Fourteen years have passed

It was the day on 27th this month when I started a blog in Japanese elsewhere. Long before beginning this blog. 

It had been several years since I started own private practice. Luckily, I could refund the debt to a bank little by little on regular basis. I could not help being concerned to me since the amount of the debt was out of common sense in my life. I finally could prospect for the future financially by that time. 

I needed a place where which I could express own view about the issues in medical care system. At that time, there have been a lot of "malpractice" suits going on. The mass media have been agitating against the medical personnel to the public. For example, there were lack of the emergency medicine facilities and the staff those days. And the doctors involved in emergency medicine have become more cautious not to serve for cases in the other specialities than their own in fear of being charged for suit in case their practice turned out not successful. In that situation, the mass media denounced the medical staff, mainly doctors, to be "too lazy" in their profession. Like most other doctors, I could hardly consent to them. That blog in Japanese was a stage where I could discuss such problems in medical care system.

Around that time, quite a number of doctors have started the same media in the internet all over our country. It was the days when the internet was spreading all over the country. They have found it a handy media to express their opinion. I have got acquaintance with a few doctors through the blog activity, who mostly have ceased their blog in a few years. I don't know why they have quit keeping their blogs. Maybe, the other media in the internet like SNS have replaced them in those doctors' activity. Or they have become too busy. Or, more likely, they have given up appealing the problem to the public since the problem could not be easily understood by people.  

I have also written about ham radio, cooking, travelling, gardening or music etc. It was really a canvas which I freely drew paintings for various objects. In the lunch break or after the work in the evening at the office, I often made new pages in the blog.   

In recent years, I have been concerned about the politics/economy. I don't know if it was due to my changing concern or to changes in the politics/economy. In my subjective view, I suspect it is going toward the aberrant direction. Being summarized, toward the globalism based on market fundamentalism which results in exploitation and destruction of the common social capital, the reactionism to the prewar regime which is associated with historical revisionism, the economical disparity and most importantly the apparent deterioration of people's ethos which brings forth the populism politics. I have written about my view on these problems in the Japanese blog as well as, less frequently, in this blog. In order to leave the better world to the next generation, even though it is only a very small effort with least effect in the society, I would go on keeping the blogs.

Whenever thinking of keeping blogs, I recall my father who used to write letters to his friends and family members quite often in his retirement. He also left a lot of diaries he had kept for decades. When he passed away, I read some of them. His concerns were, I was surprised, quite similar to mine. His experience as a soldier in WWII might urge him to write down on his thoughts on the history and politics. In the ecclesia of Christianity, he also enjoyed a lot conversing with friends as well. He was like a young man in the letters to those people, who had also passed away by the time when I read them. His writing and content were really touchy to me. But I believed they won't deserve being left to the family. I have abandoned them a few years ago.  I feel it is comparable to writing letters/diary for my father to keeping these blogs for me.

It will be a time when I should delete all the contents in the blogs. It won't be worth of being preserved at all. I am happy that these blog articles will disappear in the emptiness while I pass away. I am so happy there are some people who read my posts with sympathy or sometimes with repulsion. That's good enough for me.

I only appreciate you visiting my blogs. So, until I say farewell to you, please kindly go on visiting here and leave some message if you want. 

The office in 2008. My room was on the 2nd floor.

My room at the office before the internet age. There was a thick text of pediatrics of Nelson at the right edge of the desk. The cello was beforehand on the right side of this picture. A big book shelf on the right side as well. 

The winter garden

While the garden is getting quieter, there are some fall/winter vegetables ripened in it. Broccolis and cabbages are such examples. Spinaches and silk pods are budding on the ground. It is amazing they are growing and getting ripe in this chillness of early winter.

One of broccolis was harvested and was featured for chicken stew of tomato soup. Not well visible on this photo. It is a valuable kind of vegetable in winter.

Most flowers are dying. But this rose is still blooming. It has enjoyed good amount of sunray. That may help it to survive this early winter.

In a close up view.

Camellia trees are expected to bloom by this time in a year. This camellia was bitten by bugs in the summer, which we have not noticed until the gardener told us that. I have almost given up its flowers. However, at the tips of branches, some flowers are coming out. I was amazed at how vividly they grow despite of bugs' attack.  

In a close up view.

Magnolia trees are budding tiny buds covered with fluffy coat. 

As a whole, the garden is still finally falling deeply asleep until next spring.

Feeling grateful to it for letting me work there from spring to now, I am doing some works like raking fallen leaves. I may spend the free time for listening to music, playing cello and a bit of ham radio operation if there is anyone to converse with. 

Peaceful time in life. 

 

"Amazon Business"

My wife has ordered a cordless telephone to Amazon without any doubt we get involved in later on. We needed it to replace our old one at home. 

The product has arrived in a few days. She has been busy at work and left it unpacked for several days.

When she replaced the old one to this product, she found it won't work for reception. The old one had been working OK until it was replaced. Upon her request, the telephone line company has checked the integrity of the line, which proved to be intact. It was evident the new one acted up from the beginning. An early failure product!

She has returned it to Amazon as required. In a few days, she found a mail from the service in Amazon.

They said the product was heavily used and had much scratch on the surface. It meant as if she had sent back a used one in stead of the new product. Unless my wife sent the real product back to them in 3 days, they would discard that used scratched one, as it said. It has passed that time limit. Of course, they won't refund the money for the product.

At first, I could not believe what was going on with this case. Would one of GAFA, one of the most famous distribution companies, do such a fraud to customers? Quite unbelievable. If we let it happen in this way, we could never believe in this distributor any longer.

The biggest question is how and why the product sent back to them was damaged in that way. Even if it is real, the problem should be attributed to the transportation or to Amazon itself. It was packed exactly in the same cardboard box in the same manner as it had been sent here. This possibility is minimum. Then, it seems like a crime of fraud by Amazon. They should understand such a behavior to customers may mean suicide by themselves in long perspective.

The 2nd point is that, without our permission, their discarding the damaged product sent back there violates our right of possession. They don't have the right to deal with it by themselves. 

Friends of mine, David, N1EA, and Mike, WB0SND, told me to try to ask the credit card company to chargeback from Amazon. We sure would do that.

We have never experienced this kind of fraud by such a major company as Amazon. I knew, when looking up for the same case in the internet, there seem to have been a lot of the same kind of troubles with Amazon or its tenants in Japan. It is a violation to the right commerce habits. I would do as much as I can to protest and require them to refund the money. I don't miss that money deceived but hate such a crime by a distributor.  

What a loss of time and energy! Is it an aspect of americanization? We don't need that! 

   

The 42nd anniversary

 It is our 42nd anniversary of marriage today. 

Though it was not the reason why I went for haircut today, I went to the barber that I had been attending to for the past 2 decades. As told elsewhere before, he and his wife are the grandparents of a girl, whom I cared for since her babyhood as the doctor in charge. That girl has beautifully grown up and is working at a real estate company in Tokyo after graduating a university now. 

While haircutting, he told me there had been less customers visiting him apparently due to the pandemic. He would retire soon. He is already 81 years old now. In order to get the fund for retirement, he has tried to sell his barbershop for some time. With the economical recession, there are very few needs, if any, for real estate in his area. His public pension is not good enough to spend retirement. At his age, however, he thinks he should make decision for retirement soon. His daughter, that it, the mother of that girl may help him to live on in his retirement. 

On the way to a super market for materials for dinner, I dropped in a cake shop nearby there. I bought a couple of small cakes for the anniversary. Again, I used to be the doctor in charge for the shop owner and his wife's daughters. There were a lot of people at the shop. Over their shoulders, recognizing me among them, the owner has made a bow to me. I was inclined to ask him or his wife how their daughters were doing. But the crowd at the shop has prevented me from doing that. Their daughters must be already in mid twenties of age. Either of them could already be married. Looking around the shop and personnel working hard there, everything seemed the same as 20 years ago. But people are changing with their lives. 

Forty two years since we got settled down at a resident house of a local med school. In a year or two, this photo was taken in the campus. I might have uploaded it before. Just forgive me if you remember of it. We were just at the departure of our voyage, long as well as short in a sense. Having a lot of dreams for the future, we saw everything so brilliant and hopeful. Least imagined how we are right now. I only feel grateful to my wife for her endurance and support to me, even though I seldom thank her for that. We had something lost which we could never regain in our lives. However, I would go on the last chapter of our lives together with my wife as we have done for the past 42 years.

Ham radio licensees are steadily decreasing in number in Japan

 Elvin JA3CZY let me know there was an article regarding the ham radio license system in Japan published in November issue of ARRL QST. He kindly sent me a copy of the article. 

It is written by a JARL delegate JJ1WTL aka AC6IM who could not mention what is going on in the licensing system here due to his position. After explaining the complicated license system in Japan, it shows the number of licensees in Japan has peaked in 1991 and has drastically dropped afterwards. At present, the main age group of the licensees are in fifties through seventies. There are surprisingly small number of the licensees among young people. In order to allure young people into this hobby, JARL has enforced the YOTA program, that is, the young on the air program. It is not well known to us at all and seems not working to achieve the aim so far. 

I was sorry that it had only least described about the corruption going on in JARL and its related organization/company, JARD and TSS, regarding the new spurious emission regulation in the license system. The authority of the government and the ham radio equipment industries seem to be involved in this scandal as well.  

I have written about it in the post in this blog dated Dec 31 2017. I would revise  and quote it here;

” In Japan, the administrative office and the related organizations like JARD are enforcing a new regulation, which requires us to pay some money to continue using old equipment not officially proven to be spurious below certain level. Old vintage equipment won't be actually used any longer. It is based on the new regulation by ITU, which decided to enforce the regulation in order to get rid of any interference to the other communications. On the other hand, our authority requires us to measure the actual spurious emission of each equipment with any proofread measurement device. It is a big hurdle for us. They have invented a trick. Instead of that difficult measurement of spurious emission, they require us to pay some money to JARD, which is closely related with JARL and the governmental office. Surprisingly enough, that payment is to "guarantee" the equipment satisfying the new regulation. The guarantee is based on PAPER only. It is like a Yakuza's blackmail. A criminal behavior. JARD is accepting the former directors from JARL and some retirees most likely from the authority. It is a matter of despair that former JARL directors are involved in this corruption. I am feeling disgusted at such a system. I am sure, in addition to the existing complicated license system, the same concession for the bureaucrats and the related industries, this will lead the ham radio in our country to the extinction in the near future. As one of the peculiarities in our society, there are very few voices against this concession corruption among ham radio operators.”

JARL which should coordinate for the best of interests for all the hams in Japan won't react against this regulation but its executive staff seems to be on the side which exploits our interests. The author of this article in QST could not mention about this corruption from his standpoint as a delegate of JARL.

This scheme of exploitation is widely observed in the other regions of our society than ham radio. I have experienced this kind of corruption in my former profession, medical service, as well. A deteriorated aspect of bureaucracy and the related private sector. I am pretty sure it is an evil aspect of our society which deteriorates our country as if the most communist countries had done with its bureaucracy when they disappeared from the history.

You may notice there are less and less signals heard on HF from Japan. The main reason is the baby boomer generation quitting this hobby. I am sure this corruption regarding new regulation is enhancing that decrease as well. What a shame! 

A gingko tree along a countryside road

In another short drive to the countryside, I have found a beautiful gingko tree along a road in the countryside. It looked gorgeous with bright yellowed leaves. I love this kind of tree in fall. It looks like burning. There were a few gingko trees in the entrance at our home years ago. Worrying that they might grow too high, we decided to cut them. In this season, they were also brilliantly colorful.

This is the gingko tree I have met in a short drive trip in the countryside. The shape of the tree as well as its gorgeously colorful leaves almost being fallen is a perfect molding of nature.

This is one of the gingko trees at the entrance of our home. Eleven years ago. I loved them very much.

They look so beautiful at the moment the leaves are being fallen. Doesn't it tell us how to spend the last chapter of our lives?

A visit to a local temple and a natural park

For a change from continuous trivial things in ordinary life for me, even though it is a token of peacefulness, I have driven to a natural park, only 10 minutes drive from the supermarket I always go for shopping. Went through the paddies already harvested. There was a car or two in the parking lot even though it was Sunday. 

It is a nature preserving place in a small mountain and the surrounding area. Sanctuary for birds and the other animals. The mountain is named Nemoto Yama.

At the foot of the mountain, there was a temple named Nounin Ji. The historical record says it was established by Shogun Takauji Ashikaga, even though the foundation seems like a story devised by the people in this area those days. It is still a fact it has been founded in the 14th century. The buildings were destroyed in war, by fire or landslide from the mountain for a few times. The present main building and the wooden gate have been constructed in 18th century and repaired in the following century.

Looking at the main building through the old wooden gate. A lot of cedar trees in the precincts. 

The main and, seemingly, only building for this temple. The ornament on the top of the roof shined golden, which did not seem, to me, suitable to this shrine.

The frame beneath the roof of the main building reads as Kanto Mei Ran, which stands for a renowned temple in the Kanto plain area. This frame is told to be given by the Emperor in the 14th century. Of course, it might have been reconstructed in the later era.

There was a few houses behind the main building. I hesitated to go into the garden since there could be monks living there. But nothing suggested there were someone living. 

High cedar trees surrounded the precincts. It seemed someone had cared for the forest around it.

I have climbed the Nemoto Yama next to the temple on a promenade as the explanation said. In spite of its low height and the romantic name of the road, the slope was pretty steep. I got short breathed. Or I should have trained cardiopulmonary function a bit more before.

The promenade close to the summit. It deserves its name.

On the summit, there was a pavilion like building where visitors were taking rest. Only a guy was sitting on a long chair there. Very quiet. The sun was almost setting. The place was well cared for. No weeds etc.

Looking south east from the summit. The other mountains were changing colors a little bit.

Almost 20 years ago, I have driven here with my mother in her mid eighties and suffered from Alzheimer. I had parked near the peak at the place a white car was parking on this photo. Walking together with her at slow pace, I found her tottering and sitting on the lawn at the side of road shown on the center of this photo. I knew she had been weakened so much that she could hardly climb up to the peak even though it was of short distance.

In a few years, as I have repeatedly told, she was taken to Sendai by my brother who wanted to care for her. At the big earthquake hitting Tohoku in 2011, she lost her good health somehow maintained until then through loss of the infrastructures for a few days at a nursing facility and eventually died there as if a small candle went out.

It sure looks like yesterday. Our lives are short as if we breathe popping out our head out of the flow of time and in a few moments, we get back to the unknown world beneath the time flow. My mother might ask me if I am ready for that moment I leave this world.

I took a car road down to the parking lot with less steep slope. Maple trees along the road looked colorful. 

 At the parking lot, a cat was sunbathing while sun was almost setting. A friendly cat. He/she let me pet on its head.

With a lot of Nabe dish materials on the car, I headed back to the ordinary routine.

New mRNA vaccine against SARS CoV2 shows success as its phase III trial interim report says

Phase III trial of the mRNA vaccine being developed by Pfizer and the related venture company turned out that it was effective by 90% without serious side effects. The final report on this vaccine is eagerly waited for soon. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32756549/

A previous report from the same lab told the vaccine could induce CD8+ T lymphocyte response. It may promise immunological memory developed with this vaccine.

This virus causes autoimmune reaction or long term complications. Further check up as for any side effects due to this vaccine should be closely observed.

Anyway, it seems they are crossing the important milestone for the victory to this virus.

Green pepper dishes and early rehearsal of elderly care

It sometimes gets frosty in the morning here. All the summer vegetables are finished now. 

I have pulled 3 of green pepper plants a few days ago. They have yielded a lot of fruits in the summer as well as the fall until now. I don't know if it is thanks to abundant harvest this year or if it is as usual. I knew very few recipes for this veggie. With dozens of the fruits harvested for the last batch, I have made a couple of dishes.

One is a simple dish cooked with noodle sauce. It is topped with small amount of bonito.

The other is cooked with pork and egg plant. This egg plant is also the last harvest in the garden farm. 

It is seasoned with doubanjiang and miso in addition to ordinary sake, soy sauce and sugar. A bit too hot. I scarcely use this Chinese seasoning and have made a mistake on its amount.

This evening, my wife has sprained her right wrist falling down on the ground. It could be a fracture of radius bone. I have cared for her as well as have done the chores usually on her charge. It is an early rehearsal of elderly vs elderly care for us.

It will be our 42nd anniversary on Nov 20th.

  

A hope for intact memory of immunity in COVID 19 infection

It has been reported that Sars CoV 2 specific IgG/neutralizing antibody decreases in titer in 3 months or less after infection in most cases.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00813-8

This finding makes us suspect of the possible re-infection and of the incompetence of vaccines for long term effectiveness.

The following article in preprint server for COVID 19 related papers shows, however, the humoral as well as the cellular immunity could be maintained in most cases in 6 to 8 months after infection. It is only a preliminary report and won't explain what makes difference in findings from the previous articles. It is of much concern how they have measured the memory function of immunity. It is still giving us a hope for long lasting immunity achieved from the infection as well as from the vaccines now being developed. In most viral infections other than Sars CoV 2 infection, cellular immunity works more than humoral immunity does. If the memory function of cellular immunity works intactly as with the other viruses, as this article says, it is an evangel in the clinical and preventive medicine.  

 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.06.371617v1