Cross-cultural communication （29）　

29）WONCA Kyoto 2005
In 2005, WONCA, the world's academic conference for family doctors, was held in Kyoto. At the time, I was one of the administrators of the Japan Primary Care Association, which was the host of the event, so I had been preparing for it in great detail for several years. After a number of twists and turns, I was asked to be a Japanese representative speaker at the main symposium of the event, where I would present the state of family medicine around the world. Normally, the president of the academic society at the time would have taken on this role, but for various reasons, the president firmly declined, and the job came my way.

This was a job that put a lot of pressure on me. I had to give a presentation in English in front of an audience that included several hundred participants from overseas, and then participate in the discussion afterwards. I had to think about how to talk about Japanese family doctors and where to focus my presentation entirely by myself. Since I was considered to be a administrator with a lot of international experience and good English skills, there weren't many people I could consult with. As I'm not very good with computers, I left the PowerPoint creation to the professionals. The result was, apart from the fact that I couldn't really speak up in the discussion, I think it was pretty good. Apart from this symposium, I was also in charge of the English session where I talked about the daily life of Japanese family doctors. I was able to make that session quite lively in a relaxed atmosphere.

I also have another memorable experience from WONCA. I proposed a plan to take overseas participants on a tour of family medicine practices in the Kansai region and have a chat with the doctors there. I was in charge of three couples of family doctors from Scandinavia (Sweden and Norway). The Scandinavians are very good at English, so when they were with me, they carried on their conversations entirely in English. On the way to Kido Clinic from the Kyoto International Conference Center, where the event was being held, we took the subway and Hankyu train, and the mood was lively as we explained the scenery of the Kansai region from the train windows.

After arriving at the clinic and giving a tour of the facilities, we held a small party in the living room of the parents' house in the back. We had chilled some low-malt beer in the refrigerator, and had also prepared some snacks to go with it in advance. The party, which included alcohol and the parents, ended on a good note.The final event was the customary photo shoot in the courtyard.This photo also includes my mother, who passed away in April 2013. The visit to Kido Clinic was not the end of the project. Dr. Mizuno in Kyoto also supported the project, and several participants from overseas also visited her clinic. In the evening, the Kyoto and Osaka groups were to meet up and have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Arashiyama, Kyoto. This was a restaurant that Dr. Mizuno had been a regular customer of for a long time, and the invitation had come from the Okada Clinic (the clinic opened by Dr. Mizuno's father), where Dr. Mizuno worked. While enjoying the Kyoto cuisine at the restaurant, the Kyoto talk was in full swing, and the party was a great success.

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