Dateline: Honoka’a, Hawai’i; November 18, 2012--Yesterday I delivered my last lectures of this current trip. Five and a half hours to a full and very interested audience. Where I am staying, in the highlands of the Big Island, is right next to paradise. My housing is an old shipping container retrofitted as an apartment and I love it. Hawaii has lots of rats, compliments of the early and then later explorers and profiteers. Later the mongoose was purposely introduced as a way to control the rodent population. Trouble is, rats are nocturnal and mongoose are diurnal and never the twain shall meet. So the indigenous birds of Hawaii were decimated day and night. Back before Captain Cook and crew discovered the Sandwich Isles, Hawai'i had only one native land mammal, the Hawaiian Hoary Bat.
Now, living in a shipping container might sound just a bit spartan, but let me introduce a few balancing factors. Behind the container are orange trees heavily laden with fruit sometimes rivaling the size of grapefruit and so juicy they have to be eaten with a paper towel standing by. To the left of the humble dwelling is a small grove of avocado trees with fruit the size of Florida avos but with the a texture and taste surpassing that of the Hass variety. Between them and the oranges are the bananas. To the front, on the other side of the fellowship hall where I prepare my meals, are more avocado trees and macadamia trees. If you happen to arrive before the interloping rats find the nuts, you can gather a bounty of the horny-shelled treasures. It is amazing to see all the shells littering the ground with a small hole gnawed through the seemingly unyielding protective barrier and every speck of the tender meat gone. On the hillside up toward the church is a pomelo tree. With the 30’ long fruit picker I have been provided during my stay here, fresh fruit is not a problem. And before coming here I was supplied bountifully with large purple avocados that were the best I have ever eaten along with a stalk of blue bananas. Yep! Really roughing it.
But back to Japan for a few tidbits. I was invited to speak in Kobe and Osaka on the same weekend. As they are a very short train ride apart, it was convenient to speak in Osaka on Friday night and Sabbath and then travel to Kobe Saturday evening and speak in Kobe on Sunday. As usual I was going to be flung into the kanji abyss, a taller than average traveler made even more conspicuous by wrapping myself in a misty “where am I?” aura. But on the way to the train station I ran into three lovely Indonesian students who had attended my lectures and they were more than happy to accompany me all the may to my destination station, an accomplishment that can be very daunting when traveling solo.
I had been told my ride would pick me up on the mountain side of the station. Ever notice you can’t see mountains in the dark? But I know the mountain range in Japan forms a veritable spine up the entire west side of the nation. As my angels of mercy took the escalator back down to the rail lines, I headed in the opposite direction of the east exit. East is ocean, west is mountains. This was easier than I thought it would be...I thought. You have to understand, there were exits on the north, south, east and west sides of the station and probably a few SSE’s and WNW’s thrown in for tourist amusement. But I learned long ago, find a spot, claim it and don’t move from it. As soon as you move, the person looking for you has done the same and you will miss each other big time. It rained off and on, people came and went, time went on and on. I probably stood there for two hours looking from the dark mountains to every car pulling up to the curb. For as much as senses told me to stay put, sensibility told me something was amiss. Finally I decided to explore new venues. Within two minutes of exiting the east exit, my dear friends, Keith Watanabe and his great singer wife pulled up across the road and hailed me over. The east side was the mountain side. Learn something new every day.
Packing right now but will try to post again before leaving Hawaii.
Blessings,
Don
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