A heartwarming story: Miyahara Kouharu, born in Nagano to a family of dentists who searched for rural areas where their service was needed, followed family tradition and chose Kumamura, where the village built a clinic and lent it to him free of charge. Elderly people in the village who once had to trek to Hitoyoshi City appreciated the local clinic. Miyahara-san was also generous in visiting mountainous areas of neighboring Ashikita. However, the clinic was destroyed in the floods of last July, and rebuilding on the spot was judged unwise due to danger of future floods. So he found a vacant convenience store 10KM away and reopened there. 「村には戻らんとですか」(“Won’t you return to the village?” in beautiful local dialect), but that is impossible for the moment. Nevertheless, Dr. Miyahara said, “I want to do my best for the people of Kuma Village and continue to pray for the reconstruction of the village as soon as possible.” Pictured below, saying to a young patient, 「もう少し口を開けて。はい、おりこうさん」(“Open a little wider. Yes, that’s a good girl.”- dentist language is pretty much international). - William https://kumanichi.com/news/id223299