Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Microwave Oven and Toaster Oven

　　I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't fully understand the differences between a microwave oven and a toaster oven until this day. When I called my wife and ask how to use it, she laughed at what I had done.
　　The story is like this. I went to the nearest supermarket to get some late-night snacks in the afternoon as I had to stay overnight at my hospital. I was allowed to sleep, but if there was an emergency, I couldn't sleep and would get hungry at that time. So, I prepared something, which is shown in the picture. It was a set of small frozen pizzas, the diameter of which is about 10cm, and the description said, "You should use a toaster oven to thaw and cook them." My room is provided with a microwave oven and I thought I could cook them with it. I put a piece of frozen pizza in themicrowave oven and heated it. The result was....the pizza was barely edibleand the taste was terrible. I found that toasting and heating is completely different.

(Vocabulary)
thaw 〈人・物などが〉〈氷・雪など〉を解かす；〈冷凍食品〉を解凍する, 戻す（＋out）
～ （out） frozen food before cooking 冷凍食品を調理前にもとに戻す.

Holland

　　I've been writing this blog for about 8 years and it's probably the first time to handle Holland as a topic. That's because my youngest daughter set out for Holland a short while ago. She was dispatched to The Hague in Holland through the Youth Camp Exchange Program organized by the International Lions Club. Young exchange people from Japan to Europe are supposed to leave Japan tomorrow morning from three principal airports of Japan, i.e. Narita, Chubu and Kansai Airport. My daughter flew to Kansai Airport to get on-board tomorrow's flight LH741. All of them will get together at Frankfurt Airport when they arrive. Then they'll head for everyone's destination, like Amsterdam, Zurich, Helsinki, and so on.
　　Back to my daughter's story, it's her 7th time to go abroad, but the first time to visit Europe. She can speak English really fluently, but will be puzzled by other countries' unfamiliar customs. I hope those experiences will help her grow up. She is a budding doctor and wants to work in an international organization like WHO in the future.
　　She is due to stay with a Dutch family for 2 weeks and spend another 2 weeks in the countryside near the border with Germany with young people from all over the world. In the camp, she apparently seems to be a single Japanese and co-campers will ask her lots of things associated with Japan and vice versa. I'm looking forward to hearing her story about the camp.

(Vocabulary)
be due to do something  ＜…＞する予定である
The theme park is due to open next year. そのテーマパークは来年オープンする予定です．

New Camera

　　I wrote about my new camera before, which I got really luckily. This camera has a function of shooting 6.5 pictures per second. I had been eager to use the function after knowing that. Though I shot pictures of cars passing in front of my house, it was not fun. Last night, I happened to watch a TV news item and knew the preliminary games of the senior high school baseball tournament had begun. I believed that's it!
　　Today, I went to the stadium with my camera hanging from my neck. I tried to shoot the scene of battings. I'll upload a set of pictures below. You can see a small ball clearly. I wondered at the function. I'm not a professional photographer, but I could take these pictures. Thanks to the development of memory cards, you can actually stock as many pictures as you want in the camera and moreover they are recorded digitally and don't need any development. It leads to saving money.

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.

No, Never, Drugs Campaign

　　A campaign was held in the busiest shopping street in my hometown today. More than 500 people from across the political, educational, and governmental spectrum gathered. Naturally, several volunteer bodies like Matsuyama Chuo Lions Club, which I belong to, joined. Over chatting with high school students, carrying a placard and passing out flyers, we walked along the street for an hour. Much to everybody's regret, crimes associated with drugs are still happening in Japan. The flyers we delivered point out the hazards of using drugs.

New Single-lens Reflex Camera

　　I'm afraid that I have become a lousy man who derives pleasure from other's misfortunes. The story is like this: One of my friends, who is a camera enthusiast, had a nice single-lens reflex camera and he had often been asked to take snaps on various occasions like community festivals, field days, show and tells and so on. One day his camera was broken with old age. The shutter unit seemed to have reached its life span and so he gave up using the camera and decided to buy the newest one. He was going to throw the broken one away, and I asked him to give it to me with its accessories for exclusive use. These accessories were useless without its compatible camera itself. Additionally I bought two lenses from him which were in general use and he would trade in.
　　I ordered the repair from a shop and the broken unit was totally replaced. That meant the camera was the same as a new one. Including the accessories, the full set of the camera would cost more than 250,000 yen new, but I got them for 40,000 yen. It was wonderful. I'm planning to visit Europe this autumn and this camera would make the trip more enjoyable. I prepared the space for them in my bookshelf. Whenever I bought something like these gadgets, my wife would make a fuss, but this time I could get through it. No matter what she said, I got only a broken camera.

(Vocabulary)
derive sth from sth ＜…＞から＜喜び・恩恵など＞を得る
Many people derive pleasure from reading.  多くの人が読書から喜びを得ている．
derive pleasure from someone's misfortune  （人）の不幸を喜ぶ
with old age  経年変化により
cost $__ new  新品だと＿ドルかかる
fuss (ささいなことに対する) 大騒ぎ, 空騒ぎ
make a fuss  騒ぎたてる, 不平を言う
She kicked up a fuss when the waiter forgot her order. ウェイターが注文を忘れたことに対して彼女はぶうぶう言った．

Marathon Exercise

　　I wrote about the catalyst for my recent endeavor to engage in running in February. I started reducing my body weight at first along with light walking in February, and now I sometimes run in the area around my house. I am far from being able to complete a marathon, but I'm trying to run faster bit by bit.
　　By the way, my Lions Club is the 8th biggest club in Japan on the basis of the number of the members. About 110 people belong to the club and some of them are fond of running. They put together a running circle to evoke the health trend in the club and naturally I joined them. On the other hand, as the popularity of marathons has risen, students, who major in physical education or physical exercise in Ehime University, have voluntarily begun teaching citizens how to run and complete a marathon safely. I joined this circle as well. This circle is sponsored by the pharmaceutical giant, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which manufactures various sports drinks. It's very useful for people like me, who usually shy away from sports, to find out more about exercise, warm-ups, cool-downs etc.
　　The gadget in the picture - sorry for the lack of sharpness - is a device for carrying a bottle of water on the waist. In Japan, especially the southwestern part, is experiencing sweltering and scorching heat and thousands of people have been rushed to hospitals. Water is essential for running at present.

(Vocabulary)
catalyst  (重要な変化や出来事を) 引き起こす人［もの］, 要因 [＋catalyst for]
endeavor [C](フォーマル) 試み;[U] 努力
in an endeavor to do sth ＜…＞する試みとして
make every endeavor to do sth ＜…＞するためにあらゆる試みをする
scientific/creative/artistic/human endeavor 科学的［創造的，芸術的，人間の］努力
endeavor to do sth  (フォーマル) ＜…＞しようと努力する［努める］
health trend 健康志向
shy away from (doing) sth  ＜…＞（すること）を避ける, にしり込みをする
Don't shy away from saying what you think.  しり込みしないで思っていることを言いなさい．
find out more about ～についてもっと多くのことを発見する、知る，調べる

To City Councilman Frank Quintero, and the members of the City Council of Glendale:

 

 

Dear Mr. Frank Quintero and To whom it may concern

I've heard that you have a plan of building a monument of comfort women. If you are aware of photogaraphic or documented evidence of forced comfort women, please have it forwarded to me so that I may examine it. Please read the top entry of my blog: http://kumo.typepad.jp/ and http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2013/06/comfort-women-in-korea.html

Sincerely

(My name) M.D. Ph.D
General Surgeon
http://kumo.typepad.jp/

Staff Response: The City of Glendale received your message regarding the “Korean Comfort Women” issue. First, we would like to thank you for expressing your views on the topic. Second, we would like to give further clarification on the topic as it relates to our City and our 193,000 diverse residents.

We here in the City of Glendale are proud of our broad ethnic and cultural base, and seek to find cohesiveness for all those who choose to live here. For many years, the City of Glendale has maintained a strong relationship with other cities outside of the United States through our Sister City Program. Glendale currently has seven Sister Cities around the world (two in Mexico, one in Armenia, two in South Korea, and one in Japan).

In conjunction with the Sister City Program, the City of Glendale has been approached by representatives of the local Korean community seeking the approval for a memorial at a location designated for displays and monuments dedicated to our Sister Cities. To be clear, this is not a dedicated area of land exclusively for a Korean Comfort Women monument, but rather, this plot will be open and available for all of our sister cities to erect monuments of their own.

I hope this helps answers some of your questions and concerns. Thank you again for your correspondence.

(Vocabulary from comments)
as to sth
1 ＜…＞に関して, について
He kept everyone guessing as to his real intentions.  彼の本当の意図についてみんなあれこれ考えさせられた．
2 (話題を切りだして) ＜…＞に関しては, については
As to my plans for the future, I don't have any.  将来の計画といっても何もありません．
succinct [形](ほめて) 簡明な, 簡潔な
a succinct answer 簡明な答え
--------------------------------------------
enchanting  魅惑的な
The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.
いろいろ調べた結果、"天網恢々（てんもうかいかい）粗（そ）にして漏らさず" としている辞書を見つけたが、？。原文を読むだけで意味は自明ですね。

COMFORT WOMEN IN KOREA

REPRINT FROM Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact

日本語原文(Japanese Translation) ：
http://hassin.org/01/wp-content/uploads/KOREA.pdf

COMFORT WOMEN IN KOREA
　　Repercussions from remarks made by Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru about the so-called “comfort women” have been felt throughout the world. However, Japanese authorities never abducted women. Nor did they force them to become comfort women against their will.
Every nation has been involved in and in charge of facilities enabling soldiers to satisfy their sexual needs without the risk of contracting venereal disease when those soldiers are engaged in combat on foreign soil. The Japanese military was no exception. During World War II, Japanese military authorities established brothels and contracted with local civilian Japanese and Korean brothel operators to recruit prostitutes.
　　Then, how about the situation in Korea after the WW II?　 The results of research on comfort women in South Korea, done by a group of Korean scholars, were published in book form two years ago under the title The Military and Sexual Violence.The book provides verification that United Nations Forces (US troops) and the South Korean government were both involved in and in charge of military prostitutes from the moment the Korean War erupted.
　　Mr. Kase further explains the situation in his essay based on this book and wonders if we can expect to see demonstrators erect statues of comfort women ― this time in front of the Korean Parliament and the US Embassy.

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/98_S4.pdf

Your questions are welcome.
Sincerely,

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Secretary General　for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact
Email [email protected]
URL http://www.sdh-fact.com
Note: Japanese names are rendered surname first in accordance with Japanese custom.

"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.

No Lunch

　　There's a physician who is still working as the administrative director of St. Luke's International Hospital at the advanced age of 101! The majority of Japanese people would know about him. Not only his achievements but also his way of life interests a lot of people. I'm one of his fans. He is great as a human being and as a physician. A few years ago, a TV program featured him and I learned about his diet; one slice of bread with jam and a cup of coffee for breakfast, two cookies and a cup of milk for lunch, and a normal portion of dinner. He can seemingly work energetically on such a small diet. When I saw him on TV, I thought that metabolism differs with age. However, I wanted to experience his diet and decided to cut back on total calorie in-take by skipping lunch which I started doing on Mar. 13th.
　　Two and a half months has passed since then. I'll write about the differences I've noticed. I feel hungry for a short time in the afternoon, but I have noticed some favorable points. My body weight has decreased by approximately 2 kg, though it is still far from my ideal weight. I now have additional time at noon which was previously used for lunch, and furthermore, the drowsiness after lunch has disappeared. This diet might be suitable for me. I'm going to continue it for at least another 6 months.

(Vocabulary)
learn 　(フォーマル) [他]〈情報・知らせなど〉を知る, 聞く
learn of/about sth  ＜…＞を知る
diet [C,U] 日常の食物, 食生活, 食事
intake 《常に単数形で》(飲食物などの) 摂取量
Try to reduce your intake of fat.  脂肪の摂取量を減らす努力をしなさい．

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.

Altitude Training

　　Three months have passed since I determined to join next year's Ehime Marathon last February, seeing the runners pass the finish line of the race. I could have lost 3 kilograms of weight for the past 3 months, but I didn't run more than 10 kilometers. I had to increase the amount of the exercise.
　　Then a friend invited me to go jogging in a highland area, in which the traffic wasn't heavy and the temperature was comfortable. The plan was to run a distance of 15 kilometers in the countryside and within 2 hours for me. I put "Altitude Training" as the topic of this entry, but it is considerably exaggerated. It was chosen just for sparse traffic and cool weather. The result? Miserable. I realized that I had to run and run.