Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Earthquake in Turkey

　　The news about an apocalyptic terrible earthquake in Turkey came to me. The catastrophic earthquake isn't other people's affairs to us Japanese. I am reminded of the Han-Shin Awaji Earthquake disaster in 1995. I was dispatched to the worst affected area from my hospital just after the quake. As most roads and ports were destroyed, my rescue team was sent by a fishing boat. Japan is subject to some of the worst extreme weather and seismic activities in the world, but it has sort of strong bonds between unfamiliar individuals. My colleagues covered my absence at that time. The medical personnel both those who were sent to the affected area and those who stayed behind were likewise struggling to save people in chaos.
　　The dispatch of surgical staff reduced its scale in about two weeks and then the internist-centered rescue teams were intensified. Following them, psychiatrists, counselors, and school teachers were sent. The army delivered drinkable water and also provided public baths. It is crucially important to prevent the spread of infectious illnesses like dysentery, cholera, and so on. Can these rescue activities be performed in Turkey? As far as I can see in news items or uploaded pictures on the net, the rescue and backup for victims seems to be very slow.
　　Buildings were apparently easily destroyed in the earthquake. They seem to have been made with flimsy materials. Judging from news items in Japan, food supply is barely done. As my assistance for the moment, I donated some money to an NPO which plans to send blankets and generators to Turkey.
　　One more thing. I've expected the mediation between Russia and Ukraine by the Turkish President Erdogan. I'm afraid that he would get his hands full with hard graft recovering from the country's catastrophic disaster.

(Vocabulary)
apocalyptic この世の終わりのような、不吉な、悲惨な；(新約聖書で予言されたような) 終末論的な
flimsy
〈布・服などが〉 薄っぺらな
〈機器・建物などが〉 (構造的に) もろい
〈根拠などが〉 薄弱な, 説得力のない, 〈口実などが〉 見え透いた
mediation 調停, 仲裁
hard graft 大変な苦労

 

Guns, Germs, And Steel

　　I came across an interesting book which was one of the best sellers 20 years ago. Someone on a T.V. show talked about it and his story attracted my curiosity. That's why I rented the book. A New Guinean apparently asked the author by the name of Jared Diamond some time in the 1970s. "Why do you whites have everything, whereas we don't have anything?" The author was an anthropologist who was doing his fieldwork in New Guinea. He had a variety of research tools and modern technology for his work. When the New Guinean looked at the author's possessions, he uttered this. It's only the difference between developed and developing countries. This idea promptly came up with me, but carefully considering what he said, I understood I was really shallow-minded.
　　Human beings are said to have emerged on the African continent five to nine million years ago and then spread around the world by about 11000 years B.C.. If that's the case, people in Africa would have gotten an overwhelmingly longer history than people who moved to other continents and African people should have the most developed technology now. That's not true, however, as you know. Thinking this way, the question from the New Guinean began to make sense. I've just read a fourth of the book, but it is stirring my curiosity much more now.
　　In its preface, an interesting historical fact was laid out. A part of Maori people who had lived on the North island of New Zealand moved to the Chatham Islands, southeast of New Zealand. About 500 years after their movement, two peoples on both islands became unfamiliar with each other. People on the Chatham Islands are called Moriori and they loved peace and thoroughly avoided conflicts. A sailor who had stopped by the Chatham Islands informed the Maori people of Mariori on the Chatham Islands some time in the 19th century. Hearing the news, Maori people rushed to the Chatham Islands and peaceful Moriori people were slaughtered by them. These two kinds of people were genetically the same, though the nature of both peoples are completely opposite. What factors produced the difference between these two peoples? I wonder how the story will develop in the book.

Mainstream Media and the Internet

　　The circulation of all newspapers is wildly decreasing in Japan, no matter what stances they hold. Above all, the principal liberal papers like the Asahi and the Mainichi are losing their subscribers drastically. This tendency is understandable as society got to doubt what is written in those papers. The number of television viewers, especially among young people, is purportedly decreasing. With the advertising revenue falling, the mainstream media seems to be doomed to perish.
　　On the other hand, their alternative measures to get information became SNS or the internet, whose censorship is now in dispute, though. During the 2020 U.S. presidential race, the Twitter account of Mr. Trump was suspended abruptly. This act made me feel uneasy to know that a single company could affect the result of the presidential election. Recently, however, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, took over ownership of Twitter and disclosed its confidential files about its censorship. I read some of them and knew that my speculation wasn't wrong.
　　I often watch YouTube programs. YouTubers in the field of politics are struggling to avoid words which potentially could be censored. Japanese is a highly flexible language and YouTubers are using a variety of rewording which is understandable to everyone, but some YouTubers are shifting their platform to non-censorship ones.
　　Anyway, the times in which media can easily brainwash people have apparently been terminated.

 

My Father Departed

　　My father passed away in the early morning on Jan. 1st. The phone call in a thoughtless time zone sparked my uneasy feeling. My father's condition had been critically unstable since last month. I instantly understood his death from the call.
　　My father had just turned 90 in December. He had been forced to stay in hospital for his last three years from his condition which needs nurses. Free access to him was inhibited in the hospital even to family members due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was really regrettable that none of my family was able to be at his bedside when he left for heaven.
　　The principal rituals concerning Buddhism had mostly finished, but my family will continue other rituals following the Buddhism rules.

(Vocabulary)
in a thoughtless time 非常識な時刻に

The Last Day in Hakone

　　Lastly we visited the Pola Museum of Art and enjoyed lots of genuine valuable pictures of several impressionists and Pablo Picasso. I wasn't able to understand most of the works of Pablo Picasso, but felt relaxed to see beautiful pictures of impressionists. I was deeply moved to feel the relaxing atmosphere of Hakone, rich in forests, serene scenes, notes of antiquity, comfortable hot spas on one hand and furious volcanic activities on the other hand.

(Vocabulary)
impressionist 印象派

Le Petit Prince Museum

　 　What a long name it is! I was amazed to know his full name. He is Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry, whose name is shortened to "Saint-Exupéry" in Japan. His masterpiece is "Le Petit Prince", whose Japanese version I've read in my childhood, but I don't remember its story completely. Le Petit Prince Museum stood in a remote area from the hot spa, but it seemed that lots of tourists had visited before the pandemic. Under the restrained mood for tourism due to the pandemic, the number of visitors decreased and the museum would be closed at the end of the 2022 fiscal year. By the strong wish of my wife, we visited the museum. There are several museums in Hakone, but we hadn't enough time to visit many of them.
　　As I walked in the museum, it was a fantasy world for children. While looking around, I partially recalled the story of Le Petit Prince. The next section was about the writer, Saint-Exupéry. His biography surprised me so much. He was born in a rich family, but became a military pilot and died during the 2nd world war. The rough site of his death was detected recently, but his body or bones have not yet been recovered. I became eager to read some of his works.

(Vocabulary)
fantasy world おとぎの国
fragmentary knowledge  断片的な知識

  

Hakone Tozan Cable Car

　　We came back to Sou-unzan station, which is a connecting station of the cable car and the ropeway. Our car was at the parking lot of the station, but we took the cable car just to enjoy riding the cable car. We went down to Gora station and then went back up to Sou-unzan station.
　　This route runs through the Gora spa district, dividing the area into two parts, north and south. It connects Gora station (alt. 541m) and Sou-unzan station (alt. 750m) in about 9 minutes. The length is only 1.2 km, but it has 4 stations on the way. This cable car is built not only for tourists but also for local folks who live in the Gora spa district which is located on the slope.

https://youtube.com/shorts/65zGRo0WqCg?feature=share

https://youtu.be/lk6Ez5ASVNY

Lake Ashinoko

　　Lake Ashinoko is one of the popular lakes in Japan which is located at the east of Mt. Fuji. A few pirate-themed sightseeing boats are on service, though there's no history of pirates around Lake Ashinoko. Its lakeside is lined with several tourist destinations like Hakone Shrine, the ruins of the rigorous Hakone checkpoint in the Edo era (1603~1868) and hot spas. We'd like to have gotten on the boat, but gave up to free some time for other spots. We went on and got on the gondola again to reach Sou-unzan station. We saw some overseas tourists on the gondola. I expected that the pandemic would end in the near future. I'd like to visit the U.K. where my daughter works as a resident and Honolulu also to join the Honolulu Marathon in 2023.

First Aid Box

　　There was a small box at a corner in the gondola as shown below. Taking a close look, it was a first aid kit, in which a few dozen oxygen canisters were set. If the ropeway system doesn't work properly due to some sort of accident and the passengers got stranded in limbo, and additionally, the volcanic activities got dangerously harsh, what would become of the passengers? This kit would be prepared assuming such an awful situation. Looking down from the gondola, there were several people working to monitor the volcanic activities. I came away with the idea that the authorities are paying elaborate attention to both the tourism industry and the tourists' security.

Owakudani Vent

　　Our waiting time for a gondola was very short. The gondola commanding a fine view of mountains, crater lakes around Mt. Fuji and some vents spewing water vapor was one of the highlights of our Hakone tour. As the gondola went up, the water vapor came up in front of my eyes. Just after passing the peak, the scenery changed completely from the green hillside to the bare wild surface of the mountain. At the same time, I felt the smell of the volcanic gas. Looking down, there were a few personnel working. I presumed that they were from the official authorities and monitored the activity of the volcanic activity. Under their strict management, you can enjoy sightseeing there.
　　We got off at Owakudani station and took a walk around, but it was considerably cold for autumn clothes. We took refuge in the station building and got this site's institution of black eggs, which were produced by the heat of water vapor from the natural vent. These kind of eggs are seen in Beppu in Kyushu, but their eggs are white. I didn't know why eggs there were colored black. Anyway the material of popular black eggs are ordinary eggs and the energy is free as it's from natural vapor. Most tourists get them. The business must be lucrative, with 5 eggs for 500 yen(3 US.dollars). Its taste should be naturally the same as ordinary boiled eggs, but due to the cold air, it was very nice for us.

Hakone Tozan Railway

　　We lined up for the ropeway connecting the east and west sides of Mt. Hakone and crossing over the Owakudani vent. Owakudani vent and the crater lake of Ashinoko Lake are seemingly the configuration formed by Mt. Fuji. I expected that the ropeway would be simple with only two gondolas going up and down passing by each other, but I was wrong. When the passengers get on and off, gondolas were detached from the main rope and moved extraordinarily slowly for the passengers' safety. They reminded me of those of Whistler resort in Canada. I felt an irresistible impulse to visit Canada again.

Sightseeing Plan

　　Hakone is one of the prominent tourist destinations in the Kanto region (around Tokyo). Add to it, it was in the midst of four consecutive holidays. Sightseeing in Hakone would be jammed and we studied to cope with the situation.
　　Usual Sightseeing Route: Take a train from Odawara City to Gora station, which is the route we took yesterday evening. Then change trains to the Hakone Tozan Cable Car up to the Sou-unzan station. Then change trains to Hakone Ropeway to the Togendai station. You can transfer here from the ropeway to the pirate-themed sightseeing boat on Lake Ashinoko. You can enjoy cruising on one of the famous caldera lakes in Japan for about one hour. Its destination is the historic checkpoint of Hakone. This is the outline of the sightseeing.
　　We'd like to avoid heavy congestion. The rate-determining step of the above route is the cable car, so we decided to go up to the Sou-unzan station by car to skip the leg of the cable car. This idea proved to be very smart. We could park our car for free at the station and got on the ropeway.
　　I'll show you the website of Hakone Tourism Bureau. Check it and enjoy virtual tourism.

(Vocabulary)
rate-determining step 律速段階
https://www.hakonenavi.jp/ 　箱根ナビ　Hakone Navi

 

Return to Our Hotel

　　My wife and I enjoyed spending so much time with our granddaughter and lost track of the time.
　　Hakone is located at the southeast of Mt. Fuji and its hot spa area is considerably vast, dotted with small hot spas. We'd like to have visited some of them, but we didn't have enough time. It was dark outside and we didn't see anything through the train's window, but sharing quality time with our daughter was the best thing that had ever happened to us.
　　The train ran up through the pitch-dark forest and reached Gora station. We arrived at our hotel around 20:00 hours. The hotel is situated in the middle of the woods and what we heard was only the sound of wind. Some might feel loneliness, but it's not bad to stay at such places once in a while.

(Vocabulary)
pitch-dark 真っ暗な
—pitch dark [名] [U] 真っ暗やみ
once in a while たまには

Zoorasia

　　When we arrived in Yokohama, our daughter, her husband and our lovely one-year-and-eight-month-old granddaughter were waiting for us. That's why we visited Yokohama. We were going to spend a half day with our granddaughter in a zoo in Yokohama. I've visited Yokohama several times, but I've never dropped in at any zoo in Yokohama. Yokohama City has three zoos. Every zoo has its own distinctive characteristics. We picked one of them, "Zoorasia", which is a portmanteau word chosen by the public in 1996. It seems to bind "zoo" and "Eurasia" which has an image of an immensely vast continent with nature. Zoorasia has an aspect as a research institute as well as a zoo. It was divided into several areas like tundra, subtropical, rain forest district, etc. Every area has its characteristic vegetation. I used to visit a Canadian ski resort every two years and the sub-polar area reminded me of a Canadian cedar forest which I had seen in Whistler.
　　Anyway, it was the first time for our daughter to see real elephants, monkeys, lions, giraffes and so on. She knows a few animals like above, but her image of animals was obtained from illustrations in books for infants or from stuffed animals. She must have had no idea about the size of real elephants or giraffes. I was looking forward to observing her face at the first look at those big animals.
　　I was convinced that she probably understands monkeys, but maybe not lions or elephants. They didn't look so cute as ones in the baby's books or stuffed ones.

https://www.hama-midorinokyokai.or.jp/zoo/zoorasia/

(Vocabulary)
be chosen by the public 公募で選ばれた
subpolar 亜寒帯の

Hakone Tozan Railway

　　I'd like to write about Hakone Tozan Railway, which is the sister-railway of Rhötische Bahn in Switzerland, which is the biggest-class private railway in Switzerland and is also called Viafier retica in the Romansch language or Ferrovia retica in Italian. I'm familiar with German, so I used the German expression.
　　We were going down to Odawara City near sea level today using this railway. It was my first time to utilize Hakone Tozan Railway. It has three switchbacks in a short distance and I was looking forward to actually experiencing those.
　　Hakone is located in precipitous terrain and a barrier station or a checkpoint had been sited in the Edo period from 17th to the middle of 19th century. Hakone is on the main route connecting two big cities of Edo (present Tokyo) and Kamigata (present Osaka). Hakone is such a place that it has several historic sites along with hot spas. Additionally you have to remember the geo-scientific aspect of Hakone. It's in the middle of a volcanic area. I'll write about this aspect in another entry.
　　According to the railway company's pamphlet, the sister-railway relationship with Rhötische Bahn was struck in 1979. At the 50th anniversary of Hakone being listed on Japan's national park, i.e. 7 years after entering the partnership, a few dozen people from St. Moritz Tourism Bureau visited Hakone for the purpose of promotion. A splendid party seemed to be held at that time. St. Moritz is one of my destinations which I'd like to visit some day.
　　Back to the track, the small train in which we got on clumsily went down the steep slope, back and forth 3 times on the switch back, through the forest which is dotted with small hot spas, and finally reached Odawara City. This city is filled with historic heritage and local food, but we transferred to a Shinkansen bullet train and headed for Yokohama.
　　What do you think we were going to do in Yokohama? I'll report it to you in the next entry.

(Vocabulary)
precipitous 切り立った, 険しい〈谷･崖･傾斜など〉; 突然の, 急な〈減少･増加など〉; （かたく）性急な, 軽率な〈行動･決定など〉
関所 《pass》 a barrier (station); 《pass through》 a checkpoint (検問所).
clumsily 不細工に, 不格好に; (動作について) ぎこちなく, 不器用に

Black Eggs

　　Take a look at the picture at the bottom.
　　It might make your skin crawl, but four black things in the picture are simply smoked eggs which I got at a convenience store in the Hakone area. Naturally, you can eat them. I think such black eggs sell only in Hakone. This item is produced by smoking them in a factory, but it's an imitation of black eggs made by the use of natural resources in Hakone. To tell the truth, I mistakenly got them as original ones, but they were ordinary smoked eggs. I'll show you genuine black eggs of a noted product in another entry.
　　And, as for taste, I didn't like it. I prefer normal boiled eggs.

Supercharger Gotenba

　　Tesla's supercharger at Gotenba is sited in the parking lot of a renowned coffee shop chain. We'd like to take a rest in the shop, but the charge of my car would be done within 20 minutes. As soon as the charge finished, I'm supposed to move my car out of the charging spot for the next car. We gave up visiting the shop and stayed in the car viewing YouTube video. We were going into the mountainous area and charged a little more electricity than usual.
　　This city is home to "Toraya", one of the famous sweets companies in Japan. I stopped at its factory-and-shop complex to please my wife who has a weakness for sweets and we enjoyed mutually different sweets to be able to taste two kinds of sweets. The taste was really nice.
　　I ordered Kuzukiri, which is called arrowroot starch noodles or Kudzu starch noodles in English. I picked one topped with kuromitsu, dark honey.

(Vocabulary)
have a weakness for ～には目がない
arrowroot starch noodles or Kudzu starch noodles　葛切り

Hitsumabushi

　　After leaving Otsu city, we arrived at Hamamatsu at a stretch without a rest. Thanks to the superb driving assistance by the Tesla's artificial intelligence, the driving was fun and comfortable. Hamamatsu is well-known as an eel farming area, and we dropped in at a famous eel restaurant along the highway.
　　We ordered "Hitsumabushi", which is a traditional dish of this area of rice topped with grilled eel, soy-based sauce, and spices such as Japanese pepper. "Hitsumabushi" is a portmanteau word which consists of "Ohitsu", the rice tub and "mabusu", the way you put the grilled pieces of eel, wasabi and Japanese pepper on the rice. It was the first time to have the traditional Hitsumabushi. A waitress gave us a short lecture how to enjoy them.
　　She advised us to eat Hitsumabushi divided into four times. At first we scooped out a quarter of the eel and rice into the empty bowl. Then we ate them without any spices enjoying plain but delicious eel. Next, you can enjoy them with several spices and toppings. Lastly, you pour dashi - soup stock in English - onto the rice and eel. This was indescribably tasty. During our gorgeous lunch, my car was also charged.
　　This highway is relatively newly built and various novel ideas are seen. One of following pictures show an electric bulletin board showing the number of vacancies.

(Vocabulary)
at a stretch without a rest 途中で休まず一気に
at a stretch 連続で, 続けて
Doctors are forced to work 36 hours at a stretch. 医師は36時間連続で働かなければならない．
Japanese pepper 山椒

Supercharger Otsu

　　I drove my car from Osaka port to Otsu Tesla charging spot in one go, then charged my car and ourselves quickly with breakfast from a nearby supermarket. We'd like to have breakfast here leisurely, but we had a long distance to drive. As soon as the charging finished, we headed for the east.

(Vocabulary)
in one go 一気に、一編に、まとめて（１回の試みで）、一回で
leisurely ゆったりした, のんびりした; [副](書き言葉) ゆっくりと
a leisurely pace/speed ゆっくりとした歩調［スピード］

Why Did I Pick Tesla Model 3 up

　　Are the electric vehicles (EVs) eco-friendly? I often come across these arguments here and there. A huge amount of carbon dioxide is apparently produced in the process of manufacturing and discarding batteries, so some people insist that EVs are not always eco-friendly. I understand their position, but once built or completed, cars with ICE(internal-combustion engine) continue to emit carbon dioxide as long as they run, but EVs don't however long they run.
　　Prior to the arguments, are the EV owners concerned about the issue of climate change? As for me, I don't take it into consideration at all if it's eco-friendly, or not.
　　It's fun to own one of the most cutting-edge cars in the world. Amazing accelerating performance, the security by the full self-driving with pretty good chemistry with EVs, and above all, its unbelievable silence. I figured out that these were the reasons why I bought Tesla Model 3.

(Vocabulary)
silence 静粛性