Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Volunteer for Blood Donation

　　Japan is short of blood for transfusions now. Years ago, Japan abandoned the blood-selling system, and now is collecting blood from goodwill people. Japan adopted the blood donation system for collecting blood and set up some facilities for blood donation in the heart of middle-sized and  bigger cities. Beside the fixed spots, lots of blood donation buses collect blood by traveling all over the country.
　　As I wrote before, I belong to a Lions Club and as a part of its activities, I voluntarily joined the campaign for blood donation which was held on the campus of Ehime University, where the University festival was performed. The picture shows the bus designated for collecting blood. My job was calling for students and visitors to give blood for patients.
　　One more thing. The scene of the festival reminded me of my good old days. A stage was set up next to our site, and I could enjoy lots of performances. Though I was there as a staff member of the Japanese Red Cross, I didn't feel obligated and spent a really relaxing time.

(Vocabulary)
obliged;
be obliged to do sth  ＜…＞せざるをえない, ＜…＞しなければならない
You're not obliged to tell her anything.  彼女には何も言わなくて結構です．
obligated;
obligated to do sth  ＜…＞する義務がある, ＜…＞しなければならない
feel obligated (to do sth)  （＜…＞する）義務があると感じる

Bansuisou 晩翠荘

　　There's a historic building named "Bansuiso" in my hometown. It was lavishly built in 1922 and had been owned by the descendant of the local lord, and it was donated to the city later. Now, we can see the early 20th century style of European architecture inside Bansuiso. I voluntarily cleaned up around there as I wrote in the previous entry. The group who worked here, raking fallen leaves, and my group who pulled weeds out in another place, got together in the picture and were listening to a word of thanks from the manager of the building. Then, we were exempt from paying the entrance fee and entered the building for sightseeing.

(Vocabulary)
lavishly  豪華に, 贅沢(ぜいたく)に; 気前よく, 惜しみなく
descendant  末裔(まつえい), 子孫
a direct descendant of somebody  ＜人＞の直系の子孫
local lord  藩主
fallen leaves 落ち葉
a word of thanks  お礼の言葉
exempt (人)を免除する
exempt sb from (doing) sth

Lions' Day

　　I don't know whether "Lions' Day" is used in English speaking countries, but it means the day of activities at least in Japan. Today was "Lions' Day". I got up as usual despite it being Sunday, and went to the designated point by car driven by my wife. The activity was cleaning up the street, which is one of the main tourist attractions in Matsuyama. This street is kept clean all the time by people who live and work around the street. I wondered if the cleaning was really necessary, but joined in.

 

First Meeting

　　I attended the regular meeting of the Lions Club at noon for the first time. At first I thought about this meeting at which the members would get together with their own lunch, and talk about something frankly in a relaxed atmosphere. Actually it might be so for old members, but I was a stranger there, and felt uneasy for some time. The meeting will be held every two weeks on Tuesdays from now. That's a lot of pressure on me.

(Vocabulary)
a relaxed atmosphere 　和やかな雰囲気

Lions Club

　　I joined the Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club and attended the commencement ceremony with my wife today. My mentor advised me to enroll in the Lions Club which he belonged to. I didn't know much about the club, but I thought it's never bad to follow him.
　　The Lions Club was established in 1907 in Chicago, proposed by Melbin Jones who used to be a member of the Rotary Club. While the Rotary Club serves society individually or as each job group, the Lions Club was set up for serving by strengthening its teamwork. It appears in the difference between the Rotary Club's motto, "I Serve" and the Lions Club one, "We Serve". Each letter stands for Liberty, Intelligence, Our Nation's Safety.
　　In Japan, the first Lions Club was established in 1952, being sponsored by the Manila Lions Club. It increased year by year to reach 3311 by the end of March, 2010. For your information, the number in the club is 45740 in the world at present. It performs lots of social welfare campaigns. My first activity will be to clean up one of the main tourist attractions in my hometown.
　　Anyway, I don't know exactly what it is, but I feel a sense of anticipation as a new member of the Lions Club.

(Vocabulary)
enroll [自] (学校に) 入学する, (講座に) 登録する, (組織に) 入会する
enroll in sth  ＜…＞に登録する
He plans to enroll in college in the fall. 彼は秋に大学に入学する予定でいる．

Visitors from Freiburg

     My hometown, Matsuyama City has a sister city relationship with three cities in the world. The three cities are Sacramento, CA in the U.S., the Korean city of Pyeongtaek-si (평택시 平澤市) and Freiburg in southern Germany. It has been 20 years since the agreement with Freiburg and a goodwill mission visited Matsuyama City from Freiburg. The leader was the Mayor of Freiburg, Dr. Dieter Salomon. In response, Matsuyama City had a welcome party and I joined it. I'm not a good speaker in German. I had a little concern about the conversation with them, but the person next to me could speak English fluently and it helped me. While I was chatting with him, I became eager to visit Freiburg. I've never been to Germany and I think that many people would choose big and famous cities such as Frankfurt, Bonn, Berlin and so on as the first city in Germany. However, I got interested in Freiburg through the chatting.
     Freiburg is famous for its clean environment and is located near the border with Switzerland and France. I'd like to just spend time there and have a one-day trip to Basel in Switzerland and Mulhouse in France. Crossing the border between countries is interesting to me. Besides, Freiburg is a two and a half hour railway ride from Frankfurt which is directly connected with Japan. Freiburg is a small and rural city, but isn't so far from Japan in this sense.
     Anyway, this meeting motivated me to learn German.