The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Recently I have been spending hours reading a series of books called "Nejimaki dori chronicle or The Wind-up Bird Chronicle in English."

I do not think that I am a big fan of reading books, especially novels or fiction.  My favorite genre is non-fiction, such as scientific reports about the universe and deep-sea fish. I prefer books with a lot of pictures.

Why I started reading the series was that I heard on Podcast Rebuild, which is one of my favorite podcasts brought by well-experienced software engineers, that this series was the best work by Haruki Murakami, a famous Japanese writer.

The series is composed of 3 books, and I have finished only 1 of the 3. So far, I have found myself pretty fascinated by the plot. However, I have no confidence in keeping on reading and completing the series without difficulty, because I am kind of impatient.

It would be fantastic if I was patient enough to finish the series. It would take away more hours from my tight schedule, though.

ECG Book

Recently, my book has been published. Truth be told, this is my second book but first one in which I am a sole author.

The preface is shown as below.

"Images of majestic outer space are overwhelming. Also breathtaking are pictures of mysterious deep-sea fish. They are so brilliant that no explanation is needed. The same goes with ECG, which shows a miraculous brief moment of the electrical activity of the heart. This book is designed to display the value of ECG; 100 images were selected from tens of thousands of ECGs. It would be appreciated if the concept could be shared. All the data are based on weekly ECG conferences or Matsushita ECG school of Matsushita Memorial Hospital."

I have not received any royalties in order to make the book more affordable. I am really expecting young medical doctors and staff to have it to learn the wonderful world of ECG with a lot of fun.

You can get the book here.

All you can eat buffet

The other day, at my children's request, my family of 5 went to a unique restaurant where you can eat as much as you want to eat at the same price.

The shop serves a variety of foods, including grilled meat, sushi, curry and rice, noodles, desserts, you name it. The entry fee is affordable, 13 dollars per adult and 10 dollars per child for about 100 minutes.

It is common that the quality of food at such restaurants is not as good as those in standard ones, but it is not true with the all-you-can-eat buffet that we had lunch.

We had a fun time there, but the problem is the amount that my family has eaten. Judging based on the plates piling on the table after eating, our portions were way much small than other people. This is because, among 5 members, 4 except for me are really small eaters.

It seems like that our 3 kids like such a fun atmosphere at an all-you-can-eat restaurant, instead of trying to eat economically.

Paradoxic flow

Take a look at an echocardiogram on the left. What is your impression?

This color-M mode image was obtained with a Doppler cursor in the mid-ventricle in a patient with mid-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

As you may know if you are a sonographer, a flow in the left ventricular cavity moves toward the apex during early diastole due to an apical suction.

In this case, however, the opposite phenomenon is shown; note a blue signal (white arrow), which is a blood flow from the apex toward the base of the left ventricle during early diastole or isovolumic relaxation time.

This situation is called diastolic paradoxic jet flow. This unique echocardiographic finding indicates the presence of a high-pressure apical chamber and has been reported to be associated with adverse outcomes.

For more information, you can access here.

On the radio

I made a radio debut with a big success!

I talked about the current understanding of cardiac rehabilitation on a live radio show. The radio broadcast is local, not nationwide, but I am very honored to have such a lucky opportunity.

I get stage fright easily, but I did not become nervous at all although it was my first time that I talked something on the radio or TV. Truth be told, when I received the offer, I thought I would be stressed out on the radio.

My success may be due to a good support with a well-experienced female anchor. No wonder she has fantastic skills with her beautiful voice to make guests feel easy in the studio. I cannot thank her.

On top of that, her multitasking abilities really surprised me. She was actually busy not only helping me but also organizing the time table.

I got a audio file of the 15-minute talks between a pro anchor and an amateur doctor. My family's reaction to the recording was, unexpectedly, not bad. My three children, who are likely to be indifferent to such stuff, kept on listening to the whole file, not complaining but sometimes laughing.