Haiku

Once the frigid breezes of late autumn sweep in from the north, Japan's countless momiji (maple trees) are painted a spectrum of vibrant colours. That's the best time to go hiking.

Tōkoho region offers one of the best viewing spots during momiji season. Among them, Oirase Gorge is an attractive site, which we'd visited twenty years ago. We chose Naruko Gorge this time. We didn't aim for too many different places in our itinerary, mainly because days are getting shorter in the autumn. Better to be flexible and sensible than pledge to visit too many places before sunset - we're talking about somewhere before five.

One of our favourite places at Naruko Gorge is a quiet country path near the gorge. We were so flexible with our schedule to be walking the same path twice within the same afternoon. That's a path walked by the 17th-century "father" of haiku poetry, Matsuo Bashō. Many great haiku poets, like Bashō, were hikers with keen traveller's keen eye. A hallmark of Bashō's haiku is capturing the "just-so-ness" of each object. To retrace his footsteps, we walked once. 

And twice.

Parting

During my recent reading of Untangled by Lisa Damour, I learned about the stages of teenage girls pulling away from parents. The American Psychological Association-recognised thought leader and author gives a step-by-step analysis of teenagers’ departure from childhood.

For reasons a teenage girl can’t explain, there could have been an urge to hold us at a distance. As a father with a wry sense of humour, I know because my same old jokes suddenly turn corny and embarrassing, especially if I crack them in front of my daughter’s friends.

And not all parting with childhood is easy for parents to easily accept. Watching an adolescent daughter liberating herself is not for the fragile. I’m grateful that our going-to-be-fourteen daughter remains flexible and amicable to family get-togethers and one-on-one time with parents.

My daughter’s connection with family makes me feel as if we’ve won the lottery. That said, we don’t assume that our daughter will be enjoying the comfort of our home all the time. This week, she is travelling to Berlin on her school trip. We appreciate that she’d enjoy spending time with her classmates, and secretly wish for an occasional Locket photo or text message from abroad. While we could have hummed Paul Simon’s “Mother and Child Reunion” all week long, my wife and I chose to book a flight to Japan. That’s a pleasantly nostalgic trip for two of us, and not three.

Dragon

I previously marked my diary to be examiner for the medical professional examination today. When I realised I’m not called upon this time, I decided to make good use of time carved out from my schedule. After two days of conference in Macau, I opted not to stay abroad. A day off in Hong Kong can also be a gift for myself.

You might have thought I’m using hyperbole to make my point. No, I’m serious. Think Hong Kong and I can name so many scenic hiking trails. I ended up hiking the famous Dragon’s Back today. As Asia’s best urban hike named by Time magazine, this trail is also highly rated by Lonely Planet and CNN Travel. That’s a guarantee for vantage views of sun-drenched beaches and close-up concert front row “seat” for an orchestra of big waves upon descent.

It's obviously one of the best hikes for those who have an unquenchable love for photography. It's also obviously offering respite, for me, from the deluge of email at workplace.

Nomenclature

I want to be very, very blunt with the word renal here: there is very little role for "renal" when our patients can comprehend the word "kidney" much better. Forget the false sense of professionalism endowed by speaking the jargon.

This is a tall order, but it's not impossible. "Renal" is a Latin word which has permeated our medical language usage. We've all been getting used to terms like "hepatorenal syndrome". As mentioned in a recent letter to editor of The Lancet, we aren't enforcing Orwellian-style medical vocabulary control of scientific communication. We are asking ourselves to change "renal patients" to "patients with kidney disease" or "renal failure" to "kidney failure" in our Instagram, Twitter, or daily communication with lay people.

In other words, say kidney when its meaning is equal to renal. What matters is what our patient can comprehend.

Drop the word "renal" please.

Ladies and gentlemen, if not now, when? If not us, who?

Offline

As a person who loves hiking, I've witnessed big changes in our navigation: long before the availability of sat nav and all the way to the current offline map apps.

I don't know about you, but I have navigation skill no better than that of Hansel and Gretel - which means it's often a must for me to have a map if there aren't bread crumbs. But if, like many of us, you have been using Google Maps, you don't need to bring a physical map. My antique collections of 1:10,000 country side maps are now hidden in the corner of my bookshelf.

That may sound too good to be true for most road trips, but a number of hiking trails are remote and without mobile phone coverage. My family have just bushwhacked a trail without signposts in the northeastern New Territories today. Most of the time, we were hidden in the bushes. We didn't (okay, nearly) get lost because of the offline map apps. Such apps have made off-the-beaten-track travel a lot easier. The offline map apps allow us to download maps ahead of the adventure, and will work even without a data connection during the actual hike.

Offline map apps, it seems, is a must-have tool for travel nowadays - even if we might prefer occasional bread crumbs (or red ribbon marking, for that matter) along the path.

Tomorrow

"Life is very long, unless it is not."

Is there better tautology than this one? 

That's what I came across reading Gabrielle Zevin's novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Sadly, I started the first chapter of this book after paying last respects to a much-loved nephrologist. Everyone was in tears during the funeral ceremony, and I was no different.

We listened to the eulogy for this stoic doctor, and appreciated that the lived experience of illness can be short but meaningful. The greatest obstacle to living - I think the Roman philosopher Seneca sums this up perfectly - is expectation which hangs upon tomorrow and wastes today. My teacher didn't lose the battle with cancer. He beat cancer by how he lived, why he lived, and in the manner in which he lived.

Birthday

A day away to escape the city during birthday is fun.

This year I have been blessed with good weather to enjoy my birthday hike in Section 2 of the MacLehose Trail. That's a coastal hike renowned for beach view from the slope with zigzag paths, majestic view of conical Sharp Peak, rickety-rackety footbridge at Ham Tin, and abandoned village of Chek Keng.

During the hike, I didn't set aside too much time for taking pictures, but it can always be relaxing to match photography with travel. At first glance, you might think photographing while traveling is not the same as traveling to photograph. The joy of bringing a camera has, however, been a second nature of mine. Many photo shooting opportunities emerged spontaneously as I walked on the east coast of the Sai Kung Peninsula.

In the end, I was rewarded with the joy of photographing and the joy of hiking, and that of celebrating my birthday in nature.