The Tree Fell

We returned to Illinois on Tuesday. We're selling our house to our daughter, her husband and granddaughter tomorrow. Today, the tree fell.

We've had this horse chestnut tree for the past 35 years. It was several decades old when we bought our home in 1976. It has been a squirrel haven all this time. We knew the tree had been impacted several years ago and it was a matter of time. The tree people said there was no problem with it falling down even if it completely died. Art had been calling the landscapers all day today to get some estimates on taking it down.


There was a stiff wind today but nothing we were concerned about. We were in the house when we thought we heard "something." We thought it might be KC waking from her nap and jumping down from her bed.

Nope. It wasn't her. Our neighbor across the street came over to tell us. We could not believe our eyes!

We called the city, but they were closed since it was 5:00. We called the emergency number and they asked us if emergency vehicles could pass through. We thought they could but they wouldn't be able to reach the fire hydrant that had been placed there last year.

The fire fighters came over with their chain saws and started sawing the tree limbs right away.

They cleared the hydrant and then cleared the street in case a fire truck needed to park there.

As shocking as this all was, the tree fell away from both houses. It did not hit any cars. It did not hit any people. It did not hit the fire hydrant. It even missed KC's pinwheel.

KC thought she should help.

One of our neighbors stopped by to help us and then gave us the name of some workers who will come to take the tree away tomorrow morning. It's rather an expense but it would have been even more expensive if it was still standing.

In fact, we got to see a lot of our old neighbors today. It was a shock to see the tree fall, but you know... it could have been a lot worse.

Actually, we were very lucky!

Back in Chicago!

There's a phrase in Hawaii to explain how busy you are. Running around like a chicken without a head. That's what it feels like we've been doing...especially the part about without the head.

However, we got almost everything done and were on our way to Chicago. What a strange thought. Three weeks ago we went west to Japan and were a day ahead. On Monday we went East to Chicago and were 5 hours ahead. Weird. I was barely done with jet lag. Somehow I don't feel quite as bad this time.

We left at 5:15 PM Hawaii time on Monday and arrived in Fort Worth, Texas at 5:40 AM (Central Standard time). Made the transfer to a different plane. Lost an engine and an hour. Arrived in Illinois on Tuesday at 10:20 AM.


Our daughter, Tiffany and granddaughter KC were there to greet us with balloons and a welcome sign that KC made. She picked out the balloons which is why one was a birthday balloon even though it wasn't anybody's birthday. She likes birthday parties.

It was quite a surprise. Even though we'd seen KC on Skype we didn't realize how much energy she had. She was running around in circles all around us, chattering and singing. Goodness!

Oops! I've just been informed we are leaving right now to do some errands. Off we go!

Another Trip

It's been an excruciatingly cramped two weeks since we've been back from Japan. I can hardly believe we managed to fit in all we've had to do before we leave again... this time in another direction. We'll be heading the other way to Illinois to visit our daughter and her family, and then our son and his family in New Mexico.

In our two weeks back, we've had a horrendous amount of doctors' visits. We've had mom's pre-surgery, eye surgery, post-eye surgery, doctor's visit to check out her knee, MRI to see what's in her knee, a humongous Cousins Party, my doctor visit, visiting Art's cousin whose husband passed away, ETC.

The eye surgery to insert a tube and create a channel to unblock Mom's clogged tear ducts was trauma-less for her. However, there's been a mild infection so she's been given anti-biotics. This was her first surgery and she said she was comfortable throughout. In fact, even the hospital gown was comfortable. They had a hose that you inserted into the paper gown to keep it warm. She was nice and toasty.


The MRI showed that she has some kind of contusion around her knees which means she's hit it somehow. However, she swears she never really fell or had it hit in any way. It's a mystery. She's able to get around without the wheelchair now so she should be fine. The neighbors are incredibly wonderful about watching out for her when we leave and my brother is always checking up on her.

Creating our travel album about our trip to Japan has consumed a lot of our time these past two weeks late into the night. We could have waited until we returned from the mainland, but we knew my mother and aunt would want to see the photos. I think we had over 5,000 photos that we took. We finished it, printed it, copied it at Office Depot and put them in a binder...over 100 pages of it. Both aunt and mother are enjoying reliving their trip.


Now we've brought down our suitcases and are packing once again. We're running around crazy again trying to get things to bring to Illinois and New Mexico. We're also trying to get everything set up for Mom with ready to eat meals that she can prepare easily and cleaning up as much as we can.

Meanwhile, Art's cousin has told us that his father, Art's uncle is in a coma. Is it just me or is this spring extra turbulent?

I'd like to leave you with a lovely thought. Another of Art's cousins lost her husband while we were gone. We brought over lunch and visited with her. She said her husband died on their grandson's birthday. She told her daughter, "I'm sorry Dad had to pass away on your son's birthday. I hope it doesn't spoil the day for him." Her daughter, who is also Buddhist said, "No, Mom. The day is still a beautiful one. It is the day my son was born into this world and it is the day Dad was born into the Pure Land."

I really like that.

I'll Be Back!

Hi Everybody,
I just wanted to drop you a post to let you know I'll be a little out of it for the next few weeks. It's taken me a whole week to get over the jet-lag... and I'm still not over it. I think I was running on adrenalin during the trip to get up early, run around like crazy, upload our photos onto our laptop, post my blog, do laundry, etc. and go to bed late every night.

Now that we're home I've been trying to go through the 7,000 photos we took with three cameras in order to create a photo album for my mom and aunt before we leave for Chicago in less than 2 weeks.

We've also had my doctor's appointments and mom's doctor's appointments for her knee.
On top of all that, in the next two weeks, we have to prepare for our month long trip to Illinois... AND we've got mom's pre-op, eye surgery, post surgery, knee MRI, visit to Art's cousin whose husband passed away while we were gone, Cousins Party to share our mother's family history, ETC. It's making my head spin!



However, we did have a fun respite when we returned from our trip. My cousin, Larry's wife, Yumiko was in the Merrie Monarch show.


She is so graceful! It was fun watching the Merrie Monarch hula dancers while I was desperately trying to sort, organize and put things away after our trip.



When we get to Chicago, we'll have a short time with our daughter, Tiffany and son-in-law before they go on a cruise and we'll have KC all to ourselves. Tif says I'll be able to catch up on my blogging once we get to Illinois. I wonder.

I hope so.

Day #16 Return to Hawaii

We're safely back in Hawaii and it's the weirdest feeling. We left Japan on Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM and returned to Hawaii on Wednesday morning at 8:40. Our Jalway flight was 6 hours and 20 minutes, arriving in Hawaii 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

I can hardly believe we were in Japan this morning... oh wait, it's actually yesterday morning.... oh never mind.

This was our last free Toyoko Inn breakfast. I wish I could eat like this every morning. This was the first morning they didn't serve rice balls. They served rice, just not musubi (flavored rice balls).

Tomorrow morning, I'm back to my usual oatmeal with cranberries.

After breakfast we talked to our son, Jon in New Mexico via Skype. Our daughter and granddaughter also called to wish us a safe flight. I had to smile when I heard Jon's parting words, "Talk to you again when you're state-side."

We left Toyoko Inn behind us and headed toward the train station. We had 6 carry-ons and 1 check-in luggage that we were pulling along. I kept counting our items at every stop. Thank goodness we had auntie to push mom.

Since we left Toyoko Inn at 9:45 AM and our train did not leave until noon, we had quite a bit of time to kill. Auntie was able to do some more "omiyage" (present) shopping with mom while we made use of the comfortable wheelchair.

Our next stop was to buy our bento (box lunch). There was such a huge selection we had the hardest time choosing. There were three kinds that I was ready to buy for myself. Not to worry... I controlled myself.

Auntie commented that eating three big meals with rice a day for more than two weeks was going to have us all gaining weight. I weighed myself when I returned to Hawaii. It was incredible! I lost 4 pounds.

There are very few overweight people in Japan. I think it's because they don't eat a whole lot of fried, fatty foods. A lot of their diet is mostly seafood, vegetables and soybeans cooked in myriad imaginative ways.

Once on the train, I could see that the day had turned cloudy, dark and rainy. Since we would no longer be outside, we were quite comfortable.

The Shinkansen or bullet train has very spacious seats and tons of leg room. We really made use of our 2 week JR train pass. You can only buy this pass if you are a visitor to the country.

And then it was time to break out our bento lunches. Yummmm... I'm going to miss these. We have something like it in Hawaii but it's doesn't seem quite as wonderful.

Oh yes! The sisters really enjoyed it.

I wish I could fall asleep as easily as these two. It would make the time go a lot faster. Oh wait, maybe they're doing their zazen (meditation)?

Our friend, Sam had asked if we could change our train schedule to meet him in Shinazawa. It worked out perfectly. Otherwise, we'd have had to spend more time at the Osaka station buying things we had no more hands to carry with.

Sam treated us to some scrumptious dessert and coffee. I know he kept up with my blog but we couldn't help gushing over all the things we'd seen in his country. Sam had helped us immeasurably with making all our reservations for the Shinkansen and travel information inside Japan.

The two hours with Sam sped by and he led us to the train assistant who took us to our next boarding platform. Sam gave us omiyages of the most delectable rice crackers we've ever tasted. Oh yes, we already ate some. We're going to ration them in the next few days.

The Japanese really are so incredible creative with their rice crackers and mochi (glutinous rice). It doesn't sound amazingly delicious but trust me, it is!

Back on the train, auntie and mom had fun reading the magazines that Sam had brought for them.

Very quickly, we arrived at Narita Airport (outside Tokyo). We kept our fingers crossed that our three bulging suitcases had arrived safely. Not a problem. I'm so amazed at how efficient their system is... and economical. How do they do this?

We started walking toward the Jalways check-in counter on the far side of the airport. Art saw the long line of people and started to rush toward it. A uniformed woman came over to us when she saw the wheelchair. She said she would take care of us. I had to call Art back.

Good grief! She handled everything efficiently, with kindness and courtesy. They took care of our suitcases, attaching handicapped tags to them and collected mom's wheelchair, She was given an airline wheelchair to use.

The next thing the sisters absolutely wanted to do was to call their sister and brother to thank them and say their farewells. We used the Japanese phone cards we kept with us since we didn't have a cellphone.

Listening to them, Art and I felt wonderful that we were able to do this.

I met someone from the Big Island at the airport waiting area. She said she was blown away with the kindness and politeness of the Japanese people. We were, too. She left ruefully saying, "I guess we have to go back to reality now."

The other nice thing about Japan... no tipping. No kidding. They are polite and kind because it's the right thing to do, not because they might be paid more.

I wondered about that. We're from the Aloha State. We're friendly, too. Well, we found out that it's not necessarily so all the time.

The flight had several movies to choose from. We got to see Avatar again, It's Complicated and the Sherlock Holmes movie. The time really went by quickly.

Back in Honolulu, I saw that what the Big Island woman said could be true. I'd filled out the immigration paper for all of us as one family. The passport person said quite testily, "How are you related? Do you all live in one house?"

On the other hand, we had an airport assistant help us along taking us to the front of lines to lead us through the maze of returning from a foreign country quickly. He showed us that our luggage had even been already collected for us and he took us out to the curb where my cousin and brother were waiting for us. They could hardly believe all the things we were carrying with us. I have to admit it was pretty amazing that we didn't lose anything.

We got back safely to find out that the water main had broken down the street! We've been without water now for 8 hours. Arrrghhhh!

Looking back on this trip, it's hard to believe that we wondered if we should cancel it when mom hurt her knee the Saturday night before the Monday morning we were scheduled to leave.

Busy day tomorrow. I'd better get to bed. It's almost midnight! Thanks for coming along with us, everybody. It made it that much more special that we were able to share this experience.

Day #15 Koyasan

Today is our last day of sight seeing. Tomorrow will be a day of travel. We'll be heading back to Narita Airport in Tokyo, collecting our 3 suitcases at the Takkyubin (keeping our fingers crossed that they all arrived safely) and returning to Hawaii.

I can't believe the 15 days went by so quickly it's almost a blur. Thank goodness I have the blog to keep my head straight.

We started our morning with a surprise Skype call from our daughter and granddaughter. It was such an amazing feeling to see them half a world away.

Then it was downstairs for breakfast. We're staying at an older Toyoko Inn but the breakfast was quite impressive. This was Art's plate. He decided to forgo the rice balls this morning. No me... or mom or auntie. We ate everything they offered. It was fun to see several westerners there eating only the sausage and bread that was offered.

The bathroom is about as tiny as it's possible to be. The faucet swings over to either the tub or the sink. Instead of shampoo, soap and conditioner packets, Toyoko Inn provides these dispensers that give you as much soap and such without the trash. I thought it was an excellent idea.

I can never figure out these train maps. Art did great.

Auntie helped Art figure out the ticket machines for the subway system. It does give you and English option as well but it was still daunting.

It was also a challenge to go against the rush hour people traffic at the subway/train station.

Once we got to the ticket booth and they saw our wheelchair, someone came to help us. THAT was great! Maybe we should always travel with a wheelchair.

The train helper also made sure our ticketing was correct. This was a really tricky travel day. We had to go on the rush hour SUBWAY, the Nankai TRAIN, a CABLE CAR and BUS!

Watching my mother and aunt, I wished I had a sister, too. I love my brother but to see mom and her sisters, it just makes me envious. They are forever giggling, teasing and laughing with each other spending a lot of time remembering their shared past. There's so much love.

We were on our way to Koyasan. It is a sacred mountain with a ton of huge grave markers of famous people. We don't have anything equivalent to it in the states because according to my mother, this place is 1300 years old... or was it 1200? Oh shoot! I can't remember and Art's travel book is in a suitcase bound for Narita.

Mt. Koya is the center of Shingon Buddhism, a sect introduced to Japan by Kobo Daishi in 805.

From having watched a few historical type dramas with my mom, we know that there were a number of people sent to Koyasan in exile. Well, we could see that you were really in exile because it's VERY far away, deep and high in the mountains. There were no trains or cable cars back then.

When other passengers boarded the train mom and auntie had a great time talking to them. It certainly seemed to shorten the trip when you have great company.

The cable car was another fun experience.

Art stayed at the foot of the cable car to take photos.

This was the view looking back from where we were going.

It took about 10-15 minutes almost straight up the mountain. We asked someone if the wheelchair would be problematic. They said Koyasan had been really made more accessible to handicapped people. Incredible!

Once we got off the cable car, we boarded a bus to the grave and temple area.

Before entering the sacred area, we washed our hands. Auntie washed her mouth, too. You're supposed to. Ummm... I took a pass on that one.

We found this interesting grave marker. Hmmm...

Mom and Auntie were surprised at this grave marker. They burst out laughing. It's a tombstone for termites. Well, I wish all the termites in Hawaii were dead, too.

(Later: Art said this marker was put up by a termite extermination company for the respose of all the insects it had to do away with.)

An audio tour was available but we didn't have time since it's almost 2 hours of travel one way and the day just wasn't long enough.

It didn't matter. Mom and Auntie are such history buffs that they read the grave markers and gave us the detailed information of each person.

I can't believe we took 371 photos today. HOW is that possible?

Sorry... Mom and Auntie did tell us whose grave this belonged to but I'm forgetting. It was REALLY important though.

At the shrine, people were throwing water on all these religious statues. Mom said she didn't know why but what the heck! Art did it anyway. I did, too. I also got wet. Such a klutz!

By coincidence we were all wearing purple. Auntie said it's the color of Buddhism so she decided to wear it. Mom just happened to be wearing my fleece jacket.

Throughout the trip, we worried about this last day of sight seeing. Koyasan is known for being cold. It is also often rainy. A cold and rainy day at Koyasan would have been utterly miserable for mom.

Instead, it was perfect. I mean, really, really PERFECT! It was sunny and comfortably warm. We couldn't have hoped for a better day.

Mom had so much she wanted to teach us. I just wish we could understand the language better. I know some Japanese and it was tricky for me. I could just imagine how difficult it was for Art to follow it all.

Lunch was oyako donburi. Donburi is a bowl. Oyako literally means parent and child. The dish is sort of a chicken and egg omelet poured over hot rice. Delicious!

We decided to leave a little earlier than planned at about 2:00. The sisters were getting rather weary or maybe it was just the big lunch.

At one of the train stops we noticed this worker cleaning the trash bin. We couldn't believe how much time he spent cleaning the outside... and then incredibly... the INSIDE!

It always surprises us to see how clean the public areas are kept. I have to confess we don't clean our own house this well. I take that back. Maybe mom does.

We stopped at the upscale store, Takashimaya in Namba and saw this cantaloupe selling for 21,000 yen. That's over $210.00 for two cantaloupes!

We decided not to eat there and caught the subway to our train stop in Shin Osaka.

I'm glad we did because we had a fabulous last dinner there!

Then we walked back to our hotel room and had some goma dofu (sesame tofu) for dessert. Auntie had bought some to try at Koyasan.
She was disappointed. It wasn't very good but it was still fun to taste something different.

It will be a tiring day of traveling tomorrow from Osaka to Narita. Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well.

We're still blown away by how fortunate we've been on this trip. The weather which was promising to be a problem at the start didn't come to pass. Instead, we've really had manageable, almost wonderful weather. I swear somebody was watching out for us. I can't believe the last minute necessity of the wheelchair actually worked out to our advantage in many ways. I just hope mom's knee gets better soon!