Maui: Judina + Domique!

After the wedding on Oahu, our wedding party flew over to Maui for a few days. Oahu was nice, but there were a lot of tourists, especially Japanese tourists. There was a bit of crazy feel to it.

But on Maui, wow, it was so different. Instead of feeling like I was visiting a busy tourist spot, it actually felt like I was out in a resort area, purely to enjoy time SLOWLY passing by. The natural beauty of the island was better preserved too.

The best part of my visit to Maui was getting a visit from Judina, whom I met on Ebeye when I was out there volunteering. She happened to be living on Maui so she made a 2 hour drive with her boyfriend and came out to visit me!!

While my friend Shino and I were waiting out by the sidewalk for Judy to arrive, we were recalling how we both had ended up in places we never expected.

Shino ended up getting baptized in Salt Lake City, she went to Costa Rica for a year to volunteer, and she's visited me in just about every place I've ever moved to, which is quite a few places.

I, on the other hand, went to the Marshall Islands for a year to volunteer when I least expected, ended up living in Salt Lake City for 6 months all because of a 12 hour drive I made just to watch Patch Adams with Shino, and I ended up going to grad school up in Oregon because Inokko had said she'd move up to Washington!

Well anyways, Judy told me all about what she's been up to. It was really great to hear about how happy she was with everything in her life now. It makes me so happy to see someone from Ebeye making it out in the real world.

It was the first time for me to meet Dominque, Judy's boyfriend. He was pretty shy, but I could tell he was a nice guy and that he took good care of my friend. Judy said he's not into the party scene, which I think is pretty rare for a guy from the Marshall Islands. I hope their relationship keeps getting stronger and that one of these days I'll get to go to their wedding, wherever it may be!

Rest of my Hawaii report!

Here are my Hawaii pictures! It was nice and warm over there.

My friend, whom I've known since she was a baby, had her wedding there. Everything was picture-perfect!

As you can see, I'm having problems with the picture placement... no matter how much I tried to fix it, the computer has a mind of its own, so I'm going to just forget about it. At least you can see the pictures, right?

Day 2 in Waikiki

While I'm waiting for the wedding party to arrive in a bit, I think I'll write more. Last night, I was so tired from walking all day, I went to bed a 12. There was another girl who arrived yesterday and she also fell asleep around the same time.

Yesterday, as I was walking about, two tall guys were having a smooch...BIG TIME, right in front of me. Um, I must say, although I have nothing against gays, it did make me feel a bit akward.

More on my roommates. Staying at a place where you room with strangers is great. You get to know new people. 5 out of the 8 that were in the room were travelling solo. Great, huh? I didn't realize it was so common to travel solo. I used to not feel so comfortable jumping into a crowd of strangers, but this time around, it didn't feel akward. Although I have to say, when some of the girls started going into detail about their birthcontrol pills and their escapades, I decided it was time for me to read instead. I'm not THAT comfortable about opening up with people I just met =). The Japanese part of me is surprised that complete strangers can get together and just jump right in and join in on whatever converstaion that is going on and make it seem like they know each other. I love it. I doubt that'd happen in Japan much. Everyone keeps to themselves.
Hey TF, after walking for miles, I bumped into a Wal-Mart and got the calendars you asked for. I still need to make it to AAA to renew my international driver's license, find a Bank of America, and hopefully go to Costco to buy gifts for the students in bulk. I might not get a chance to go to the education store.

Oh yeah, I tend to forget to eat when I'm totally absorbed in doing something. Yesterday was one of those days. By the time I reached Wal-Mart, I felt dizzy and realized I hadn't eaten or drank anything in 12 hours. Made a stop at Jamba Juice (yummy!) and felt better afterwards.

I woke up at 3 am last night and couldn't go back to sleep for couple of hours. I tossed and turned and shook the bed so I was worried I'd wake the girl on the bottom bunk, but she said she couldn't sleep either, so whew. Speaking of bunk beds, the bed had no side rails, so i was a bit worried that I would roll right over. I'm happy to say I found myself on the bed when I woke up this morning and not on the floor.

Walked to the beach this morning. Everyone is wearing bikinis here. It's WARM here! It feels really good.

GOtta go.

Made it to Hawii!

Well, I'm not sure how long my flight from Kansai Airport to Honolulu was, but I made it. The plane wasn't that crowded, so I had two seats to myself. I didn't feel that good on the plane 'cause my heart kept beating weird and it made me feel nauscious. There was a boy sitting behind me that was coughing throughout most of the flight. I think a lot of people were sick on that plane!

Once we landed in Honolulu, the ground agents hadn't expected us I guess, so we had to wait in the plane for quite some time. In the meantime, I chatted with the flight attendent and she was telling me she gets just as grouchy as passengers when it comes to having to wait like today. She lives in Seattle but works from Hawaii. Amazing, huh?

Being the disoriented person that I am, once I got to Waikiki with the bus and found my hostel, I spent several hours searching for the car rental place. But once I got there, I was so tired I decided I didn't want to go driving around running errands. Instead, I walked for the next 10 or so hours looking for the X-mas presents I needed to send to Ebeye. Then I went looking for a dress to wear to my friend's wedding on Wednesday. Somehow found something, but I must say I am completely exhausted!!!

There's quite an international group of ladies in the room I'm in. From Germany, Canada, Austrailia....all strangers, but we're staying in the same room. Interesting.

Well, I'm at an internet cafe now....my time is running out. This will probably be my one and only transmission from Hawaii.

Wish me luck on my adventure....

A Quick Trip to Nagoya, Tokyo, and Chiba

Nagoya: I wanted to attend a workshop a friend of mine was doing, so I made a stop there. The station I arrived at, was waaay out in the middle of nowhere almost. To my surprise, instead of the usual automated ticket gates, there were two station staff handcollecting the ticket stubs! It was nice for a change. Didn't have to feel like I was going to have a heart-attack while going through the automated gates. I have a tendency to go through the wrong gates and they often slam shut on me. Argh.

Tokyo: Stayed at my brother's place and got to spend a little bit of time with one of my nephews.













Chiba: After the conference I had come for ended, I made a stop at a different part of Chiba, where my other nephew and a friend of mine also was.













My friend, her husband, and their daughter.













Scratch, scratch.













My friend made yaki-imo (baked sweet potatoes) for us. It was really good!