A Little More About Myself - 91st Edition
When the March 11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake shut down the Fukushima nuclear power plant, brownout (conservation of energy) became a part of our national common sense.
Everyone began to reflect on how wastefully we had been using electricity up until then, and the word "brownout" became not only a part of our vocabulary but a basis for action in our daily life.
In my home, we began to turn off the lights that we used to keep on all over the house and limited ourselves as to which room to use by trying to have the family gather in one room as much as possible, so that when we finish our meals, we would all move together to the living room. As for the air conditioner, we changed our policy to use it only when it became impossible to bear the heat.
Unfortunately, this summer was so, so hot! At bedtime it was so unbearable that we would turn the air conditioner on with the timer running for only one hour, saying, "Ah, that feels so good," and fall asleep, only to wake up feeling, "Oh no, it's so hot...," and turn the timer on for another hour.
At Aspen Clinic, we took out every other light bulb in the waiting room while in the examination room the lights were turned off, only being turned on when necessary. We have certainly been switching the lights on and off very constantly.
It was at such a time when the air conditioner in my office broke down. Bad luck! Anyhow, hoping to get it repaired, I contacted the building facilities company for an estimate, only to find that it was way too expensive. Thinking that I might as well get it replaced with a new one, I was told that there was a shortage of supplies as a result of the earthquake so that it would take two months to install a new machine. If I waited that long, the weather will turn cool! For the time being I decided to have the old machine repaired, but due to the difficulty in procuring the parts, I had to bear with the heat for one whole month.
Since the opening of Aspen, I have been seeing patients wearing a white shirt and tie, but taking this opportunity I tried on the colored doctor's gown that my friend Dr. Hirai had given me. It looked good, so after considering the colors, I decided to wear a light moss green pair of trousers to go with the navy blue top. I bought myself a white pair shoes as well. Initially, I was not used to it and felt somewhat unsettled, but now I am completely used to it and even worry about whether I will be able to go back to wearing a white shirt and tie when the weather gets cooler.
I am sure that similar initiatives have been taken in your homes, offices, and schools, but I have one concern. By rushing headlong in the direction of brownout,
toward conserving energy, I feel that our society and economy are totally losing vitality. Hereafter, I feel that the main focus will be on how Japan can develop while we continue to save energy. Let's move forward one step at a time! Let's all strive to make such an effort!]]>
院長先生のちょっぴり詳しい自己紹介 (第９０回)tag:www.aspen-shika.jp,2011:/blog//2140.985902011-06-09T08:25:15Z2011-06-09T08:25:57Z５月１１日の夜から東日本大震災の被災地、大船渡に先輩の増田先生に同行していただき...アスペン歯列矯正歯科医院http://www.aspen-shika.jp/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=2140&id=620
『被災された方々に何かして差し上げたい』と誰もが思っていると思いますが、いざ実行という段になるとなかなか具体的なものが浮かび上がってこない、自分でも何か出来ないか？と３月１１日以来考えていました。
良いアイデアが浮かびました。実は、先生のお父さんも歯医者さんなのですが、お年寄りのための入れ歯の安定剤(接着剤のようなもの)を作っている会社を５０年以上やっています。ファストンという名前でライオンという会社から発売していますが、それを避難所などで生活を余儀なくされ入れ歯で困っている方々に是非プレゼントしたいと考えたのです。父親とも相談し、さっそくライオンの方に相談したところ、『良いことなので、是非やってください。』と快く承諾してくださいました。その上、ライオンがすべてバックアップして下さることになりました。
出発当日１６００個のファストンをレンタカーに積み込み、夜１０時、増田先生と大船渡に向けて出発しました。７時間半後、目的地の大船渡に到着、あらかじめお話を伝えておいた大船渡市役所の保健福祉課の横尾さんを訪問、品物がインドのカラヤガムという天然樹脂であること、その使用方法などを説明後、持参した安定剤と携帯容器を寄付しました。
その後、周辺のカメリアホール、リアスホールなど避難所に出向き、生活をされているおじいちゃんやおばあちゃんで入れ歯を使用している方々とお会いし、ひとりひとり入れ歯を洗浄してあげたり、実際に使い方を説明してお口の中に入れていただいたりしました。避難所の方々はそれぞれお家や家族を一瞬にして失ってしまったわけですから、少しでも気を紛らわし楽しい時を過ごせるよう、明るく楽しく接するように心がけました。最初は、なかなか入り込めない雰囲気がありましたが、帰る頃には皆さんとても素敵な笑顔をしてお話してくださるようになりました。そんな時、本当に来て良かったと心から嬉しい気持ちでいっぱいになりました。
年に１～２度、渓流釣りに出かけてお世話になっている大船渡の方々にほんの少しでも恩返しが出来れば、という気持ちが今回の活動につながりました。去年、釣りのときに電池を買った川沿いの小さなお店は津波に流され無くなっていました。話によるとお店のおばちゃんは亡くなられたとか。残念でなりません。皆も、被災された方々のためにどんな形でもいいと思います、支援をしようではありませんか。
A Little More About Myself - 90th Edition
From the evening of May 11, I went to Oofunato, a disaster area of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, accompanied by Dr. Masuda, a senpai dentist of mine.
I'm sure that everyone is thinking, "I would like to do something to help the disaster victims," but coming up with a concrete idea in order to put this thought into action is very difficult, and ever since March 11 I found myself thinking of what I could do to help.
Then a good idea popped into my head. Actually, my father is also a dentist, but for more than 50 years he has been running a company that makes a stabilizer (a glue-like substance) for dentures for the elderly. This stabilizer called Faston is sold by Lion Corporation, so I came up with the idea of presenting this to the people living inevitably at the shelters and having problems with their dentures. I consulted my father, and upon consulting the people at Lion Corporation, they consented agreeably by saying, "That's a positive act, so please go ahead." Additionally, it was decided that Lion Corporation would back me up 100 percent.
On the day of departure I loaded 1600 Fastons in our rental car, and at 10:00 p.m. Dr. Masuda and I left for Oofunato. Seven and a half hours later, we arrived at our destination, Oofunato, and went to visit Mr. Yokoo of the Oofunato City Hall Public Health and Welfare Department, who we had contacted in advance. After explaining that Faston is produced from a natural resin from India called Karaya gum and showing how to use it, we donated the stabilizers and portable containers that we had delivered. From there, we went to the shelters, such as Camelia Hall and Rias Hall, to meet the elderly men and women taking shelter there and who were using dentures, washed their dentures one by one, explained how to use the stabilizer, and had them put their dentures back on. Since the people at the shelters lost their homes and families in a matter of moments, we tried our best to connect with them in an upbeat happy manner so that they were able to divert their attention and spend an enjoyable time with us. At first, the mood was a little uninviting, but by the time we were leaving, everyone had a nice smile on their faces and was talking to us. At that time, I felt really glad that I had gone to help at the shelters, and my heart was full of happiness.
This activity was born from my feeling of wanting to repay a favor in some small way to the people of Oofunato, who had always looked after me whenever I went mountain stream fishing once or twice a year. Last year, when I went fishing I bought some batteries at a small shop, which I heard had been washed away by the tsunami. I was told that the old lady who ran the shop had died. What a terrible disappointment. So everyone, let's try to help the disaster victims in any way we can.
A Little More About Myself - 89th Edition
At this year's New Year party of our shopping street association, in addition to the annual standard performances of traditional Japanese koto and shakuhachi music, there was a jazz performance. With the intake of alcohol, it is always a rather noisy event, but this time the audience stopped talking to listen to the novel performance. We were able to listen with a fresh feeling since until the previous year the pieces played were all traditional ones. At the end of the performance, there was an outburst of clapping! The performers seemed very surprised by the positive reaction.
Next to appear was a man with a guitar. Although he announced that he was going to play a "fado," I was not sure of what to expect, even though I love listening to and playing music (I used to play the drums as a youngster). What a surprise when the music started! It was a genre of music that I had never heard before, but there was something that struck my heart. Upon hearing the explanation, I understood its true character. Fado is the folk music of Portugal, like Italian canzone, French chanson, and Brazilian samba. Fado means fate or destiny, but the feeling that came across from the sounds of the viola (guitar) and the singing voice with spoken words interspersed between the music made me feel as if I were actually in Lisbon at night along a street lit with the red glow of gaslights, watching people at restaurants eating and drinking, who were listening to the music while wrapped up in their own thoughts. Later, when I learned that there would be a live concert by Takuya Takayanagi, the performer, I went to Higashi Nakano to hear him play and was once again impressed by his performance.
A little while later, I had an opportunity to have dinner with a senior dentist friend and his wife. During dinner, when I mentioned to this couple who loved to travel that "recently I was very moved upon hearing the fado, Portuguese folk music," they replied, "We've visited Portugal twice already to hear the fado! The atmosphere created by the gaslights along the Lisbon streets is something quite special..." I thought, "Wow, they're talking about the same thing that I heard at the last event."
Even though I had never heard of music called fado, I was surprised that within two months my world had expanded to this extent. At the same time, I felt the deep impact of mutual connections between people, or the overlapping of coincidences. (I now want to visit Portugal.)
So, by all means, go meet all kinds of people and expand your world! And get the feeling that we are all somehow connected to each other...!
A Little More About Myself - 88th Edition
The last couple of times I've been writing about staying fit, so this time, once again, is a continuation of the same topic. I would like to write about my daily workout program at home.
Since the "walking strategy" of not going straight home after having dinner or going drinking after work but walking to Mitaka Chuo-dori and then back home is not something that I do on a daily basis, I have a workout program that I do every day at home. On my yoga mat while watching TV, first, using a rope I do a few stretching exercises for my legs and arms. During junior high school when I had to take two PE classes, one doing the vaulting horse and another doing judo falls, I got a hernia from dislocating my fourth lumbar spinal disk so that even now, unless I stretch my muscles from my hamstrings (behind the knees) to my upper thighs, it gives me lower back pain. And to prevent myself from getting stiff shoulders (40-year-old shoulders?) I hold the ends of a rope in each hand and straighten my elbows in order to keep the rope taut and then rotate my body back and forth. Recently, I added 50 exercises to strengthen my stomach muscles and 50 for my back muscles prior to doing the stretching exercises. This is because when I go play a round of golf, I've been feeling quite tired during the latter half of the round. In addition, I also hold a 2-kilogram dumbbell in each hand and do some squats, some chest and upper arm exercises, and some body rotation exercises (because the basics of golf involve body rotation and weight transfers).
All this is due to my desire to be able to keep playing my current hobbies of golf and tennis without physical problems. I always think that daily workouts, especially those that must be done steadily day in and day out, are hard to continue after a few days. This is because there is no goal in sight. I feel that exercising simply for the sake of staying fit lacks a sense of purpose. In my case, playing sports is such an important factor in staying fit that if I cannot play golf or tennis for a period of time due to my work schedule, I start to feel unwell. Wanting to be able to continue my favorite hobbies gives me the motivation to keep up with my daily exercises.
But, right now I'm having a big crisis! Is it due to my workout using the dumbbells? Has only one set of my muscles gotten overdeveloped? Is this the reason why my golf swing has lost its balance? Recently, my shots tend to be crooked and my score tends to fluctuate! I'm in the midst of attempting by trial and error such things as using the dumbbell with just my left hand and not doing any exercises on the day prior to playing golf. What should I do? Stop using the dumbbell altogether or continue with it? Hmmmm. What should I do? Can someone show me a good way?
A Little More About Myself - 87th Edition
In the last edition I wrote about how I started a "walking strategy" and was taking every opportunity to walk as much as possible, because I started to feel that my legs were becoming weaker. Three months have passed since then. Aren't you thinking that I was unable to stick to my plan and gave up very soon thereafter?
Not at all! I'm still doing it. I'm continuing my practice of walking to Mitaka Chuo-dori instead of going straight home whenever I eat and drink with friends after work. Now, it takes me only about 13 minutes one way and 25-6 minutes round trip, so that even on days when I've had too much to eat, the next morning I feel refreshed because my waist is comfortable! This is proof that walking consumes energy.
I also bought a book titled something like "Fifty Walking Day Trips" that introduces many places. It gives such information as walking distance, required time, access to destination, delicious places to eat along the way (this is very important!), etc., which sounded like fun. I decided that for my first experience I would try the Higashi-Koganei - Nogawa Park - Jindaiji course. Due to the intense higher than average heat this summer, with the day's forecast being 35 degrees, I started walking from Higashi-Koganei station around 10:00 a.m. After just walking a little bit, I was sweating like a horse, but as soon as I entered Nogawa Park and got underneath some shady trees, I felt a truly pleasant coolness. After replenishing myself with liquids, I followed the route within Nogawa Park that was indicated in the book and walked through the plant garden, enjoying the insects, flowers, and singing of birds. Upon arriving at the eatery recommended in the book, I immediately took a swallow of chilled beer that tasted absolutely delicious, ate some soba, and then took off on the next walking course. This time, I proceeded along a small path within the riverbed of Nogawa River. At times I had to part the grass, at other times I saw small fishes at the waterside, and feeling envious of the turtles luxuriously sunning themselves, I even forgot about the heat and enjoyed nature. Ah! A kingfisher! I found a bird suddenly taking flight from the middle of the river and was totally impressed with the sparkling blue color as it spread its wings. This is nature, indeed! I felt very happy knowing that there is still a lot of nature left in Tokyo, moreover within such proximity. I thought, "Tokyo is still a pretty nice place to be after all."
From the south of Jindaiji I took the wide paved road common to Tokyo (an expression due to the day's over-exposure to nature) all the way to Jindaiji, where I thought of paying a visit to the temple, but since it was a Sunday, the place was jammed! There were crowds of people, shops everywhere, and feeling, "I can't stand this!" I quickly got on the bus. Once on the bus, I immediately fell asleep, and when I realized it, the bus had already arrived at Kichijoji, the last stop. It was a very fulfilling day. How would you like to enjoy keeping fit by walking?
A Little More About Myself - 86th Edition
Recently, I have been feeling that my legs are becoming weaker. Since I enjoy playing sports, on my days off from work I try to go play golf, play tennis, or take my dog for a fast-paced walk in the park. In the past, for example, in the midst of my golf swing I was able to more or less make slight movements to instantaneously adjust the orbit of my swing, but these days I cannot help but feel that my reflexes have been deteriorating. Is this due to decreased stability in the lower half of my body? Or is this due to a weakening of my leg muscles?
Nowadays there are electric golf carts available at golf courses, and even the one that I always go to introduced them a few years ago. Initially, I said, "I will never ride one of those!" but lately, during the latter half of a round of golf, I tend to ride the cart, so I've come up with a strategy to maintain strength in my legs by such means as playing tennis, which involves much more exercise in a shorter span of time.
Yes! I resolved to do a lot more walking so that whenever I go to my parents' home in Eifukucho I would walk home to Kichijoji without taking the train. Walking can be rather quick, making me think between the stations of the Inokashira line that "I've already come this far" (although I feel that the distance between Hamadayama and Takaido is a bit far). Ever since the time in elementary school when I walked with my friends from my school in Kichijoji all the way home to Eifukucho, I have only driven a car along Inokashira-dori, but I was surprised to see quite a few scenes and shops that I hadn't noticed before. It made me feel that I had found yet another "fun way of spending an hour of my time."
Here is my strategy number two for walking. On the nights that I eat and drink with friends after work, if I go home and go to bed after doing only a few stretching exercises, I have a feeling that I will soon have metabolic syndrome. So, recently, depending on the weather, instead of going straight home I have been making a point of walking at a quick pace from the Kichijoji area to Mitaka station and back. Here, too, I made a new discovery. The night air seems very clear, and by breathing this clean air, I feel totally refreshed. A long time ago, it was a matter of course for people to walk everywhere, but nowadays, because bicycles, busses, and cars are too easily accessible, we are apt to think that "walking is a waste of time." Walking, though, is an important means of travel, so instead of only looking for ways to move speedily from one place to another in the shortest amount of time possible, I think that it is just as important to get a feeling of distance by going over the ground with our own feet. In order to prevent my body from becoming less fit as a result of human "progress," I plan to do a lot of walking. Let's all make an effort and take every opportunity to walk for our own health!
A Little More About Myself - 85th Edition
In the 83rd edition of this article, I wrote about the fact that I started a vegetable garden upon being influenced by Stephan, my French friend. This time I am going to write about how that vegetable garden is doing now and my thoughts about it.
I started out by growing cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese white cabbage hakusai, broccoli, Manganji peppers, okra, and Korean lettuce sanchu, and after that Stefan presented me with a mini-tomato seedling. Since it was in August when the weather was hot with lots of sunshine, the soil kept getting white from going dry so that I got into the habit of watering the garden on a daily basis. The first vegetable that I was able to harvest was the Korean lettuce sanchu. Using scissors I cut about 20 centimeters of the leaves, rinsed them with water in the kitchen for my family and me to eat by wrapping them around barbecued meat. To tell you the truth, I was a bit worried and wondered, "Are these leaves really safe to eat?" Even though I eat store-bought vegetables without thinking twice about them, it somehow felt different to eat a thing that I grew myself. But, when I took one bite, it tasted so delicious that I ate it all up. After that first time, I harvested the leaves several times and served them, which my family also enjoyed eating. I think it was sometime in September when Stefan said, "Let me have a look at how you're doing," and came over to see my vegetable garden. "Oh, no, this is not good. These guys are eating up all the good parts! But the veggies can still be saved," he said and picked off lots of green caterpillars that were hiding underneath the cabbage, hakusai, and broccoli leaves. "Oh! So they're hiding in those places," and that was the first time that I became aware of the green caterpillars. As a matter of fact, I used to wonder, "How do the leaves get holes in them?" "Do insects come flying and eat the leaves?" So then I knew that the green caterpillar was the culprit. In gardening books they always point out the importance of preventing the vegetables from getting green caterpillars, but I had not been able to find them hiding in camouflage on the underside of the leaves. Since then, I've been checking every day!
There are many things that I find mysterious, such as, "Why does the cabbage stalk grow so tall even though the cabbage is so heavy?" or "How does the cabbage actually grow?" As for the okra, I thought it would grow like edamame by hanging from the branch, but instead it grows straight upward from the branch.
Taking care of a vegetable garden is hard work. Since there are so many other things I have to do, it is very easy to neglect it. The other day I harvested the broccoli and cabbage and put them in the salad. They tasted delicious! However, the cabbage grows very slowly. After so much hard work, it only takes a minute to eat them. When I consider becoming self-sufficient, unless I make an enormous amount, I don't think it will pay off. It made me really think how much we should all understand and appreciate the hard work that farmers put into growing the foods we eat.
A Little More About Myself - 84th Edition
During the three-day weekend from November 21, a group of nine dentists from the Dentists Association went on the Jomonsugi (Cryptomeria) tour on Yakushima. Belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Yakushima is an island situated next to Tanegashima where the rocket launch pad is located and is also famous for its Shiratani Cloud Water Ravine, the setting of "Mononokehime."
This Jomonsugi tour is rather strenuous, being 22 kilometers round trip. Although the first eight kilometers takes about 2 ½ hours along an old truck track, the last three kilometers is a very steep mountain slope, a narrow path surfaced with Yakushima granite to prevent hikers from slipping. In order to climb this mountain path by maintaining good balance, it takes two hours to cover only three kilometers. My legs are quite fit from playing golf and tennis, but I was anxious whether I would be able to walk a distance amounting to 10 hours of walking, including steep mountain paths. My fellow dentist friends also expressed this concern.
With an annual precipitation of about 20,000 milliliters, the weather report for November 22 for Yakushima, a registered World Heritage Site in 2002, gave a forecast for rain. We, therefore, took measures to prepare for rain by packing raingear and warm clothing in our backpacks (average temperatures at this time of year near the Jomonsugi being 5-7 degrees Celsius). As we were going to dinner we saw two women returning from the tour, dragging their feet in a painful sort of way. Upon seeing them, our anxiety level rose another notch, so that we were conservative with our alcohol intake at dinner.
On the morning of the tour we left on the bus at 4:40 a.m. and in one hour arrived at the starting point, Arakawa Dam Trailhead. Lead by Itsubo-san, a veteran guide with 13 years and 800 hikes of experience, we finished our warm-up exercises and at 6:13 a.m. started walking in the dark along the old truck tracks. After walking about one hour we had breakfast at Kosugitani, and from there we continued walking for another hour and a half, listening to the explanations given by our guide. Fortunately, the weather was cloudy, and as we walked we became warm enough to be in short sleeves. Eventually, we arrived at the midway rest area, and after a brief stop, we started up the steep climb. It was very steep. Even though there were steps along some parts of the path, there were other parts that were so steep that if one person fell, the rest of us below would all fall like dominoes. But if you inhaled deeply there was a wonderful smell of the forest, and you could see 2000 year-old Yakusugi trees everywhere, making you feel time in 1000-year units. We had lunch after passing Wilson's Stump, Meotosugi, and Daiosugi, and at 11:50 a.m. we finally came upon our goal, the Jomonsugi. I was totally excited from not only the sight of the Jomonsugi but also from the fact that we were all able to arrive at this destination together. On our way back, it rained so heavily that our backpacks, raingear, and gloves were completely soaked, which lowered our body temperature so much that we had to struggle to stay warm, but at 4:16 p.m., thanks to Itsubo-san's miraculous lead, we arrived in good spirits at our finish line. Ten hours and three minutes since departure, we congratulated each other on achieving our objective, and after making a donation to the fund-raising for the site, we returned to the hotel. To my surprise, my cell phone broke down from the humidity! Thinking, "Perhaps we might return early from dinner due to fatigue?" it turned out that our sense of achievement continued to swell and that even after returning to the hotel our conversation lasted until the wee hours. Together we were able to complete the walk safely, able to pursue the same goal, and able to leave behind this wonderful, unforgettable experience and memory.
Cheers to this fantastic circle of friends!
A Little More About Myself - 83rd Edition
Recently, have you heard on the news or read in the newspapers that Japan's degree of food self-sufficiency reached 42%?
Actually, in the previous edition of Aspen Times in which I talked about tea picking I mentioned Gilles, a reporter from the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who, during our steam locomotive train ride, interviewed me regarding Japan's degree of food self-sufficiency. Frankly, at that time, I did not pay much attention to the fact that Japan's food supply depended about 60% on imports. However, I had known for a long time that my French friend Stefan cultivated a vegetable garden at his home (Umahori-kaigan on the Miura Peninsula) and grew his own potatoes, carrots, zucchinis, pumpkins, etc. During this summer vacation when I was invited over to a barbecue at his house, I was able to see for myself. When I actually got out in the garden and came into contact with the cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, and potatoes, I thought, "I must do this!"
I had always wanted to create a vegetable garden, so I decided, "This summer, I am going to start one at home!" I made a plan to set one up for the time being by using the open lot of 1.5 meters by 10 meters on the south side of my house. The morning after the barbecue, Stefan came over right away to teach me step by step, showing me how to do things "this way and that way." By using 13 wall blocks to build an enclosure and by calculating the volume within, we went to the home center and bought 27 bags of compost. With Stefan's guidance, I placed the blocks to create the outer boundary (using a cup of water to make sure they were horizontal and at the same height) and poured in the compost. Sweating profusely, I completed my first vegetable garden that looked like a flower bed, and sure enough, this resulted in very sore muscles!
The next day, I bought some seedlings at a flower park, consisting of cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, manganji pepper, okra, Korean lettuce, and shiso. Upon returning home, I found Stefan already waiting in front of my house, and he immediately began to teach me how to plant them. Since he is so used to working with soil, he is an accomplished farmer. Imitating his method, I had my first farming experience. Finishing the last step with the watering, I was able to successfully start my vegetable garden. In the near future I plan to create another one next to this one.
When I think of the process of cultivating the soil, growing and harvesting the vegetables all by myself, and then having them appear on the table, I feel very excited. At the same time, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the irresponsible attitude of acquiring foods by simply paying money at the supermarket.
So, if you have a chance, I urge you to try to grow your own vegetables in a container or planter box. You might then be able to think differently about the foods that you eat.
A Little More About Myself - 82nd Edition
In the 77th edition of my self introduction, I wrote about my friend Stefan, who made such outstanding use of his talent as a sommelier to engage in the business of blending various flavors of Japanese tea that he was selected as the general manager of the tea section of the Japanese pavilion at last year's Expo in Zaragoza, Spain. According to Stefan, "There are many structural things in common between the vineyards of France and the tea plantations of Japan," so I went on the "Tea-Picking Tour" to Kawane in Shizuoka Prefecture from where he procures his tea for his tea shop.
The steam locomotive train (D11) that we rode from Kanaya station to Shimoizumi station on the Ooigawa Line brought back memories from the past, its slow pace and steam whistle calming down our hearts. (On the way home we took the regular trains, starting with the Ooigawa Line to the Tokaido Line to the Tokaido Shinkansen, which made us clearly aware of the change in speed as we transferred from one line to the next. It was as if we were experiencing the changes of 30 years in a single day.) From Shimoizumi station a 30-minute bus ride took us deep into uninhabited mountains, where a tea plantation spread along its steep slopes near the mountain top. (Would you believe, it was beyond the range of cell phone reception!) After listening to a talk by the master of the Tsuchiya Plantation, a tea plantation that received an award from the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, we actually picked the new tea leaves, filling our wicker baskets with the "two hearts one leaf" (the basic of tea picking, I am told) and taking them to the factory. Since this was the first time in the project launched by the entire town of Kawane to promote both the town and its tea, the tour included Cecile and Gilles from the Public Relations Section of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Being served freshly picked tea in an old family home that had been standing for 200 years and being welcomed by the Mayor of the town, I decided to change my plan to return to Tokyo that day to take the first train back Sunday morning. Thanks to that, I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself, having an uproariously fun time taking a bath with Stefan and Gilles and Guri and playing table tennis with them.
Hachijuuhachiya, approaching just as summer begins, is so called as it is about the 88th day counting from the first day of spring (around February 4th), and it is the best season for picking tea, but recently due to global warming this timing has begun to change. Despite all this, the tea producers with their passion for tea were growing and making it with great care. It is so labor intensive that we ask in surprise, "All those leaves that were picked produce only this small amount of tea?" I think that the same holds true for rice and vegetables. Farmers work very hard to produce their goods, so we must not leave leftovers with a careless feeling. In order to understand how farmers feel toward the foods they grow, I urge you to take a field trip to a farm during summer vacation or holiday to experience this work first hand.
A Little More About Myself - 81st Edition
On my day off in late January, I decided that since I didn't have anything to do that day, I would go to the sports club to play tennis and then take a leisurely bath. With that in mind, I got into my tennis wear, took my racket, and left home after lunch.
Even though it was a Saturday, the courts on the third floor were rather empty, and seeing a friend playing on the next court, I said to him, "Let's play together later," and requested the instructor for a warm-up session. It happened when I hit the sixth ball. I'm sure I heard a "Pop!" Somebody's ball hit my leg in the calf. But then, where did this ball come from? I looked all around me but there was no ball. It was then that I felt a pain along the inner part of my calf. "Ah! It's the same place as last time..." This last time was two weeks ago when a friend and I went to Kawaguchiko to play tennis. Outside, the snow was deep. Since the tennis courts were indoors, we were able to play as usual, but it was freezing as if we were inside a refrigerator. When I dashed forward to reach the ball that fell beside the net, I felt a pain in my calf, but I was somehow able to continue playing. For the time being, I put on a cooling plaster so that the next day it had almost healed, and thus, I had forgotten about that incident. I was reminded of the time last year when a friend who was playing next to me tore his Achilles tendon, crying out "Ah! I got hit by a ball." It must have felt exactly the same way. The pain that I felt this time came from the same spot on my calf. This time I could barely walk. The trainer from the second floor gym came to check out my condition, after which he spent 20 minutes giving me a treatment of icing my calf and putting pressure by taping my leg really tight. He told me, "By all means, rest up and keep it well iced in order to keep the inflammation down to a minimum. The next day or two will determine the outcome." Yikes! "My plans to play tennis and take a leisurely bath went down the drain!" Horrible!
I have now recovered to the extent that there is no effect at all on my regular daily life. However, I understand that a pulled muscle can become a habit, so when I went to play golf the other day, I did plenty of stretching exercises beforehand. So everyone, make sure you set aside some time for stretching exercises before you start playing (especially in cold weather). Even if your friend tells you, "Hurry, because everyone's waiting," have the courage to tell him, "Wait until I do my stretching exercises." (Does this sound like a message to myself? Quite possibly...)
A Little More About Myself - 80th Edition
Over the three-day weekend from November 22, our group of dentists belonging to the Dental Association went on a trip to the Noto Peninsula. For the past several years I have been acting as the manager, a position which, by mutual understanding, enables me to pretty much have the sole right to decide on where to go on our trips and the kind of transportation to take. Each month we set aside a certain amount of money, so that the year before last we went to Abashiri in Hokkaido and last year to Okinawa. This year we decided to go to Noto Peninsula.
Nowadays the transportation system has improved so much that we talk about "how much time it takes to get from one place to another," the trend being to shorten the travel time in order to spend as much time as possible at the destination. Surely, we are able to enjoy our destination more slowly when we spend more time there. However, when we get there in such a direct and speedy way, even though we are geographically a great distance away at a location with a different name, we seem to have lost the feeling of having travelled to that place. So, since the manager can make the plans as he pleases, I started to think of a trip with at least one way of slow travel, such as by taking a train and riding a local bus in order to make the time spent on travelling "a large part of the trip." Two years ago when we went to Abashiri, we took a local bus from the train station to the hotel beside Lake Saroma. We were able to talk with the local elderly people, and we were pleasantly surprised when we happened to pass through the town of Tokorocho made famous by the sport of curling. This time, since we planned to spend one night each at Wakura Onsen and Wajima on the Noto Peninsula, even though it only takes about one hour by airplane to Noto Airport, I decided that we would reach our destination by first taking the Joetsu Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Echigo Yuzawa, and from there we would take the Joetsu Honsen, Hokuhokusen, and Shinetsusen to Naoetsu and then lastly take the Hokuriku Honsen. The eight of us took up two sets of four seats on both sides of the aisle, turning the double seats to face each other, ate the beer and snacks that we bought at Echigo Yuzawa, along with the "ikura-tarako bento" (this was quite a delicacy), and noisily watched the winter scenery of the snow-covered northern Japan Alps, taking a total of six and a half hours to reach our destination. Most of our time during the three-day trip was spent on eating one thing after another. We also soaked in the onsen for a total of about five hours! We enjoyed fresh seafood, such as seiko crab now in season and mozuku seaweed, and the famous Noto oyster also in season. We happened to walk into a local cafeteria for lunch that served the best deep fried oysters (the way it was fried was exceptional - it was the best that I ever had!) that it would be worth going all the way there just to have those deep fried oysters again. All of us were able to share an enjoyable time together.
We live in an age in which everything moves at such a high speed that it is important to reexamine the part of things that is "en route," which we tend to pass by without reflection.
How about thinking along these lines every now and then? You might make a new discovery!
A Little More About Myself - 79th Edition
In the previous issue, the large-scale earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, on May 12 gave me a chance to write about some important points to keep in mind regarding what to do in the event of a major earthquake and how to communicate with family members by using the cell phone to leave messages and confirm each other's safety. Exactly one month later, the writer of the article (me) was to experience a big earthquake himself. Even though I had just written about the important points in case of an earthquake, during the quake, quite frankly, all I could do was wait for the shaking to stop...
On June 12, as I do every year, I went with my senpai dentists to Ofunato in Iwate Prefecture to go mountain stream fishing. Not only is the char fishing fun, but since the minshuku we stayed at was very near the drowned river valley, the fresh seafood was exquisitely tasty. I was able to fulfill my very small but very personal "dream" of "heaping a steaming bowl of rice with noodle-thin slices of freshly caught squid mixed with grated ginger and soy sauce and shoveling the heavenly mixture into my mouth." On the second day of this exciting trip, in the early evening when normally we are able to catch loads of fish, none of us was able to catch any. (In hindsight, this might have been a sign of the impending earthquake.) Since the fishing was so poor, we decided "not to go fishing tomorrow before we leave," but on the morning of the 14th we went for a walk to the fishing pier. The time was around 6:40 a.m. Toward the southeast a strange sight came into view. There was a cloud, not in the typical horizontal shape but in a vertical shape that looked like it was being sucked into the mountains on the peninsula. It was so unique that I took a photograph of it. I checked it out later and found it to be an earthquake cloud. Two hours later, it happened when we were having tea at the minshuku. Suddenly, there was a "roar" that we had never heard before, and just as we were wondering "what on earth was that" all of a sudden there was an immense shaking, about 20 times (?) stronger than normal. We were rooted to the spot unable to move, and all we could do was press against the glass shelf in front of us. The television was broadcasting earthquake warnings, and 20 minutes later the announcer was calling out, "There is a big earthquake coming any moment! There is no time left! Hide under the table!" That was a really scary experience. Cell phones weren't working, and we couldn't send any text messages, but what if this were happening at night with a power failure at the same time... Nobody knows when a big earthquake will come. I now know that even with prior preparation, it is very hard to cope in a sufficient manner. But, I would like to point out again what I wrote in the previous issue. "Be prepared, and you won't be distressed." It is truly not someone else's business at all.
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院長先生のちょっぴり詳しい自己紹介（第78回）tag:www.aspen-shika.jp,2011:/blog//2140.985552010-06-09T07:59:24Z2011-06-09T08:00:02Z5月12日、中国の四川省で大変大きな地震がありました。みんなも、テレビや新聞で地...アスペン歯列矯正歯科医院http://www.aspen-shika.jp/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=2140&id=620
いつもは自己紹介をしているこのページですが、大地震のときの注意点や、家族の連絡、携帯電話を利用しての伝言・安否確認などについて挙げてみたいと思います。是非、近いうちに、『我が家ではどうするか』夕食の時などに話し合っておきましょう！
１） 家族間での連絡・安否の確認方法は決まっていますか？
① 災害用伝言ダイアル 局番なしの １７１
30秒間伝言メッセージを入れることが出来るそうです。
※ 体験利用で練習しておきましょう。（毎月1日の ０：００～２４：００）
② iモード災害用伝言板
iモードを利用して自分の安否情報を登録することが出来るそうです。
２）非常の際の持ち出し品はそろっていますか？
① 非常用の食料や衣類、ラジオ、懐中電灯などリュックに入れておきましょう。
３） 家の中の防災準備は出来ていますか？
① 阪神大震災のけがの原因の７０％は家の中、背の高い家具は大丈夫？
４） 大地震が来たときの３か条 （家にいる時）
① テーブルや机の下にかくれよう。（あわてて外に飛び出さないこと）
② 揺れがおさまったら、火を消そう。
③ 揺れがおさまったら、玄関などの扉を開けよう。
いざとなると、頭の中が真っ白になってしまうそうです。
そこで、
① 伝言ダイアルや災害用伝言板などの使い方を携帯電話のメモに入れたり、紙に書いてリュックの中に入れておきましょう。
② 持ち出し品（リュックなど）の置き場所を家族全員で知っておくようにしましょう。
③ 『地震がきたらどうしよう会議』を是非、家族でひらいておきましょう！
備えあれば、憂いなし
A Little More About Myself - 78th Edition
On May 12 in Sichuan Province, China, there was a very big earthquake. I think that you all felt the terror of the earthquake via television and newspapers. It is not someone else's business at all. What would you do if tomorrow there is a big earthquake where you live?
I always use this page to give a self-introduction, but this time I would like to raise some important points regarding what to do in the event of a major earthquake and how to communicate with family members by using the cell phone to leave messages and to confirm each other's safety. By all means, in the near future make sure you discuss "what my family will do" at dinner time or when the entire family is together.
1) Have you decided on the method of communicating with family members and of confirming each other's safety?
(1) Disaster voicemail dial service: 171 without area code
It is possible to leave a 30-second voicemail message.
*Practice by taking advantage of the trial experience (on the first day of every month from 0:00 to 24:00).
(2) i-mode disaster message board
It is possible to register one's safety information by using i-mode.
2) Have you made preparations for the items to take with you in case of an emergency?
(1) Keep a knapsack or backpack ready with emergency food, clothes, radio, and flashlight.
3) Have you taken steps for disaster prevention inside your house?
(1) Seventy percent of the injuries from the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred inside the house. Is every tall furniture in your house safely secured?
4) Here are the three things to remember in the event of a major earthquake (when you are at home):
(1) Hide under a table or desk. (Do not rush out of the house.)
(2) When the trembling stops, turn off the gas/stove/fire.
(3) When the trembling stops, open the front door and other doors.
When it actually happens, I am told that our minds go blank.
So, be prepared:
1. Make a note in the memo section of your cell phone on how to use the voicemail dial service and the disaster message board, or write it on a piece of paper and put it in the emergency knapsack.
2. Make sure that everyone in your family knows the location of the emergency items to take (knapsack, etc.).
3. Be sure to hold a family meeting on "what to do in the event of an earthquake."
A Little More About Myself - 77th Edition
In Volume 23 of Aspen Times, I wrote about the fact that from about fourth grade I took lessons on how to play the snare drum. (Please take a look at the back issue that is kept in the waiting room.) When I entered junior high school I was in charge of percussion instruments in the wind instrument band, but at home I was so totally engrossed in the drum set that my father had bought for me in eighth grade (see Volumes 44 and 45) that without thinking of the annoyance I was creating to those around me, I enjoyed drumming to the records of the group sounds. In high school I formed a band and imitated and performed the music of Sergio Mendes (Brazilian bossa nova music). This is a digression, but Yutaka Yokokura (who currently goes by the name of Carlos Yutaka Del Rosario), who was one year my senior and in charge of the keyboard in our band named Mother's Wally, had outstanding talent. He went to the United States 35 years ago, and I had lost touch with him since then, but what a surprise! In 1999 he had joined Sergio Mendes as their keyboard member. Recently, when Sergio Mendes came to Japan, after their performance at the Blue Note Aoyama, I was able to reunite with him after 35 years. It was very exciting!
So, I had been away from wind instrument music for a long time, but in late January this year, one of my tennis friends came to me for advice, saying, "My son is going to audition for a snare drum part at his elementary school, so could you please teach him?" This boy is now in fifth grade, and at the graduation ceremony in March, the entire fifth grade will play "Pomp and Circumstance." The audition was to select a few people to play the percussion at this event. "Okay, let's do it!" From having no experience at all, I was supposed to teach him how to play an entire piece of music. I had only two weeks to teach him. He was very eager to learn, and for two hours on weekdays after school and on Saturdays and Sundays after my last Aspen patient was gone, he came for a total of six lessons. I taught him as much as I could, such as how important it is to keep a steady and precise beating of rhythm for the other members of the band, the relationship between the percussionist and the conductor and other performers, etc. In retrospect, I might have been a very strict teacher, but he kept up with me with utmost effort.
Unfortunately, the result was that he did not pass, even though he practiced so hard with such concentration and had become so incredibly good at keeping a steady and precise rhythm...
However, when his mother told me that "although he is rather disappointed, he says that thanks to you he really likes to play the drum now," it made me feel very happy.
Next time, if any of my Aspen patients wishes to learn, I might consider starting a snare drum class.
A Little More About Myself - 76th Edition
These days it is a matter of course that everyone has personal computers all around them from the time they are born, but when I was young, the word "super computer" meant a large room filled with a huge electronic calculating machine (is this word extinct now?), which surprised us all. Now, all that room-full of power is installed in a tiny container, with a power much, much stronger than the size of the room.
In the academic society and study group that I belong to, in the past we used slides in our presentations, but with the widespread use of computers, more people are using presentation software programs. However, since I am not a member of the computer-proficient generation, I never used it in my past study group presentations. This time, having an opportunity to give a presentation at the orthodontic study group in late November, I told myself, "Yes, I will take advantage of this opportunity," and made up my mind to use the computer. To do so, I had to prepare myself on how to use PowerPoint. With two months to go before the presentation, I had to have my college-age son teach me the basics in order to get started. From what I had seen from past presentations by others, sentences, artwork, and photographs fly out from nowhere in a sudden flash or in fancy circles or from a foggy space, making the whole experience much more enjoyable for both the presenter and the audience than before. I was determined to make my presentation as enjoyable as possible. I kept working on the way my photographs and sentences appeared and varied the speed at which they appeared, and pretty soon I wanted to include illustrations as well. Pretty good! By using a panel on which I could draw pictures or figures freely with a pen, I was able to draw illustrations using Photoshop. I tried to insert an "arrow" on the illustrations, but I had no idea how to do this. I looked everywhere but was totally lost. Just at that time, by chance I asked one of my patients, Matsumoto-san (who seemed to an expert on computers), "Can you show me how to insert an arrow?" and he told me, "That can be done more easily by using PowerPoint rather than Photoshop." (I knew it! Just as I expected, he knew how!) Right away, he kindly taught me the technique. Thanks to everyone's help, I was able to create a presentation content that came close to the image of what I had in mind. It was quite a voluminous product totaling 63 pages. In a happy mood I proudly showed it to my high school-age daughter saying, "Look, look at the PowerPoint presentation that I made!" to which she said without any surprise, "We did that at school." What a cool reaction. Sigh.
Having achieved all this with great effort, I am going to create lots of things from now on!
A Little More About Myself - 75th Edition
The name of the street where Aspen is located is called Heiwadori. This year it is Heiwadori's turn to be in charge of the Kichijoji Aki Matsuri (Autumn Festival).
As I wrote in Aspen Times #76 about our trip to Miyazaki Prefecture, Heiwadori takes training session trips and holds regular meetings in order to promote friendship and exchanges among its members. I, too, as a member of Heiwadori am thinking of cooperating as much as possible whenever I am able to help out.
On August 9 there was a beer party on the roof of Parco sponsored by Heiwadori, which has now become an annual custom. For ¥1,000 it was an all-you-can-eat-and-drink event, so it was well attended by about 500 members and their families and friends. The Heiwadori staff was very busy during the day setting up the venue and preparing the food. Although I was unable to help during the day due to my Aspen patients' appointments, in the evening I took my friends and family and participated in the event. Actually, the last time I participated I had such a grand time partying with my friends and not helping out at all that it made the others upset with me, and they told me, "Help out because you're a part of the sponsoring group!" So, this time when I went to the food stalls intending to help, I found that there were already long lines at the stalls serving beer, yakitori, Frankfurt sausages, yakisoba, noodles, etc. Right away, someone was calling, "Dr. Sakanashi, please bring the boxes of yakitori and lay out the sticks in the case!" to which I replied, "Yes!" and got five boxes out of the freezer, each containing 100 sticks of yakitori, and hurriedly laid them out in the case. Two yakitori barbecue grills were grilling away at full speed, but with requests such as "Ten each of salt and soy sauce, please," and "As many as possible, please," the yakitori were gone the moment they were grilled. I joined in to help, putting on about 30 sticks at once to lay them tightly side by side along the barbecue grill, then turning them over and rearranging them so that they were evenly grilled. I kept adding as soon as some were done, but the lines did not get any shorter. But, I was having so much fun that after 30 minutes, I was totally in the "yakitori cook" mode. In a little while, the third person had gone off somewhere to have a drink so that another person and I were left each in charge of a yakitori grill, with me doing the "salt" flavor, and we kept grilling away. In the midst of grilling, I took about 15 minutes off to go see a friend, but I became worried about the stall and happily returned to continue with the grilling. Hey, maybe I really have a love of grilling yakitori! Ultimately, I kept grilling until past 10:00 p.m. After the guests all left, I realized when doing the cleaning up that I was completely exhausted.
A few days later at the review meeting of our services, I asked, "About how many sticks of yakitori did we serve that night?" The reply was 1,500, which meant that I probably grilled between 500 and 600 sticks of yakitori?!
Mr. Hideki Maeda of Kichijoji Heiwadori, who went with us on the training session trip that I wrote about in the previous issue, gave me some wild boar meat. It was a rather large block of meat, and when I asked him, "How should I eat this?" his answer was "A miso-based pot, of course." When I was agonizing over the various ways of preparing this meat, my French friend Stefan said, "Wow! I'll cook it for you. It's gibier, gibier!" (gibier in French meaning wild birds and animals hunted for eating) and got very excited about it.
Stefan runs a Japanese tea salon called "Ocharaka" on Kichijoji Nakadori. According to him there are many similarities between Japanese tea plantations and French wine-producing vineyards (hmmm, I didn't know that), and he offers many new types of Japanese tea by blending different flavors. He is also a sommelier.
The night that he served the wild boar dinner, I must say that I was totally impressed with French cooking, as expected. For that evening, Stefan had started preparations two days in advance, making the sauce and procuring a wine that matched the meal by going to Kameya (the liquor shop on Inokashiradori that is famous for its most competitive prices in Musashino-shi). Even though it wasn't an expensive wine, its perfect mariage with the meal was outstanding (mariage meaning wedding in French, in other words, a perfect match). Bravo, sommelier! The meat, too, was hard to believe that it was wild boar meat as it was so tender and did not have the characteristic smell that is associated with boar, the sauce matching beautifully with the meat, so that everyone kept repeating "Delicious, delicious!" and finished it off in no time at all. Stefan arranged the dinner in grand style, like offering champagne before dessert. "Building up little by little to the climax and then slowly coming to the end," the dinner flowed like a well-told story. Thank you, Stefan!
Every now and then I request Stefan to give us a lesson in wine-tasting. As we taste and drink the wine, he shares with us all sorts of knowledge about how people in France actually enjoy wine, about wine-making, about vineyards, and about wine in general that we did not know before. Isn't this such a sophisticated way of acquiring worldly intelligence! At home the number of times that we eat French bread and cheese with wine has greatly increased. I've also read 10 volumes of "The Sacred Drops," a comics series on the subject of wine.
There are still so many things in the world that I don't know about. Let's not lose our curiosity and challenge ourselves to find out!
In late February I went on a training session trip sponsored by the Kichijoji Heiwadori Shopping Street Association (the street on which Aspen is located) to Miyazaki Prefecture, now made nationally famous by its Governor, Mr. Higashikokubaru.
There were 17 members who participated this time, including Mr. Suzuki who hails from Miyazaki Prefecture. We went to visit the dairy farm run by his elder brother. As we headed toward Takahara on the expressway, Mr. Suzuki informed us that "beyond the mountain on the left is the town of Kiyotake where avian flu first broke out in Miyazaki." It looked like any other place around there. This made me think, "Why did avian flu break out here of all places?"
When we arrived at the dairy farm, there was a powerful smell of cows! According to Mr. Suzuki, "You'll get used to it after a while." We went to give our greetings to his family and immediately went to tour the barn where there were quite a number of Holsteins. Wow, they were huge! We were told that they weigh about 700 kilograms. When I got near one of them, it licked my trousers with its slobbery tongue. There were many cows on the farm, but they started out with just two and increased the number by clearing and cultivating the fields and hills. It must have taken a lot of work and effort. After the tour, we were offered warm freshly squeezed cow's milk. "It's sweet! It's delicious!" was everyone's excited reaction. We were then invited to a barbecue party in front of the house, with a large iron plate placed on top of an empty fuel can. We ate Miyazaki black-haired beef, fresh vegetables, and cold beer. Yummy!
After the barbecue outside, we were invited to more food inside the house: farm-grown chicken sashimi, black pork and wax gourd (tougan) stew, special chicken-stock soup that we can ordinarily have only on New Year's Day (this was so tasty that I was able to have a lot of it even though my stomach was absolutely full!). The gorgeous scenery and fresh air doubled our appetites. This is country life!
Mr. Suzuki told us this afterwards. Upon hearing that there would be guests coming from Tokyo, the grandmother, elder brother, his son, and his wife spent the entire week prior to our arrival mowing the grass, cleaning the house, and preparing the meals. And today, the entire household welcomed us and feasted us in grand style. We were able to experience something that has disappeared from today's city life.
On the second day, we had a golf competition at the Phoenix Country Club, the site of the famous Dunlop Phoenix Tournament. Even though it was still February, we wore short-sleeved shirts from morning. We felt great!
On this trip I was able to spend an enjoyable and meaningful time with the people of the Shopping Street Association. I think that this kind of heart-to-heart contact helps to create a greater sense of local bonding and activity. I'm sure that the success of the events and festivals in Kichijoji is due to the fact that the people of this Shopping Street Association feel a heart-to-heart bonding which creates their willingness to put in so much work and effort. Banzai to the Kichijoji Heiwadori Shopping Street Association!
I finally did it the other day. Quiz Millionaire!
In Musashino-shi there is an organization of dentists called Musashino Dental Association. Forty years ago it became an independent entity from the Kita Tama Area organization. Its 40th memorial ceremony and celebration party were held at the Kichijoji Dai-Ichi Hotel in October, and it was at the main event of the celebration party that I did it.
As a matter of fact, one of the dentists on the action committee spent a whole year planning an event thar imitated the real thing. He made arrangements to use the same background music as the one in the real program, even the sound of the timpani heard while the respondent is trying to come up with an answer.
During the celebration party I quietly left the hall to go to a special room in order to be made up by a professional make-up artist into a "Mino Monta" look-alike. I took off my glasses and put on the contact lenses that I had used when I dressed up as Santa at my child's kindergarten 10 years ago (they were okay for seeing things at a distance, but my far-sightedness blurred things close up...)
Entering the hall dressed in a tuxedo, with the Millionaire music playing and spotlight shining on me, I could hear a bizarre commotion and laughter from all over the room! Moreover, as I got into saying things like, "Me, I had some rough times with me teeth so that's why I somehow made time to come here today," I found myself getting into a totally good mood.
Actually, it was only 2 days before the event that I was asked to play this role. Doctor T, who was originally supposed to play the part, was in a situation where his first child was expected any day, so at the last minute the baton was passed on to me.
That day (2 days before the party) it was decided on the bus coming back from the Dental Association golf competition. The doctor who was the coordinator of this golf competition was unable to attend due to urgent business. Doctor T, who had been a coordinator in the past, helped us out by taking his place even though it was a hectic time for him. He reassured us by saying, "Even if I don't make it to the golf competition, I will get everything ready and take it to the bus in the morning!" It turned out that Doctor T was able to go with us after all. It was on the way home on the bus that he expressed his anxiety over the expected birth of his first child, "Doctor Sakanashi, please help me out and take over the role of Mino Monta!" to which I immediately replied, "Certainly," because I value the spirit of give and take that comes from the heart.
So let's all nurture that spirit to "do our very best for other people" at both school and home. That act of doing our very best will one day be reciprocated.
But ahhh, Mino Monta's Millionaire, I want to do it again!
A Little More About Myself - 71st Edition
This July I went to that famous Asahiyama Zoo (in Hokkaido). In my study group composed of 10 dentists in Musashino-shi we set aside a small amount of money at each monthly meeting and take a trip once a year. Since I am currently the manager of this group, I can pretty much decide where to go and what kind of a trip to take. By listening just a little bit (?) to the opinions of the other members, this time I planned "a trip including Asahiyama Zoo," currently a very popular topic of conversation. Browsing through the pamphlets, I realized that there were many places in Hokkaido that I wanted to visit. The trip was to be for only two nights and three days, but one of the places not to be missed was Lake Saroma facing the Sea of Okhotsk and its surrounding virgin fields. However, Abashiri and Asahikawa (location of the zoo) are very far from each other. "Okay, then let's spend an enjoyable time while riding on the trains and busses between our destinations." These days, due to the high speed of modern-day transportation, there is a tendency to prioritize how quickly we can reach our destination, making us forget that the mode of transportation itself is also a part of the entire trip. That is when I decided that we should use as much local busses and trains as possible, except for the travel route going from Tokyo to Abashiri and returning back from Asahikawa to Tokyo.
From Abashiri to Lake Saroma we took a local bus. We asked the woman who sat next to us lots of questions, which helped guide us through the area. We were in for a big surprise. When we had lunch at the town next to Lake Saroma, we found out that this town, Tokorocho, was the town made famous by the Olympic curling event. It was a refreshing sensation. We also went cycling in the Wakka virgin fields, ate North Sea shrimp whose fishing season had just started, and spent a very relaxing time.
The second day was our moving day to Sounkyo with its view of Mount Daisetsu. We first took a local bus, then the express train "Okhotsk," and then another local bus. During those rides we had lively discussions, drank local beer, bought ekiben (train station boxed lunches), and totally enjoyed ourselves.
On the third day, the day of our main event, we arrived at Asahiyama Zoo after transferring rides between trains and busses (although from Asahikawa Station we did take a taxi). Since it was a Monday, we were told that the zoo was relatively less crowded than on other days of the week (but even then it was quite crowded). Although I had seen them often on television, it was quite an experience to watch the polar bears, penguins, and orangutans at their feeding times, and I thoroughly enjoyed the many idea-filled events, such as playing tug-of-war with the orangutans.
Right before the zoo closing time, I realized that all the animals became so lively because of one creative idea. By actually seeing them with my own eyes it made me think all over again. All things, if observed from not only its front side but from the right, from the left, from above, from below, without a fixed notion of "this should be done this way" and if observed from various angles, there might be a wonderful answer hiding somewhere. I recalled the words of Dr. Shimamoto who taught me orthodontics: "Don't keep saying that it can't be done, but think of how it can be done."
A Little More About Myself - 70th Edition
With the coming of spring when the climate starts to improve, I begin to wish for flowers in my life. There is a large flower park located about 10 minutes away from my house by car, where I often visit, a place that is closely packed with rows of flowers of all shapes and colors, making me think, "Wow, there are so many varieties of flowers." My eyes wander from one flower to another, and I end up wanting all of them. Inside the building, the second floor has been made into a green house with decorative plants set up in rows on a very large scale much like a botanical garden, and adjacent to it there are bougainvilleas as if it were Hawaii and hydrangeas of all varieties that will bloom in the coming season, making me feel happy just walking around inside it. That's not all. Further inside, there are rows of plant containers with different varieties of plants, some that are so big that you would spontaneously say "What a huge plant!" to some that are really tiny. I'm afraid that the longer I stay there, the more money I will spend. This year I have already visited this flower park about four times. Each time I cannot help myself from buying this and that plant. My house is now full of flowers, but being surrounded by various flowers every day keeps me relaxed and calm. One drawback, however, is that in order to grow flowers in plant containers, it is necessary to have soil, as well as pumice stones that have good water drainage, both of which must be transported to the house in 2 or 3 plastic bags weighing more than 10 kilograms each. I worry about straining my lower back, having experienced strained back problem three times already.
At the far end of the shop there is also a pet shop, so I always take the opportunity to go see my favorite fishes. In a previous issue of Aspen Times I wrote about raising killifish (medaka), but currently I am raising a type of fresh-water goby fish (haze) called "chichibu" that I caught the winter before last when I went to Sagamiko for pond smelt (wakasagi) fishing. It was only about 4 centimeters long when I caught it, but now it is about 6 centimeters long. Since it is a fairly ferocious fish, if I put any goldfish in the same fish tank, it will eat the goldfish, so I have to raise it in a separate tank all by itself, but I think it is very cute with blue-green spots on its face. In addition, the three goldfish that my daughter caught at the Minamicho Carnival in Musashino-shi more than 10 years ago are still alive and well. Would you believe it, they are now more than 10 centimeters long! In my home we sometimes bring up the fact that "the goldfish have been around longer than Hana (our miniature dachshund)." Longevity is a good thing; yes, long life is a good thing. This time, since we had an extra fish tank, I bought 20 black killifish, 6 bitterling (tanago), and 10 little river shrimp (yamatomoebi) to give the goldfish additional friends. The above are the members of my entire family. Oops, I shouldn't forget our dog Choko, a dappled miniature dachshund with whom we humans, my wife, son, daughter, and I, live. Every morning I spend about 10 minutes feeding the fishes and enjoy observing how they compete for food. Do you have any pets at home?
A Little More About Myself - 69th Edition
Exactly seven years ago in Volume 45 of the Aspen Times, I wrote about the story of how on the occasion of my eldest son's graduation reception some parents and I happened to form a band. In Volume 44 just prior to that, I wrote about taking lessons on the kodaiko (Japanese small drum) during my elementary school days. (In the Aspen Clinic waiting room we have the entire set of back issues of the Aspen Times since the first issue in the fall of 1987, so please take a look if you're interested.) That band, by the way, is still continuing. I'm going to do a bit of boasting here... Actually, there is a monthly magazine titled "BRIO" in which our band was recently introduced. It all began because one of the children of Dr. Ueda (a great Ventures fan and superb guitarist) who is an elementary school classmate of mine and is also a dentist in Musashino-shi and the young female reporter who was in charge of this particular article happened to be classmates as well. Last December I had a meeting with the reporter, and in early January of this year the camera crew and reporter came to the Aspen Clinic waiting room where we always practice. They took over 150 photographs! Each member of the band was asked various questions as to how we came to play our instrument, what activities we participated in using that instrument, any memorable musical instrument shops, our thoughts regarding music, as well as our family structure, based upon the materials that each of us took to the interview session. That article was published in the March issue. It's a little embarrassing, but it makes me feel kind of happy when I see my own face in a magazine and I show off to my patients, saying, "See, look, there's a picture of me in this magazine!"
Since performing at the graduation reception seven years ago, we have not played in front of an audience, but at the end of March we will be performing at an event to be held at the Kodaira-shi Children and Family Support Center. We will be playing Brazilian music called boss nova, jazz, and accompaniment for a Carpenters' song to be sung by a member of the Support Center. Right now we are in the midst of hard training, and with a few more practices before the actual performance, all the members are enjoying working toward a common goal.
If you and your friends are able to spend time together to work toward a common goal, whether that is in sports or music or any field that you can get really excited about, I think that experience will become a wonderful memory sometime in the future and you will remain good friends forever. How about doing something together with your friends?
At Aspen we do not have a pre-arranged date for doing our year-end cleaning. Then, you might ask, "Won't the clinic become very dusty?" Not to worry. From the middle of November, during our meetings we set up an approximate schedule and start to clean bit by bit whenever we find some free time. Cleaning the clinic at such times is done differently from the way we do our daily cleaning, by focusing on something that we don't do during our routine cleaning. For example, we might slide over a somewhat large piece of furniture or try to clean high places that we usually have trouble reaching or places behind furniture that are not easily visible, or at times, we might even take the opportunity to rearrange the furniture for a complete change of mood.
It was on one such occasion that I started to clean out the bookshelves and rearrange the furniture in my office. Not having done any rearranging in a long time, there were small useless spaces in the back of the room, as well as various things that didn't need to be there at all. As it had been more than 10 years since I had last done any rearranging, I found a lot of stuff. Pretty soon I discovered some nostalgic photographs, materials I had studied over 20 years ago, and lots and lots of things filled with memories. At that point, my hands stopped working. Looking through a photo album, I reminisced about what I saw in the photographs, or upon reading a translated paper or a paper that I had written, I relived those moments in the places or in my room where I used to study and remembered how I had felt during those times. My mind and heart went "Back to the Future." So, if during the annual cleaning we say "This is no longer of any use" and discard everything, then there is nothing tangible left, but if we try to make room for things and keep them, when we discover them by accident 10 or 15 years later, we might be able to remember very clearly the path of life that we took which had been totally forgotten until then. That discovery might serve as a reference for the way we live our life in the future. That's why I can never throw anything away, and I can never get around to cleaning up my room. In the end, I managed to squeeze everything into a small space I found in the back of the room, which meant that all I did was rearrange my things and was unable to discard anything.
How about you all? Are you one of those people who like to keep their journals and essays? Or, do you throw them away? Do you keep your creations or items that you made when you were young? As long as there is space, if you keep those things, you might find after 10 years or so that they've turned into wonderful treasures!
What sort of memories do you have from this summer vacation? There must be some of you who have the most exciting memories, while there might be a few of you with memories that you would rather not recall. All kinds of natural disasters seem to be occurring all over the world. In Japan where we live, I think that compared to the past, typhoons are getting much larger in size and are more often directly hitting Japan without veering away. I can't help but feel that there is something unusual happening in the global climate. With an increase in global temperature of only one degree, the Antarctic ice melts to the extent that small islands disappear and floods occur more easily. Although it's hard to get a clear picture of how such phenomena affect our daily lives, don't you ever wonder what might happen in the future? Of course, in terms of the millions of years for a change to take place in the entire universe, this change on one planet might be like a speck of dust, but it is no doubt a huge problem for human life. Are we human beings the cause of all this? Certainly, it is a fact that in pursuit of convenience people have created things that are destroying the natural environment. However, such destruction of nature is not necessarily happening everywhere on our planet, and I think that there are matters which human intelligence and reason can prevent and those which we cannot. I am sure that the "power of nature" is much, much larger than any of us can imagine. Since we human beings survive thanks to this immeasurably huge power of nature, perhaps it is best that we not work against its power. Let nature take its course. Leave it to the power of nature.
In the previous issue of Aspen Times, I invited myself to write about using a bamboo net to catch little fishes and river shrimps along some footpaths between rice paddies, but unfortunately, the summer ended before I was able to go. I did travel along some rice paddy footpaths a few times. Although at such times I thought, "So here's a footpath that I never knew about," or "I'll be sure to come here again," all kinds of errands came up one after the other so that I was not able to realize it. But, I will definitely go one of these days and will write about what kinds of living creatures I catch. If any of you have first-hand experience in nature that you want to share with everyone, please do write a 200-300 word essay and bring it to Aspen.
Your article just might be published in Aspen Times! I'm waiting!
"The New Year is here...," "There are so many cold days this winter...," "This year's pollen is so bad...," such were my thoughts, but before I knew it, June is already here. Lately, I have even begun to feel a bit surprised when I think "Why does time go by so quickly?" With age (?), wave after wave of things that I have to do keeps coming at me that it feels like a matter of moments that one day, one week, or even one month passes by. At such times, in order not to be engulfed by these currents and lose sight of myself, I have begun to contemplate "ways to spend my days off from work." This does not mean that I am going out of my way to do something special, but I have started to think about how to divide up my day by trying to look within myself for a "leisurely day off," which I did not do before. In the past, I often spent my entire day off doing one activity, but recently I have been trying my best to leave half the day completely free. For example, with respect to sports, since playing golf usually takes up the entire day, I am increasing the number of opportunities to play tennis, or if I have an activity in the evening, I try to save some free time to relax between my morning and evening activities.
In other words, I am trying to refresh myself by not thinking about work at all on my days off so that I can actively engage myself when I return to work. All this means is that I am trying to be sensible, but there are situations when I have to think of work on my holidays. At such times, I make every attempt to do something totally different for half the day, and when even that is not possible, I have to tell myself to be patient until my next day off from work.
One Sunday I had a barbecue with my friends. Every spring we used to hold our barbecue in the area behind Inokashira-Koen station, but from last year a "No Barbecue" sign was posted there, so this year we went to Musashino-Chuo-Koen. It was a potluck, each of us bringing various foods, and we spent an enjoyable time reminiscing and telling silly stories in the spacious park in excellent weather. On these occasions, it is a wonderful change of pace when I laugh uproariously as if I were a child again. If any of you know of a good barbecue place where I can get to on a bicycle from Kichijoji, please let me know! Incidentally, the menu from our last barbecue consisted of yakitori, roast beef, toasted onigiri, etc. Everything was delicious! What would you want to eat at a barbecue in the park? I get all excited just imagining it, don't you? By the way, have you ever caught any tiny fish or river shrimp with either a bamboo fishing net or a modified plastic bottle along some place like a footpath between rice paddies? Do you know of any place like that? Please tell me if you do. If I have a chance to go this summer, I would like to write about it in my next article. See you then!
A long time ago, referring back to the 25th edition of the Aspen Times in 1994, I wrote about the time that I was a member of the tennis team during junior high school. In college, although I initially joined the tennis team, due to offers from many of my classmates I switched to the golf team so that I barely played any tennis even after graduation.
Last spring I got a telephone call from a friend saying "I'm playing tennis with some friends at the local city tennis courts. Would you care to join us?" Recently, when playing a round of golf, oftentimes I ride the cart, which gives me very little exercise. I feel that my legs and back are getting weaker (must be a sign of old age), because about six months ago, after a long time of not having played any tennis, I played for only about 15 minutes when I became short of breath, and in trying to return a shallow ball (that dropped close to the net), my legs felt like they were all tangled up. The telephone call came just when I was thinking "this can't go on," so on a Sunday with no work I went to the city tennis courts.
Assembled there were my classmates from elementary school and their wives and others from grade levels either above or below me with whom I did not actually have much contact during elementary school. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves playing tennis. After a couple of hours of alternating play, I realized that we had time-slipped back to our elementary school days and were relating to each other in the same way that we had in those days. Even after tennis while we were having a meal at a nearby restaurant, we were so happy and excited that we spent a wonderful day off together. Since then, almost every time my holiday coincided with the others, I joined them in tennis. On terribly hot summer days I played with an icepack bound on my head, this winter being especially cold I wore gloves to play, and we roared with laughter whenever someone played an awesome shot and laughed so hard that play stopped. When we went drinking on Saturday evenings we would get excited all over again revisiting those moments, totally enjoying ourselves.
My friends from elementary school days are friends from 44 years ago because I am now 51. Since they are friends from so long ago, there is a sense of security being with them, as if I am with my own family, and the feeling is mutual.
What kind of friends and how many friends do you each have? I am sure that there will come a time in the future when you will reconnect with them. Make a lot of good friends and keep your memories of them precious in your heart. I plan to keep my current memories precious for a time even further in the future.
Since Aspen has a number of patients who use English in their daily lives, I have been trying to provide the article entitled "A Little More About Myself" in The Aspen Times in both Japanese and English. There might be some of you out there, including your family members, who are thinking, "That Dr. Sakanashi of Aspen is such a talented guy - he writes so well in English, too," but the truth is that I have never translated any of the articles myself. The Aspen Times has been issued 63 times, printed four times a year, which makes this its 16th year, but at the very beginning it was not in both Japanese and English.
At Aspen we often get telephone calls in English. Although there are some American patients who speak Japanese fluently like a native because they were born in Japan, there are others who do not understand a word of Japanese. Therefore, the young lady who serves as the receptionist is always someone who can speak English.
Looking through past issues, I found that the article introducing myself was printed in both Japanese and English starting with Volume 38 in the summer of 1997. Ms. Mayumi Yaginuma, who had become the receptionist at Aspen about half a year prior to that, was instrumental in launching the first bi-lingual issue with the assistance of her Australian husband Matt. Two years later when she and her husband had to relocate to Australia, I asked Ms. Naomi Muramatsu to help me from Volume 46. She was one year ahead of me in junior high school and had lived for a long time in South America due to her father's business, but after returning to Japan she went to the United States to attend both college and graduate school in New York. Naomi's work at an advertising firm eventually got too busy and she asked me to find someone to replace her, but I was at a total loss. Fortunately, I found just the right person who agreed to accept my desperate request. She is Mrs. Chitani, the High School Registrar at ASIJ. (Her duties include assisting students with their college applications to the USA and other countries, so she must have helped Hikaru Utada with her paperwork, too.) She is also one of my patients at Aspen and is simply a nice person. Currently, her daughter Yuko, who is back from studying in the USA and receiving orthodontic treatment, also helps me out with some translations.
As you can see, many people are involved in lending a hand in the translation of The Aspen Times. I want to express my gratitude to all of you. We've come this far thanks to your cooperation and support. Hoping to be able to manage the translation by myself in the future, I've begun to train myself to read The Japan Times, but I am struggling to read through just one article. Who knows how long this is going to take...
Several days ago, I went out to spend time in the Japanese countryside. There are still many places rich in natural beauty; however, life in the city has become too convenient and replete. On this occasion I was able to remove myself from everyday life, a life in which we almost forget the significance of nature, to thoroughly enjoy a peaceful ramble in the woods.
For a number of years I have been invited by a senpai doctor friend to join him in mountain vale fishing, which is done in ravines close to the source of a stream, and once again we found ourselves in Iwate Prefecture. The nearby Rias shoreline (sawtooth coast) may be familiar to you from geography class. Because unpredictable volcanic activity carves the famous masculine outcrops in the landscape, along a Rias shoreline the sea and the mountains are in close proximity. The minshuku, Japanese inn, where we stayed was 300m from the sea, but a mere 5～15 minute drive took us to the mouth of a ravine so narrow that a person can hardly enter. Inside, along the stream, one can reach the source. Because it is 4～5m wide, in some places 2～3m wide, and anywhere from 15cm to 1m deep, it is easy to cross the stream in the right places. (This is, of course, with very little rainfall. Conditions would be very different after a lot of rain.) Here and there, the current flows over some terraced steps, and it is in these pockets of water where one can find freshwater char (iwana). Now and then, the narrow valley reaches steep slopes of 20～30°, and one must climb on all fours along the carpet of leaves and between the rocks. The only noise is the songs of the birds and the babbling water. Everything else is perfectly still. This might make some people uneasy, but there have been occasional bear sightings. Fortunately, I have not yet encountered a bear... though I have come across deer and raccoons during the early mornings and late afternoons. One time, as I was clearing the bamboo grass on my way upstream, I came face-to-face with a small raccoon, who, after a brief moment, made a gesture as if to say "Huh?" and disappeared. It was so cute.
Every time I venture out to the ravines, I feel from head to toe the sweeping power of nature. Although I have been to this ravine several times, the stream and the trees that surround it are never the same. Where there previously was a solid tree I found timber, and the change is such that even recognizing a familiar place becomes a challenge.
Given these conditions, upon returning to the minshuku, not only am I sore, but I am tired and extremely hungry! Wanting to shout "I am starving!" is perhaps a gift from Mother Nature. However, it true that we are destroying more and more of this natural landscape everywhere. It would be wonderful if we could think not only about our "convenience" but appreciate and protect nature as well.
I turned 51 in May this year. In order to have my patients come to Aspen willingly and in a happy mood, every day I try to come up with some jokes. As you all know, my assistants are all young women. Being surrounded by them, I still consider myself to be extremely young, but recently, the paint is starting to wear off. First, my left elbow hurts when I try to bend or straighten it. I asked a patient's father, who happens to be a friend of mine and an orthopedic doctor, when he came to Aspen, and he said, "Tennis elbow, tennis elbow. This won't get much better. It's age! It's age!" Since I am right-handed, I must have gotten it from playing golf, but his last words of "It's age!" made me feel that this was just what I had expected. So, even though it does not mean that I can no longer play any golf, if I can't use my left arm, I can still use my right, and so recently I have started to feel more positive about tennis, which I used to play in junior high school. But somehow I don't feel so good about all this, because I feel like I am running away from the problem with an "if I can't use that, let me try to use this" attitude. Moreover, my body seems to be getting stiffer, because whenever I over-exert myself in sports, I am promptly plagued with back problems. On top of that, I am getting far-sighted. What on earth is happening to me? If I don't exercise, though, I'm afraid that there will be more problems with my body, and so I am continuing with my exercises.
In the past I used to go out almost every time I had a day off from work, but recently, I am increasingly spending more days entirely at home. Such a thing was unthinkable for me in the past, but there is a bit of a reason. Although it is a seasonal thing, I am beginning to enjoy being a gardener out on the veranda. I like planting various flowers and plants in the planter boxes, and in particular, I am currently most excited about last year's Benjamin. It had gotten quite weak and had very few leaves left on it after having been left outside all winter, but after I replanted it in a larger planter box and added more nutritious soil, small leaves started to grow from all over the plant. It has become a joy to count those leaves and with a pair of scissors cut off any unnecessary portions every morning. I find great joy from taking care of it.
A painful elbow, far-sightedness, back aches, spending the day at home, taking care of plants... Does this sound strange?
However, I truly love the time I spend at Aspen feeling young with all of you and hope that I will remain that way forever. So, I will continue to crack jokes at everyone!
Have you ever felt an indescribable satisfaction or joy upon doing something helpful for a friend?
There are some people who hate to spend their own efforts for the sake of other people, and then there are those who love to do so, but which type are you? I am, if anything, the type that gets happy from either seeing or physically feeling people become delighted by my efforts. Isn't it true that we must spend our own precious time when we do something for another person? We have to sacrifice whatever it is that we were thinking of doing at that time in order to spare the time to help that person. But, if by sacrificing that little bit we were able to help another person and make that person happy, then at that time, wouldn't that happiness be transformed into our own happiness? By repeating such small efforts, the "sacrifice" would no longer be a "sacrifice," but it would be transformed into "joy."
The reason why I started to write about this is because, recently, I thought that a book that was introduced to me by a friend seemed to be showing me the direction in which we, the people on this planet Earth, should be heading. "Wow! That sounds like a very difficult book," you might think. When I first started reading the book, I thought, "Maybe this is a fairy tale." After all, even creatures from outer space emerge as characters.... But actually, this book is about "love," and it has been translated into 11 different languages.
It says in the book, "Those who are able to love others wish to be of help to others." It also says that because we are thinking only of our own satisfaction and profit that is why there are wars occurring here and there on the face of Earth....
By reading this book I felt that from now on, although we must not lose sight of ourselves because we consider ourselves precious, it is only when we are able to naturally, and not forcibly, help others that "everyone's happiness" will emerge. I felt that small feelings of joy that are familiar to us would spread and become the joy of the entire planet.
The title of this book is "Ami, el nino las estrelles," written by Enrique Barrios, published by Tokuma Shoten. There might be some parts that are a bit difficult, but somehow it also gives a feeling of travelling in outer space, so wouldn't you like to try reading it?
To change the topic, this past June, with the help of Dr. Kazunori Shimamoto (my teacher who taught me orthodontics), I was able to acquire the Specialty Certification of Orthodontics from the Japan Association of Adult Orthodontics by presenting six cases and by oral examination. I am hoping that it will be of use in future treatments.
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