Emergency Dental Visit

One day, about a week and a half before our trip to Japan in October, my gum started to hurt every time I flossed down one of my molars. It didn't hurt when I ate or pressed down on the tooth, only when I flossed.

Art was concerned because he didn't want me to have any gum disease or infection or cavity or anything else happen while away on a trip. He insisted that I call the dentist and ask for an appointment. So I did.

"Does it hurt when you bite down?" the receptionist asked.

"No," I answered.

"Is there any bleeding when you floss?"

"No," I answered again.

"Are the gums swollen?"

"Ummm.... no, I don't think so."

So it went but she said I should come in and have the dentist look at it.

Dr. Chun is great! I really like her. I'd just been to see her for my 6 month check up last month. I told her it hurt when I flossed between the second the third molars from the back of the mouth. The X-rays didn't show a problem.

She asked me if I ate popcorn before my gum started to hurt. I told her I'd had quite a bit of popcorn. She said a lot of people who ate popcorn come in because the kernel shell gets trapped between the teeth and gums.

I told her Art had me rinsing with Listerine. She said salt water would be better and that the Listerine wouldn't help.

She also gave me a prescription for antibiotics to have during my trip just in case I start getting an infection then.

If it continued hurting in the next few days she suggested I come in and have her use a powerful water spray into the area between my teeth and gum to flush out anything that might be trapped there.

She then tried applying something cold to my teeth and asked if I could feel it. She held it against the two bothersome teeth and I could barely feel it. Then she held it against another tooth and I said I could feel it better there. She laughed and said that's the tooth that had the root canal and I don't have any nerves there so I shouldn't have felt anything.

Ahhh well...

Meanwhile, I substituted the Listerine with a cup of salt water rinse instead.

Funny thing... after 5 days of flossing pain, that evening after the dental visit there wasn't any pain at all.

Dr. Chun must have the magic touch.

Airport Toilets

Have you ever run into one of these toilets where a plastic sleeve runs around the toilet seat to make sure you have a clean surface to sit on?

The Honolulu Airport has some restrooms that have this and I can't help wondering if it's the same plastic sleeve that just goes 'round and 'round and 'round.

No. No. I'm kidding. I'm sure they have fresh rolls of plastic that protect you from germs every time a new person uses the toilet.

It was just a funny thought I had.

Mom's Beiju Party

We celebrated mom's 88th birthday this fall. The 88th is of special significance to the Japanese. I didn't know about this until we received a letter from the Buddhist temple who sent mom a gift certificate since she missed the special celebration that was held there. The 88th birthday is called the Beiju. This is the link to the post with my explanation.

Along with my brother and his family we took mom to one of her favorite restaurants. The waiters all gave her ice cream and had the entire restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to her. I think this is the first time she's had this happen and it absolutely thrilled her.

She told us later that this is the happiest she's ever been.

"I didn't expect to live this long," she exclaimed. I was sure I wouldn't live past 16 when we were caught in North Korea during the war. I was in despair when I left my family in Japan and came to Hawaii to marry a man I'd never met. But I've sent both my children to college. I have five wonderful, really smart grandchildren and three beautiful great grandchildren! I'm healthy and doing so much. I have been so lucky. I can die very happy and content now."

I reminded her about the gift certificate my nephew and his wife gave her for $88. He joked that she would have to live to be a 100 to collect a $100 gift certificate.

She laughed and said, "That's true."

Quiet Christmas

Since we were in Maryland until just a few days ago we just didn't have our act together for the holidays this year.

Therefore, I thought it would be fun to make fruitcake for Art, Mom and my friend, Diane. Not everyone loves fruitcake, but they do. Actually, my son, daughter-in-law and grandson in Maryland love fruitcake too. Let's be honest here. My 2 year old grandson, JD loves any kind of cake. We don't even dare say the word around him.

Art loves fruitcake so much that every time we've traveled in Europe, he's had his eye open for fruitcake. They've never quite measured up.

Well lo and behold, this is why I love blogging. Photos By Jalna posted a recipe for fruitcake that her husband made. I made it and everybody loved it. Wow!

I brought some to Maryland with me, but didn't soak one of the cakes with brandy so my grandson could have some. Well... turned out everybody liked the one that wasn't soaked in brandy better.

I told mom who was quite dubious so I made 3 fruitcakes on Christmas with brandy and 5 without.

We shall see what she says when they're ready.

And then the doorbell started ringing and neighbors and friends started dropping off lots of baked goods and candies. Added to these were sweets that were sent to us (many of which aren't pictured because they've been put in the fridge or cabinets before I decided to take a photo for this post). It was rather overwhelming. I have a feeling I'll be gaining back the weight I lost in Maryland this past month.

To make Christmas extra special for mom, we bought giant sea scallops which Art cooked to perfection and awesome sushi. Would you believe Kozo Sushi on Oahu stays open on Christmas and New Year? And the capper?

We opened the bottle of umeshu which we bought in Japan with mom in mind. Umeshu is a sweet plum wine. Ummm... I tasted several varieties before settling on this bottle because I knew she'd love it. We almost finished the bottle and she definitely loved it.

She says this was the BEST Christmas dinner she'd ever had. She reflected on how hard her life had been when she was younger which made her present happiness that much sweeter.

I hope your Christmas was sweet and jolly also.

Do you like fruitcake?

Merry Christmas!

I feel as though my life has been in the air for the last couple of months going to Japan and then heading in the other direction to Maryland. We thought our grandson would be born early like his brother, but instead he chose to take his time about making his appearance.

We flew to O'Hare and then on to Baltimore and ended up having to stay far longer than we planned.

Temperatures in Maryland really dipped at one point and I had to buy a down coat at Costco. Would you believe I found a terrific down coat for $20? Awesome! It kept me comfortable for those snowy days.

Unfortunately, because we were gone so long, nothing was done for the holidays... not our newsletter, not our gifts, not the decorations, nothing.

But was it worth it? Definitely! We got to see our grandson, JD meet his baby brother, RK for the first time.

So we're back. I'm jet lagged and tired, but it's definitely a Merry Christmas.

I'm looking forward to all the fun adventures ahead in 2018. Our house may not be decorated, but friends, family and neighbors have been stopping by with gifts and holiday cheer. Oh my goodness! So much cookies and candies!

And likewise, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa along with peace and good health for the new year.

Travel Blunder!

I was telling my friend, Diane about this following travel story and she said she hadn't heard about it and that I should blog it. Well I checked and I did write about this 2007 travel boo boo in 2012. I hope you don't mind, but I decided to reprint it. Here it is:

When I think of great, grand, bone head type mistakes I've made while traveling, this heads the list.

We'd just gotten off the 12 hour flight from Chicago to Amman, Jordan on a stop-over en route to Cairo, Egypt.

I needed to use the bathroom so I left Art with my things and went to search for the facilities.

Well... blame it on the 12 hour flight.  Blame it on the cylinders in my brain not firing properly.

Sigh...

I passed by a closed door because I (for some reason) thought it was a family room for parents with children.

The other washroom door was wide open and nobody was there.  I guess I must not have looked at the Men-Women symbols carefully or whatever.  I went into the stall and sat down.

Uh oh...

Somebody came in and that person had a deep voice.  More deep voices speaking Arabic.  What to do?  What to do?  I sat there thinking about the lower status of women.  I started thinking of the International incident I could be causing for daring to invade the MEN'S bathroom.  Would they maybe leave so I could come out without anybody knowing?

No such luck!

I realized that I would need to leave before Art got worried and started looking for me.

I opened the door, dropped my head and ran out saying, "I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry" while a torrent of shocked Arabic exclamations followed me out to the hall.  I scooted into the Women's bathroom and was completely floored by the difference in atmosphere.  The Men's bathroom was austere and rather smoke free.  I think.  (I don't remember clearly.)  The Women's bathroom was packed and cloudy with cigarette smoke.  Women were in various stages of dishabille, relaxing with cigarettes and chatting happily.  Many had removed their abayas and were enjoying the freedom.  I could barely get to the sink to wash my hands.  Nobody seemed to pay any attention to me.

After that bathroom incident, I felt that the worst part of the trip was behind me.  Little did I know about the camel ride that awaited...

Good Bokeh? What?

Art likes to send me, our daughter in Illinois and our son in Maryland photos of coins he finds during his morning walks.

When he sent the following photo, our son texted back, "Good bokeh!"

I texted, "What's a bokeh?"

He and Tif reminded me that I'd already asked that before when Art had sent another photo like this.

Here's that other photo that Art sent everybody which was also supposed to have good bokeh.

I'm afraid I just couldn't remember what bokeh was so I had to look it up.

"The term comes from the Japanese word boke  which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji, the "blur quality". The term bokashi is related, meaning intentional blurring or gradation..."     

..."Good bokeh is also important for medium telephoto lenses (typically 85–150 mm on 35 mm format). When used in portrait photography (for their "natural" perspective), the photographer usually wants a shallow depth of field, so that the subject stands out sharply against a blurred background." -- Wikipedia

 OK... I'll try to remember now. And maybe I can try using this technique someday...
If I remember.

What Happens at Night Stays...

There is that Las Vegas motto, What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas. Since that horrible shooting tragedy, the motto is obviously no longer being used.

However, this idea of things that happen in certain places or times that are kept unknown to others reminded me of that slogan.

Art goes walking before the sun comes up and walks 2-6 miles. He comes home around the time I come down for breakfast. He will often text me photos of what he sees.

Here are feral cats having a gathering.

We have something called Bulk Pick-Up once a month when people leave things on the sidewalk that are too big for the regular garbage pick-up. At night, scavengers in trucks will drive around to pick up useful items before the city comes by. It is illegal, but sounded like a good idea to me.

I lightened this photo so you could better see what's happening. We have a terrible feral chicken problem on several islands. Art was surprised to see this lady with a huge bag of bird food feeding the chickens. If she wants to do this, why not do it at her house instead of driving elsewhere to feed the chickens that end up being in nuisance in that neighborhood?

I just hope Art doesn't run into a burglar or whatever in his early morning walks.

On the Other Hand, a Good Buy!

Art spends a lot of time cleaning the kitchen stove because of the oil splatters from cooking.

One day, I discovered that the water kettle was covered in grease gunk.

It turned out that mom was using the water kettle to shield the stove top from the oil splatters.

I confess that when Art was doing the clean up, I didn't insist on a remedy for the situation.

However, when I had to spend an hour cleaning the water kettle I immediately decided something had to be done. (OK, maybe I'm exageratinag, but it was a long time.)

Art wondered if there was some kind of screen that we could use. Sure enough, I located something on Amazon.

The reviews were decent so we bought it. It was pretty cheap, but was sturdier than we expected.

It's been working great so far though I wish it were maybe two or three inches taller.

Still.... we're pleased, mom is pleased, and I don't think I'll have to clean grease off of the water kettle for a long time. Yay!

Hover Cover TV Ad

We've been seeing this ad on TV a lot over the weekends about the Hover Cover for your microwave oven. It sounded like a great idea. There are magnets on top so that when the cover is not in use, you could just stick it to the top of your microwave oven.

Then I saw this pamphlet from Bed Bath and Beyond with a $5 off coupon if you spent at least $15. We decided to give it a try.

However, just before leaving I thought I'd look at the reviews online.

Reviewers said that they had a GE Profile or GE microwave and the Hover Cover would not stick to the top of their microwave ovens.

I went to the kitchen and checked.

Yup! We have a GE Profile microwave oven.

We stayed home and packed for our trip to Maryland. Ah well...

A Shadow Box for My Third Grandchild

It all started with a teacher friend showing me how she'd saved her children's clothing and had them draped decoratively on a clothes tree.

I took it a step further and put my children's clothes and a photo of them wearing it into shadow boxes.

Tiffany and Keola's baby clothes are on the right wall.

I liked the effect so much that I did the same thing with KC's baby dress. That's on the extreme left. And then JD was born so I put his pajamas in a shadow box. Ummm... my walls were then covered.

However, now JD is going to have a brother so we had to make room on the wall. We got another shadow box and it's ready and waiting to receive that baby's outfit.

I'm sorry, but I hope everybody knows we don't have room for more grandchildren. We're out of wall space.

Just kidding...

Little Free Library

In my daughter's Illinois neighborhood, I saw the newest, neatest little thing established near their house.

It's a Little Free Library. I looked it up on Wikipedia and found this:

"The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 by Todd Bol in Hudson, Wisconsin. He mounted a wooden container designed to look like a one-room schoolhouse on a post on his lawn and filled it with books as a tribute to his mother, who was a book lover and school teacher."

The idea soon spread around the world. Apparently these Little Free Libraries are now found in all 50 states and around the world.

My granddaughter went biking and had to stop at the little free library to see what someone had added to the collection.

I know my daughter has added a LOT of books to the library and everybody seems to be loving it.

Me, however? Actually, I haven't picked up a regular book in several years. I read everything on my Kindle because I can make the font size bigger for my aging eyes.

For KC, though, it's fabulous!!!!

Something I Didn't Need... Maybe

Every time I visit my children in Illinois or Maryland, I end up getting something that I feel I must have. 95% of the time, it's Illinois because my daughter happens to be the Shopper Extraordinaire.

This time, we went to H Mart which is a Korean store and I had to buy this colander.

I loved the fact that water could pass through the holes of the colander more efficiently. I also liked the fact that it cost me just $11.

As you can see I have quite a collection now. But I'm wondering if this new stainless steel colander will withstand the Hawaiian salt air and not rust. We shall see.

Trip to Japan: Day 12

We got up early for our buffet breakfast, set our luggage to be picked up for delivery to the bus and joined Reiko for a last adventure in Japan. I don't think this was something Reiko was required to do. She was offering this adventure on her own time. I can just imagine how stressful it must have been for her to take so many of us on crowded trains and counting noses to make sure nobody was lost.

Actually, I nearly didn't go on this last outing because I suddenly got hit with a horrible case of diarrhea. Yikes! It was awful. I usual bring Imodium on trips, but this time it was expired and I didn't buy anymore since I'd never used it before. Travel buddy, Ann happened to have a couple and I took one. Dang if it didn't work immediately. I was cured!

Reiko took us to Tsuruhashi's Korea Town to see what a Korean community looked like in Japan. There was a lot of familiar looking food that we'd seen last year in South Korea.

After returning to our hotel, we went off on our own. We walked through stores and had lunch at a small park. A group of elderly citizens were sitting together at one of the benches. After a few minutes, one of the ladies came over and asked us if we wouldn't mind helping her out. None of her friends could untwist her water bottle.

Art easily opened the bottle for her and she returned to her group. As we were leaving the park, they all waved and smiled happily at us. It was such a happy send off for us.

We also passed by this fellow dressed up to advertise some kind of theater. I think.

It was really sad saying good bye at the airport that evening. We'd had a lovely time, made a lot of special, best of onsen friends, but we knew we would probably never see each other again. Maybe. You can never tell. It's a small island, after all.

My brother came to pick us up and I'm sure he knew I'd brought back some fun things for he and his family to try.  And mom... oh yes... she loved the ume wine.

Trip to Japan: Day 11

2.7 million people live in Osaka and it is the 3rd most populous city in Japan. Yokohama is the 2nd largest. Tokyo, of course is the first.

We were given a choice of a Western or traditional Japanese breakfast.  We were glad we decided on the latter.  It was not only beautifully presented but also delicious.












Our first place to visit was a plastic food making company called R & M.

They create the plastic food that is displayed all around Japan to show you what entrees they are offering. We got to make our own plastic fruit tarts. It was a simple project ... you'd think... But we all came away with our own version.

I sent my fruit tart dangling things to my granddaughter, but she said she can't put it on her backpack because she's afraid someone might steal it. Awww...

The Kuromon Market was so congested with people that I could swear all 2.7 million people had converged to go there at the same time as us.

Dotombori was a little more upscale, but still crowded. Several tour friends knew of a place called Tokyu Hands and recommended we go there. Sure enough, many other tour friends already had heard about it because we kept bumping into them there. Another favorite place for people is UNIQLO and definitely DAISO (100 yen store).

Dinner at 6:30 for those who wanted to join Reiko was at Chibo Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a sort of Japanese savory pancake. Different regions make it in various ways with their own special ingredients. I really enjoyed the Osaka version, but Art still prefers the Hiroshima style.

We really slept well that night. We were now perfectly synced to Japanese time. We would be leaving the following day.

Trip to Japan: Day 10

Almost all of us woke up to attend the 6:50 morning service where the sutra was chanted and incense offered. I felt like Auntie Grace was with me and Mom would be happy that I was concentrating on trying to find that peace inside of me.

At 7:20 we all came together for our morning vegetarian breakfast and boarded the bus for our long trip to Osaka.

We had a final look at the fall colors and Reiko showed us the last leg of our Japan Tour.

We stopped along the way at Yuasa Miso and Shoyu (Soy Sauce) Factory. It was explained to us that both miso and shoyu originated in China.

"Yuasa is where soy sauce was first produced in Japan, the origin of which was Kinzanji miso(soy bean paste) from Kokokuji Temple in Yura Town. The liquid from brewing Kinzanji miso was used to make soy sauce. At Yuasa, you can learn all about soy sauce and Kinzanji miso - the sources of Japanese flavors."

I must have had the kinzanji miso somewhere else but just didn't know what it was. I really liked the distinctive flavor.

We didn't buy any soy sauce, but they gave us free samples anyway.

We then stopped at historic Yuasa Town and met a 72 year old (one man operation) proprietor named Mr. Ota still making kinzanji miso the old way. He was such a sweet man, who proceeded to sneak into the photo with Art that we really had to buy one of his miso too. It was delicious by the way.

Arriving in Osaka, we found a warmer, more comfortable climate. All our many purchases from the trip were unloaded from the bus. The hotel also informed us that our very generous Tokyo friend had sent us more gifts to bring home. Good gracious! Luckily, Kobayashi Travel provided everyone with packing boxes to cart our treasures home.

We took an orientation walk of Osaka with Reiko at 3:40 PM.

Dinner at 7 PM was a buffet at Cafe in the Park in the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel & Resort. We were all going to hold dear in our memories this brief moment of luxury in our lives.

Trip to Japan: Day 9

After an elegant breakfast at the three month old Marriott Nanki Shirahama, we were on our way to Mt. Koya, known to the Japanese as Koyasan.

On the way to Koyasan, we first stopped at the Nakata Ume Factory in the Wakayama Prefecture. The following is from the Japan Products website:

"Ume is distributed widely in East Asia but its place of origin is in north central China. There are 2000 year old records of the medicinal use of ume. Most of the time ume is translated as Japanese plum and is often marketed as such, but it is really a species of apricot.

1500 years ago ume made its way into Japan in the form of a medicine called Woomei. At the same time Woomei was introduced, trees were also imported. Over time these trees adapted to the Japanese climate and growing conditions to create new species. Japanese ume are sourer and contain higher levels of citric acid than their Chinese counterparts." 

Art and I grew up eating ume with our rice. It was considered almost  medicinal. When we were sick our parents often gave us rice gruel with an ume in it. At the Nakata Factory, we were introduced to ume pickled with different amounts of honey, salt and I don't know what else that would make it either sweeter or more salty. We bought several boxes because we knew people in Hawaii would love it. We also bought ume wine that we knew Mom would LOVE!

Our next stop brought us to the Binchotan Charcoal Factory. They explained how oak trees are grown, harvested and burned in a kiln to make a high quality charcoal. Charcoal can be put into pillows to absorb ordor and used to filter impurities from water. It can also be put into the refrigerator to absorb odors. We were told that the Binchotan charcoal could be washed and reused every six months. Art bought some for his shoes.

Art, who used to work for the EPA was quite concerned for the people who worked there and breathed in the polluted smoked filled air.

After picking up lunch at a supermarket and eating it on the bus, we were on our way to Koyasan. Our bus driver stopped along the way to let us take in the golden and crimson fall colors.

Koyasan is a famous historical cemetery that contains over 200,000 graves and monuments. It was established as a World Heritage Site in 2004. As we walked among the cedar trees, it brought back happy, nostalgic memories of walking the same path with Mom and Auntie Grace in 2010 who made it their goal to teach us as much Japanese history as our brains could possibly hold.

Koyasan was opened in 816 when Kobodaishi Kukai established a Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism on the mountain. It is the only holy land in Japan that is located on a mountaintop.

When we arrived at the Sekishouin Temple it was evening and cold.

Our rooms were not luxurious and it was cold but the view outside our window was gorgeous.

Dinner was a Buddhist vegetarian meal. It was delicious and very healthy.

At 6:30 several of us gathered for a night-time walk to see various shrines, temples and pagodas close to the Sekishouin Temple guest house.

The walk warmed us up a bit which was a good thing and we all slept well that night.

Trip to Japan: Day 8

As we all boarded our bus, we were told that this would be the day that we could step down to view the Nachi Waterfall and then climb back up 133 steps. I didn't quite know what to expect. I wasn't sure I could do 133 steps.

Kumano Nachi Taisha is located in the Kii Mountains. It is a Shinto shrine and part of the UNESCO designated Heritage Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Route.

We saw both Buddhist and Shinto temples there and walked through the Sacred Camphor Tree which is located between the Nachi Shrine and Seigantoji Temple. It is supposed to be 850 years old. We gave our small donation, wrote our wish and then walked down through the camphor tree, up and out of it.

I also bought an omikuji which is a little packet with your fortune in it. If you didn't like your fortune, you could leave it there to be thrown away. If you liked it, you would take it home with you. Reiko told me to absolutely take mine home because it was the very best sort of fortune. I had mom read it when I returned home and she was very happy to say it was an excellent fortune indeed. Part of it has already come true. It said I would return safely from my travels.

Nachi Falls in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, is one of the best-known waterfalls in Japan. With a drop of 436 feet and 43 feet width, it is the country's tallest waterfall with a single uninterrupted drop.

Art and I both had ikura don (salmon eggs on a bowl of rice) for lunch. They are very expensive in Hawaii and we savored every bite.

Hashigui-iwa rocks is part of Yoshino-Kumano National Park. The rocks are part of magma that was carried away by tsunamis.

Sandanbeki Cliffs has an elevator that takes you down 118 feet to a passageway of caverns with multi-colored rock walls.We were told that during the Heian Period (794-1185) it was common for pirates to hide their ships there. Today, the cave displays replicas of armaments that the pirates used.

A short distance from the Sandanbeki cliffs was Senjojiki which is famous for its tatami colored, smooth rock formation that slopes toward the ocean.

It had been a lovely day and we arrived happy at the Marriott Nanki-Shirahama. Our Hawaii tour manager, Carol used the time to thank Reiko for her expert handling of our tour. Although it was not the last day of our tour, it was the last formal, fancy dinner we would be having with the entire group.

We were told to pack for a mountain temple stay at Mt. Koya (Koyasan) the following night where temperatures would be dipping into the 40s and 50s. Carol also chuckled and said to understand our next stay is a temple stay, not a fancy hotel.

40 degrees F?