Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Net Book (Mobile PC)

     Some types of portable PCs are becoming popular in Japan since last summer. A Taiwanese company seems to have sparked the boom. The characteristics are cheaper and limited functional. Roughly speaking, it costs a fourth of a regular notebook PC and has a fourth of the functions of regular one. When I heard about this kind of portable PC, I was skeptical about it. No matter how cheap it is, it seemed pointless not to have high performance. However, to the contrary of my opinion, the media has reported that the sales of this kind of portable PC are increasing. This news hasn't gotton out of my mind for a long time and I checked out several websites and could hear opinions directly from people who had already started using it. Finally, I ended up getting it and am showing you below.
     I've already used it for a month now. I really think it's nice and useful. It has enough power for netsurfing and exchanging e-mails. I installed a Japanese dictionary and Longman English-English and English-Japanese dictionary. The weight of the pc is only 1 kg. The size of the keys is just fit to my fingers. It connects to the internet via wireless network. It is also called the net book. It's a good naming , I suppose. It's small enough, light enough and has enough power for me. I am planning to visit South Korea in March. I'm sure I'll bring it and access to the internet.

（Vocabulary)
spark   火付け役となる
not get out of one's mind    気になって仕方がない

Rally Japan (FIA World Rally Championship Round 14)

     Rally Japan is just around the corner. I'll fly to Sapporo on the 30th and join the meeting as one of the volunteer staff members. It has been my dream to do something for the international championship. If I had enough time, skills, and funds, I would have driven a car in the competition. I had attended the competitions when I was in my twenties. As for now, first of all, my physical strength is over the hill, I'm afraid. Anyway I can't wait to see the world's highest level of rally cars.

    By the way, I'm not sure how long I will be under constraint, but I won't have time for internet access. Therefore, I changed my e-mail system so that important e-mails can be automatically transferred from my PC to my cell phone, because I have a plan to see a few friends in Sapporo and e-mails are necessary to communicate with each other.

     And one more thing. I won't know what role will be given to me until I'm checking in to the headquarters of the Rally Japan. My friends and family members want to know when and what I will be doing. In order to inform them of this information easily and quickly, I decided to use my blog. I've written my blog mainly in English, but I'll keep it in Japanese only during the Rally Japan. I'll post pictures with short messages and after getting home I'll flesh them out with some more details in English.

(Vocabulary)
flesh ~ out with some more information
～にもう少し情報を付け加えて肉付けする

Name Card

     I had my name card made for the Rally Japan. It was very easy and simple to place an order via internet. As you imagine, the price was cheap. I'm showing you it below. I didn't expect much because the price was so cheap, but it is far better than I expected.
     In the Rally Japan, more than 800 people were supposed to join as volunteer staff members. I think my fellow staff will be 20, give or take. I want to start a good relationship with them and so I prepared the name card. It will make it easy for me to be remembered.

Continuous Computer Screens

     I didn't know that such a thing could be done. That is, a single computer can control plural screens at the same time as in the picture below.
     I found the article about the adaptor to add one more screen to the computer; up to 16 screens. You can see the same view on a different screen at up to 16 different places, and besides, if you want you can use the screens as a single big screen. I ordered this adaptor immediately and have used it for over two months. I'm writing about my feelings.
     When I write blog entries I use both screens. The left side one shows the text on the editor and the right one is for quick reference. When I feel uneasy about the usage of words or phrases I directly google those on the right screen. I can easily check how those words are used among native speakers. This double screens system (I named it) is very convenient. I can also launch other softwares, like iTune for music, an e-mail program, a DVD player and so on.
     Two almost square 17-inch screens change into one rectangular screen with the horizontal length doubled. In the picture below, I'm dragging the internet explorer and its window straddles both screens. Don't you think it is wonderful?

(Vocabulary)
sentiment   ある事柄に対する意見、感情
rectangle  長方形
in a rectangle shape   長方形に
square  正方形
in a square shape   正方形に
straddle   〔～の両側に〕またいでいる、位置する
・The city straddles the river. : その町はその川にまたがっている。
add on // install more   増設する

　こんなことが可能だとは思いませんでした。１台のパソコンで複数のディスプレイをコントロールできるのです。

　雑誌の記事でこのアダプターを見つけて即注文、２ヶ月ほど使ってみました。同じ画面を１６個のディスプレイで表示できたり、一枚の大きなスクリーンとして見ることも出来ます。その使用感を書きます。

　僕がこの記事を書くとき、左側のディスプレイには文章を、右のディスプレイには辞書などの参照資料を表示します。iTuneやメールソフトなどを同時に起動しておくことも出来ます。実に便利です。

　ほぼ正方形の１７インチディスプレイ２台を横長の長方形のディスプレイとして使うことが出来ます。写真に示したのは、インターネットエクスプローラーをドラッグしているところで、二つの画面にまたがって表示されています。凄いと思いませんか？

DVD Recorder Breakdown

     The DVD recorder is a must to me. When I want to see some TV programs outside my house, I have only to send an e-mail. The information about programs that I want to see is written in the e-mail in a designated formula. The DVD recorder will record the programs following the indication in the e-mail. This system is very convenient. I can register the program on the DVD recorder no matter when and where I want to go out.
     This DVD recorder got out of order today. I was going to take it to the repair shop, but it was connected with several electronics.
     I'm handy with a PC, so my friends think that I'm handy with video and audio, but that's not true. I was afraid of not being able to connect those cords as they used to be. Connecting a DVD recorder with several machines like a display, a projector, an amplifier, a video recorder,,,. This procedure would take a lot out of me.
     At that time, a good idea came to me. I have a digital camera. I took some pictures every time I pulled a cord out. It was visual notes. The connection will be successful if I just follow the pictures in reverse order.

(Vocabulary)
a must  必要なもの, ぜひすべきこと
electronics  《複数扱い》 (集合的に) 電子機器
take a lot out of somebody (take it out of somebody とも)
 ＜人＞をくたくたに疲れさせる

 

Offline Meeting

     "Offline Meeting" might be a Japanese-made phrase. It means a real meeting at which people who usually meet on the internet meet in the real world. I joined an offline meeting today. A half of the members were new to me. I didn't know even their names. I only knew their nicknames and their way of thinking. I have just read their comments on the net.
     The motorcycle is our common language. We enjoyed chatting about our own motorcycles and other hobbies and jobs over local brand beers and distilled spirits. I had a fabulous time and got to know many things from other occupations apart from the medical services.
     One of them was planning to ride a motorcycle in the southwest islands, just on the border of Japan. As I talked with him, I grew eager to go for a long tour. The picture shows us lining up in front of the Dogo Onsen Spa, which is one of the national historic heritage buildings.

(Vocabulary)
fabulous  すばらしい

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

     Our bus went over the Lions Gate Bridge. I like the scenery of Burrard Inlet from here too. Suddenly our bus got into the natural forest and modern buildings appeared in front of us a few minutes later. Our bus was drawn into the downtown and stopped at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
     When I visited Vancouver for the first time, I saw this hotel on the way to Whistler. It is located along the way. One of my mentors, who was with me at that time, told me that this hotel was the most historic and gorgeous hotel in Vancouver. Having heard his words, I hoped that I could stay at least one night some day. The some day was today.
     I had an appointment to see an English teacher who was Canadian and who was correcting my entries of this blog on behalf of me. To be honest with you, I was psyching myself up for meeting him. I prepared a rough draft in the bus because I had not enough time to talk with him, but, , , , what I wanted to tell him disappeared from my mind the moment I saw him. I might have been unnecessarily tense. I could only spare a few minutes for talking with him, but it was great to meet him in the real world. Before March in 2008, these entries had been sent to Texas, in the U.S.A. and he had corrected them from Canada, Thailand or wherever he wanted to stay, and the corrected drafts had been returned to me in Japan from Texas. After I checked my mistakes, I sent these drafts to a blog server in California with pictures. All the people in the world, except for a few people, can access my blog. This system was incredible 20 years ago. Therefore I really wanted to meet him, a key person of this system.
     Writing a blog brought about many changes in my life. I'm going to write about this topic again and again later.
     The picture shows our leader (Hiroko) and A at the front desk of the hotel. A is eager to learn English. Every time Hiroko talked to foreigners, A was with her to listen to the conversation.

(Vocabulary)
psych /saɪk/
psych sb ↔ out [句動詞]
(インフォーマル) ＜相手＞をびびらせる
psych sb/yourself   up
(インフォーマル) ＜人［自分自身］＞に気合いを入れる
tense 〈状況・雰囲気などが〉 緊迫した, 張りつめた
a tense silence 張りつめた沈黙

Relaunch My Blog

     Fortunately I knew how to write messages on a blog. I have kept on writing this blog for the past two odd years. Now that I have decided to write messages in English, I chose a blogging service company based in the U.S. This company, TypePad, is nice in various ways, I think.
     A few weeks ago I wanted to add another RSS feed in my blog, but I couldn't. I knew they permitted only one RSS feed in my course, "TypePad Basic" at that time. This made me check other blogging services and I found they had a branch in Japan, "TypePad Japan".

     I compared both basic services:
                                            the U.S.             Japan
Monthly subscription:          $4.95             420 yen (like $4.00)
Number of Feeds permitted:     1                     5
Store all of the blog content, from photos to media files:
                                          100 MB            4000 MB (4GB)
Match the bandwidth to the blog traffic:
                                        2 GB/Month         5GB/Month

     It didn't take so much time to decide to move my blog from the original site to TypePad Japan. Please modify your bookmark from " http://kumo.typepad.com/" to "http://kumo.typepad.jp/". It's very easy. You have only to modify from "com" to "jp".

(Vocabulary)
for the past __ odd years    過去＿年余り
now that　今や～だから、～からには

Korean Letters 4

Continued from here.

    I learned Korean history by myself. I focused on before the 19th century this time because I know roughly about after the 19th century.
     The pictures show the books that I read for these past 3 weeks. Both books in the first picture are written by a Korea-hating person and a Japan-hating person. I compared them with each other.
     The book on the right was written by a Japanese historian. His opinions, based on reliable evidence, seemed to be perfect. On the other hand the book on the left was funny and ridiculous. For example, the author describes the issue of Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima in Japanese) this way: Japan can easily file a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice because Japan has nothing to lose when it loses the case, but Korea is tightly controlling the Rocks effectively now and if it loses the case it has to give it up...so, Korea won't go to the Court. See also here.
     What do you think about this excuse? It's literally nonsense. It's because the Korean administration officials know that they have no chance against Japan that Korea won't sit at the table of the International Court. The author continues ....  The Korean language is superior to Japanese because homonyms are fewer in Korean than in Japanese. I couldn't believe my eyes to read this. I think he is unqualified to write books. In Japan and China the written language is an ideogram. Korean is a phonogram. His opinion is completely wrong. Originally it's of no use to struggle for mastery between different languages.
     I really think that Korean is systematic and beautiful. I'm learning it like maths and listening to it like music. I like it though I'm sorry to hear that Korean is denying the usage of Chinese characters.
     Anyway, the book on the left was written emotionally and the evidence is vague. Reading this book was just like wasting time.
     See the second picture. These books are written by a history researcher after intensive research. I examined some evidence that the author took up in his book and I got to believe these books. I'd like to pay a tribute to Korean readers to give me a chance to learn about Korean history. I got shocked to know it. If I were the Korean president, I would be sure to hide the historical facts and never show it to Korean children. Korean history is such a history.
     When the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea was signed in 1965, Seoul didn't say anything about the issue of comfort women. Why did the issue show up now? It has been my biggest question. I know the book that triggered this issue, but the author of this book revealed later that he wrote it on speculation and no evidence. However the Koreans are continuing to blame Japan for this issue. Why? In fact there's a general idea on prostitution (sex for money) in Japan but no notion about obliged comfort women (kind of sex slavery).
     "Comfort women" was from the Korean culture. If you are Korean, please study your own history and culture. Examine every kind of record and figures sincerely. There remain many documents in China, your country and also Japan. Many travel writers left the documents for you. I don't want to offend you and write about this issue any more but I hope you'll stop shifting a lot of the responsibility on Japan. (和訳)

(Vocabulary)
homonym     同音異義語
phonogram  表音文字
ideogram     表意文字
pay a tribute to　（人）に賛辞を呈する、（人）に敬意を表する、（死を）哀悼する
the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea　日韓基本条約   한일기본조약
hift responsibility to　（人）に責任を転嫁する［なすりつける］

韓国からの手紙４

ここからの続き　http://ridiculouskcruelc.seesaa.net/article/141154175.html　朝鮮史の勉強をした。１９世紀以後は大体わかっているので今回はそれ以前に焦点を当てた。写真はこの３週間の間に読んだ本を示している。最初の写真の２冊の本は韓国嫌いの人と日本嫌いの人とによって書かれたものである。これらを比べてみた。　右側の本は日本人歴史家によって書かれている。彼の意見は信頼できる根拠があり、完全なように見える。一方、左側の本はおかしくてばかげている。例えば、竹島についてはこう書かれている。日本は何も失うものがないから簡単に国際司法裁判所に訴えることができるが、韓国は現在竹島を実効支配しており、もし裁判で負ければそれを諦めねばならないから、、、だから韓国は訴訟に応じないのだと言う。参考: http://ridiculouskcruelc.seesaa.net/article/141154384.html　この言い訳はどうだ？全くナンセンスと言わざるを得ない。韓国が司法の場につかないのは、日本に対して勝ち目がないことを政府が知っているからだ。著者は続ける、、、朝鮮語は日本語よりも優れている。なぜなら同音異義語が日本語に比べて少ないからだと。これには驚いた。この著者は本を書く資格はないと思った。日本や中共の書き言葉は表意文字である。それに対して朝鮮語は表音文字だ。彼の言葉は完全に間違っている。もともと、言語の優位性を論じるなど、何の意味もないことだ。朝鮮語はシステマティックで美しいと思う。数学のように学び、音楽を聴くように聞いている。ただ、朝鮮人が漢字を使わないようにしてしまったことを聞いてとても残念に思うが、朝鮮語は好きだ。とにかく、左の本は感情的に書かれており、根拠が希薄だ。この本を読むことは時間の浪費に過ぎない。 　２番目の写真を見て欲しい。これらの本は歴史家により十分な研究の後に書かれている。著者が取り上げている根拠のうちいくつかを自分でも調べてみて、これらの本が信頼できるものとわかった。朝鮮史を勉強する機会を与えてくれた韓国の読者に感謝したい。朝鮮史を知って驚いた。もし、僕が韓国大統領であったら間違いなく事実を隠し、子供達には教えないだろう。朝鮮史はそのような歴史である。 　日韓基本条約が１９６５年に結ばれたとき、韓国は慰安婦問題について何も語らなかった。なぜ今になってこの問題が出てきたのか？引き金となった本を知ったが、後にこの著者は単なる想像で書いたもの、何の根拠もないことを明かしている。しかし、朝鮮人はこの問題で日本を責め続ける。いったいなぜ？日本には当時から売春婦という概念はあったが、強制的な慰安婦（性の奴隷）という概念はなかったのだ。 　慰安婦という概念は朝鮮文化から来ている。もしあなたが朝鮮人なら自国の歴史や文化を勉強してみることだ。支那や貴国、日本にも多くの文書が残っている。多くの旅行作家の記録もある。あなた方を攻撃するつもりはなく、この問題でこれ以上書くつもりもないが、日本に多くの責任を転嫁するようなことはやめて欲しい。

(KW: 黄　文雄　嫌韓流　혐일류）

Korean Letters 2

Continued from http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/11/korean-letters-.html

     I hit upon an intersting idea reading these e-mails. I wonder why they don't want to add comments openly. If they do so, everyone could read their opinions. I found their deep psyche in some e-mails. It looked like they didn't want to agree with me in every situation. Their pride doesn't seem to let them acknowledge Japanese opinions. Pride goes before, and shame follows after.
     However, I admire their attitude in another sense. Their nationalism and patriotism are awesome. Japanese self-appointed liberal intellectuals blame Japan for doing something bad despite not having any secure evidence and many people support them. I can't understand their way of thinking.
     Korean people who express their affinity for Japan tend to be condemned. Such kind of patriotism is not good, but it's also a serious problem that many Japanese don't even have such patriotism.
     Nationalism and patriotism are totally described by one word, "aikokushin," in Japanese. Left wing groups insist that the word "aikokushin" shouldn't be taught to children. They raise their voices that "aikokushin" leads Japan to war.
     I think this is wrong. Actually, "nationalism" might be harmful for most Japanese, but "patriotism" is essential and necessary to all peoples. The Japanese educational system, planned by Douglas McArthur, teaches young people that "aikokushin" is a bad thing. We Japanese are brainwashed here too. (和訳)

(Vocabulary)
deep psyche  深層心理
pride does not let  プライドが許さない
Pride goes before, and shame follows after. プライドが先を行き、恥が後に従う。／虚栄心が強すぎると失敗して恥をかく。
in another sense 別の意味では
awesome  重大な; 息をのむような, 圧倒されるような; (インフォーマル・話) すごくいい, 最高の
an awesome responsibility  重大な責任
self-appointed  独り決めの, 自ら任じた, 自薦の
liberal intellectual  進歩的文化人

韓国からのメール２

(続き) これらのメールを読んで奇妙な事実に気がついた。なぜ彼らはコメントを書かないのだろうと思っていたが、コメントとすると誰もが読むことができる。彼らは深層心理において僕に同意したくないようだ。日本人の意見を認めることは彼らのプライドが許さないようだ。虚栄心が強すぎて恥をかくのだが。しかしながら、別の意味で、彼らの態度を素晴らしいとも思う。彼らの愛国心は素晴らしい。日本の自称進歩的文化人は何の根拠もなく、日本が悪いことをしたと言っては日本を非難する。また多くが彼らを擁護する。彼らの考えが全く理解できない。日本に親しみを感じると表明する韓国人は非難されやすい。そんな愛国心はよくないが、一方でそんな愛国心さえも持たない多くの日本人がいることは、これもまた大きな問題である。"nationalism"と"patriotism"は合わせて愛国心と訳される。左翼は愛国心を子供達に教えるべきではないと説く。愛国心は戦争に繋がると声を上げる。しかし、これは間違っていると思う。実際問題、"nationalism"は多くの日本人にとって良くないかもしれないが、"patriotism"はすべての国民にとって必要不可欠なものである。ダグラス・マッカーサーによって計画された日本の教育システムは日本の子供達に「愛国心」は悪いものと教える。我々日本人はここでも洗脳されているのである。

Korean Letters 1

     I got more than 50 e-mails from Korea. It's because of this entry: http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/10/korean-textbook.html

     This blog is linked to a Korean blog that is maybe written by a Korean priest. I guess it is the reason why I got so many e-mails from South Korea.
     All the e-mails but two were written in Korean. They might have a misunderstanding that I'm very good at Korean. I'm just learning Korean because I want to enjoy travelling in Korea. I'd like to try many Korean dishes and to see beautiful scenery. My German was obtained as a subject in my student days and was required again at my postgraduate examination after ten years as a surgeon. The ability of reading and writing German, along with enough vocabulary, was mainly required. On the other hand, talking about Korean, it's a kind of amusement to learn Korean. The ability of talking and listening in Korean in daily life is what I'd like to acquire. That is to say, my vocabulary of Korean words is poorer than that of German and English. My comprehension level in Korean is lower than that in German.
     Anyway, it took a lot of time to understand all of the e-mails. Please write in English next time! I'm going to write about the contents of e-mails in the next entry.

P.S.   This storm of e-mails made me better in Korean. I'll try to write something in Korean here in the near future.

Serch Engine

     This blog system is designed to be able to know how the visitors came. About a hundred subscribers access regulary now. They usually drop in directly by inputting the url of my blog in the browser window like Internet Explorer. To my happiness, the number of unknown people is increasing now. They came to my blog via some search engines like yahoo, google etc. They put various key words in the window of the search engines.
     Key words that were most used are the name of places. I am lucky to have written my travel memo on this blog. Some people were collecting information for their trip to Japan. It was a great pleasure to offer what they wanted.
     The other day, I wrote about the Ainu museum on the blog. Then an American replied and gave me information about a restaurant where I can eat Ainu cuisine. He seems to live near the restaurant. I was so happy to know about it. Next time I go to Tokyo, I'll try it. http://www2.odn.ne.jp/rera/

Beer Party '07

     I had a beer party last night. People who gathered were PC freaks. We met on the network about 10 years ago and have been having a party once or twice a year. When we met for the first time, the internet didn't exist and we were useing a PC online service, Nifty-serve, which was modeled after CompuServe in the U.S. I really think I was lucky to have known the PC online service because I could get many friends in many fields.
     I chose the roof garden of the ANA hotel as the place for our party. The reasons are as follows: The dishes must be good and luxurious judging from the status of the ANA hotel. This hotel is the most exclusive in my city and besides the major hotels have facilities for handicapped people. One of us has the after-effects of polio and needs a special washroom. I expected the most luxurious and relaxing time, but...
     Most beer gardens or roof gardens have a time limit and a fixed charge system. The time limit was 110min and the charge was 3600 yen per person in the ANA hotel. Within the time limit we can eat and drink as much as we like. It's so far so good. The problem is that the closing time was set there. They change all the customers at that time. The first group is from 17:30 to 19:20 and the last group is from 19:30 to 21:20. The time that the customers get to the seats wasn't the starting time. The starting time was already set and if we were late, we would lose our eating time.
     That is to say, so many people gather at one time in front of the table where dishes are arranged and have to stand in line to take their meal. We got to the roof garden a little earlier, so we were OK, but some other groups that got in 10 minutes or so later had to wait about 20 minutes to self serve their meal. The dishes were good, but it is a real killer for thirsty people to wait for beer for a long time.
     Our table was the nearest one to the dishes and it was easy to get another helping. It might be due to the consideration that the hotel showed. Anyway we had a really enjoyable time. Time passed so rapidly and we moved to another Japanese-style inn and talked and drank to our content. It was the next day when I reached my home.

(Vocabulary)
model after　～をモデル［原型・模範］とする、～をまねる
so far　今までのところ
It's a real killer.　これは本当につらい。
consideration　考慮；　配慮、思いやり、心遣い
Money is the first consideration. 先立つものは金。

The Roof Garden of the ANA hotel

At Japanese-style inn

It's sashimi, raw fish.

From Romania to Bulgaria via Japan

     I know a Japanese medical student in Romania. She is a daughter of my friend who is a specialist of Petrology. She sent me an e-mail today. She wants to do field work at a certain hospital in Bulgaria because her university imposes 60 hours of field work at any hospital in the world.
     That hospital was founded by my acquaintances as a branch of the largest Japanese hospital group last year. So, she asked me to introduce her to the boss of that hospital. I sent an e-mail to authorized people of that group. http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/tokuda-hospital-in-bulgaria-opens-this-year/id_15527/catid_66
     I realized how convenient the internet is. An e-mail moved from Romania to Japan, transferred within Japan and will be sent from Japan to Bulgaria instantly.
     You can see her blog listed in the left column of this blog.

(Vocabulary)
petrology　岩石学

E-mail about Bougainville Island

     An Australian, who had stayed on Bougainville Island for 1 year as a worker for Bougainville Copper Limited, sent me an e-mail. It seems like the Island is getting peaceful, but is not good for sightseeing or spending a vacation. He showed me some websites for getting information on the Island.
     It's ok, because I don't have enough time and money now. I just want to say here that the internet and search engine system are wonderful. I wrote about Bougainville Island at the end of January. http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/01/my-father-gone.html Only a month later, an Australian came across my blog and sent me an e-mail. I just started writing this blog to improve my skills in English but now I'm getting a by-product from all over the world that I couldn't have imagined at that time.
     There are many kinds of people, culture, nature, ways of thinking, ways of life,,,on the globe. Of course, I know it's natural. However it was only knowledge I gained from my school teachers. After I started writing this blog, I began to realize it was true.       (Written in Nagoya)

Trouble with a Broadband Router

     My house was built four years ago. The residential broadband was getting popular and reasonable at that time and I had the house designer install LAN domestic wiring. Three desktop PCs, a DVD recorder, a networked printer, two networked HDDs and an internet protocol telephone are always connected by LAN and sometimes two laptop PCs are networked with a wireless connection. As you think, I'm a kind of PC nerd.
     The condition of the broadband router has been bad these days. I had to reset it once a week since a couple of months ago. Finally it broke down on Feb. 5. I send it to the repair department of the manufacturer. It seems that it will take 10-14 days to be repaired. I can access the internet in my office, but my daughters can't. They complained so much that I bought a new router. To my surprise, the price of the router was a fourth of the price four years ago and besides it's less than the repair fee.
     Anyway, I can post this entry now from my study.

(Vocabulary)
residential broadband  家庭用ブロードバンド
domestic wiring  屋内配線

End of the Year Party

     I'm a member of Mixi (Japanese biggest social networking service). Five members of Mixi got together at a small Japanese-style pub and held the year-end party last night. Our occupations and careers were different from each other, so everybody's story was fresh and intersting to others. I relaxed. Four hours had passed as quick as a wink.
     The photo was taken by one of us just before starting the party and shows Matsuyama Castle. The complete renovation of it has just been done this month. As you can see, this was taken at night under the display lights of the castle. Don't you think it is very clear and beautiful? It's because his digital camera was up to date.

(Vocabulary)
renovation （renovations） 修復, 刷新

Digital Camera

     I bought a 4th generation digital camera. The 1st generation digital camera was only a 350 thousand pixel still camera. It was the most popular digital camera in Japan when I got it about ten years ago, but now it's in my stockpile and will never be used. The 3rd generation camera shown in the 2nd picture was very thin, only 11mm, and light. It's easy to be carried in my pocket. But it requires a special mount device to be charged and the mount is bulky. I didn't take it when I went out for more than a couple of days' trip. The camera shown in the 1st picture, which I bought today, is powered by 2 AA size dry batteries. There's no need for special charging devices. If I can't charge it, I can get AA size batteries everywhere. I'll post various photos here from now.

(Vocabulary)
stockpile  食糧備蓄、貯蔵量、貯蔵、備蓄品
bulky  大きい、持て余すほど大きい、分厚い、かさばった、ゴワゴワした

Anniversary Day

     Good morning. Isn't everything nice? Today is the 1st anniversary of my 1st post on this blog. I'm happy to have received e-mails from more than 10 countries in a year. I sometimes access Korean websites and write something these 3,4 months. Consequently the access to my blog from South Korea has increased. I'd like to talk with people who live in 속초시 (束草市） in South Korea. If you are one, send an e-mail me! I'd like to get information about coastal routes from 속초시 (束草市） to Russia around Vladivostok in case of a North Korean crisis.

November

     It's November! I have 3 private events this month. The 1st event is to take an official exam of The Hangul Language Proficiency Test. I've been learning Korean for 2 years. It's the first time for me to take this test, like TOEIC for English. The levels of ability of Korean are categorized into 5 grades. The highest level is called 1st class, and lowest, just beginner level is called 5th grade. I'll take level 4. I'm confident.
     The 2nd event is that this month is the 1st anniversary of writing my blog. I started writing blogs in November last year. I'd like to congratulate myself on keeping it up for 1 year.
     The last one is that I have to be a house husband for 10 days during my wife's business trip. She's going to Europe at the head of the college trip. She is a teacher at a technical college. I have to get up earlier and prepare breakfast and lunch for the kids. I have to make dinner at night. I already feel depressed now.

(Vocabulary)
proficiency    熟達, 熟練, たんのう
at the head of   ～を引率して