This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City, which will be opening a new staff room building in October 2024.
We are currently considering various materials for the exterior walls of the building.
When we opened in 1987, we decided on the color of the exterior walls, but we didn’t think much about the material.
However, more than 30 years have passed since then, and when we renovated and even rebuilt, we found that there are many different types of exterior walls.
We are currently considering ceramic siding and galvalume steel sheets.
Each has its pros and cons.
We plan to use galvalume steel sheets for the roof.
As the name suggests, it is made of metal, but it has insulation inside.
When I think of metal roofs from the old Showa era, tin roofs immediately come to mind.
I remember that when it rained, the sound of it hitting the roof was terrible.
I’m sure it sometimes leaked.
That won’t happen with today’s galvalume steel roofs.
For the exterior walls, our director will choose from ceramic siding with or without joints,
selecting the type that best suits the image of the clinic.
Renovation of the office space has already begun,
but construction on the main clinic building will begin soon, so we’re excited every day as we make plans.
Is it “impossible” to offer paid leave or childcare leave at a dentist in Chiba?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
In the summer, we have to be on our guard against typhoons and torrential rains.
It is essential to be prepared on a daily basis so that we can be prepared for any disasters that may occur.
The other day, a famous influencer said on YouTube that “it is impossible for small and medium-sized companies to give employees full paid leave or childcare leave these days.”
This person usually makes sharp comments about politics, so I thought, “Oh, that’s strange.”
In the first place, paid leave is an employee’s right, and if an employee applies for paid leave, the employer must approve it.
It is true that in a workplace with a small number of employees, for example a workplace with three employees, even if one person takes a day off, the number of employees will be reduced to two-thirds, or about 67%.
So, having three employees is not at all uncommon in a dental clinic, and if three employees are reduced to two, the clinic will be in a lot of trouble.
For example, after dealing with a patient at the reception desk, you might immediately assist the dentist inside, or if the phone rings, you might stop your assisting duties to answer it.
In this situation, it is difficult to take paid leave out of consideration for the other staff, so they don’t take it.
They only take paid leave together just before they leave.
It’s a difficult situation if even one person is absent, but the two staff members who come to work on the day the patient is absent have to do the work of three people between them, so they are exhausted by the time they finish work.
It is especially difficult not only physically but mentally when someone suddenly misses work on the day.
If this continues, it’s natural that some staff will leave early or some will badmouth the management during their lunch break, creating a negative spiral.
There is something important to note here.
It is the 80:20 rule.
This is a concept I learned at a seminar by Anthony Robbins, the world’s number one life coach.
The 80 in 80:20 is mindset, and the 20 is technical skills.
Improving technical skills is absolutely necessary in any job.
For example, in the job of a dentist, it is absolutely necessary to receive training to improve your skills, attend study groups to increase your knowledge, and read books.
However, focusing only on that does not mean that your dental clinic will be successful.
This is because 80% of work is influenced by psychological factors.
In other words, things like not being in an overly busy working environment, being able to take paid leave, and being able to take childcare leave without worrying are four times more important than improving technical skills.
In fact, even among the staff of our clinic, there are some who, even if they have a lot going on at work, feel refreshed when they go on a paid vacation and are able to work hard again.
Of course, there may be some people who can work 24 hours a day like the hard-working employees of the high economic growth era of the 1950s and 60s.
However, those were times when wages were rising steadily, and if you worked hard you could see a bright future, in other words, it was a time of spiritual fulfillment.
Even now, there may be people who can work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for their own mission, but that is less than 1% of the total.
I think that people who work normally choose workplaces where they can take regular holidays, have little overtime, and have a good work atmosphere.
The number of people who become managers (as opposed to self-employed) is probably less than one in ten.
Managers and employees are completely different people.
You should not force the behavioral patterns of managers on employees.
It usually doesn’t work if you do that.
Getting regular employees to participate in study sessions for managers usually doesn’t work well.
In fact, if you do that, some employees will quit.
You’ll end up wishing you hadn’t sent them to study sessions for managers.
I know a lot of examples like that.
I think there are few managers of dental clinics, and many others, who start their own businesses after learning how to run them.
So most people spend the first few years of their business learning about employment.
However, I think it’s normal for entrepreneurs to have trouble with their employees in the first few years, and this should not be repeated.
Let’s go back to the first influencer.
Before deciding that it’s impossible to give employees full paid leave or childcare leave, wouldn’t it be better to try to do so and run your company better?
That’s management effort.
If your business allows employees to take paid leave properly, your staff will work enthusiastically.
The reason is that, as I wrote earlier, 80% of work is about feeling, and the remaining 20% is technical skills.
Top athletes should not fix their teeth alignment.
A story about a dentist in Chiba being severely scolded by his tennis coach
I was scolded by my coach.
“That’s the way it was 30 years ago!”
When I played tennis as a student, I was taught to hit the ball solidly and flatly with my forehand.
In other words, make sure the contact time between the racket strings and the ball is long, and put power into the ball with a closed stance! That’s the way it’s done.
There were players like Sweden’s Borg who put extreme topspin on the ball, but it was by no means a standard way of hitting.
Borg, who won Wimbledon five times in a row, has an unconventional two-handed backhand, and holds the racket with just his right hand during the follow-through.
Even now, it’s rare to see anyone hitting like this.
Going back to the forehand, the material of the racket has changed significantly since those days, and now the mainstream way of hitting is to use a thick grip and pull the ball to put spin on it, like in soft tennis.
However, due to my old habits, I still tend to use a closed stance and get close to the ball when hitting the ball.
It’s true that I can’t hit a fast ball like this.
But I’m getting too close to the ball.
Besides, the fact that you can see two balls is proof enough that the ball speed is slow.
When I look at this photo in the past, I thought it was a good shot, but looking at it now I can see that it was an incorrect way of hitting the ball in the past.
Well, the Paris Olympics were very moving.
However, one thing that bothered me was that many Japanese athletes had crooked teeth.
It is often said that a good bite can improve the balance of the body and enable high performance in sports.
That is certainly true, but if you are a top athlete with crooked teeth, should you undergo orthodontic treatment?
From the perspective of a dentist, the answer depends on what level you are at now as a top athlete.
If you are at a level where you can aim for a gold medal at a world championship, you should undergo orthodontic treatment after you retire.
If you are not yet ranked 100th in the world and want to improve your performance, I definitely recommend undergoing orthodontic treatment.
This is because while some people improve their sports performance by correcting their teeth and bite, others’ performance may decline.
It is true that a good bite can improve the balance of the body and improve shoulder and back pain, but it can also make your body less mobile.
That’s how delicate the human body is.
In the past, it was said that professional golfers could increase their driving distance by wearing mouthguards during matches.
I think they were later banned from wearing mouthguards.
If it’s something that can be removed like this, you can stop using it if it doesn’t work.
However, once you’ve actually moved your teeth, it’s not easy to put them back if it doesn’t work.
So if you’re already a top 10 athlete in the world, or an athlete at the level of representing Japan in the Olympics, it’s safer to wait until after you retire to get your teeth straightened.
A dentist in Chiba who misunderstood the building of a clinic for 37 years
Hello
I’m Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City, which is currently undergoing major renovations of the clinic in preparation for completion in the summer of 2025.
When we opened in 1987, it was a wooden building that also served as a home.
I’ve been mistaken for over 30 years.
Because it was a wooden building, I assumed the exterior walls were made of wood.
However, when I was meeting with the staff of a construction company the other day, I found out that the exterior walls were ceramic siding, an exterior wall material made by molding the main raw materials of cementitious raw materials and fibrous raw materials such as pulp and wood fiber, curing and hardening them, and painting them.
It is called “ceramic siding” because it is made by hardening it in a high-temperature, high-pressure “kiln”.
It has excellent fire resistance, durability, and quality stability, and is a material that is easy to process by cutting and drilling, and has a simple construction method.
It has various advantages, such as a short construction period and relatively easy maintenance.
It’s true that if the exterior walls were made of wood, they would burn easily in the event of a fire.
When we first opened, the exterior walls were a grayish white, as shown in the photo. This is a type of building that is commonly seen in the town of Goslar, Germany, and buildings with siding of this color stand throughout the town.
I was so impressed by its beauty when I visited Goslar some time ago that I decided to make my own clinic in this style.
The car I was driving at the time was a Toyota Carina ED with a number 5 license plate.
Around the following year, the bubble economy began, and women began saying that they wouldn’t be interested in men who didn’t drive number 3 cars.
The variety of materials used for exterior walls has increased since then. I’m currently considering what kind of exterior walls to use for the new clinic.
I’ll report back on the progress of the renovation.
What happened at the Chiba dental clinic where people kept telling us not to go to that dentist
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
Recently, our staff have been giving birth at our clinic. It’s nice to see our staff getting excited about the topic of some families having more boys than others having more girls.
When our clinic first opened, it didn’t have a very good reputation in the neighborhood.
The reason is that “that dentist is expensive.”
In fact, several patients who used to visit our clinic said this when they came to our clinic for an emergency.
One man who had a cleaning course at his own expense was told by his wife that he was not spending so much money on dental treatment and that he should not go again!
She made a special phone call to tell us about it.
More than 30 years have passed since then, but the grandchildren of the people who were told not to go to that dentist still visit our clinic.
They have quite unusual surnames and you can tell from their addresses that “Oh, that’s who it is.”
Thirty-five years ago, when patients went to the dentist, they were not properly explained as they are today, and they were treated in silence. Then, about 10 years later, people started complaining that they were not satisfied with the treatment they received without any explanation, and suddenly found themselves with silver fillings.
From the beginning of our clinic, we have explained the contents of treatment to everyone. Since there are many restrictions on treatments that can be done with health insurance, we explain that there are such treatment methods that are paid for by private medical care. As a result, many people have been able to get treatment at other clinics without saying anything, so they end up telling people around them that they were recommended expensive teeth at that clinic.
This has led to the saying “that dentist is expensive.”
Recently, this has of course stopped happening.
We explain to all patients that we have several treatment plans before starting treatment.
That said, there were many fans in the neighborhood, and there are still people who have been coming to our clinic as a family for over 30 years.
Also, many people who live within 20 minutes by car have been coming to our clinic for a long time.
We do not mean to say that the times have caught up with our clinic.
This is because dental treatment is paid for by private medical care not only in Europe and the United States, but also in Asian countries such as Thailand and Singapore.
Japan is unique in that many treatments such as silver fillings and plastic fillings can be done with health insurance.
It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about out-of-pocket expenses for the first six months after opening your practice.
However, anyone who comes to see us during those six months won’t be able to get appropriate information.
Isn’t this a disadvantage to those who visit?
We will continue to provide proper information to all patients who come to our clinic.
Dentist in Chiba converts leaky property into office building
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
The hot weather continues. It is difficult for elderly people to walk to the clinic alone when the temperature exceeds 33 degrees. For elderly patients who walk more than 500 meters alone to visit the clinic, we recommend that they visit in September for regular dental checkups and regular dental health promotion treatments, when the heat will be at an end.
As we have already announced several times on our blog, Facebook page, X, Instagram, etc., our clinic will undergo a major renovation in preparation for the summer of 2025.
By chance, we were able to own a building adjacent to the clinic. It is a house built at the beginning of the Heisei era, but we will renovate it and transform it into a building where the administrative staff can work, change clothes, eat, and hold study sessions.
I actually wanted to set up a training room for staff, like the Google headquarters in Silicon Valley. It will allow staff to do muscle training and stretch here.
However, we decided to prioritize creating a space to carry out the clinic’s basic operations.
We kept the design simple so that work could be done efficiently.
Now, the property is over 30 years old, and we noticed it the other day during a heavy rainfall that there was a hole in the rain gutter, and a large amount of rain was falling from the gutter onto the ground. The exterior walls and interior were originally in need of major renovation, but after 30 years, a lot of work is necessary.
However, the building itself is a steel frame built by a major house manufacturer, so it is very solid, and of course there is no rain leaking into the building.
As about 50 staff will be using it, we will remove the gas stove and replace it with an induction heater, dry laundry inside the building instead of hanging it outside, install two dryers so that there is a backup if one stops working, make the dining table foldable so that it can be easily moved to accommodate an increase in staff, and install glass doors for the office staff’s workroom to create a sense of openness.
However, from the outside it probably looks no different from an ordinary house.
When renovating, what will happen to the exterior walls? What will happen to the interior? There is a lot of information available on YouTube these days.
An architect wrote on YouTube the other day about not putting a window in the bathroom.
I am strongly against this.
Rather than relying solely on a ventilation fan, it is sometimes better to open the window for ventilation, and having a window will let in more light and reduce the feeling of being closed in.
As such, I think it’s important not to just blindly believe everything you see on YouTube or websites, but to adopt what’s good and reject what’s not.
The administrative building is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
After that, large-scale renovations of the examination building will begin.
We will keep you updated on the progress of the renovations.
A dentist from Chiba communicated with a Japanese flight attendant when he went to Europe for a dental study group.
This year, when I flew on an international flight with a Japanese airline, I tried to charge my smartphone with the USB socket on the seat, but after more than three hours, it didn’t charge at all, or rather, it didn’t respond at all.
So I asked the flight attendant, and he said that sometimes the USB socket doesn’t charge because of insufficient power, but it should be possible to charge it with a normal two-pronged socket, so I tried it and it responded and charged immediately.
Even at overseas airports, it often doesn’t respond at all with USB sockets.
So the other day, when I was having a meeting about renovating my clinic, I was told that USB sockets are not as popular these days, and that it’s better not to install them, at least in newly built clinics.
When I looked it up online, I found that it’s almost impossible to think of a malfunction of the socket as the reason you can’t charge with a USB outlet, but since it doesn’t respond at all even when you plug it in, I thought that was definitely not the case.
However, after that, I was told that there are various USB sockets, and that the USB 2.0 Type A socket has a 0.5Amp output, which is too low for modern smartphones.
But what does it mean that there is no reaction even when you plug it into the socket?
Also, if USB itself keeps evolving like this, it will be difficult to change to a new one if it is fixed to the wall.
Therefore, it is a good choice not to attach USB sockets to buildings.
A story about a dentist in Chiba who lost consciousness in front of a hot stone bibimbap and can’t get a loan from Chiba Bank
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
This year, we didn’t have a typical rainy season, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but how are you doing?
I’m in great shape, both physically and mentally.
The other day I had lunch at a yakiniku restaurant. They served hot stone bibimbap.
Actually, there’s something I always remember every time I see hot stone bibimbap.
It was April 25, 1997, and I’ll never forget it. I was attending a dental study group in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, and had lunch at a nearby Korean restaurant.
At that time, a news report was coming on the TV in the restaurant.
It was the first bankruptcy of a life insurance company since the postwar period of chaos.
It was the news that Nissan Life had gone bankrupt and was suspending operations.
The moment I saw it, my hand stopped moving.
The reason was that, even though I actually didn’t want to sign the contract and refused, the sales person from Chiba Bank was so persistent, saying “It’s a very advantageous product and all the employees at Chiba Bank are members, we always work hard for you with loans, we’ve asked you so many times, why won’t you join?!” I ended up taking out a loan from Chiba Bank with a high interest rate of over 10% to join, and Nissan Life Insurance, which now seems a strange system when you think about it rationally, went bankrupt.
I’m sure I was forced to sign up for over 10 million yen.
Maybe because I had been frozen for a while in the Korean restaurant, the owner mistook me for someone who had never tried stone-grilled bibimbap before, and started mixing it himself with chopsticks and a spoon, saying, “Sir, this is how you eat it, mix it all up until it’s a sloppy mess.”
Now I think it was amazing in a way that I had encountered the first bankruptcy of a life insurance company outside of the chaotic period after the war.
Actually, before this bankruptcy, I had a high school classmate who worked for an investment company (he claimed to have the highest annual income of his classmates) and he said that Nissan Life was definitely in trouble, so I consulted with the secretary-general of the Chiba Prefecture Dental Association, who I happened to be visiting (looking back, it was the wrong person to consult with).
He said that life insurance companies are mutual companies, so don’t worry, they will never go bankrupt, so I didn’t understand and just left it as it was, and this is what happened.
So naturally I went to protest to Chiba Bank.
Their response was very disappointing.
Nissan Life went bankrupt, but I continued to repay my debt to Chiba Bank with interest rates of over 10%.
Perhaps because I protested quite strongly at the time, we were blacklisted by Chiba Bank.
Since then, our clinic has continued to do well, but for some reason Chiba Bank has refused to lend to us.
It’s not a problem, though, because we can get loans from other banks.
So every time I eat hot stone bibimbap I’m reminded of Nissan Life’s bankruptcy.
By the way, what happened to the bank employee who recommended Nissan Life Insurance so enthusiastically afterwards? He was transferred to a branch in Osaka.
He probably recommended Nissan Life Insurance to many other companies besides our clinic, so he fled to Osaka,
and his superiors sent him there to wait for the heat to die down.
When I called the Osaka branch to protest, they said that many of Chiba Bank’s employees had signed up with Nissan Life Insurance,
but when I asked them what had happened after that, they said,
“I canceled the contract a long time ago.”
Looking back, I suspect that the employee was not originally a member of Nissan Life Insurance.
When I first met the person in charge, he seemed very honest and did his job calmly,
so I learned not to judge people by first impressions.
In fact, our clinic has a former bank employee on staff.
He works very seriously and is competent.
If I write my experience in something that many people see, it will become even more difficult for our clinic to obtain a loan from Chiba Bank.
Also, some Chiba Bank employees and their families may feel uneasy about visiting Harada Dental Clinic.
However, please rest assured that all patients will be treated professionally regardless of their nationality, creed, or occupation.
This may sound a bit dramatic, but I think these facts must be passed on to future generations.
Thank you for reading to the end.
Ever since the manager of that Korean restaurant in Koriyama enthusiastically mixed the bibimbap, saying, “If you don’t mix it quickly like this, the flavor will deteriorate,” I’ve of course been mixing it with great enthusiasm.
It has been getting warmer. Down jackets are no longer necessary in Chiba.
The other day, I was asked by a foreigner living abroad, “I definitely want to travel to Japan. Where would you recommend?”
If you are coming to Japan for the first time, I answered “Kyoto” without any hesitation.
Kyoto is a very deep place for me who was born and raised in the Kanto region.
I once stayed at a ryokan in the city, which is said to be one of the three great ryokans, and when dinner was about to start, I received advice from Nakai about what to drink with the meal.
According to her, Kyoto is famous for its delicious sake, and according to Kyoto regulations, the toast must be made with sake.
eh! ? I didn’t think it would be possible, but he said it was too calm, so I decided to start with sake.
Of course, I had planned to use sake from the beginning, without Mr. Nakai telling me.
No, it can’t be like that, I remembered that when I was invited to a dinner party in Gion, the locals would toast with beer.
As expected, there was only one of the Gosanke, and the food and alcohol were very delicious.
Then when I saw the bottle of sake…it was sake from Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture!
One was taken.
It was the same waitress at the next morning’s meal, but of course I didn’t mention the sake I had the day before.
I will not do such a rude thing.
I like to do things like this kind of bargaining.
After that, I confirmed with someone from Kyoto, but please be assured that there is no rule that sake must be used for the toast.
This is Mikio Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
I can feel the arrival of spring in my body.
Plums are beautiful.Did the plum bloom?The song “The cherry blossoms are not yet blooming” comes to mind.
I had the opportunity to go to Kyoto last year.
I was the only guest at a small inn with only four rooms.It’s like a family-run inn, and it’s a place where you can barely enter the bathtub alone.
The reason why I stayed at such a place is that the locals recommended it, and the Kamogawa River was visible from the room, and the building was made in the old fashioned Kyoto style.
Since I was alone, the proprietress probably took care of me, and told me about Kyoto after breakfast.
About the famous white miso.
It varies depending on the inn or restaurant, but basically
White miso in winter and red miso in summer.
Specifically, January is 100% white miso, and July is 100% red miso.Change the allocation each month.
For example, in February, 90% white miso and 10% red miso.
In March, 80% white miso and 20% red miso.
I liked this kind of story and felt a little knowledgeable.
At the end of the landlady’s story, the classic gag was tightened.
The gags unique to Kyoto were so funny that I almost fainted.
I could feel the care taken so that the guests would not be bored, and I would like to stay at this ryokan again.
