Alo~~ha!

We're back in Japan after our week long, super-chillaxing vacay in Hawaii. Sometimes just stepping away for a few days really does help. That is until your back home and your mother-in-law knits her brows and tells your son it's going to rain his first day of school and since he has a 30-minute bike ride there and back he must dress head to toe in a rain coat, hat, and gloves as well. Why? Because all the radiation will be falling from the sky. I'm thinking ,where the hell are my flip flops and pina colada?!

Back to vacation.

Here are some random photos I pulled off my camera. No order and no story. It's kind of a sampling.

We stayed at the Hale Koa, a lovely military hotel with loads of chatty, friendly people. I had almost forgotten what it was like to say good morning to someone and have them answer back. On the down side people who work the registers in the PX should worry less about the state of their fingernails and more about the customer who's standing there grinning furiously at them. No complaints though. Top notch joint with two great restaurants.

Look! Trees!



Here's a sunset at Waikiki Beach, literally a 1-minute (if that) walk from the hotel. I tried to get out there every night to take pictures. Once -- much to the delight of everyone in the restaurant -- I had to bolt during a meal and run to catch it.


Here's another...



And here's one of my favs: my mom and cousin I-forgot-his-name. We all loved him though. He was funny (his timing superb), a fire spinner (somehow I don't think that's the correct word for it), and an artist. He was also very, very short. My mom is short and he had to stand on his toes to look taller than her. That's why she's laughing. That and his muscles. I've got more photos of her with hot Polynesian men than is decent.


Me and M. Riding in something going somewhere.


This little baby was served at the Barefoot Bar (on the beach, of course) and touted to be Hawaii's best Mai Tai. Everyone was drinking them. They were surprisingly stronger than I thought they would be. Very delicious though. The local beer wasn't bad either.



Hanauma Bay. Saw some amazing fish, took some photos of them (I need to get those developed). I also used up another one of my nine lives (a post in and of itself). But I'm not bitter (stupid undertow). Hanauma is breath taking. And you can see colorful fish as long as your arm.


I was worried because the forecast called for rain every day. But nope. Perfect weather. And speaking of perfect, one thing I learned about Hawaii is that all you havevto do was lift your camera, point and click. Perfect.


Remember I mentioned the Barefoot Bar? A great place to sit, read, write, stare at the waves or listen to the musicians who played short gigs during the afternoon and at night. After the luau (twice a week) all the dancers, singers and performers would come over and party with the guests here. I liked it better when it was quiet, near empty, so I stayed away from the luau parties. Although I did hear them until midnight or so. They sounded like fun.


At the Hilton next door they had fireworks one night. Of course, guests from all the hotels up and down the beach gathered to watch. They were nice, but seriously no one does fireworks like Japan.


Oh, and I thought I saw two famous people while there. One was Bill Gates. I could have sworn I saw him walking up and down Waikiki one evening with a very old woman (his mother?). Of course I'm probably wrong. But when I mentioned it, my mom insisted she saw him too. This ticked my dad off to no end because I didn't notify him earlier. I think he wanted to go shake the man's hand. Yes, I'm very glad I didn't mention it to him earlier.

Also saw this guy who I thought looked just like Donald Sutherland [Thank you! Pat for the catch. I had the show right (M.A.S.H.) but totally the wrong actor.]. No? No? He does, doesn't he?


Probably one of the biggest highlights though were the sea turtles. J and I absolutely loved them. We saw one in Hanauma swimming around and this here is Elizabeth. She was on the North Shore resting. They have volunteers that stay out there all day to make sure people don't harass the poor things. Despite that there was some nutcase local who was swimming around trying to "help" three other turtles onto the shore. The volunteers were trying to shoo him away but he wasn't having any of that. Sometimes people suck.


Both J and I decided we'd love to have jobs/enough money to enable us to sit out there and keep an eye on turtles. Don't tell anyone but he bought a really cool pair of pajamas with sea turtles all over them. I was pretty jealous, but since he saw them first and called dibs, I had to settle for a really adorable turtle stuffed animal instead. Not bitter.

Out of nowhere, this, my friends, is a noni. Loads of health benefits. Smells nasty!

And last but not least, the boy-child. Not sure he'd appreciate me putting his sun tanning pics up, so here he is on the beach the first night there. Jeans and long sleeves, soon shed for bathing trunks and short sleeves.



Did I mention how perfect the weather was?

Earthquake Post

I've been utterly overwhelmed and humbled by the number of people who have gotten in touch with me (or my parents) since the earthquake. Relatives, old friends, even people who read this blog but have never commented. Thank you!

We're okay. My story is amazingly lame but here goes...

First, we're in Shizuoka (Yaizu), something like 400 kilometers south of the epicenter. So unlike the temblor we had two years ago this one shook and shook and shook (damn, it was long), but nothing much fell and I could certainly stand up and walk around.

Okay, early Friday, March 11, I had some friends over. While we were talking, four or five crows suddenly dropped out of the sky, in front of my window and started making a huge ruckus (fighting or whatever, I can never tell with birds, see the Gloria post). My friend M. said it was like a scene from the Omen.

No other ominous signs the rest of the day. Although in retrospect several days before the earthquake Cha Cha did NOT want to sleep in J's room. He always does, happily, ever since he was a pup. J sleeps deep and he just loves stealing all his blankets and making a nest out of them for himself. But when we took him up he would whine and scratch at the door and we couldn't figure out what he wanted. He is still camping out downstairs on the sofa with the cats. I actually caught him once sleeping IN the litter box. Slightly worried about the little fellow's mental state. But only slightly. He's always been weird.

The ball of my foot has been hurting for a month or more (not related to earthquake...I think), so I finally decided to go to the doctor. It opened at 3:30 but I knew it would be crowded so I was going to leave at 3:00. At 2:35-ish I was gathering up my insurance card, purse, and car keys when the earthquake started. It was shaky enough to make me think about hiding out under the dining room table. And I would have except my cell rang.

It was my husband. He's on the 10th floor in Shizuoka. He said he thought he was going to be sick the rocking was so bad. I said if the epicenter isn't here (we're supposed to have our very own monster earthquake called the Tokai Earthquake some day) then someplace is in real trouble. He's a programmer and everyone is on their computers and just then someone yelled out the epicenter was way up north. I go, uh-oh. And we got cut off.

Still shaking. I crawl under the table and my by-now-seriously-freaked-out dog comes and joins me. Cats have vanished upstairs long ago. They're clever like that. After what seemed like forever it stopped. Nothing much had fallen and while the sirens were going like crazy outside warning of a tsunami I figured we're far enough inland to be safe. I did, however, call my parents and wake their butts up.

For the rest of that day we had several aftershocks. The worst part of those was the accusing look on Cha Cha's face every time the beams squeaked and the ground moved. He thought *I* was doing this. Not only that but after the first quake he had to go out and pee like every ten minutes. Trying to explain that's not a good idea did nothing to stop his weakened bladder.

One freaky thing: J and his friends were all supposed to go to Disney Land the day after the earthquake. Of course, the trip was canceled, but had they gone they'd have been stuck in the park. Since they were feeling pretty blue about not getting to go for their graduation trip, J invited two of his best friends over and we had a small yakiniku party.




The truth is we had ran out of toilet paper the day before the earthquake. So on the verge of our own natural disaster I went to buy some the next day. I considered going early because I've lived here long enough to know how people can sometimes get excited/worried and hoard. (Don't get me started on Thai Rice Debacle of '93.) But, no, that wouldn't happen, would it? By the time I got to the supermarket it was 5pm and the shelves were practically wiped clean. There was no toilet paper, rice, bread, meat, cup noodles, batteries...What I think happened is that the stores were diverting some foodstuffs and necessities to the devastated areas up north. When people came shopping and saw the shelves half full they slightly freaked.

Keeping the eye on the news. Otherwise, here in Shizuoka is life as usual.

J graduated junior high last week. He decided to go to a good private high school and will start there the first week in April. We already had an all-day orientation where I learned his homeroom is on the 7th floor and neither kids, nor moms are allowed to use elevators and the Dean of Students is a hard ass like I haven't seen in years. I didn't think they made them like this anymore. *worried* And today was a day full of tests. Yes, before he even officially starts school he has to take tests in every subject. *ouch* Let's just say...we're all a little nervous.

But back in August when I was fretting over entrance exams, I went and bought three tickets to Hawaii. Pretty much I guessed at the dates having no idea what high school he'd go to and when it would start or when the orientation would be, and I ended up being very luckily and guessing right. He has a mere week between junior high and high school and we'll be in the islands trying to soak up sun and drink as many fancy fruity drinks as we can. Oh, J says they also gave them homework today. So he'll have his feet in the sand and his nose in a book.

Stay tuned for photos though. I've got a feeling I'm going to take a picture of every fruit-filled drink I drink. I'm bringing the Mac with me to keep up with news in Japan, so I might *gasp* update every day! Might, I tell you, I've also got a lot of sleep to catch up on. ^^v