintenance of my cars this afternoon. I own two different types of car now. One is a Honda Elysion, which is luxurious and a four-wheel drive. It is equipped with an excellent navigation computer which can receive e-mails, a 6.1ch movie theater system which also can receive TV and a 100V electricity supply which makes it possible to use home electrical appliances. You can enjoy TV games in the car. Besides, this car can accommodate eight people, so it means that this car is particularly good for a long family drive. All my family members like skiing and the original house of my wife is located in a heavy snowfall area. The four-wheel drive is also suitable for my family in this instant. I fix winter tires at the end of the fall every year and remove them at the beginning of the spring.
     At first, I took Elysion to a car-washing shop. I used to wash my car by myself before, but recently, I have been using professional people in order to cut back on my labor and save my time. Next, I went to a tire shop and exchanged the tires from winter tires to summer ones. Eventually, my second car, a Honda Z, which is 660cc, needed an exchange of tires to new ones after three years of usage and I did it.

(Vocabulary)
home electric appliances  家庭電気製品
in this respect / in some respects / in every respect  この点［いくつかの点，あらゆる点］で
"In this instant" means "in this case," which is similar to but not quite the same as "in this respect."
eventually  結局は, 最後には
winter tire  スタッドレスタイヤ〔英米ではstudless tireという言い方はしない。〕

I Made It

     I've been struggling to get the big motorcycles license for these past three months. As I wrote about this topic before, this license isn't easy to get, but I got it today. I'm so happy. My youngest brother has already gotten it and has a super big motorcycle that is shown in the picture. The displacement of the motorcycle is 1200cc, the engine of which must be unbelievably strong. I'm going to rent it from him from time to time, and buy my own in the near future.

For reference:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2008/11/driving-school.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2008/12/the-first-lesso.html
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2009/01/driving-school.html

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

At Lotte Hotel

     I was going to see the scenery from the bus on the way back, but I felt sleepy and found myself back at Lotte Hotel where I started the tour to Panmunjom. It was a nice and profitable bus tour.
     After the breakup of the group, we dropped in at the Duty Free Shop in the hotel. There were many Japanese at a certain cosmetic corner. I didn't know why it was so popular, but my daughter knew. It was the booth of BB Cream. BB Cream is very popular in Japan now because a famous cosmetic advisor, IKKO, who was a transgender make-up artist and also a TV personality, was promoting these cosmetics. I didn't feel any interest, but my daughter bought more than a dozen of them. It sounded like she had been asked to get it by her friends. It seemed cheaper than by mail order or shopping online from Japan. Anyway, she bought it with my credit card and would get paid from her friends in cash. Wasn't it strange?
     The second picture shows my daughter and Park Yong Ha (박용하 / 朴容夏). Of course, he was a mere cut-out for commercial use. He was also well known in Japan as the rival of the protagonist in the TV drama, "冬のソナタ, 겨울연가". Lots of Japanese started to learn Korean through the influence of this drama and I'm one of those. By the way, I use a fully automatic digital camera, which recognizes the faces of humans. That is to say, I don't need to adjust the focus when I shoot faces. I wondered if the camera could detect his face on the cut-out as a human face. The result was, it could. I was surprised. How did it work?

Underneath

     The weather was clear and I could enjoy the landscape of the ground from the window. I didn't bring my portable GPS this time, which was a mistake. I was probably over Yamaguchi Prefecture when I took the picture.
     The second picture shows South Korea 20 minutes before landing. The place was probably south of Seoul, just before we went out to sea. It was so regrettable that I forgot to bring my handy GPS. Where was I, then? If I'd had my GPS, I could've match the pictures and maps using the data of the position later. See also; http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2005/11/get-started.html

Bowling Game

     An event of the Matsuyama City Medical Association was held and I've reported it in this blog before. (http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/03/bowling-meeting.html) 20 staff members from my hospital joined the event this year and I won  18th place out of more than 200 people. I was in incredibly good condition. Moreover, I got 2nd prize in my hospital. I'll show you both prizes in the picture. One is a domestic humidifier and another is an assorted "Tsukudani (佃煮)", foods boiled in soy sauce from a long-established company in Kyoto.

New Digital Camera

     I bought a new digital camera. The one that I use now was rolled out in 2003 and still takes good pictures, but the indicator lamps don't work to show when it is on, or being charged. I can continue to use it, but I got new one because when I went up the JR Tower in Sapporo last November, several school kids came to me and asked me to take their picture. It was my pleasure to do so, but the direction that they want me to take it at was not good. I explained that their faces would disappear in the dark due to the sun. They looked like they couldn't understand me, so I took the picture as a trial to show how it would become if it was taken against the sun.
     However, the picture I took was nice and fine. I was so surprised and felt embarassed. I wasn't aware of how the function of the camera had become remarkably advanced. I decided to renew my camera at that time.
     I've been examining several cameras from various manufacturers but all of the cameras have the same original functions so it was not easy to choose one. After considering it for a while, I selected one from Fujifilm because my present camera is a product of this company and I thought it would be easier to use one from the same company.

http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2008/11/jr-tower.html

（Vocabulary)
against the sun  逆光で

Net Book (Mobile PC)

     Some types of portable PCs are becoming popular in Japan since last summer. A Taiwanese company seems to have sparked the boom. The characteristics are cheaper and limited functional. Roughly speaking, it costs a fourth of a regular notebook PC and has a fourth of the functions of regular one. When I heard about this kind of portable PC, I was skeptical about it. No matter how cheap it is, it seemed pointless not to have high performance. However, to the contrary of my opinion, the media has reported that the sales of this kind of portable PC are increasing. This news hasn't gotton out of my mind for a long time and I checked out several websites and could hear opinions directly from people who had already started using it. Finally, I ended up getting it and am showing you below.
     I've already used it for a month now. I really think it's nice and useful. It has enough power for netsurfing and exchanging e-mails. I installed a Japanese dictionary and Longman English-English and English-Japanese dictionary. The weight of the pc is only 1 kg. The size of the keys is just fit to my fingers. It connects to the internet via wireless network. It is also called the net book. It's a good naming , I suppose. It's small enough, light enough and has enough power for me. I am planning to visit South Korea in March. I'm sure I'll bring it and access to the internet.

（Vocabulary)
spark   火付け役となる
not get out of one's mind    気になって仕方がない