Happy New Year !

Happy New Year! Thank you very much for visiting Loco Medical Group (Medical Cooperation) Eguchi Hospital today.

How did you spend the year-end and New Year holidays? Influenza A and the new coronavirus infection were spreading, but the weather was warm.
Last year, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. on January 1 with my private aircraft license, which I finally obtained after 22 years , and was able to experience the first sunrise flight of my life as a captain.
As I flew at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, keeping my course toward the east where it was getting faintly brighter, I watched the sun rise brilliantly from far away and realized once again that the earth is turning and that the year 2025 has begun.

Now, changing the topic, I would like to talk about greetings.
Do you greet people at home and at work every day? I researched the history and significance of greetings during the year-end and New Year holidays, and found that "greetings" originally originated from a Zen dialogue around the 11th century, and that people greet each other when meeting, parting, having a meal, or finishing a meal, greetings are the basic act of communication between people, and are stated to be extremely important for the smooth conduct of social life.
On the other hand, when I look back at my surroundings, it seems that not everyone is doing so cheerfully, and I sometimes feel very disappointed. When I visited Okinoerabu Island once, elementary and junior high school students stopped by the roadside, got off their bicycles, and greeted us in their cheerful voices as we drove by in our rental car. I was very surprised to hear them greet us with cheerful voices.
When we asked the islanders about this, we were told that the island education system teaches people to greet each other first, which is called “Greeting first”
I remember how moved I was when they told me that greeting each other leads to " Keiten Aijin (Respect the Divine and Love People)," which Takamori Saigo chanted when he was imprisoned on Okinoerabu Island.
This year, I would like to make a renewed effort to thoroughly practice "Greeting first”.