From Hawaii to Japan

I'm in Japan now, have been for a full week, but I should begin with my niece's first birthday party.

Wow...that was a big party. At least by my standards. There were about 200 people, including little kids and infants, and I knew many of them as old family friends or old friends of my brother, Chad. As my cousin Su said, it was awfully nice of Chad to throw me a going away party. Actually, although the lady of honor was late (she overslept), she completely adorable in a little mu`umu`u made from the same patterned material as Chad and his wife Chris were wearing. My Aunty Donna and Uncle Carl had also flown down from Reno, Nevada, to visit and help out and share in the festivities, and it was great to see them. The party was Saturday, September 8th, just two days before I left, though really more like one, since I was leaving early on Monday morning.

Sunday was spent in packing, hanging out with family, and seeing a late night showing of 3:10 to Yuma, the second film version of the Elmore Leonard novel of the same title.

On Monday morning, I was early, around 5:30, I think, to pack up those last few things, eat a leisurely breakfast, and get driven to the airport by my dad. I was about two hours early for my flight, but I prefer that to any kind of last minute rush, and beside, with Honolulu traffic, one can never really be sure how long it will take to get somewhere. As I was taking a United flight, Lori, my step-mother, emailed some friends working the trip and so I was able to get a little personal service, which was really nice. All in all, a pleasant flight (especially as the seat next to me remained empty, making it easy for me to get up any time I wanted).

And though I left on Monday morning, I arrived Tuesday afternoon...a miracle of time travel! Or the ever confusing International Dateline. I was picked up at the airport by Rika, a woman who works at Osaka Gakuin University and was given the arduous task of helping me get settled. We took a luxurious ride in a taxi (cost: roughly $250!) Over the next few days, I spent a lot of time cleaning and setting up utilities (gas, cell phone, internet connection, bank account, and alien registration). Actually, Rika set it all up, even filling out the forms for me (it would have taken me years to write out the kanji as many times as she had to)...I just sort of sat there with her. Anyway, most of that was done, and the cleaning, by Saturday evening. So over the last few days, I've been meeting with friends, mostly old but some new, and organizing my things (which was not included in my "cleaning" time.)

Last Friday, though, in the midst of the cleaning frenzy, I took most of the day off to go back to my old town, Aioi, to meet Kaori, a former student and friend, and to go up to my old school, too. While trains almost always run on time here in Japan, or they used to anyway, Friday morning JR (the biggest company) was running late...so I was late meeting Kaori by 30 minutes. When I saw her, for the first time in years, I really felt like I'd come home. A second home, to be sure, but a home. There in my old town, with my old friend. It was nice. As she'd had some time since I was late, she'd gone up to the school and discovered that that day there was a cultural festival at the school (which I'd helped students work on when I was there). However, the gym was under renovation, so everyone, students and teachers, were in the next town over at a concert hall. Kaori and I went up to the school and chatted for a few minutes with some of the old office staff, then drove over to Ako where the festival had moved to. I got to see some old teachers, but not as many as I would have liked, many of them having moved on; in Japan, teachers usually only stay at a school for up to seven years, thereafter being transferred to another school within a certain geographic area. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and I'm planning to make another trip back in the fall.

On Sunday, I got to meet up with Tomoko, a Japanese girl I'd met in Virginia when she worked at the office of my old job at George Mason University. We spent a fun day hanging around Umeda (the main train station area of Osaka) with a high school friend of hers.

That brings us up to today. I went to Kyoto to meet a friend for dinner, but unfortunately she had to leave immediately as her mother was ill. Tomorrow my uncle Trav is in town; he's a flight attendant with United Airlines and is on a layover. On Friday I'm getting together with some of my new colleagues (most of whom I've not yet met), and Sunday holds a get together with some of my best Japanese friends, Ryota and Sunao and their daughter Himari, who, I think, is two...and apparently speaks some English!

School starts October 1st, and I'm going to start having meetings as of next week, so this is my last hurrah...I've been off for the last three and a half months, and while I'm not dreading returning to work, I'm not overly eager for it either. Oh well, it is what is. I think I'll enjoy the work, and I'm already enjoying the environment.

Take a look at my flickr webpage for more pictures of my apartment, and hopefully pictures of other stuff soon.

August is gone, and I've got only five days left.

Hard for me to believe, but August flew by in a blur, and here I am with only a few days left. Luckily, I did most of what I wanted to, and anything I didn't get to, I can do next time.

August...I read a few books, saw a few movies, hung out a lot with friends and family, went to the beach a few times, went hiking a few times...and that's it. Pretty nice, ah? You know, I really got into running as a kind of mediation, a good, healthy way to relieve stress and get some balance, but since I've been here, I've not had much need to do it for that reason...and I bet you can see why.

Still, there were some highlights. First, there was all the shave ice I was eating. (For those of you who may not know, "shave ice" = "snow cone.") Now, of course the most famous place to go in Hawaii is Matsumoto's in Hale`iwa on the North Shore of Oahu, but my personal favorite is a place called Baldwin's in a rundown old shopping plaza in Aiea. Instead of a cone, they give you a cup, so you don't have melted ice and syrup running down your hand, and I just like their consistency the best. A lot of friends like Waiola, in Kapahulu or Mo`ili`ili, but for me, the ice is too slushy. (I know, some of you must be laughing as I'm getting so picky about this, but you'd say the same kinds of things if you were here eating it like I have been.)

Second, and I must say, far better than the shave ice (which didn't help me lose any weight), was the day I saw dolphins at Waimea Bay. I've grown up in Hawaii, and I've been to Waimea a lot, but never have I once seen dolphins anywhere. But two weeks ago, I was at Waimea, sitting on the beach, reading a book, when I heard a girl sitting a few feet away say something like "I wish I could be out there." So I looked up to see why she would say that, and about 80 yards out I saw about five fins crest, breaking the surface in smooth short arcs, the dolphins coming up for air. A few seconds later, a few more fins. There were a few people out in the water, kind of near, so I dropped my book, pulled on my goggles (which I'd luckily brought with me), and ran down to the water. I swam straight out for a minute then stopped to see where they were; when I first saw them, they were heading from right to left across the bay, but now they'd turned back. But to make it that much cooler, right then, at that moment when I'd stopped to see where they were, a dolphin comes flying out of the water, spiraling like a drill. Then another, in the same spiraling flight. Utterly beautiful. I watched for a moment longer, but no more breached the surface, so I started swimming again, catching up to the herd in another minute. The water was pretty clear, but I still had to get about 20 yards away to see them. There were probably about 20, some still young, just lazily swimming across the bottom of the bay, maybe 20 or 30 feet down. Unfortunately, after only a minute or so of this the lifeguards got on the loudspeaker and asked all of us in the water to stay 50 yards from the dolphins, and as that would afford me no view, I swam in. Still, I have had few such moments of amazement as that. Definitely one of the favorite moments of my life.

Finally, there was Kauai. I went there to help my brother and his friends reroof the rental property that my dad and his wife own. Kauai is beautiful. Quiet. Peaceful. Country. Just the kind of place I'd love to live now, but with the expense of property and the poor job market, I couldn't afford it. I mean, the locals say the beaches are "crowded" when there are 20 to 30 people; for me, that's still empty. Everything there just moves at a slower pace, a pace that seems more reasonable for actual living. And we got to do just that. We hung out on Thursday and Friday, just sitting around eating delicious food my dad's wife Lori cooked up, talking story (a.k.a. "chatting" for those of you not familiar with that local term), and laughing. On Saturday we had to work hard. No, work HARD. We started at 7:30, took an hour for lunch at 11:30, then finished up around 4:30. I didn't want to move for the rest of the day, but we did get the whole thing done in a day, which meant Sunday was a day for rest. We hit the beach again, hung out, ate more. On Monday, my flight left at 8:30 PM, while everyone else left at 2, so I decided to use the morning to go kayaking up the Wailua river, at the end of which you get to hike into a valley (with very little elevation gain) to a small water fall and swimming hole. It's a very mellow river (Class 1 for those of you who know what that means), so I didn't have any trouble paddling the "sit-on-top" ocean kayak I had. After that, I decided that if I live in Hawaii later, I'm going to have a kayak.

My niece's big first birthday party is coming up on Saturday, and I even have my aunt and uncle flying down from Reno for it. My brother tells me something like 200 people. It should be a lot of fun.

The only other news I have is about my job. I got to meet some of the people who I'll be working with in Japan, as they are all from Hawaii, as well as the woman whose job (and apartment) I'm taking over. They are all really nice, friendly, down to earth people, and I'm excited about working with them. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I also got my work schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Yup, three days off, though no two days in a row. I've been told that once a month, though, we'll get a Saturday off, which means that I'll get a three-day weekend...that sounds cool. But hopefully after this term, I'll get two days off in a row...and still have three days off every week (I HOPE!).

That's it for now, I think. I hope you are all in good health. Take care. Aloha.

Back in Hawaii

So I'm back in Hawaii again. I know, I don't sound so enthusiastic, and so many of you are probably jealous. It's never really been within my ability to adequately explain to most people that Hawaii, while beautiful and warm and always home to me, is just not exotic. It's always relaxing, it's always comforting on some level, and it is special...but it's where I grew up, where I spent my teenage years and into my early twenties. I did all my exploring. I love it here, but as I'm just hanging out, and as of my friends are now busy with jobs, wives, and sometimes kids, there's just only so much hanging around I want to do. See, even now it all just sounds like a complaint, which is really isn't. I guess I'm just eager to get started on the next phase of my life: Japan.

But anyway, that's for later. I'll be here in Hawaii until September 10th, arriving in Japan on September 11th, because they're 19 hours ahead of Hawaii. If you're somewhere in the continental US, you'll have to figure it out on your own.

Before I got back here, though, I did get up to Sacramento yet again (most time I've ever spent there) to visit a high school classmate, Chris, and his family. He's got a little boy, Jeffy, who's two. We went swimming in the North Fork of the American River just east of Auburn. You have to take these little, narrow dirt roads for a mile or two or three to get down there, but it's well worth it. The valleys are pretty, and the rivers are beautiful, just the right temperature to cool you off in the summer heat. I got to see Chris's parents and siblings, too, whom I knew as well. I spent the night there, seeing I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, which was funny and not bad, so long as you don't go looking for what's obviously not going to be there: real substance.

The next day, Sunday, July 22, I drove around the south end of Lake Tahoe and over into Nevada to visit my uncle. It'd been a while since I'd seen him or my aunt, so that was really nice. I got to hang out with him for the afternoon, and a few of his many cats came over to say hello to me, though I (unfortunately) can't get to friendly with them as I've got an allergy.

Two days later, on July 24th, I arrived back in Hawaii. I had a somewhat hectic last morning in Reno, Nevada, as I woke up later than I should have (but not later than I'd planned) and realized I needed to pack a few things differently. Then I drove my car to the airport where I was going to leave it in long term parking for a friend of mine, Aaron, to pick up--he was going to fly into Reno two days later and drive the car back out to Colorado or Indiana. So I'm driving to the airport when I realize that while I've budgeted myself enough time to check in and get through security if I were getting dropped off, I'm going to be rushing because I needed to park the car, get a luggage cart to carry my bags, check in, and still make it through security...if there was a line at security, I was screwed. I park my car, get out and start running--literally--to get a luggage cart, when I see an older couple with one...maybe there's a dispenser in the parking lot, I think...no, they said they just found it, but they're generous and they have small bags, so they give it to me...I rush back to my car, get my stuff, and jog it all to the terminal. And, shocker, there's no line at all. Nor was there one at security. I could've walked calmly and still made it with enough time...oh well, for the first time in a while, when it comes to airports, I didn't plan ahead well.

As expected, after spending most of the preceding three weeks in Denver or farther west, I had gotten used to the drier climate, so stepping off the plane in Hawaii was shocking, the humidity hitting me, quickly making me feel like a human sticker.

I got to see my niece right away. This picture is a few months old, but it's one of my favorites. I'm not a big fan of kids, many of you know, but I do adore this little girl. She's a bundle of fun, even when she starts crying...okay, maybe not then so much, but she is great.

Since I've been back, just a week now, I've had the chance to see all of my family here at a little party at my cousin's house, and I've seen quite a few friends, too. I bumped into an old friend from a writing group, Lisa, whom I hadn't seen in years, though that's my only random meeting so far...but there'll be more, as there always are when I'm back home.

No, I haven't been to the beach yet, and no, I haven't started studying Japanese yet. My excuse for the former is that I'm lazy, while my excuse for the latter is that I'm lazy...and the computer program I've ordered (Rosetta Stone) hasn't arrived yet. I'm going to start to practice my kanji, though, tomorrow, and whenever the program arrives, I'll start studying in earnest. I'm also going to resume my study of aikido tomorrow evening, if the dojo in Pearl City suits me...though I'll only be there for a month, so I'll probably go either way.

My blogs for the next month are likely to be more of the same, more of the same...I'll try to post pictures of Hawaii when I get a chance.

July 13 to July 17

So that's two posts today, though the last was written on the 12th and covered us up to there. I wrote to some friends earlier today explaining that I wouldn't be doing the day to day coverage after I leave the US, but really, I think I'm done with that after this post. I've been traveling a lot, so it felt like there was a lot to say...or at least a little to say about a lot of things. Now, however, I'm at the end of the time where different things are going to happen. I'm in Reno now, and although I'll be going to Sacramento again this weekend to visit Chris, a high school friend, I'll be doing the same kind of thing most of these days...I think.

Anyway, last Thursday, I had dinner with family, chatted, and went to bed relatively early. On Friday, I drove out to visit Paula in Redwood Valley, north of Ukiah, a quaint hippiesque town. She's living and working on a ranch where they raise chickens (for meat and eggs), goats, and sheep (recently sheared). The ranch is a kind of commune, with around five homes that I recall, different families living on the same grounds. The primary home had recently been burnt down, a sad loss probably due to some old wiring (the house was from around 1910). I got the tour of the grounds, which seemed haphazardly arranged, as though things had been added as they were needed in the areas that seemed most convenient. The ranch structures, mostly clumped together, were pervaded by the earthy but not completely unpleasant smell of animals and manure. Old farm equipment, some dilapidated beyond use, lay randomly about, as if left wherever they had stopped functioning. One of my favorite things was the garden, where evening primroses (I think they were called) bloomed in, of course, the evening...it was a rare treat to stand and watch them open. Paula and I had dinner in Ukiah, which has a cute downtown area, and where some (overly) optimistic hippie-types were protesting Bush (big surprise) and calling for his impeachment. I wish.

Though I had planned to stay with Paula through the weekend, she unfortunately had to leave on Saturday morning to be with her family after a death in the family. I left early and went to a campground nearby, Clearlake, but they were full, not unexpected since it was the weekend, so I moved on to Colusa where there was a state park. I camped there for the night, walked into town to see the new Harry Potter film, and read. All in all, a relaxing day.

Sunday I hit Sacramento, visiting Marin again. We went into Old Sacramento this time, where some old building have been preserved and turned (appropriately) into tourist traps. It was fun to see the old buildings, though, and Marin told me that the originial first floors had been below what appeared to be street level now: the settelers built on a flood plain, so the originial first floors had been filled in.

I came back to Reno after that, and have been hanging out since. Reno is not exciting, but it's relaxing and I've found a coffee shop that has decent coffee and free wi-fi.

I probably won't post again until after I get back to Hawaii on July 24th. Until then...Aloha.

From July 3 to 12...

I'm now in Reno, NV, after coming the rest of the way across the US. And I've still got some driving ahead of me.

I stayed in Denver until Friday (July 6), hanging out and having a great time with my friends Aaron and Lisa, their friend Aaron, and a few other friends. On the Fourth of July, a bunch of us went to Boulder, bought inner-tubes, and went “tubing” down Boulder Creek. This consists of sitting on a black inner-tube and floating down a series of small rapids. Quite cold, but quite fun...unless you whack your tail bone on a rock hidden in a rapid, then you'll not have fun sitting after that for, what, going on one week now. Oh well, I still had a good time, in spite of bruising.

On July 5th, I saw Sicko, the new Michael Moore film. It was funny and sad, appalling but not so surprising if one has thought about the issues of rising health care costs and access to such expensive care. As all films with an agenda, this one takes a perspective and runs with it, sometimes ignoring counterpoints or weak arguments, but it's a good film about an important issue, and one I think all Americans should address seriously.

I left Denver on Friday, feeling quite sure that when I relocate back to the US, I'll be moving there. My next destination was Cedar City, Utah, home of many Mormons and, apparently, polygamists, though I didn't get to see anyone walking around with their numerous wives. I got to see my friend Krystal there, a former co-worker from Manassas Borders, and we went to see Transformers. I don't expect much from movies like this, the summer blockbuster-type, so I enjoyed it, though there were, of course, things I could have done without. They went for a lot of humor there, and that was okay, but I would have preferred a darker edge. Oh well, no one asked me.

So, after a fun, relaxing night chilling with Krystal (a.k.a. Bling), I headed on to Las Vegas to see my cousin Leah, her husband, Jim, and her three kids, Celia, Thomas, and Mia. I got to stay at a room in Caesar's at night, but my days were spent hanging out with Leah and the kids; I'd never really got to spend much time with Celia (now 4) and had never seen the twins (now 15 months). I had to admire my cousin's energy and motherly touch, and while I enjoyed spending that time with them, I still don't know if I'll ever have kids...I just don't know if I can be so giving.

Monday brought another day of driving, on to LA, to spend another night with my cousin, but also to meet an old high school classmate I'd not seen since 1995 or 96. Seeing Jennifer was nice, and interesting, as we'd never hung out much back then. We had a nice lunch and conversation, but the afternoon was bringing on rushhour traffic, and she had to get home.

Tuesday, I trucked it up 5 and a half hours north along I-5 to Sacramento. If you've never done that drive, you're not missing anything. There is nothing exciting or beautiful or even remotely interesting that I saw. “Dull drive” describes it well, as well as it does Kansas. In Sacramento I saw another old high school classmate, Marin, whom I'd last seen two years before in Hawaii. We hung out, ate vegetarian Vietnamese food, and got some ice cream at Vic's, a Sacramento establishment.

Finally, yesterday morning, I got into Reno. I leave tomorrow for someplace north of Ukiah near Redwood Valley to meet my friend Paula, who recently relocated there from DC. We're going on a canoe trip on Saturday, and may be doing some natural home building on Sunday, though I'm not sure about that. It should be a fun weekend. I'll back in Reno on Sunday or Monday, stay in Reno for another week, then I'll be back in Hawaii for 7 weeks.

Hope all is well with everyone out there...

Packing, moving, and leaving

I opened this blog shortly after I got back from Denver, Colorado, where I am now writing this second entry in a Peaberry coffee shop. I opened the blog, fiddled with it that day, and haven't been back since. Now, however, seemed like a good time to add an entry.

In the last month, I've had more meals with friends than I have ever had in such a short time span. Looking back, I think I probably ate out almost every day, for at least one meal. I definitely put on some fat. Not much, maybe, but some. I am certainly going to miss a lot of people in Virginia--perhaps you can't live in a place for almost four years and not get attached to some people--and it was great to see so many people, though I wish I had gotten to see everyone. I guess a few must be missed in any farewell.

In addition to trying to fit as many people as possible into my schedule for goodbye-meals, I also had to (YUCK!) pack. And although I know I've never owned my own home or anything like that, I've still managed to accumulate a fair amount of stuff over the years. I trimmed it down a lot by giving some to friends and donating a bunch to the Salvation Army. I mailed some stuff back to Hawaii, left a few boxes with friends in Virginia, left a few more with my former roommate to mail to me once I get to Japan, and then a bunch went into my car. That packing, though, that's for the birds. I think I might avoid moving forever just so I won't have to pack again. It always goes so smoothly for the first 50 to 75%, then I start getting all sorts of little things I don't want to get rid of. Anyway, all told, I've managed my stuff quite well and it's going to be stored in one place or another. My friends didn't think I'd be able to get all the stuff in my car into it, but I managed and even have small spaces to cram other little things I might pick up along the way.

So, after several very sad goodbyes, especially on Sunday, my last day in Virginia, I got in my car, loaded with all my stuff, and headed west, aiming for I-70 to get to Denver. I did this drive once before, in December of 2005, a mad rush across the US, desparate to avoid any more bad weather--I'd been waylaid by a snow storm my first night out and spent the night sleeping in my car parked under the roof of a bank's drive-thru. That time, after I woke up in the morning, I drove 1500 miles in 26 hours, stopping only for gas and a two-hour nap. That was not a fun drive, so I thought this time I would slow down, stop for some real sleep in a motel and arrive in a not-so-exhausted state. So on Sunday, I got in my car around 5:30 PM, and headed out. I planned to drive until the next morning, get a motel, sleep until that night, and drive into Denver Tuesday morning. Well, I drove until about 2:30, but then I was too tired, so I stopped at a rest area, propped myself up on some pillows (leaning against all my stuff in the passenger seat, with no room at all to recline the seat), and slept for an hour. I drove two more hours after that and then had to stop again, simply too tired to go on. Two more hours of sleep and the sun was up. Then it was easier to stay awake. I thought I'd drive past Kanasas city, another five or six hours of driving, I think Well, get past Kansas City and there's a toll-road all the way to Topeka, another hour or more. So I get past Topeka and start looking for places...but I'm thrifty, so I keep looking, not finding any I'm willing to pay for. So, after another few hours of driving, I find I'm in Salina, Kanasas, and it occurs to me as I leave the fourth hotel asking for too much money, that with the time change to Colorado, if I just started driving, I could get there in 8 or 9 hours, about 9 or 10 Monday evening. I call my friends, they say ok, and off I go. So, with only three hours sleep, somewhere in Illinois or Missouri, I arrived in Denver last night, exhausted but relaxed, pleased to know that I didn't have to go anywhere for four days. And I didn't have to pay for a place to stay.

So here I am, taking advantage of free wi-fi internet at a coffee shop, waiting for a friend to meet me for dinner, and breathing in deeply the exhilarating and slightly frightening feeling of freedom that I've only ever found when moving to a new place, a whole new life in so many ways.

I don't think I'll always be so verbose...I don't think I'll have the time, but who knows...today I guess I just feel like writing.

To those of you in Virginia, I miss you.

First Blog

Just getting this off the ground.

Right now, I'm trying to get all my stuff ready to move to Japan. I have another month or so here in Virginia, then it's off on the road for a while, a stint back in Hawaii, then to Osaka for a teaching position at Osaka Gakuin University.

If all goes well, I'll be posting regularly here from now on...or semi-regularly.

(By the way, the picture is just a test...but if you're curious, it was taken in Boulder, CO.)