omino （おみの）

It's been a while since my mom went to Germany to visit my sis there and as I've been stuck at home doing household things for a while, my mom's friend pitied on me and she took me out for a dinner. It was kind of awkward to eat out with my mom's friend as I've never met her without my mom's presence but I had a great time.

She took me to a fancy restaurant called "Omino" in Nishiogi and yumyumyumm ... it was so good! Omino is a kyoto-styled "Kaiseki" restaurant and Kaiseki was one of the things I missed so much while I was in Canada. When I was in Toronto I enjoyed rich food culture there but unfortunately they don't have nice Japanese food because of the small Japanese population. Of course you can enjoy inexpensive sushi and home-made style Japanese food such as "Oyako don" in Toronto but not "Kaiseki". Kaiseki is a kind of dish you enjoy by seeing and tasting　(目で楽しみ舌で楽しむ！） and accomplished only by well-skilled artistic chef. It is like Japanese version of french full-coursed dish and requires exquisite taste as each of the dish should be displayed with matching plate.

Things I ate...(things only I remember. as there were so many plates served after and after I might have missed any)

-Ohitashi (kind of new taste as kaiseki as they use western ingredient like bacon)
-Nama yuba (my favorite!)
-Osumashi (with Hamo on season. that was damn good)
-Tougan and other vegetables (in a chilled summer-looking bowl. was pretty)
-Otsukuri (Hirame with momiji oroshi, oishii~~)
-grilled fish (fish i don't know its name)
-huge oyster (tastes so rich! according to the chef, the bigger oysters taste the richer, and the smaller oysters tastes "sappari")
-Akadashi
-matsutake gohan!(matsutake is a fungi everyone fancy about)
-caramel ice cream

you can tell how much nice food I got from the above menu. mmmm....I love eating foods that I can't cook by my own. they are art!

The interior coordinate was great too. all the tiles around kitchen are "Masuko yaki" and big counter-table is made of "ichimai-ita (one-sliced thick wood. no seal). cupboards seem like "Edo-style" and they have nice "Rankan" and "Sashiko" from Ishikawa. everything was so deliverate and professional.

脱帽。やっぱおいしいものって人を幸せにするなあ～。
おいしそ～うなお肉も焼いてましたがさすがにこれだけ食べた後だと何にも入りません。はも、おいしいのでおすすめです。

ジョンベネちゃんケース

JonBenetちゃん殺害事件の容疑者が逮捕されましたね。いや、いきなりでかなりびっくりしました。
このジョンベネちゃん事件は既にもう１０年も前のことだけれどやはり記憶に大きい事件だった。やはり背景がサスペンス小説そのままに使えそうなネタにあふれたものであったし、北米のtabloid紙の騒ぎ方にもびっくりするようなものがあった。まるで全てが”女性自身”調な報道の仕方。警察が父親に疑いの目を向けるのは性犯罪の多発するアメリカのこと、全てを疑わなくてはいけない、と言う意味では仕様がないかもしれないけどさすがにお兄ちゃんまで疑われたのは辛いものがある。

私個人としてはこの事件そのものより美少女コンテストというものにびっくりしたのを覚えてる。あのド派手な化粧やごてごて衣装の趣味の悪さ！子供本来の可愛さというものを半減させている。やっぱり子供のお遊戯はスモッグでしょ～、というのはもう古い趣味なんでしょう。子供はFamiliarのようなclassyな服のほうが可愛いと思うんだけどまあそれは人の好き好きなので。

でも今回のJohn容疑者が本当に犯人なのかな？あの"I love JonBenet"なんて言ってしまうところ、多分精神的にはおかしいんだろうな、というのは分かるんだけど何しろ異様なほどジョンベネ事件に執着して全て記事を集めていたと言うし、単にのめりこんで自分を犯人と思い込んでしまったということもあり得る。嘘もつき続けると自分でもどこからが嘘か分からなくなるっていうしね。
でもこのジョン容疑者、JonBenet Caseについて documentaryを作っていたある大学教授に４年も前からコンタクトを取っていたとのこと。無害にみえたらしいので検察側もずっとそのまま流していたけど何故かこの過去数ヶ月の間に捜査をheatupさせ、今回の逮捕につながったらしい。まあこんだけ泳がせておいて急に逮捕にいったということはそれだけの確証があるのかな。もし彼が犯人でなかったとしてもジョンベネちゃん家族に同情の目を向けられるチャンスが与えられたということで報道被害などについて考えさせられるいい機会になったのかも。とにかく早くDNA鑑定してみないことにはね。

Jingu Fireworks Festival

　

観ました、神宮花火大会。小学校のときは毎年恒例だったけど家の屋上に上ってみたのは何年ぶりだろう。大学のときとかは友達とわいわい集まって東京体育館の広場で場所取りをしてみたものですが、妹が去年か一昨年か見に行って、将棋倒しになりそうなほど沢山の人で押し合いへし合いしており、そのうち絶対圧迫死の事故が起きるから行かない、とのコメントを聞いてからはちょっと足が遠ざかってしまった。
でもせっかくの日本の夏の風物詩、地元にいながら観ないのは勿体無いのでぐらつく梯子の恐怖をこらえながら屋上登りました。高所恐怖症気味なのにね。

実際の花火、数は一万発とのことだけどやはり河川敷でする花火大会ではなく街中だからか、決してサイズは大きくない。しかも風が弱くて花火から出る煙が流れないから、全てもうもうとたちこめてしまって肝心の花火が見えにくい。家の周りのほうまで煙が流れてきて辺り一帯白～くけむがかかってました。まあでも花火も花見といっしょで雰囲気を楽しむものだものね。お酒とおつまみと一緒に普段とは違う視点から街なかを見下ろすことができたのは楽しかった。
さすがに締めに連発した大きな花火はそれなりに迫力あったし。

ということで神宮花火大会はお酒のおつまみに花火、というくらいで見るのが丁度いい。

でも技術屋の日本のことだからそのうち熱くない花火とか煙の出ない花火とか開発してくれないかなあ。それだったらどこでももっと大きな花火打ち上げられるようになるのではと思うのだけれど。

The tale from Earthsea

As a one of Studio Ghibli fan I felt like watching their latest movie "the tale from Earthsea" although I'd never heard any positive critics about that. Luckily my friend got the ticket for me and we went to watch the movie without any anticipation. I've read the original books but it was really long long time ago and I don't remember any main story of the book (some parts I remember are only episodes like everyone has true name and this one shouldn't revealed to others without discretion, and the main character Sparrowhawk got his first girlfriend in his late years). But this ignorance of the original story did good to me this time (scarce movies are better than the original novels they are based. like Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code. The lord of the rings is the only exception) as you can accept the movie as it is.

As a conclusion first I kinda liked this movie (contrary to the fact most of the ppl rated this movie like 2~5 out of 10). If you like movies which have black and white clearly like Disney movies, this isn't for you. There are so many parts like ??? in this movie and as they tried to condense everything in 2 hours show time you won't understand many details (like "is Tehanu the dragon?", "Is she dead or not?" or "Did Allen kill his father because of the effect of the world being destroyed?"). but you don't have to get obvious answers for everything (for the same reason one of my favorite movier is "Mulholland Dr". You've got to check it out!).
It is fun thing that you can have your own interpretation of the movie which can be different from others and in most of that kind of movies you'll have nice fuzzy feeling which is called afterglow.
As it contains many characters it seems complicated but the theme from this movie is really clear, "Seize the day","Denying death equals to denying life". Some of you maybe be annoyed by its lines cause they keep saying "Live! Life is important!" but you'll easily understand what they wanted to tell you in this movie.
So I rate this movie around 7.5.

まあやはり絵も歌も綺麗だしね。怖い描写も従来よりちょっと増えていてある意味いわゆるオタク系の人のほうが好む映画かもと思った。
声優を担当した田中裕子さんも含めてクモ役が良い。菅原文太も合っていた。風吹ジュンがちょっと舌がまわってない気が・・・テルー役も声はいいけどちょっと棒読みかなあ。まあ歌がよいから許す。

スーパーマン

この間、友達がスーパーマンの映画券を当て誘われて試写会にいってきました。
それなりにアメコミも好きでSpawnとかX-Men（X-Menはアニメがよい。スピーディな動きには見入るものがあります）とかアニメでちょこちょこ観たこともあったけれど、何故かSupermanは赤と青のどぎついタイツ姿だからかドクタースランプのスッパマンを思い出させるからか、comicもアニメも映画も観たことなかった。だから全くストーリー知らずに今回のSuperman Returns鑑賞ということになり、そういう意味でところどころ背景が分かりにくいところもあった。異星から帰ってくるところや親子関係などね。

でも全体的によくできた映画だと思う。現代と昔とが融合したような時代設定も面白かった。とにかくスーパーマン役のブランドンラウスが適役！さすが何千人の応募人数の中から抜擢されただけあって体型的にもあの派手なコスチュームを着ても笑うどころか似合ってると思えてしまうのがすごい。新聞記者の時のshyな感じとsupermanになるといきなり甘～い雰囲気の頼もしいheroとを演じ分けてました。superheroでありながらあのタイツ姿になるとromanticなフェロモンぷんぷんとかもし出している感じです。女記者のロイスがメロメロになるのも分かる。ただこのいまいちこのロイス役が可もなく不可もなくという感じであまり印象に残らなかった。
今回悪役のケビンスペイシーもさすが演技派だけあって上手く雰囲気出してるけど（怒鳴るシーン好き）、コミカルな感じにしたかったからかところどころにコメディ調の演技を取り入れてる。それがちょっとブツ切れの印象を与えててどうなんだろう？あれは北米的に受け入れやすい型なのかな？

でもいいバランスでアクションとロマンス組み込まれていると思います。少なくともスターウォーズ２，３みたいなベタベタな恋愛ではなかった。ということで映画館で見ても○。
ところで子供役の子、マコーレーカルキンの生まれ変わりみたい、と思ったのは私だけかな。ハリウッドではあのような顔の子役が受けるみたいなのね。

コミケ

For the first time in my life I went to コミケ(comic market) at Tokyo Big Sights yesterday. Don't get me wrong. I am not a オタク. I grew up with comics but it's only because I'm a Japanese and mangas are already Japanese culture. Even you think you know much about comics, if you go to comic market you'll know you were wrong. Surrounded by half million geeks (half million! that many ppl join the comic market held for 3 days. it's a population 5 times bigger than that of Guelph), you'll feel like you are loser (and I'm glad to be a loser this time).

Tokyo Big Sights consists of many halls (like East Hall, West Hall...) and each of them are huge. These huge halls were full of people who are selling their self-printed comics and ppl who are buying these "Doujinshi".
I didn't buy any comics and I just kept browsing their 同人誌 but I felt a kind of awkwardness in even this browsing action cause it seems that there are certain manners for everything. Each booth is really small but when you check the magazines you have to be careful not to hog the next space, some of the sellers were so absorbed into reading comics which makes you wonder if you can disturb them, and you are allowed to take pics only at specific site.....

So I coudln't spend much time in checking the comics themselves(anyway it is impossible to check all. there are too many) but instead I enjoyed watching ppl in their costumes. Girls wore costumes of ancient Japan, nurse, hardgay and various characters from manga.... Guys in costume of SailorMoon, french cafe maid and TigerMask..... It was a shame that I run out of time to go to Costume Play Hall to take their photos. Yesterday was so hot (air conditioner was not working good in some of the halls) and I was impressed to see they decided to wear those heavy layered costumes. A lot of guts.

Things I found out from this event....
- comics in trend drawn by girls is "boys on boys". Soooo many comic about boys fall in love with boys. There is a specific name for this kind of comics but I forgot. Like comics about Wolverine from X-Men had crush on Cyclopes, Lupin the third on Jigen..... Some of them were even non-stop hardcore.
-I don't mean to offend Otaku ppl but there are so many real real geeks at Company booth sections. You'll know what I mean if you go there.
-ppl here look so energetic and focused. They don't mind getting lined up for everything (if you want to make it to door opening time, the average lineup time is 5 hours!), don't mind carrying heavy magazines with them...... I wonder what do they do for the rest of things. Is there any energy left?
I think we can create new power system using these air of excitement from them. the temperature in the halls were raised by at least 2 degree from their ferver and sweat.....

Anyways it was an experience. Thank you Paulさん! I would never had a chance to go to this kind of event in my life if you didn't ask me to join. すごかったねえ～。

China

One of my favorite place in Shanghai is Lu Xun park (魯迅公園). If you go there in the morning time you can see a lot of old people doing tai chi, social dance and singing. It seems that old people there know how to enjoy thier life after retirement and it is good to have such a place that everyone can enjoy together. In my idea a country where senior ppl living lively(do they look like that only because they have loud voice?) is good country as well as a household where woman is stronger than man is good one. Then I guess China meets both condition.

まあでも日本も町内会の集まりとかは発達しているからやる気さえあればそれなりに老人も楽しめるシステムはそろってるのかな。その点、かえってcanadaとかはあんまりそんな感じがないようにみえた。日曜の朝は電車も動くの遅いし、開いてるのがfast foodくらいしかないから一度朝にKFCに寄って老人ばっかりで埋まってるのにはびっくりしたものね。日曜の教会のお祈りの後に皆でフライドチキン食べるんだろうか。ある意味朝っぱらからあんな脂っこいもの食べられるのであれば健康ってことか。 but when it comes to oily food, that is chinese food. I wonder why Chinese ppl can keep themselves healthy and slender while they eat chinese food every day. or are they really healthy? I should have asked how much stroke rate they got there.

anyway lu xun park is good place to visit. they have nice pond with lotus leaves on it, fringed with willow trees, and also some gardens with theme(like English garden). There is Lu Xun Memorial Museum too and that is quiet place with air conditiner so it's nice spot to rest and read books (the entrance fee is cheap. I don't remember exact amount but around a cup of coffee?).

I'd never read books from 魯迅 before but as this is good chance I started from short stories and I found his books are quite easy to read. 読みやすいね。old homeとかmedicineね。何となく昔の作家は名前からして読みにくいのではないか、と思って手を付けなかったものも多いけど実はそうでないものも多い。Platoとかもそうだった。読みやすいか読みにくいかは単に訳の問題かも。結構頑張って英語で読むようにしてるけど英語で読むといいな、と思うのはfantasy系の童話とか軽いタッチの恋愛もの、ハードボイルドなもの。反対に純文学とか格調高いのは和訳のほうが好き。だから魯迅は日本語で。Dostoevskyの「白痴」など英語では"The idiot"のタイトルだけどどうもしっくりこないなあ。

それよりHarry Potterの松岡祐子さん脱税で話題になりましたが、私自身は彼女の和訳を読んだことないのですが上手とかは別にして、売れる本を訳しただけであんなに儲かるんだ！こうなると自分の腕なんかよりどの本が売れるか目利きすることの方が大切になってきちゃうのではないかなあ。

Happy belated birthday to me!

Thanks for everyone who celebrated my birthday! I had really great birthday week (went out 4 nights in a row since I came back from China...) and it is always fun that friends get together.

素敵な一年にしたいものです。

← isn't this pretty?


←this is the cake I baked for myself. wanted to make strawberry shortcake but the fruit was not available as it is out of season. it's been a long while since I got whip cream separated last time....
anyway isn't this pretty either?

China (food)

It's kind of all of sudden but I was in Shanghai last weekend. When I was talking to my good friend, YangYang from Shanghai on MSN the other day, he was like "why don't you come to China tomorrow? I can show you around". Yeah, China and Japan is getting closer and closer and it takes only 2 and a half hour to go to Shanghai from Tokyo. Visiting foreign country is not that difficult as before and I'm lucky to be born this generation.
Anyway I couldn't get the air ticket the next day so I departed one week after. China....the country with the largest population, the country developing with the incredible speed... and of course the country with the richest food culture.

The first thing I was shocked about that country is its traffic manner. There is noooo traffic rule and they are doing better without it. There was no priority for pedestrians but it seems that they are having less traffic accident than Tokyo. That's kind of unfair.....
But in the morning I can get up with much honking noise and that makes me think I'm in really "Asia". Yeah I like its pepuliar noisiness and smell from the street....

Unfortunately about the food, I already had stomachache by the second day there I couldn't eat as much as I wanted to, but still I enjoyed food there. Chinese food is the best in the world! The food in the pic is 豆腐花。 I only had that with sweet sauce before but this time it was in savory soup. mmm....yummy! Other things I ate? I can't count.....they treated me so good. Chicken feet, spare ribs, dim sum, fish mouth..... That's true Chinese eat everything but bones. It's endlees if I start talking about food but if you have a chance to go to Shanghai I recommend you to eat seafood like shrimps. They are quite tasty.

うーん、ほんとはもっと書きたいけどまずはここまで。でも腹痛のせいでstreet foodがトライできなかったのがかなり悔やまれる。お饅頭一個３０セントくらいだから無理にでも食うべきだったか。中国と言えばグルメ旅行なのにぃ。レストランとなるとほとんど中華ばかりだけど、でもモールのfood courtとかに行けば入っているお店は（特にデザート系）海外からのものも多いし食生活はほんと豊か。でも菜食主義者はどうしてるんだろう。
まあ食べ物についてはコレくらいにして次は観光系の話でいきましょうか。

Challenge the triple!

行ってきました 、南大沢のアウトレットモール。前々からなかなか悪くないとの評判を聞きつつ、なかなか行く機会がなかったけど今回はわざわざ友達が有給を使ってお休み取ってくれて一日そこで時間を使ってきました。

思ったより南大沢遠くなかった。何しろ電車が私のお気に入りの京王線。京王線は一番居眠りしやすい電車だなあ、と感じます（各駅ね）。車内もまあまあ綺麗だし、台風、雪にも強く運転見合わせがほとんどない（学生時代はそれが残念だったけれど）。それに私鉄にしては珍しく何年か前に運賃を値下げしたというのがよい。

とにかく思ったより早く南大沢につき、まずはショッピングめぐり。決して他のモールと比べて数が多いというわけではなく、そこまで買い物が得意でない私には丁度良い大きさ。半日で大体廻れます。ちゃんとアウトドア系、フォーマル、カジュアル系全て揃ってて結構好きだったな。ただいわゆるブランド物はCoachくらいなのでブランド物好きの人には物足りないでしょう。レディースデイに合わせて平日に行って園内はすき気味だったのにさすがCoachの品物は回転が早かった。恐るべきブランド力。

また駅に隣接してこれまた私のお気に入りのTOHO cinemasがあるので（手っ取り早く北米の匂いを味わいたいならここ）Da Vinci's Code見てきました。大作をうまくはしょっていて悪くないんじゃないでしょうか？色んなとこ手を入れて話の筋を変えていた感じはあるけど別に不満に思うほどではない。どうせならシドニーシェルダン風の台詞、「私のことはミスターではなくロバートと呼べ」という台詞を映画の中にも取り込んで欲しかったけど・・・・まあ今回のTom Hunksはシリアスですので。でも今回の映画より上映前に流れたNicolas Cageの出てる911の映画の予告、見ただけで泣きそうになりました。どうも年のせいなのか涙もろくなってきたか・・・・

映画の後は憧れの31のトリプル！オーダーはいっつも頼むチョコミントを今回は断念して初めてのものを。上からJamoca Almond Fudge, Lollipop candy and Kickoff crunch. 下の二つなど見かけがpop過ぎて駄目かも、と思ったけど味は案外いけました。
せっかくのトリプル、やっぱりコーンでと張り切りまくり、それが仇となり結局お決まりの「胸の上に塊アイス落とし（しかも逆さま）」。ばっちり胸の上でアイスが立ちました。31のアイスはHaagen Datsのアイスより溶けるのが早いと思います。黄色いワンピースが黄緑になってました。 また映画の安い水曜日にいつか行きたいな。女性の方はレストランとかも水曜は割引多くお薦めです。やっぱり色んな意味で女性はお得ですね。

Omotesando hills

Yeah finally I had a chance to go to the latest hot spot in Tokyo, Omotesando Hills. It's a shopping plaza located on the main street from Aoyama to Harajuku and designed by Tadao Ando, internationally renowned architect. His trend is the architecture whose concrete surface is totally exposed. I like Japanese traditional wooden architect but that one is hard to be barrier-free, easy to catch a fire and high maintenance required.
So in that sense, concrete-exposed buildings are very popular cause they are tough, look modern going with both in city and countryside and last long.

Omotesando Hills is no exception. It is appealing its existence in a decent way matching with its neighborhood( acutually gray and green is good color combination. The concrete's gray color goes with the zelcova tree's green lining the main avenue). Hope this building will be an architect remains for centuries.

Okay, 花より団子。Time to talk about food. In the most of the restaurants in Omotesando Hills, they set up the price range lower than that of Roppongi Hills and it gave me really good impression but that rule didn't seem to apply all the store there . My friend and I had really nice lunch and felt like dessert time. Found pretty ice cream cafe and that cafe was not crowded as others so we tried to enter....but...$15 for one scoop of an ice cream? what? How could it be that expensive? Is it an ice cream made of gold ingredient? There is also $25 sorbet made of Dom perignon. Mmmmm~~I wanna try those sometime! I know any sweet tastes good when they use good liquer so I bet this ice cream tastes damn good cause they are made by good cook with nice liquer!

Anyway since we couldn't afford those high status sweets this time we compromised with pretty Japanese sweets from Toraya in the picture. They were tasty enough.

ちょっと疲れて表参道ヒルズ開拓し足りなかったかな。次は時間もお金も余裕を持って有閑マダムもどきで突撃するぞ～。まずは館内マップ持たずに歩けるようにならないとね。

Happy B-day, Hitomi!

お誕生日おめでとう、ひとみ！

JP vs AUS

Everyone around me is so fanatic about World Cup so that makes me want to join the temporary nationalism too although I don't even know the rule really well. You goal, you score. That's all I know.

The first match opponent to Japan is Australia. Is this strong team or not? I didn't know any profile for this team called Socceroos (Yeah, Australia is famous for kangaroos, koalas and OZ beef) but apparently the looks of each squad surpass that of Japanese..... Most of the Australian players are over 180 cm tall and they do look scary. When you are short, only advantage for being short is its speed. In that sense, the Japanese squad did pretty good. They were quick and they even scored 1 goal first while the Australians shot more. Hmmm....we might be able to win the game....? Every Japanese thought so until 8 minutes before game finish. The opponents scored 3 goals in a row in the last 8 minutes. How could it happen? This is the difference between baseball and soccer. You don't know what will gonna happen till the end. I praise the Australians cause they watched carefully, moved quickly and grabbed the chance. but...any of us is not content with this result. Okay, I don't mind you lost the game but how could you let 3 goals in 8 minutes? Maybe loss of stamina. or mentality weakness. Oh come on, samurais can be beaten by their physical disadvantage but never by their mentality.

I wonder if I should watch the next game, Japan vs Croatia.

Once upon a time....

The good thing is that I got my dog back from the hospital but the bad thing is that I can't give her milk for a while. So I found 3L stock of milk which expire tomorrow left in the fridge. My nature doesn't allow me to waste things. もったいない。

Hmmm....things which use a lot of milk..... Okay, pudding. Milk jell-o. and maybe white sauce stew for dinner.

If you have egg, milk and sugar it's not hard to make pudding. Is there any egg in the fridge? Yeah, I found 1 pack of eggs..... It says 600 yen!? It's almost $6. Oh I now remember my dad was saying that he got eggs from someone as a gift. Nice. The average egg price in Japan is about 200 yen for 10 eggs but this one costs 3-fold. Interesting price for me who was buying eggs from Equality brand (known for its cheaper price in Canada.) I appreciate the importance of organic food and I'm trying to change my food style slowly into organic style but it seems I still need a time before I can afford fancy eggs.

The funny thing about this egg pack is its product name. "Dreamlike Egg: Once upon a time there was an old man."
I can understand till the part of "dreamlike egg" but what is the hell about an old man?? Yeah I'm sure there was an old man in the old time too....and they must have been eating nice organic eggs.
Anyway I could get rid of 1L of milk for pudding and basil milk jello. Milk jello is good treat for coming hot summer and if you mix with something leafy like green tea or basil, it can give you refreshing taste.

The last pic is Japanese traditional sweets that Yuko's mom made. Isn't this pretty? I've never tried making Japanese sweets before cause it requires a lot of preparation (and nice artistic taste) but since her mom is holding a sweet cooking class at her home, why not attending that class too? Thank you Yuko, it was yummy! Have a nice trip to Germany!

surgery2

I got a call from the vet and he told me that the surgery did go well. He took out something like a toy ball which had been stuck in my dog's gut.
I went to see the doctor to see what it was (I was not allowed to see my dog yet though. She has to be hospitalized for 3 days and any factor that makes her excited should be avoided meanwhile. Yeah, dogs can't know why they should keep calm when their owners came to see them but excitement surely doesn't help healing the wound).

The reddish stuff in the second picture is the thing came out from her body. It is a part of rubber ball but it has already lost its color and elasticity. I don't know how long it had been staying in her gut but I wonder if I should put her muzzle on from now on when I take her a walk. She likes to pick up anything like a ball but I can't see clearly what she is picking up when I take her out at night.

The first picture is the one the doc took at the surgery. The roundish thing at the left top is the ball stuck in the small intestine. It looks pretty big, doesn't it? I don't know if you can see it clearly from the pic but the dark-reddish part at the right bottom is the small intestine with necrosis. We had to cut off that part and it almost reached to 20 cm. The doctor showed me the severed part of the intestine and asked me if I wanted to bring it home but I said no. I brought home only that ball with me.

It's good that the surgery is done but we have to worry about later reaction too. Since quite long part of the intestine was cut off and the end of the intestines with different diameter was sutured each other(the diameter of the small intestine becomes bigger towards the large intestine), there might be a chance of leak at the sutured part. If bacterias living in the gut leak out of the intestine they can cause peritonitis.

Hmmm....worries never end......but considering it has already caused necrosis, it was good decision to have her take the surgery. Even if we wait a little bit longer I'm sure now that the foreign material won't come out as a poop.

はなちゃん、気付くのが遅くなってごめんね～。
('ε')/ peritonitis: when bacteria in the digestive system leak into the abdominal cavity (which should be aseptic), it causes inflammation on peritoneum. That's peritonitis. Accompanies severe pain. 

surgery

My dog stopped vomitting but as she hasn't recovered her appetite yet I decided to have her go under surgery. The doctor is sure that something still remains in her small intestine. According to the doctor, it is harder for us to see the emotions of those smashed-face dogs like bulldogs and pugs from their face expression than that of long-nosed dogs. So there might be a chance that she is suffering even she looks okay and although she stopped puking, it's just because of the current location of the foreign material in the gut and she might start puking again when it moves forward a bit.

The fear is that french bulldogs tend to fall respiratory failure after a surgery but the worst case this time is that if the thing she swallowed remains at the same location in the gut for long time, it eventually gets adhesive to the gut wall and causes damages or rupture of the gut. If that thing causes damage, we have to sever some part of the intestine but if it doesn't we just open the small intestine to take out that material.

It was kind of hard to make such a decision to take a surgery or not cause we never know which causes good result. Doctors give us advice but they don't force us to choose which solution. In my dog's case she might suffer respiratory problem if she takes surgery but she might also suffer gut necrosis if she doesn't take it. I wonder if doctors don't assert one method in fear of the case they fail that method they chose but it IS an owner's responsibility to decide things about his pet so I can't blame them.

I already left her at the clinic so I'm just hoping that the surgery is going well. Cross fingers for her!

(' ε')/ necrosis: cell death caused when cell degeneration persists or worsens., or when injury is severe. 4 general machanisms for cause of necrosis are: impaired energy production, impared cell membrane function, metabolic derangement and genetic abnormalities.

introducing my dog

This is my dog, Hana. She is adoreble and really hyper all the time but for the last whole week she didn't seem feeling well.

Since it is every morning routine for her to puke yellowish sputum (though she is only 2 yrs old) I didn't worry much when she threw up what she ate last Thursday. But her vomitting didn't stop. She kept puking all day on that day and it was unbearable to watch her suffering so I took her to a vet.
The result is....something is inside of her stomach. It was impressive that the doctor could tell that only by palpation. Oh Hana, you did again. About a half year ago, she accidentaly swallowed debris of toy ball and she had to endure discomfort until it came out with her poop.
So this time too we can wait until that stuff make way out of the large intestine. The doctor told me that when foreign material stayed in the stomach the vomit would continue but if it moved to the small intestine it would be alleviated.

So I'm now waiting.
It is really concerning cause even she could eat something she puke it later after all. I take her to the vet to give IV but Hana started losing her weight..... you poor thing...... Just excrete it.

まだかな～まだかな～。

('ε'): sputum: things such as discharge, foreign materials and bacteria frim respiratory organs to be discharged with mucus and saliva when you cough

poor guy.....

初めの意気込みはどこへやら、全くポストしてなかったブログですが日本に帰る日も近づいてきたことだしささすがにまた書いてみるか・・・・英語でも書くつもりだったんだけど、ちっと今回長くなって面倒。勘弁してください。

今日見たニュースで気になったのはひとりの若いカナダ人の男性が男二人を射殺した後に警察に追い詰められたボストンのバス内でやはり銃を使って自殺したというもの。
彼はアメリカの国境に近いカナダの田舎町で品行のよい大人しい青年として暮らしていたが、このイースター祭の週末に家にも帰らずいきなり姿を消し、ネットを使ってアメリカのMaine州性犯罪者をリストアップし、その中の特定の二人の住所を探し出して銃殺した。そのあと長距離バスで逃亡中、警察がバスの中に入ってきたのを見て即座に頭を撃って自殺した（幸運なことに乗客は誰も怪我はしなかったが周りの５人が返り血を浴びたため、病院へ運ばれる流れとなった）

彼が死んでしまった現在、彼がその殺した二人による性犯罪の昔の犠牲者の一人だったのかはっきりと知ることはできないが（しかし彼が幼い頃アメリカ側に住んでいたことを考えるとその可能性は大きい）、男でもいつでも性犯罪のターゲットになってしまうこと、やっぱりアメリカは怖いなあ～（日本でも勿論油断はできませんが）。

しかしこうなると自然、アメリカ全州で性犯罪の過去のある人たちの出所後の名前や住所の公開の義務付けというのがいいのか悪いのかと議論が分かれてしまうのですが・・・・

本当に立ち直りたいという人にはこの後に更生の道を残すためにも全てを公開するというのはきつい気もする。かといって性犯罪者の多くはいくつも同じ罪を持つリピーターでありつまりはもう病気であるというケースもある。そういう場合にはやはり隣人が性犯罪者がどうかを知るかによって子供たちが犠牲者となることを防げることもあるだろうし、本当に難しい。

私としては罪のない人たちが犠牲者にならないためにもやはり性犯罪者の情報の登録、公開は推進したい。この情報公開によって元性犯罪者達に生じる多くの苦難は彼らが犯した罪の贖いとして１つ１つ乗り越えてもらえたら、というのは虫のよい簡単な意見なのかな。

ただ実際私が住んでいる近所で幼い女の子が性犯罪者の犠牲となって命を落とす事件があった。そのあと犯人は捕まったがなんと彼は女の子の隣人であり、性犯罪の過去もあった。アメリカでは性犯罪者の名前、現住所はオンラインでアクセスできるのに対し、カナダでも彼らの自己申告、登録は義務つけられているとは言えアクセスできるのは警察内だけ。もし、女の子の家族が隣人が性犯罪者であることを知ってたらこれは防げた事件なのではと思う。
さらに警察の発表したところによると、その近所半径３ｋｍ以内には性犯罪歴有者１００人以上が住んでいるとの事・・・・、っということはつまり私の近所じゃんか～。一応催涙スプレーは常時携帯なんだけどね～。

いやあ今回の事件は被害者が加害者を犠牲者にし、自分も自殺してしまったというなんとも悲しい後味の悪い事件だった・・・・・

blog スタート！

初めてブログなるものに挑戦。

自分の日記などを人に公開して何が面白いんだろう、などと思っていましたが他人のを読んでいるうちに、みんななかなか自分の考えを自分なりの言葉で表現しているものだなーと感心。
口下手で書き下手な私には、自分の考えをまとめるのにいい機会なのでは、と参加決意。

日記というと小学校の夏休み以来ということになってしまうけど、日常を通して学んだこと感じたことなどちょこちょこ載せていきますねー。
幸い英語圏に住んでいることだし、英語力アップのためにもなるたけ英語で書いていきたいな。
初回からくじけてますけどね。