Domino toppling

I gave a set of domino bars to my younger son as a gift for his 10th birthday. While I hung around ToysRUs in my city, I came across this set. I hoped he would like it , and actually he did. I know that he loves creating something new.

This simple straight line, which was composed of 160 something colorful, wooden bars, was the first work - domino toppling - that my little made in minutes, along with my support.

Although it was not a masterpiece, I was pretty much happy to see my younger son excited after the toppling went well. Another good thing is that his big brother, 16 years of age, joined us and shared this fun moment, as you can see and hear on the movie.

After this success, my little kid tried creating a domino toppling with multiple steps, followed by a whirl pattern of wooden bars. His creativity never ceases to amaze us.

Bold fishing

Last weekend, my little son, 8 years old, and I enjoyed fishing.

A few days before our fishing, he suddenly told me that he wanted to go fishing. This was probably because my kid, who is always curious about everything, saw a guy fishing sweetfish standing in a shallow river on TV.

His request reminded me of a small lake called Sone Lake, where I had gone fishing many times as a kid. Furthermore, I took my older son and daughter to the lake and fished a lots several years ago.

This time, however, we could not get any fish. This condition is called BOUZE, which is equivalent to being bold in English. I have next to nothing about why it is called BOUZE in our native language, though.

In spite of the disappointing results, I was so happy because I spent hours with my son outdoors; it was fine, warm, and breezy, typical weather in Spring in Japan. It should be also noted that my son seemed excited in dealing earthworms for fishing as well as running in the filed around the lake.

Final Match

Now the final game of The National High School Baseball Championship of Japan has started.

Surprisingly, one of the two teams is a high school that my elder son attends; he is a first grader at Risei high school. The other is a high school called Toin, which has won the tournament several times.

It goes without saying that I am on the side of Risei, but it would be OK if Risei would fail to defeat the opponent as long as the game is fair and exciting.

Although the odds might be Toin, I still believe that Risei could live up to our expectations. The result will be shown a few hours later. Until the moment, I am going to enjoy the ups and downs of my feelings.

JSC 2017

The 81st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society was held in Kanazawa (Picture left), where I presented my research, as usual, and chaired the session regarding autonomic nervous system.

My session was scheduled to be two hours in English. I had the same opportunity a few years ago, and I think I did it well at that time but I got extremely stressed before the session started. I enjoyed it during the meeting, though.

However, this time, I had been relaxed before the session (Picture middle) and was able to handle it without problem. Not to mention a successful presentation of my research (i.e., biomarkers and notched QRS for the detection of myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy).

I am honored to announce that my session was the first session in the annual scientific meeting. Thus, you can see No.1 to No.6 papers in the session (Picture right). My colleague told me that the odds would be on your side. After I finished all my work, I recalled his word and said to myself silently, "It's really my day."

Agota Kristof

I have just finished reading a series of novels written by Agota Kristof, a Hungarian writer who wrote in French. The books that I read is a translation into Japanese.

I have never heard of her name, but Mr. Hiroshima, an software engineer who lives in America, has recommended it on a Podcast called rebuild. He said, "I would say the series is the best I've ever read, and I would read it several times in the rest of my life."

I am not sure if the three books suit to everyone. Actually, my wife, who is not a big fan of reading, gave up the series after finishing the first one. The Agota's masterpiece is, however, one of the most impressing books that I have met in my life; it is beyond the reach of my imagination. I was shocked, and have been still traumatized.

I am not going to show my rating on these books, and I believe that I have to read it again in the future. I do not know when it would be done ー 10 years later or 20 years later ー but I know it should be done, as Mr. Hiroshima said.

I am looking forward to rating them on my second try.

A 10-year-old Washing Machine

It has been a decade since this washing machine came to our house. My wife and I bought it at the timing when we moved to a brand new house.

Recently, my wife has noticed that there is often some water leakage seen under its bottom. We made a decision to carry out a thorough clean-up on the indispensable one.

First, we moved out the washing machine from the bottom pan. I expected it would be too heavy for us to lift up, but it was performed with little difficulty (Picture, left). She was way much stronger than I thought. Second, I removed all the sludge that has piled up over a period of some 10 years (Picture, middle), which was the most laborious task. Finally, we replaced it at the same place as it was, i.e., under the dryer and on the pan (Picture, right). It took only an hour as a whole.

We are lucky because no leakage has not found after the cleaning, although we did not recognize any reasons that could be associated with the water trouble. It is reasoned that lots of dusts under the washing machine would cause the leakage. I guess, however, that the washing machine was crying because it had become dusty. No wonder, a washing machine is a big fan of cleanness, given its role.

We never make it feel sad again.

A lecture in college

Today, I visited the classroom of our college, where I had studied a lot (?) as a student. It has been more than two decades since I graduated from college. To be fair, this is my first time to enter the room, as shown in the right panel, because it did not exist; it was build around 2000 (left panel, right building).

I made a lecture regarding cardiomyopathy and cardiac infectious disease, such as acute pericarditis, myocarditis, and infective endocarditis to 3rd graders. I am not sure whether they could make heads or tails of my contents, although I made every effort to make the lecture easy to understand.

Anyway, it was an exciting experience. I love learning something new as well as teaching to young people who are eager to learn. I saw a few student sleeping during my lecture, but I was not surprised because I did it sometimes when I was a student. The problem is the volume I prepared was too much to handle in 90 minutes. Next time, if any, I would do more better.

P.S.
Last night, I had a nightmare, where I was late for Today's lecture and freaking out in a taxi while heading to college. After I woke up and found myself on my bed before dawn, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Snow, Snow, and Snow

Yesterday, my daughter and son and I visited my parents in vain.

My Dad and Mam live 100 km north of my house, and it takes about one and half an hour by train. Weather reports indicated that it would snow heavily in the afternoon, but I had no worries because it was clear and fine without any clouds in the sky in my area.

On the way, I noticed that landscapes I saw through the window of the train were getting whiter. However, I had not understood our desperate situations until we got off the train and walked out the station. It was like a snow storm outdoors.

Sooner or later, I found ourselves isolated at the station. My Dad could not come to pick us up due to the hazardous road conditions. It seemed like that no taxi was available. It went without saying that public transportation, such as buses or bicycles, was out of service. My parent's house was not close enough to get there on foot. We had no other choice but to give up meeting my parents. The point was we needed to get back to my house by train as soon as possible, given the risk that trains would stop. It was lucky that trains were still working despite the terrible winter storm.

Take a close look at the right picture. Can you imagine? You have to shovel lots of snow to get on the train. This is not a platform that has no roof above. Strong winds made it possible to accumulate snow everywhere. It was lucky of us to get back home without any trouble, although it took more time than usual.

When we arrived at the station in our area, we were surprised to see beautiful stars shining in the sky, without any sign of snow.

Fantastic Title

I am supposed to be given lots of gifts around the end of a year because this period includes my birthday, Christmas, and New Year's Day in a row. The reality is not always what I am expecting, though.

On New Year's Eve, I bought a book on impulse. While hanging out in the mall with my kids, I ran into this book. All of a sudden, its unique cover attracted me. I remembered the proverb, "Don't judge the book by its cover." However, I could not resist temptation.

The price of $30 did not discourage me from purchasing it although it was higher than I though it would be. Later, I was also impressed to know that each page was as impressive as the front cover.

Given my interests in outer space as well as deep sea, it is no wonder that this book satisfied me. I bet I have good knowledge about universe, but I have to confess that I have learned a lot from it. I am sure, this book differs somewhat from scientific or academic ones.

Anyway, how fantastic the title "HOW TO BUILD A UNIVERSE" sounds! It is not the cover that counts, but it is true that it tells you a lot.

Oops!

I blew it! It was careless of me not to avoid it. I was not thinking of it at all.

Recently, I have come to another hospital every Thursday to learn general internal medicine and emergency medicine. The hospital is far from my residential area. In addition, my jobs start early in the morning ― 6:15 am.

I left my home and arrive there before dawn since it is winter in Japan. My mistake on that day was that I did not turn off the head lights of my car when I got off. As you guess, I found my car lost its electric power when I came back to get something in the car around noon.

All I had to do was call my insurance company. Luckily, it provided everything I was going to need, what's more, for free. I had Ramen noodle while waiting because it would take an hour for the rescue staff to arrive. Soon, my car revived without difficulty. I really appreciated to them.

I got back to my home with caution in order to charge my car's batteries. That is, I DID NOT use air conditioning or audio system. Since then, my car has been doing well, indicating that the batteries are still workable.

This is my second time to have an experience of dead car batteries; it has been more than a decade since my first oops!