Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Community Work

　　In my hometown, a day of the year is designated as the clean-up day of the whole city every year. July 14th was the day this year. Lots of people take part in the task of cleaning up their own neighborhood. It's not an obligatory activity and those who have some other work or something don't have to attend the event. All of them are voluntary. In general, Japanese people tend to keep tidy around their houses, but it has some limitations. The cleaning which requires much labor is usually done on this day. The pictures show a group of people who cut the weeds alongside the road. Those who have grass cutters got together with them and others including me collect the weeds cut down. It was early morning, but it was terribly hot.

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.

"Kaiten" Memorial Museum

　　We were going to stop by for a really short time in the museum, but we became unable to move reading the operators' last messages to their beloved ones. A young man mentioned gratitude and resolve to repel the U.S. in his letter to his school teacher. Some wrote to their brothers to be good sons to their parents and strive to protect the nation. All of them went deep in the Pacific Ocean. Are their spirits actually pacific now? I'll show you one of those letters. The man who wrote this had beautiful handwriting. Judging from it, he must have been an excellent student. Without the war, what would have become of him? As for the second picture, you wouldn't need any remarks. They stormed toward the U.S. fleets bearing huge explosives. Their spirits now rest in Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
　　Outside of the building, there remained the launching site of the Kaiten, where the operators had continued to exercise how to control the Kaiten. While I was walking on the same path to the seashore as the operators had walked who had been rather younger than I, I was moved by their lofty resolve and was struggling to hold back tears.
　　What had caused the War in the Pacific Ocean? I think we, human beings, must make it clear for the following generations not to repeat the war again.

ROUTE
http://kumo.typepad.jp/wadachi/Yamaguchi_Touring_2013_05_31/2013Yamaguchi_Touring.html

"Kaiten" Kamikaze Submarine

　　On the last day of this trip, the weather was terrible with heavy rain and wind in the mountainous area. We decided to escape from the area to avoid them. I wanted to ride my scooter in Akiyoshidai near there, which is the largest karst tableland in Japan, but the wind was thought to be more hazardous there than where we were.
　　Then, I proposed another plan instead of riding in Akiyoshidai and we decided to drop in at Ohzushima Island, which had been covered with a shroud of secrecy during World War Two. I'm going to write about the island in this entry. The first picture is of the passenger boat connecting the island and Honshu. This tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea was the center of research and development of the MANNED torpedos. Lots of young men were trained as operators of the torpedos. The name of this type of - manned - torpedo is "Kaiten" in the title of this entry. The Kaiten Memorial Facility is built on the island and the second and third pictures were shot in its entrance and approach. The black object is formally called the small submarine, but its activities were always one-way (never come back) and bore huge ammunition. I think that it should be called  the manned torpedo. I'm continuing the same topic in the next entry.







ROUTE
http://kumo.typepad.jp/wadachi/Yamaguchi_Touring_2013_05_31/2013Yamaguchi_Touring.html

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

Tsunoshima Island

　　Getting a shower of rain, we arrived at Tsunoshima Ohashi Bridge connecting Shimonoseki City, the west end of Honshu, and Tsunoshima Island. This bridge was one of the principal destinations of this trip, but the weather was unfavorable. If the sky had been blue, it would have been fun to ride my scooter on the bridge. The scenery around the area is so beautiful that the area has been designated as a national park called Kitanagato Coast Quasi-National Park, in which the whole of Tsunoshima Island was included. However, the weather also disrupted the view from here.
　　The 4th picture is a big rock alongside the bridge. The distinctive columnar rocks attracted me, which reminded me of a view from a boat which was shown in the 4th picture of this page(link). Both scenes are located at the side of the Sea of Japan in Japan. If you can see the bed of the sea, this shape of rocks might be linked along the Japanese archipelago.
　　On the eastward way, several mythologies are alive in Nagato City. With the mythologies, these strange spectacles of the area attract visitors. Then suddenly I recalled the abductions which had been committed by North Korea for more than 30 years. These unusual terrains must have been favorable for them to hide themselves.
　　The rain becoming fierce, we rushed to our inn. The Japanese traditional inn is called "rhokan" and has its distinctive features. I'd like to write about it in another entry later.

(Vocabulary)
disrupt the view from ～の眺めを台無しにする
quasi- 《「ある程度の…」「準…」などを意味する語を作る》quasi-legal  準法的な
《「見せかけの」「擬（似）…」などを意味する語を作る》quasi-scientific  擬似科学的な

ROUTE

Ganryujima Island

　　Ganryujima Island is a tiny but historically well-known island on the Kanmon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu. If there's a guy in front of you whom you suspect whether he is a Japanese or not, ask him about Ganryujima Island. If he couldn't answer your question, he wouldn't be a Japanese. This island is noted for the site of the duel, where the great swordsman Miyamoto Musashi crossed swords with also the great one, Sasaki Kojiro. Both of them were allegedly the strongest swordsmen at that time, in the early 17th century. You might evoke a battleship of Japan's Imperial Navy from the name of Miyamoto Musashi. Yes, you're right. Musashi, one of the two biggest-ever battleships in the world was named after the strength of Miyamoto Musashi. I wrote about it before and you can check it(link).
　　I got on the small yellow boat and found a minesweeper and two big ferryboats bound for Pusan and Qingdao respectively moored on the way. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the situation around the ferryboats looked lonely due to the chilly relationships with South Korea and China. There stood the monument of them on the island. With a closer look, you'll notice that Musashi had an oar not a sword. Incidentally the duel resulted in the win of Musashi. You might want to know the reason why the top two swordsmen then had to fight here, though. It was too earthly to tell you who hope for something spiritual for an answer.

(Vocabulary)
Maybe it was just my imagination, but  気のせいかもしれませんが、、、、

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

Yamaguchi Tour (May 31st to June 2nd)

　　I went on a trip to Yamaguchi Prefecture from May 31st to June 2nd. Yamaguchi Prefecture lies on the opposite side of Ehime Prefecture across the Seto Inland Sea. I'm afraid that most foreign people wouldn't know Yamaguchi Prefecture and I put together a map on which my route was written. One thing, I left Matsuyama Sightseeing Port by ferry boat, and stayed in the cabin overnight, where my GPS receiver couldn't pick up data from the satellite. So, the route from the real starting point to Kokura Port, during which time I was in the cabin, was dropped. The picture shows scooters being locked on the ferry boat.

Rainbow

　　The pictures show the rainbow which I saw this morning on the way to work. It's the first time I've seen such a beautiful and complete rainbow in my life. The most part of the rainbow was above the sea and nothing concealed any part of it. Then I couldn't pass the scene and pulled over my car to have a short break and take pictures.
　　Ehime Prefecture in which my hometown is located got into the rainy season yesterday. During this season, it's a rare chance to see a blue sky. This morning, it was a little cloudy and I didn't hope to see such a beautiful rainbow. My commuting route is full of changes of views from urban streets via mountainous district to the seaside. The instant I got through the forest, I found a beautiful rainbow starting to be formed on the sea called Iyonada. As I drove the car, the formation of the rainbow gradually developed and completed really beautifully. I couldn't help stopping my car.

Oriental Machu Picchu

　　I'm going to tell you about one of the tourist destinations located deep in the forest in my prefecture. It's a cultural and industrial heritage which recently earned the nickname of "Oriental" Machu Picchu. This spot closely resembles Machu Picchu, which is the name of the ruins of an ancient Inca city in southern Peru, as you all know.
　　Four hundred years ago, three thousand people, at its most prosperous period, lived there, engaging in mining copper in the present Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. Copper dug out from the mine had been the resources for remarkable development of Japan after World War Two, but now the mine is closed and the area didn't have a proper name but the simple name of the place, "Tohnaru". However, once someone named it as Oriental Machu Picchu, things changed. The spot became well-known and popular.
　　I visited the site with my wife. It was in a sequestered region. Without preliminary information on the ruins, you would be so astonished to see it like the explorer, Hiram Bingham III, who found Machu Picchu in 1911. Incidentally, Indiana Jones is supposedly modelled on him. Like Indiana(!), in the midst of the dense forest, we found traces of a kindergarten, a clinic and a theater for performing arts. They barely revealed their past existences.

(Vocabulary)
Machu Picchu　マチュピチュ〔ペルー南部にあるインカ帝国の都市遺跡〕
earn 　[他] (当然の)〈名声・地位など〉を得る,〈尊敬・称賛など〉を受ける
I think you've earned a rest! そろそろ休んだらどうだい！
earn sb sth  ＜人＞に＜尊敬・称賛など＞をもたらす
His hard work earned him the respect of his co-workers. 彼は勤勉な働きぶりで同僚の尊敬を集めた．
dense 〈植物・葉などが〉密生した,〈人口が〉密集した
areas of dense vegetation  植物が生い茂っている地域
dense forest/jungle/undergrowth  うっそうとした森林［ジャングル，下草］

Asagiriko Lake Marathon

　　Asagiriko Lake Marathon took place today and I joined the category for the 10km road race. It was the first time for me to run more than 100 meters in the last 30 years, so it was epoch-making stuff in my life. The lake is located an hour's drive south of my hometown and the route was arranged around Asagiriko Lake. The route was surrounded by serene rural scenes which was a nice place for relaxing and feeling the nature.
　　Lots of people were registered to run in the event, as you can see in the first picture. There were about 2800 runners and this event is undoubtedly one of the biggest events for this tiny village. The start of the half marathon was coming and the runners moved to the starting point.
　　My friends and I were going to join the 10km road race, which started 30 minutes after the start of the half marathon. We took pictures of ourselves during the 30 minutes which was given for people to see the start of the half marathon. The man wearing number 1428 in the picture is me.
　　I finished the 10km road race keeping the pace as previously scheduled. Generally speaking, the record was not good, but I found it very satisfying. I'll try other races and complete a full marathon some day.

(Vocabulary from comments)
applaud  ［正式］…を賞賛する（praise）；…を支持する（support）
I ～ your decision to quit smoking.  よく禁煙を決意しましたね
We ～ed him for his courage to attack the difficulty.  我々はその困難と戦う彼の勇気を賞賛した.
sideline 〈負傷などが〉〈選手〉を試合に出場できなくする; 〈病気・状況などが〉〈人〉に仕事をできなくする
Plantar Fasciitis  足底筋膜炎
nagging  〈痛み・悩みなどが〉しつこい, 絶えずつきまとう; 〈声・親などが〉口うるさい, いつも小言を言う
a ～ cough  （なかなか治らない）長引く咳
a ～ doubt   つきまとって離れない疑念
have a ～ pain in one's arm  慢性的に腕が痛む.

Wandering in the City

　　I wanted to see a street, DiHua St., where more than 90% of Taiwanese medicine wholesalers supposedly gather. I headed for the street, checking where we were on the map on my smartphone. Incidentally, I came across a monument and a memorial hall on the way, both of which were unfavorable views for me. I'll show you the pictures of them with some remarks.
　　According to its description, the monument was built in commemoration of the victory in the war against Japan. Historically strictly speaking, however, it's undoubtedly untrue. Japan was defeated by the U.S., and stopped fighting on all the fronts. The weapons which the Japanese army was forced to abandon were utilized by the Chinese Communist Party and they expelled Guomindang into Taiwan, which was the opening of the darkness of the originally beautiful Taiwan, which is still stuck in the darkness.
　　The big hall in the picture was named after Sun Wen, who is said to be the Father of China. However, for people who know the real history, he was only a con man.
　　Now, DiHua St. was extraordinary for me. There were numerous curious items here and there. Some of them didn't look like medicine or even things that we took in orally - just a wooden rod, insect larvae' carcasses and so on. I wished I could have spoken in Chinese and communicated with people in those wholesalers.

Wandering Route in Taipei:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/Taiwan13/Taiwan0404_1.html

(Vocabulary)
wholesale dealer  問屋
Guomindang government（中華民国）台湾の国民党政府
Chiang Kai-shek  蒋介石
larva  a young insect with a soft tube-shaped body, which will later become an insect with wings
carcass  the body of a dead animal

The Last Day

　　I noticed that I hadn't written about breakfast in the hotel. It was very nice. On the last day of the trip, we spent a slightly longer time in the hotel restaurant over a cup of tea, checking the plan of walking in the streets in Taipei. Another guide, different from the one who had guided us until the previous day, was supposed to pick us up in the hotel lobby and take us to the Taipei Songshan Airport at 1400 o'clock. We had a free time until the pick up.
　　There was the Taipei Railway Station just in front of the hotel. We started walking from here and dropped in at 228 Peace Park. "228" derives from the huge conflict between the original Taiwanese and Chinese from mainland China, which broke out on February 28th in 1947 and continued for about 40 years. A large number of original Taiwanese had been killed by the Chinese government. I learned about the complexity of the country's history in the 228 memorial museum in the park and understood why this museum wasn't included in the ordinary tour course. I was interested in the history and visited it. The last picture shows the building of the Taiwan Government, which used to be the office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. I marveled at how beautiful and awesome it was.

(Vocabulary)
marvel at/over something  ＜…＞に驚嘆する
I marveled at my mother's ability to remain calm in a crisis. 危機に際して落ち着いていられる母の力に私は驚嘆した．

Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠

　　We finished the museum tour earlier than scheduled. The next destination was the Martyrs' Shrine, where people who had fought and died for the sake of the country were honored. Presumably the guide might take into account the schedule of the change of the guard in the shrine. We arrived at it just in time for the attraction of the change of the guard.
　　As we followed the guards, I took pictures and mimicked the way the soldiers walked. It seemed that it was not so hard if for a short distance, but actually it would be tough work to walk a few hundred meters in a ritual way and stay still for an hour on the pedestal in full view of everyone.
　　Inside the shrine, people were classified according to the military conflicts in which they were killed. Among them there were people who were killed in the anti-Japan conflicts in a curious way, because there had been no war or anything like that between Taiwan and Japan.
　　When I talked about the shrine with a Facebook friend, who is Taiwanese, he told me that people honored at the shrine died for the Republic of China and not for Taiwan. I fully understood the whole picture of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China from his words. I sincerely hope for the independence of TAIWAN.

(Vocabulary)
take into account sth (take sth into account とも)  ＜…＞を考慮する, 考慮に入れる
Architects must take the needs of disabled people into account. 建築家は障害者の要求を考慮に入れなければならない．
pedestal　（円柱・彫像の）台座, 柱脚;（胸像・花瓶を載せる）台
in full view of everyone 　衆人環視の中で
in a curious way  妙な［不思議な］ことに

National Palace Museum 国立故宮博物院

　　We joined the guide in the hotel lobby and headed to the highlight of this trip, the National Palace Museum. Various items of historical significance were displayed, but we went out after a short tour. It was enough for us to look closely at the most famous piece of the Jadeite Cabbage with insects which is carved into the shape of a Chinese cabbage head with a locust and katydid camouflaged in the leaves. We were annoyed by the incredibly uncomfortable noises of Chinese tourists. I felt sick.
　　I learned that most of the items on display had been moved from Mainland China, surviving from stealing and destruction by Chinese people. Who do you think protected Chinese historic treasures? The Japanese Imperial Army served to preserve Chinese historic treasures in the midst of the chaos in World War 2. It was regrettable that there was no such detailed description about the history of the museum itself in the pamphlet given by the museum.

(Vocabulary)
Jadeite 《鉱物》ヒスイ［ひすい］輝石、硬玉、翡翠（ヒスイ）jadeの中で軟玉nephriteに比べて硬く、希少価値の高いもの。主にミャンマーで産出する。薄緑色のものが多いが、白・褐色・紫色のものもある。
locust バッタ, イナゴ
katydid (北米産の) キリギリス

Chinese People

　　We had to buy the tickets to enter the geological park. I was going to get them by myself because I wanted to talk in Chinese which I had been learning since last year, but the guide stopped me, pointing to the ticket office. Around the office was crowded with Chinese people and completely in chaos. They seemed to hate to line up and squeezed in the crowd in front of the office with screaming. The guide told me that it's tough work to buy the tickets. He showed his ID or something to the clerks and got the tickets at a different wicket. It might be a privilege as the professional guide.
　　Additionally, when we went out of the park, the guide took us to an unnoticeable exit other than the main exit. As far as I saw, people who passed this gate were non-Chinese. Why? I understood the reason in no time, viewing a shopping arcade for local people just outside of the exit, where lots of marine products were displayed and all of them were available for just tasting. If Chinese tourists walked along the market, they would eat up the sample foods. At the end point of the market, a political group was campaigning against the People's Republic of China, raising various picket signs. I took pictures of their signs, some of which had terrible photos of victims of the Chinese Communist Party, and show you one of them below.

(Vocabulary)
wicket (米) (切符売り場などの) 窓口
picket  　when a group of people stand or march in front of a shop, factory, government building etc to protest about something or to stop people from going in during a STRIKE:

Yeliufengjingqu（野柳風景区）

　　Do you know the Rock Sites of Cappadocia in Turkey on the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites? I've never been there, but I've seen the scenery on TV or something. Where we were brought to next was such a place, though its scale was far smaller. The area was called Yeliu Geopark. There is also a similar place in Japan, and I'll show you it(link). Anyway, the park is located at the nearest part to Japan in Taiwan, so you can find where it is on the map. We walked around and enjoyed the interesting appearances of various rocks.
　　Our guide gave us some information and advice on the way; More than 90% of the tourists of the park are Chinese who came from Fujian, China and stay in Taiwan for a day or two and will move to Okinawa, Japan by ferry. It's the regular route of the package tours for Chinese people. They are so rude and noisy, and sometimes spew sputa out. You'd better keep away from them.
　　We followed him in the park all the way, because he knew every curious rock and funny stories about the area. No policeman and no guard was seen only a decade ago, but now they were positioned from place to place. It seemed that a few Chinese had died here, ignoring the regulation lines a few years ago. The Chinese groups are sure to spend money in Taiwan, but they are probably uninvited guests.

Cappadocia in Japan
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/08/hotokegaura-jap.html

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

Pingxi Line 2 (平渓線）

　　I'll continue the topic of the last entry. I referred to the stuff in the first picture as a kind of tent, but a fire balloon might be more suitable. The base of the tent was made of thin bamboo with a thin wire across it as you see in the picture. What was attached to the center of the wires were fuel sheets. Writing the prayers on the balloon, setting fire to the fuel on the base of it, and holding it on the ground, then the preparation was done. The second picture shows the moment just before the launching. Do you notice someone  squatting on her heels behind the balloon. She was just about to ignite the fuel. An old man was passing by chance, and he helped us hold the balloon. We had to hold it until the limit that we put up with the increasing heat of the balloon. At the next moment, the balloon flew far away. You can see the fire in the balloon in the picture.
　　By the way, a Fire Defense Law is strictly in place in Japan. How is its equivalent in Taiwan? It's unbelievable to fly things with fire. This area was in the midst of the subtropical forests and seemingly wet all the time. Forest fire might not break out. I asked the guide about it. He replied, "Mountains don't burn, but the houses burn." I took a snapshot toward the direction he pointed, which is shown below. The balloon which was launched from the adjacent shop flew into the third floor of the shop we dropped in at, but people looked indifferent. I admired their easygoing way of life.
　　In Japan, walking on the train track is banned in any case. However, it seemed that people in this village didn't mind such a thing. I'd like to have seen how they behaved when a train was coming, but I had to move to another point due to the time constraint.