Mother's 13th anniversary

Working hard in the garden/farm, I realized it was my mother's 13th anniversary today. I knew of this important anniversary for me in the end of this month. Honestly, I was almost getting it through. However, the longer it got since her passing, the oftener I recall of her in daily life.

Mother met father at a small sanatorium for poor tuberculosis patients during WW2, which our aunt managed at this same place as we live right now. Father was sent to the war in China. In the end of the war, they have married and were given 3 children including myself. This photo of my parents with my sister shows what porverty they lived in those days. They still look peaceful and possibly hopeful for the life ahead despite of the poverty. 

Soon, tuberculosis could be treated with antibiotics and such a small sanatorium has lost its meaning in the society. Our aunt has decided to close it down. My parents have decided to go to Tokyo for new life. I have reiterated this same story in this blog.

My mother used to work at a Salvation Army hospital in a suburb of Tokyo. She went for work early in the morning and came back home to care for us and give us simple breakfast for a while. Then she went back to the hospital on a bicycle. What a hard work it was for her. She was still always cheerful and tender to all of us.

It must be a challenge for my parents to raise the family in Tokyo. It could be called as an ordeal for them. But always with much hope for the future. 

Reaching the old age myself, we are another difficulty in life, individual and social at the same time. I feel we could hardly be so optimistic for the future, different from ths situation my parents used to face to at the time of exodus to Tokyo. My mother might tell me not to worry so much and to do what I need to do. With her gentle smile.

In 5 days, my brother and his wife will come to see us from Iwate. I will prepare my special curry and rice for them. We may talk of good old memories of my parents and of the lives in childhood in Tokyo over glasses of beer.   

It is the time for me to exchange the cell phone old and infrequently used.

 My cell phone is pretty old. Maybe, around 15 years of usage. 

When, working at own practice, I sometimes had patients who should be monitored throughout the night. In such a case, I gave them and their family members my phone number and told them to give me a call when they got worse. I have had an emergency call once or twice in a month. But, seemingly, they were relieved to be able to get in touch with me, even though I had to tell them I should switch off the cell phone at midnight. 

My old cell phone has a large data of those patients' phone numbers. When I quit working at own practice, I wondered what to do with it. I thought some patients or their family members might had consulted to me on the phone when they had any health issue. Actually, it turned out nothing. I understood the patients won't rely on me when they lose relationship with me as a doctor in charge or they have found certain new doctor in charge. On the other hand, I often recall some of them even in dream. The other day, I realized they had become grown up and even became parents themselves for now. 

So I believe it is the time for me to get away from the sentimentalism of being a doctor in charge of those people. I still have good memories of them. When I thought to be a doctor, I was thinking of becoming a school teacher. In that case, at their alumni reunion, I could have seen the pupils or the students whom I was the class room teacher for. How nice it could be if I could see the patients grown up and living at various positions in the society. 

Unfortunately, I am not able to see them any longer. Just wishing them happiness and good health.

Quiting such a daydream, I should change this old cell phone to a new one or to a smartphone. It is the time for me to go ahead. Can I manage a new phone by myself?

Matthew's Passion played by Ozawa with SKO possibly in memory of Takemitsu

It was the Easter in the last week end. It is the time when we listen to Matthew's Passion by Bach. 

Talking of that great music, I can't forget of Toru Takemitsu who has loved it so much throughout his life. I have mentioned about it a few times in this blog as follows for example.

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2017/03/takemitsu-tarkovsky-and-matthews-passion.html

In relation with him, I also recall of Seiji Ozawa who has recently passed away. In the article which I wrote about him, I quoted the performance of the Passion by him conducting Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1997. I realized it was a year later since Takemitsu's death. I know Ozawa has known how important that music was for Takemitsu and speculated Ozawa had played it in memory of Takemitsu. 

Given that Ozawa has chosen it for that purpose, this rendition sounds even more poignant to us. It is marvellous that we are captured with catharsis of peace and serenity beyond the tragedy when we reach the end chorus. It's beyond our logic or imagination.  

 

A new modality for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult ones to be treated. It is always symptomless until it advances to the late stage. The organ is located deep in the body and is surrounded with large vessels etc, which makes surgical approach even more difficult. 

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound is developed for an adjunct therapy to the other modalities of treatment. It is safe and not causing much side effects. If the tumor could be shrunk together with chemo, it could be removed with surgery. 

It still has weakness that it could be applicable mainly to the head/neck portion of pancreas while inaccplicable to the tail of pancreas. Of course, cases with metastases won't be treated with this modality. 

It is still a hopeful treatment for the future since it could be carried out safely and repeatedly. Being improved, the device may work better for deeper lesion with much more effectiveness soon. Hopefully, it would improve the prognosis of this tough cancer. 

 https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/2050151/?cid=wohk-fb-no_ultrasound_logo_photo_vod_20240222_20240317_C_FB_MF_Ultrasound_en_2024Feb_ad_dps-202402-001&fbclid=IwAR2pp8JGnoT3yyUMqOHE5qKmFBL5loi8u_c1BxSkLCupBiEwOtbtwkMvyaw_aem_AatbltuZBXqs9HQh5LB2WIAesF9M-9ER392dzLLenNhlK8LsA0lxXI0rP3M_2psOM2T9hdTUF9RlHg12CxAcEVJq

An accidentally cooked radish

 The other day, several days ago, I was going to cook Oden, a japanese traditional dish for ordinary people in winter. There are various materials put into the pot. One of them is always radish. It could hardly be soaked in flavor if it is put at the same time as the ther materials. That is why it is necessary to preprocess with boiling until it gets softened.

I was doing that that day. I don't know why but have forgotten setting the timer. I was leaving kitchen for a while. When I came back to the gas range, the water has all evaporated. Pieces of the poor radish were almost starting to get dried and burnt. 

I thought it should not be used in Oden but should be seasoned with something and be tried as a dish. The radish was a homegrown one and a vegetable I was proud of. Before cooking it further, I timidly tried it without any seasoning. Um, sweet and delicious! Not so directly sweet as sugar itself but deeply as well as gently sweet.  I have never expected of that good taste. I learned, having grown in the cold climate, the radish had accumulated sugar to deal with that cold weather as the other winter vegetables like spinach had. Sugar must have been condensed while being cooked for a long time. I was a kind moved at that probable cause of this good taste. It is a kind of heavenly gift to us.

Another radish was put in the pot of Oden while we enjoyed that accidentally cooked sweet radish without any seasoning. 

This was not intended at all. I told to myself not to forget setting the timer of gas range when I leave there. Or it could have been a disaster.

Time for farming

Canola plants and related ones are blooming and bearing seeds this season. It often rains a long time. It is called canola plant rainy season. It was typically such a day today. It has been quietly raining. In some interval without rain, I have planted taros at a place near a persimmon tree, where the soil may remain wet all year around suitable for taro growth.

Cold and warm weather alternate in certain span, probably 3 or 4 days, in this season in a year. Cycles of cold and warm weather may lead to real spring very soon. It is the time for farmers to get ready for seeding spring/summer vegetables. I would do farming in the natural farming style, that is, no fertilizer, no pesticide and no cultivating. Compost made from weeds in the area may suffice to grow vegetables. It is amazing no cultivating may facilitate nitrogen fixation by the locally habitant bacilli in the soil. But the important prrequisite for the natural farming is the presence of rich soil produced with natural compost of weeds for years. I may use organic fertilizer as little as possible.

My wife used to ask farmer patients what they do with the vegetables or the crops when she worked at her own practice. It always helped her to understand how they were living. Farming is a work doing with living things, needless to say. Unreality, impractical things or even lies could never be present in farming. It's like raising kids. It may be the reason why I am indulged in it. May my health enable me go on enjoying it for some more years. 

Magnolia is fully out right now. As reiterated in the past, my mother used to love it most. Having big smile on her face, she often came to tell me it had fully come out.

 

"The Exit from quantitative easing" is started

Yesterday, the negative interest rate was cancelled by BOJ. Mass media seemed to get carried away with that news announcing we were at the exit of enormous quantitative easing. But the new interest rate is up to only 0.1%. BOJ could never increase it more since, owning over 500 trillion JPY of the national bond and over 50 trillion JPY of ETF, it could have the financial condition worsened with higher interest rate. The president of BOJ, at the press conference regarding this "exit" policy, has mentioned of the inheritance of financial burden from the quantitative easing of different dimention. 

BOJ and our government deem the economy in our country still in deflation and they would continue easing. There seems no choice for them other than going on montary financing. They would carry on monetization whether the economy may go further to inflation or not. JPY is getting much weaker against most of currencies since this exit decision by BOJ.

I am afraid, with inflation letting to go on, the government may be intending to substantially reduce the astronomically cumulated the governmental debt. They say there are 3 ways to cancel the national debt. One is default to refund the debt. The 2nd is to begin war. Letting inflation go on is the 3rd manuver. This last one might be what the government is aiming at.

This change in the finance in the country may torment people, especially people in poverty and living only with pension. It is a question that this problem won't be discussed in mass media or in the internet.

My father's generation had to go for war. People in my generation had not come across with such a tragedy, I always thought. This economical/financial mess may be comparable to the war, even though it won't directly expose our lives to danger. But who knows it may happen.

It is too strange people seem not to have understood what was going on and they are too optimistic talking about the possible rise of interest rate with their deposits at bank etc.