The Recording Diet

I'm not sure if this type of diet (trial to reduce weight) is known even in foreign countries, but this method is famous in Japan, originally introduced by Mr. Toshio Okada, a commentator for modern Japanese culture, Otaku. This does not need any special drug, food stuff, or equipments. You need only a notebook or small memo pad and a pen.
You can start this method by recording everything (very strictly) you ate, on the notebook. Try it for two week or so. You can loose 2-3 kg easily. This is just a beginning or an approach. Then you start to sum the calories of all stuff you ate. These are bit tedious, but you can find such calorie values by google search quite easily. After a week or two, you will loose additional 1-2 kg.
Then you start your actual performance. Everyday, you calculate your sum of the calories and keep the sum around 1500 kcal, perhaps you have to restrict some foods or snacks and sweets between meals. But what you have to care is only the daily calorie value. You do not care what kind of nutritional elements you should take. Just mind calorie. Your weight will decrease by 1 kg a week. This exactly happened to me. Do not restrict the food too much. Take it easy.
I tried this method last year, from just a year before, and continued for 6 month, resulting in loss of 18 kg (86 kg to 68 kg).
The chart below is a record of that progress.
(Blue plot shows weight in Kg, left Y-axis; Red plot shows fat content in %, and the yellow indicated total fat weight in Kg. X-axsis is dates starting from May 10, 2008 to Oct 10. The gap of the plots in the middle, missing data, was because of my travel to Oxford, UK, where the scales were not available.)


This method is also mentioned in other's blog.

My research topics

It seems stupid not to have mentioned my research topics, as a scientist. (Thanks Jp, for reminding me this matter!)

I was educated in Department of Fisheries Science, Kyushu University, and started to study Fish Immunology (clarifying immune system of fish) as a PhD student. Especially my major study subject is the complement system, a multi-component humoral system in the blood, fighting against microbial invasion.
In the medical research field, or even in a general immunology, the complement system has been regarded as something complicated with many components with just numbers, such as C1, C2 ,,,, down to C9. The fact that the numbered components do not always react in the numbered order, for example C1 is followed by C4, then C2, C3.
Nevertheless, the complement system has been very interesting for me. It is a kind of harmonized system composed of diverse range of protein families, it show wide variety of biological functions, and it is very well conserved over evolution.

I spent two years of my master course period for attempts to purify C4 protein from carp serum, resulting in vain. I also spent six years to purify and clone C3, factor B, and factor D, the essential components in an antibody-independent activation pathway of the complement system, from carp, this time fortunately resulting in acquisition of PhD but far later in 2001. Furthermore I also spent several years to work on other components with students and international collaborators, using mainly carp fish.

The most interesting and exciting feature of FISH complement system is that the fish system is much more complex than that of mammals, which has been regarded as a most sophisticated and developed one. Fish complement components are present as multiple copies of isotypes/isoforms, with significant sequence and, possibly functional, divergence. We have hypothesized the diversity as an evolutionary strategy to expand innate immune ability to recognize wide range of pathogens which should be more densely present and abundant in aqueous environment around fish.

Now research on innate immunity is a big trend, but this trend is mainly driven by Toll-like receptors, lectins, and so on, but not so much by the complement (pity though). But the complement system is there and everywhere in the body, and also in almost every animal species including vertebrates and invertebrates. Why not study more! That's the one crucial to live.

My dream is to make my lab as a Mecca for the complement research for lower vertebrates, and accordingly for comparative immunology, of Japan and even worldwide.

You may find a recent review of fish complement system as follows: one from me, and another from my friend, Oriol.
If you would like to have their PDF, please let me know.

Diversified components of the bony fish complement system: more genes for robuster innate defense?
Nakao M, Kato-Unoki Y, Nakahara M, Mutsuro J, Somamoto T.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2006;586:121-38. Review.

Expansion of genes encoding complement components in bony fish: biological implications of the complement diversity.
Nakao M, Mutsuro J, Nakahara M, Kato Y, Yano T.
Dev Comp Immunol. 2003 Oct;27(9):749-62. Review.

Recent advances on the complement system of teleost fish.
Boshra H, Li J, Sunyer JO.
Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2006 Feb;20(2):239-62.

My motto (but not easy to adopt)

(I do not know its origin, but Dr. Haruhisa Wago, Saitama Med Univ. introduced me.)

Be a leader, not a boss.

A boss knows everything.
A learder admits mistakes.
　
A boss tells people what must be done.
A leader shows how to do things.
　
A boss criticises.
A leader gives advices.
　
A boss talks first.
A leader listens first.
　
A boss gives orders.
A leader gives directions.
　
A boss demands respect.
A leader earns and deserves respect.
　
A boss rules with law.
A leader shows human-kindness.
　
So, be a leader, not a boss.

A temporary pub

This is one of my favorite places to drink near my home. It could be called as a stall. But it's actually pub, serving grilled meat (chicken, pork, beef, and fish) on the stick (like small BBQ), soup noodle, grilled cheese, vegetables, and off course drinks including rice wine, spirits, beer and wine. It operates from 6 pm to 2 am, throughout the year. During daytime, the stall units are absent, disappearing somewhere secret. The stall units are well equipped with charcoal grill, table and refrigerator to keep stuffs for a night. It gets electricity and tap water from a building next to the place with exclusive meters. You can smoke using the ground under your seat as an ashtray.
If you order a mug of beer with a snack, several sticks of the grilled meat, and a bowl of soup noodle to spend an hour, you will pay about $20 or less. Not so cheap, but not too expensive.

Public Baths in Fukuoka City

I found public bath facilities, Sen-toe in Japanese pronunciation, one in the cenral Fukuoka City (upper photo) and one more near my University (the lower). (One of the two doors is for men, and another is for women.) They charge about 400JPY (~$4) a time, which I feel bit expensive. When I was a student here, we had several public bath places even only around the University, but now only a few survived. After taking bath, it is very relaxing and refreshing to drink a small bottle of milk or coffee-flavored milk. Now I have few chance to use public bath in the city, but sometimes enjoy public hot spring bath in particular places near the city.

What You'll Wish You'd Known

This is a manuscript of a talk by Mr. Paul Graham. I like this opinion, a kind of essay, and would like to introduce it to my children, a 16 years old son and a 20 years old daughter.

It contains some issues that I do not agree, but the essay would be a very nice stimulator for teenager to think their way to live.

The University guideline how to act against the new flu pandemic

A couple of days ago, the risk management office of my University issued an official guideline for students and other stuffs about how to act on a possible pandemic of the new flu, which is now expanding worldwide.

To make the long story short, when the flu become epidemic but still outside Fukuoka prefecture, in which my University stands, all the classes will be canceled and direct students to stay home. Stuffs in charge of minimum maintenance or doing very important experiments which cannot be paused may come to the office or lab.

After the flu become epidemic in Fukuoka prefecture, the University will be shut down, except for strictly minimum maintenance, such as security and feeding experimental animals.

All the announcements about the University acts, will be broadcasted by e-mail and web page, containing some information portal site for students.

I hope this system works fine, even on a possible worst situation. But perhaps, the A-type new flu would lead to such a situation based on its relatively weak virulency. (Is it too optimistic?)

Worst case for me would be prohibition of travel, domestic or international. I have already registered in ISDCI meeting in Prague, where we have a very important business meeting and sessions including one which I will chair.