-
Playing hookey
There’s nothing like getting up early and working until lunchtime then playing hookey for the rest of the afternoon. Seth, Tara and I went to Ginza for lunch at a favorite Indian restaurant then walked through the Sony Building. We gawked at the latest computers and electronic gadgets then went on to sit in Hibiya…
-
Electric Work
“Hey, come quick. There’s a man walking on the power lines outside the window,” Tara urged from the office. Sure enough, there he was. He and his companion were dressed in the uniforms of the electric company and were walking along the power lines, inexplicably unbundling the wires that were spiralled together. Tara stuck her…
-
Visitors
Friends who used to live here in Tokyo have returned for a visit. Seth & Tara quit their jobs last June and have been travelling the world. They arrived last night from Fiji via Aukland (where Seth had a emergency room sonogram to rule out a possible deep vein thrombosis problem!). Today they are settling…
-
Japanese holidays
Japanese lawmakers are angling for more long weekends. This year saw the change of two holidays (Coming of Age Day in January and Health-Sports Day in October) from fixed dates to floating Mondays to create long weekends. This is great for overworked salarymen and a boost for the economy as many people turn these three-day…
-
Jet lag nap
I made a serious error last night. After arriving home from Hawaii, I let myself take a nap at about 6 pm, when I felt too tired to keep my eyes open. The nap lasted until 3 am (which is 8 am in Hawaii, the perfect time to get up). Oops. Normally I force myself…
-
Limo service
After two weeks of relatively frugal vacationing on Maui, Tod & I treated ourselves to one blow-out night in Waikiki before boarding the plane back to Tokyo. We stayed at a hotel called W. After showering with all the hotel beauty products, we wrapped ourselves up in fluffy hotel robes and ordered what turned out…
-
Maui no ka io
The Hawaiian language is integrated into everyday speech here. Aloha replaces hello and goodbye. Mahalo (thank you) springs up on signs–Mahalo for not smoking–and in announcements–Passenger Smith please pick up the blue courtesy phone, mahalo. Kapu (private) enhances the no tresspassing signs posted on fences. In the real estate listings, I discovered that an ohana…
-
Sea kayaking
Sea kayaking is great fun. This morning, we joined a kayak/snorkel trip with South Pacific Kayak. Our guide, Lee, paddled with extreme grace making us look like the clumsy amateurs we are. Tod & I paddled right into a big wave. We headed out to the Coral Gardens to snorkel. After the big wave, the…
-
Waterfall
We trekked through a forest of dense bamboo, splashed across a chilly, knee-deep stream, and clambered over rocks to reach the waterfall. We weren’t the only visitors to hike in. Eight well tanned, mud smeared naked people were perched on the boulders surrounding the swimming hole. We watched as they stretched arms to the sun,…
-
Volcano
To celebrate the equinox, we drove to the top of Haleakala, Maui’s 10,023 foot volcano. Above the clouds, we saw the landscape change from lush tropical greenery to sparse shrubs and rocks. An endemic plant, the silversword, which looks like a cross between an aloe and an artemsia, captured our fancy. It grows for twenty…
Archives