Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Markt-Platz

Today's Route

      We headed for the Altstadt of Basel then. As we walked, we happened to come across a tram station and got on a tram that I  thought, would go to the south. It was lucky that the tram took us to the center of the city. It was also fun to use a tram in the strange city. As we didn't have any special purpose in this city except visiting the three countries' corner, we could get off  wherever we wanted and we were dropped off at the busiest street. It was the Markt-Platz, which means market place. The Markt-Platz was not so wide, but attracted huge crowds. Various vegetables, flowers and foods were sold there. I don't usually buy vegetables in Japan and didn't know if the prices were reasonable or not. I found a group running on Segway. It said "Basel Tourismus" on it. They must have been tourists. I'd never get on a Segway. The next time I would try it. The Segways had their license number plates on it. That is to say, Segways are supposed to be allowed to run on the streets though it is not permitted in Japan. There were many tables around the Markt-Platz, but we tried to have lunch in a market stall. Two sausages, a bottle of mineral water and a non-alcohol beer cost twenty-some Euro. What? Though the woman at the stall didn't look bad, I thought she might be cheating us. The price was unbelievably high. The Swiss currency is Swiss Franc (CHF) and 1 CHF equals to 103 yen, while 1 Euro equals 133 yen. We didn't have CHF and had to pay with Euro. She asked twenty-some CHF and we paid twenty-some Euro. To tell the truth, I didn't know that Switzerland wasn't a member of EU until then. I received some coins from her and ate expensive sausages.(grin) After lunch, we took a walk around and took lots of pictures. The last picture except two was of a sightseeing boat. The boat was going upstream. The next picture was of the Cathedral which was under repair. We could go up the tower, but didn't. I'm afraid of heights. We got on a tram again at the station in !
the last picture and moved to the  Basel SBB, the Basel station of Swiss National Railways.

      

         

(Vocabulary)
drop ([他]常に＋[副]/[前]) (車などから人を)降ろす=drop off
drop sb at/in sth  ＜人＞を＜場所＞で降ろす
I'll drop you at the station.  駅で降ろしてあげますよ．
drop sb/sth ↔ off (車から) ＜人・荷物など＞を降ろす, ＜物＞を置いていく
market stall  市場の露店
acrophobia  高所恐怖症
be afraid of heights  高所恐怖症である

Three Countries Corner 2

Today's Route

     There wasn't any special reason why I visited the three countries' corner and I just wanted to see the place where the three borders crossed. The first picture shows the way to the point. "Drei" means "three", "länder" means "countries" and "eck" means "corner". The city, Basel has three nationalities and isn't this so rare? What is the daily life of people like? Are the consumption taxes of these three countries the same? Are there three kinds of polices? If a man who lives in a German area was transferred to an emergency hospital which was located in the French area, does his insurance work in France? Mysterious but simple questions came up to me.
     Walking downstream along the river Rhine, we got to the point. I'll show you some pictures which were taken there. The second picture is the French area and the third is the German area, where you can see a few sightseeing boats. The three countries corner is located just in the center of the fourth picture. In this picture you can also see a cargo ship. The height of the ship is short and I suppose it's because of many bridges over the river Rhine. The river Rhine must be the big artery of transport at present too. In the fifth picture two boats are shown and there was a nice restaurant in the boats. We met two aged couples and asked one of them to take our picture. They came from near Konstanz and would go back by this boat. The river trip would be fun. You can see these boats on the Google Earth, also.
     The last two pictures were of the monument of the three countries' corner. If you look at the last picture mindfully, you would notice the national flags of three countries on the monument though the Swiss flag is so small. I advise you to enjoy seeing the borders on the map linked from "Today's Route" above.

(Vocabulary)
mindful  気を配った, 注意深い
mindful of something
＜…＞を念頭に置いている, (決断などの際に) ＜…＞を意識する
mindful that
…ということを念頭に置いている, 意識している

Three Countries Corner 1

Today's Route

     The place that I most wanted to visit in Basel was the three countries' corner, where the borders of three countries crossed. As I wrote before, the borders between countries are intersting for me and maybe for most Japanese people. We headed for the river Rhine from Basel Bad Bf at first and turned right downstream. The point where we had turned right was thinned out when I drew the route map and our trace isn't drawn accurately, but the pictures on the map was accurately put on the point where they were taken. That is to say, the marks are on our real track. I'm going to show you some of the pictures that I took on the way to the three countries' corner below.

(Vocabulary)
opposite shore  対岸
put off  後回しにする

     There was a McDonalds just in front of the station. I wondered if there was no place without a McDonalds in the world. They had tables outside and so did it indicate that they had little rain here?
     This is the tram station in front of Basel Bad Bf, but unexpectedly it wasn't busy. Basel was divided into three areas. This German area might not be the center of the city.

     This motorcycle looked like it was delivering newspapers. I frequently saw such a small cage towed by bicycles or motorcycles. In some cases, a little kid was in the cage. I thought it was very functional, and wondered why it wasn't popular in Japan.

     This is the Congress Center of Basel, which is very famous as the place that many international meetings are held. I was enticed to drop in, but we didn't have enough time and passed by it.

     We reached the riverside of the Rhine. We were lucky to have a nice day. The autumnal breeze over the river was really comfortable. I was moved to actually stand by the river Rhine, which I knew from my class of history or geography. We put off crossing the border, I mean the river Rhine, and turned right and headed downstream.

     This tiny boat looked like a means of transport between both shores. Needless to say, the opposite shore is Switzerland. There were bridges across the river, so it must have been just for sightseeing.

     It was a slope for water-skiing. The Rhine around here must have been a nice spot for water-skiing in summer.

     I found a flashy motorcycle on the way. It was a product of a Japanese automobile manufacturer, HONDA.

Basel

Today's Route

     At first, I made our track onto a map using the data of my data logger and made it linked from "Today's Route" above. The map was roughly what I had expected, but I couldn't use all the functions of the software and couldn't properly thin the data out. Only a single datum made the map inaccurate. The point of the south of Basel Station is a mistakenly recorded one. You can easily find the point on the map. Anyway, I'm going to continue my trip notes.

     We had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, which was just the same as yesterday. I like meat, but I took vegetables mainly. I was sick of meat.
     We were going to visit Basel and got on the train which is shown in the picture. The train was a RE (Regional Express) and would stop at Bad Krozingen, Müllheim, Basel Bad Bf and Basel SBB. "Bad" means the name of the south-western area of Germany. "SBB" is the abbreviation for Schweizerishe Bundesbahnen in German and it means Swiss National Railways. That is to say, Basel has at least two stations in the Bad area and the Swiss area. I'll show you the details of Basel later.
     The second picture was of Basel Bad Bf, the Basel station in Baden. "DB" stands for Deutschen Bahn, German National Railways. We started to explore the city from this station.

Dinner

Today's Route

     We had dinner at an Italian restaurant on Eisenbahn street. The pastas we ate here were really good and the waiter was also nice. It's rare in Japan to have dinner in the dark outside, but I felt that it was not so bad. The autumnal breeze was comfortable. After dinner we got back to the station and dropped in at a bakery. It was an ordinary bakery, I thought, but it was also fun for us to see a strange bakery.

Konstanz

Today's Route

     Shortly after the departure, our bus passed over the bridge across the river Rhine and entered the city of Konstanz. I knew the city in my history class in my high school days. I wanted to visit the Konzilgebäude, but didn't have enough time. Our bus turned left just in front of Schnetztor (first picture) and crossed the river Rhine again (second picture). We were running just on the border between Germany and Switzerland at that time, and I knew it when I checked my GPS receiver later in Japan. You can see it on the map linked from "Today's Route" above. Our route to Hinterzarten was through the Black Forest and we were happy campers to see the scenery. Some of my pictures are attached on the map and you can see them. The last two pictures were of inside the train from Hinterzarten to Freiburg.

Ideal Life

Today's Route

     The first picture was taken on the bridge that connected the shore and the island. You can see many yachts on the lake. Though I didn't write about yachts in my blog, I like yachts and I can sail a dinghy. The next picture shows houses looking down the lake from the hill. Additionally, the third picture was of motorcycles that were parked at the parking lot.  Living alongside a lake, looking down on the lake, sailing a dinghy and riding a motorcycle, this must have been an ideal life. The next picture was of a signpost. There seemed to be a circular route of the lake for bicycles. I wondered how long the bicycle paths of this country were.

(Vocabulary)
dinghy (娯楽・競技用の) 小型ヨット

Butterfly

Today's Route

     There was a facility that was called the butterfly house. I didn't like butterflies, but Yuri wanted to go in and I was obliged to go inside the house. As there were lots of many kinds of butterflies inside, I literally felt butterflies in my stomach. By the butterfly house, there was a farm where some vegetables were planted . I wondered if those vegetables were for the owners or were to be served to us, the visitors. Anyway, we went back to our bus walking in the forest under the sunshine through the trees.

Tomb?

Today's Route

     We entered the church next to the castle and found mural tablets in the first picture, under which you can see a door or something in the second picture. What was that? We didn't know, but we couldn't ask. If you know, please tell me. I imagine that it might be the tomb of the owner's family.

(Vocabulary)
tablet  (墓などの) 銘板, 碑板
mural  壁画  [形]《[名]の前でのみ》壁面に描かれた

Lunch

Today's Route

     We had lunch at the restaurant in the picture. Inside the restaurant was decorated with flowers. I thought it wasn't easy to prepare flowers on every table every day. The day on which I visited here was Monday and wasn't any special day. Flowers would be set like this every day regardless of whether it was a weekday or the weekend. The label of the wine I had at that time said "BODENSEE", "BADEN" and "Konstanz". It was a real local wine and tasted good. I ate Brezel for the first time. You can see it on the left of the wine. I keenly realized that you shoud try anything local if you went out for a trip.

(Vocabulary)
regardless of   …に関係なく, …にかかわらず, …にはおかまいなしに
keenly realize  つくづく思う

Wandering In Mainau

Today's Route

     We took a walk on the island, Insel Mainau, according to the instructions in the pamphlet and we were overwhelmed by its magnificence and beauty. This island seemed to be privately owned. I was surprised to hear that. I wondered how many people were engaged in the maintenance of the garden. There were not only flowers, but many huge trees, bamboos, animals, butterflies, plants and old buildings. This island is also called "Flower Island on Lake Konstanz", and I agree with its other name.
     By the way, a Canadian friend advised me to try wiener schnitzel in Germany before leaving Japan. It was the first time I'd heard of this dish and I knew this was the famous Austrian cuisine. Lake Konstanz (Bodensee in German) is located between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. You know, the land I could see across the lake was Austria. I wanted to eat wiener schnitzel here. There were several restaurants here and I looked for it, but in vain. In the next article, I'll write about our lunch.

Route

Today's Route

     I took pictures of destination boards on the way to know the route that we had taken. The four pictures below were taken for that purpose, but this work was meaningless. The data logger recorded our track perfectly. I'm enjoying tracing our route on the map with this data and pictures now in Japan.
     While we were seeing the beautiful and calm southern German scenery, our bus reached the parking lot of Insel Mainau. We were allowed to spend four hours on the island and entered the park on the flower island.

(KW: steiert )

Bus Tour

Today' Route

     In this article, I'm showing our bus and what the tour was like. The driver's seat was like in the first picture. I thought that there were many switches for the size of the bus, when I had just got on the bus. Naturally, I didn't know how they worked, but there might be many functions. In the rear end, there was a small kitchen and a toilet. Some drinks might be served in some cases. The driving was careful and reliable. Our trip must have been a simple round trip to Insel Mainau, but the driver chose a different route as the return leg from the outward. I suspected that he simply drove on another way back at that time though it was wrong. I checked the record of my data logger later and I realized that the return leg was totally a detour. You can easily understand what I'm writing if you see the map linked from "Today's Route" above. He bothered to make a detour on behalf of us.
     Now, I think the driver wanted us to enjoy the scenery of the Black Forest and some small villages in the southern Baden Provinces. I took lots of pictures from the window and some of them were successfully shot. He gave us information about the place here and there, but I couldn't fully understand him. I'd learnt only to read German papers during my student days, but it was not good. I decided to learn German conversation from now.

(Vocabulary)
in the rear end  後部に
the return leg  帰り
outward and return 行きと帰り
make a detour to 回り道をして～に行く
outward  外へ向かう
an outward flight/journey  行きのフライト［旅程］
bother to do sth (bother doing sth とも) わざわざ＜…＞する
here and there  あちこちで

Hinterzarten

Today's Route

     Muggy days were continuing in Frankfurt and Freiburg, but when I got out of the train at Hinterzarten, I felt the crisp air of autumn. It was really comfortable. German houses were decorated with lots of flowers. I thought they were really beautiful and I would try it in my house. Hinterzarten is located in the east of Freiburg, and it was a 40 minute train ride. We were enticed into taking a walk in this small village by the wintry air. We came across a direction pole on the way. Such poles aren't unusual in Japan, but the green box hanging on the pole attracted me. It said, "Take a bag for your dog." The next picture was a souvenir shop, where I got some picture cards and I wrote to a few frineds in Japan. Yuri found a primary school and boldly entered into it. I was afraid that a guard or policeman would come out and question us about entering without permission, but who came out was not a guard but little children. They seemed to start playing soccer on a small field. Can you read the letters written on the wall? "Fußball ist Zukunft" meant "Soccer is your future". I realized that Germany wasn't the opponent that Japan can easily defeat in soccer. The last picture reminded me of Whistler in Canada. Hinterzarten seemed to be famous as a skiing place, but if my purpose was to ski, I would pick Whistler.

(Vocabulary)
crisp air of autumn  秋のひんやりした空気
crisp 〈日・天気・空気などが〉 澄んだ, ひんやりとした
The air was fresh and crisp. 空気は新鮮で澄んでいた．[反意] humid
entice sb to do sth  ＜人＞をそそのかして＜…＞させる
entice sb away from sth  ＜人＞を＜…＞からおびき寄せる
entice sb/sth into sth ＜…＞を＜場所＞に誘い込む
be enticed by  ～に誘われて
wintry air  ひんやりした空気
wintry  冬らしい, 寒い
a cold wintry day  寒々とした冬の日
direction pole  案内標識
boldly 大胆に

Insel Mainau

Today's Route

     Mainau is an island in Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). This lake is the biggest lake in Germany and is located on the border with Switzerland and Austria. The water derived from Switzerland is collected here and flows out to the west and finally pours into the North Sea. Needless to say, it is the river Rhine. The destination of this day was Mainau. I made the route map and am showing you it.
     We got up about 6 o'clock and finished breakfast in the hotel at 7:00. In Freiburg, we stayed at the hotel, the back of which was the platform of the Freiburg Hbf (main station). It was so convenient and time-saving. We explored the Hbf in the morning. Shortly before 8:00, our train came in on the track. We were going to visit Hinterzarten which was located in the Schwarzwald (The Black Forest) and join a bus tour. The first picture is of our train. You can see the logo of a bicycle. It meant that this coach could accommodate bicycles. I thought that this country was really accomodating for people who have bicycles. As the second picture shows, this train would run to Seebrugg. The sign also said Hinterzarten. The third and fourth picture is of the door of the train. In Japan, the doors of trains usually are opened by the train driver or conductors, but here in Germany you had to push the green button to open it. We always lined up after the others and just observed what they had did to open it, but there was no one around us yesterday, so Yuri pushed it and opened the door. When we were on the platform, the train in the next picture came in. It didn't look like a DB (Deutshe Bahn: German Railway). Was that the private company's line? The next picture was my ticket from Freiburg to Hinterzarten. There was no entrance and exit of the platform and these tickets weren't collected and I brought them back to Japan as one of my memories. Look at the next picture. I wondered about three boxes on which the schema of a bicycle were painted. I thought it might be a sort of coin locker of a bicycle for commuters. This idea sounds curious, but I think it could be in this country. The last picture is the company which ran the bus tour to Insel Mainau. It was located at Hinterzarten, so we came here this early and this short train trip was not bad. The train was comfortable. We had an hour to go, and enjoyed taking a walk around the station. I'll show you the pictures taken here, Hinterzarten in the next article.

(Vocabulary)
pour into  流れ込む
accommodating  親切な, 世話好きな
train driver  列車の運転手

(KW: Steiert)

Dinner

Today's Route

     I asked a hotel person to launder my shirt because I had an appointment to see an acquaintance two days later, but she only told us the name of the laundry shop, which opened after we left the hotel and closed before coming back to the hotel. After all, I couldn't use the laundry shop. I thought that the hotel should do the laundry on commission. I gave up on the laundry and headed for the Altstadt to have dinner on a different street from the Eisenbahn Strasse. There was something that baffled me. I didn't see cars so often in the Altstadt. Not a few people lived in this area and there were many shops. How did they bring their merchandise to their shops? By a horse-powerd coach? I hardly saw parking lots around the Altstadt. When I saw the signboard in the first picture, I got it. There must have been parking lots underground and they were big enough. The second picture shows an applicant in the election. The phrase on the board looked like "Yes, we can" by Barack Fusein Obama, and it evoked our laughter. We had dinner at a traditional restaurant near the small corridor of water. Nice beer and nice dishes. Yuri doesn't drink alcohol beverages, but my eldest daughter, Eri, likes them. If I were with Eri, we might not be stopping drinking until late.

(Vocabulary)
launder  (formal)(衣類など)を洗濯する, 洗ってアイロンをかける
sale on commission 取次販売
give up on sb/sth ＜…＞に見切りをつける
baffle (人) を当惑させる, 戸惑わせる
merchandise [U](フォーマル)  (店頭で販売される) 商品
evoke 〈感情・記憶など〉 を呼び起こす, 喚起する
corridors of water 水路

Walking in Freiburg 3

Today's Route

     We decided to have lunch at the restaurant that was located at Schlossberg Bahn station. The weather was fine and it was rather hot. I took my jacket off and put it into my daypack. My shirt got wet with perspiration and it was the only formal wear I had. As soon as I took a seat, I ordered a local beer. Next, I ordered Wuerst (German sausage), but I couldn't make myself understood. I was sorry, but it was natural because I didn't distinguish the pronunciation between W and B, with and without the umlaut. I knew that I had to learn diligently. These pronunciations are said to be the weak point of Japanese, but I'd like to manage to master them. Eventually, we asked a waitress for something domestic and local. Pictures show the dishes that were served. It was the end of September, but it was hot like in the midst of summer. The sunshade was unfolded. We enjoyed a nice lunch overlooking the beautiful scenery. After lunch, we went down to the city and wandered around there. The sixth picture was the simple sign of a multi-tenant building. There was almost no commercial sign boards in the city, and I thought it contributed to the relaxing scenery. The next picture was of the McDonalds'. We didn't try it, but is the taste the same as in Japan? I've had the McDonalds' hamburger in Squamish and Whistler in Canada and it was just the same taste as Japan's. Anyway, we were surprised that it existed everywhere. The next picture was the shop handling Japanese goods. The next two pictures show a care facility for aged people. The Altstadt created the atmosphere like a museum, but it was also the space for real life. The next two pictures show the house supporting Tibetans. I couldn't fully understand their activity, but it looked like an NGO or something. Most Japanese politicians are flattering the Chinese communists party, but on the other hand, the German Prime Minister Angela Merkel can stand up and boldly express her opinion against the tyrants of Chinese Communists. On this point, I envy the German people who have a great leader. The General Election of Germany seemed to be held on this day. I really hoped that her party, CDU, would win the victory. I'll show you some pictures in the Altstadt next and look at the vertically long picture which shows "H". Here was the tram stop where we tried to get on a tram. No one paid the fare. What's going on about the fare? We got off at the third or fourth station and got back to the Hbf. Our move was recored on the data logger and I'll show you on this blog. You can see it at "Today's Route" link above. We went back to the hotel by tram and checked in. The last picture is of our hotel (brown building) and the main station from the tram stop.

(Vocabulary)
overlook 〈部屋・窓などが〉 …を見下ろす, 見渡す
Our room overlooks the ocean.  私たちの部屋からは海が見下ろせる．
multi-tenant building  雑居ビル
relaxing scenery  落ち着いた景観
create かもしだす
real  実際の, 現実の; 実在の, (架空ではなく) 現実の, リアルな
vertically long  縦長の

Walking in Freiburg 1

Today's Route

     I'll show you lots of pictures taken in Freiburg in a few following articles. Look at the first picture. I was nearly hit by a bicycle here. It was on the bicycle path running parallel to the road. I felt that bicycles are more popular here than in Japan. Additionally, the number of sporty bicycles was high. Their speed was high and they came along without any noise. I wondered if any serious accidents happened. At any rate, bicycles are eco-friendly and good for the health. I thought I should ride in Japan.
     The main sightseeing area was the Altstadt. The street called "Eisenbahn Strasse" connected between our hotel and the Altstadt and it took only ten minutes' walk to the Altstadt. The second and third pictures were taken on Eisenbahn Strasse. Look at the fourth picture. You know there were few people on the path. It was Sunday. In Japan, many people go shopping on Sundays, but here in Freiburg Sundays seemed to be the day that people stayed in their homes. I wondered when Freiburgers went shopping. The last picture was of the City Hall.

(Vocabulary)
I thought I should do ... ～してみようかな

Walking in Freiburg 2

Today's Route

     There was a Cathedral in the center of the Altstadt. How monolithic it was! I tried to take a picture of it, but couldn't. It was too high to be taken and beyond the ability of the lense of my camera. People were entering into the Cathedral one after another, so we followed them. It was the Mass. I took a picture like a thief in the night. The second picture might be of a ruin of the old days. It looked like a wall of a typical medieval city-state. My German vocabulary is not abundant, but the word, "Arzt", came into my eyesight. This picture shows the signboard of a dentist and a lawyer. This is more modest than that of Japan. Come to think of it, the commercial aspect of medical doctors was rare in this city. Was there some regulation in this historic area? Or was it common in Germany? The fourth picture was taken at the station of Schlossberg Bahn, which connected the city level to halfway up a hill. We climbed up the hill by this means. The fifth was taken on the walkway on the hill, which was just like "Shiroyama" in Matsuyama. The next was the observation tower on the hill. We climbed up to the highest deck, but there was an additional deck over it. I didn't go up to there, but Yuri went up. (7th picture) 8th-10th pictures were taken from there. It was a magnificent view. The mountains in the 9th picture were, I thought, located at the opposite side across the river Rhine, and it meant it was French territory. The next was a ruin that we came across.

(Vocabulary)
like a thief in the night  こっそりと
city-state  都市国家
halfway up a hill 丘の中腹に
aspect [C] (状況・問題などの) 一面, 側面
the safety/business/money aspect   安全［ビジネス，金銭］面

Got To Freiburg

Today's Route

     We arrived in Freiburg. This is the sister city of Matsuyama and I knew only the name. I wondered what the city was like. The first picture was taken when we'd just gotten out of the train. Our train was to start for Interlaken at 11:01 here. The board said that the next station was Basel Bad Bf, where we would visit later. Our hotel in this city was the InterCity Hotel in the picture, which was located next to the station and was very convenient for us. There was no exit of the station and we directly headed for the hotel. We gradually got used to the German station. It was earlier than check-in time, so we asked them to keep our luggage and went out for a walk. At that time, a hotel woman handed a small business card-size certification to us. We seemed to be exempt from transportation fee with it in the city. I thought it was very lucky to be free from the complexity of paying with strange coins, but I didn't see any person pay the fee in the tram. I didn't know why people were allowed not to pay it. It might be one of the welfare policies. Anyway, we went to the tourist information at first and got a advice to see the whole city from the hill.

(Vocabulary)
exempt  [形] 免除された
[＋exempt from]
Children are exempt from dental charges. 子供は歯の治療代を免除されている．
complexity  [U] 複雑さ
[＋complexity of]
the growing complexity of HIV treatments ますます複雑になるHIVの治療法