Recently I got a call from MD Daisuke Yamanoi for the first time in a few months. Around 6 pm on a weekend, he was already drunk. "Today was half a dag ('han-don' in Japanese)." From this point of our conversation, he explained that "dag" comes from the Dutch word "day". By returning, I showed him that in my newspaper company days, a word was "zen-gen" ("all board") was there, and it came from Navy terminology. 

Daisuke, however, did not listen to me. He even could not go along with a story or two, but just dutch rolled. After all, because of his (a bit of) too much drinking, the topic flied here and there, and he was more talkative than ever. Over the screen (we use a particular SNS app for talk), he was seen kept sipping the glass. 

(When I was at a newspaper company, "zen-gen" referred to a one-night trip by a group of writers at a day of newspaper holiday. The one-night trip, however, with no exceptions, always ended up in the evening with bad drinking habits along with quarrels. Physical fights started here and there around in an inn we stayed. I hated it, and requested to stay at the office as a grave-yard shift.)

As I listened to Daisuke taking, I gradually grasped what he was trying to say, or trying to convey his message some how, which would come up to his mind at the time. In short, he wanted to say something by exploiting my symptoms as brain tumors, cancers in the lungs, along with Covid-19. First of all, I have had tumors, and it is true. The one on my head was mostly completely removed, with the "for the time being" condition. Still unknown is that the part of the white shadow, seen in MRI image and just marked in the peripheral of the removed original tumors (about 2 square cm), is a postoperative residue or could-be a new one. On December 16, 2020, it was my surprise that the MRI of the day showed the shadow cleaner, smaller and lighter compared to the previous MRI taken on November 18, 2020. Anyway, I have had the tumors in my head, and no one can predict when it comes back. 

The second is that my use of anti-cancer drugs inevitably lowers my physical immunity, making it more likely to suffer from Covid-19 virus and the symptom. In a conversation with Daisuke, he said he uses a non-woven mask even at home because his son takes the exam, so it would not be good to transmit the possible virus to his son. I also have a daughter, who is taking her exam next month, but we do not do masks at home. "You do it! You should make it as a family role." 

Daughter's school is online. She, however, goes to a preparatory school for her high school exam once a few days, but the school is a 15-minute walk from home, and that's it. More scary is my son: he goes to a public school every day, and going to go his preparatory school from March this year. "That's why it's better to make the rule at home," said Daisuke. He added that even medical personnel with non-woven masks each other do not fall under the category of "dense contacts", unless they take them off and talk.

Then, next one is critical to him: I have a power of information dissemination. "It's rare for people to have the power to verbalize and send it out to public." During our conversation, he said, "do you know what verbalization is?", and showed me the book he is reading now. The title is "What is Phenomenology?" It was not the first time he introduced a book to me.

After the call, I checked an EC site to find the book as explained, "you ask again the core of Husserl's phenomenology, critically examine the understanding so far of so-called philosophers, and open up the possibility of application to pedagogy, sociology, medicine, and psychology." The book was published in December 2020, and the authors are Seiji Takeda, Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, and  Ken Nishi, Professor of Tokyo Medical University, all of whom seem to be famous philosophers. I was just astonished of Daisuke reading such a difficult book. 

We were together at a prep school more than 30 years ago, and now he is a veteran who has made great achievements in the medical world. However, during the conversation that night, he piled up a little cup and said, "I want to go eat tempura with you Tsuyok!", and then he hung up our telephone of 45-minute talk. He said he would be off the next day, which made me a little relieved.

(The photo is a new book "What is Phenomenology?", screenshot-ed from the publisher Kawade Shobo site. To be continued.)