Wow, I can't believe how lucky I am to have friends already coming by for visits. First we had a friend from work who was visiting Tokyo come for dinner with me and the kids, and then today my friend from Maui came and spent the day hanging out. Then this evening I made a new friends with a fellow living in the building who has been living here for the past two years with his girlfriend, both of them from the U.S. They are from Oakland, California, and we spent some time talking through where exactly Quincy is located. I lost him after I said you had to go north from Lake Tahoe. It seems that the vast area that is northeast California is a lost region to most Californians.
BJo came over to meet the kids, see our apartment, and give us advice on our curtain selections for the new apartment. Then she and I struck out on our own to see the sakura and the Yasukuni shrine, envisioning a stroll through serene gardens. We were surprised to encounter huge crowds and a full-on street festival. All the while, we were chatting nonstop. We enjoyed some good food - yakutori, beer, and later ice cream. I enjoyed seeing many families camped out on large blue tarps, picnicking and enjoying the beautiful weather. There were also performances, including temple girls in kimonos singing patriotic songs. We even dipped into a museum on the grounds of the shrine. The Shinto shrine is dedicated to Japan's soldiers who have been killed in wars, and visits from prime ministers have drawn international protests over the appearance that these politicians are validating Japan's role in World War II. There are several war criminals interred at the shrine.
3 comments:
Curtain advice! Street festival! So freakin jealous here!
Yeah really what she said!
We're having a battle with dinosaurs, cowboys, knights, Native Americans and a castle. Pretty cool.
The volcano had made it an exciting week last week. The VOG blanketed much of lower Hilo in the early morning. We could see it up at our house, too. It reduced visibility and caused quite a stir on all the O'ahu news channels mostly because of the dangerous sulfur dioxide gas. But for the folks here in Hilo, they're used to it. Probably it's been the worst it's ever been for quite some time, but everyone knows where it's coming from and have had seen its effects in times past.
One example of the reaction: They had a volunteer evacuation of Volcano Village, but nobody left. If anything, folks just stayed indoors. Usually, it's most evident in the morning. On other occasions several months ago I recall smelling and actually tasting it. This past week, however, it was just thick and hazy. On a trip to Kona before the winds changed direction we saw that on a day-to-day basis Kona has it way worse than Hilo. Hilo at least has the rain. A common pattern would be to see it in the morning, but by early afternoon it clears out as the winds pick up. By evening the rains come and washes out whatever was left behind by the wind. Then in the evening it cools, and the trade winds dwindle. Cool air slides back down the mountain, and by morning time it brings also the VOG, and the pattern repeats itself.
This week Tuesday they're forecasting the trades to die down again, and that's when we mostly see it. Otherwise, on strong tradewind days, almost all of it goes South to Ka'u or Kona, and we don't see any of it.
My feeling is that as long as it's erupting from Halema'uma'u and Pu'u O'o, than hopefully it's releasing pressure that would otherwise be developing on Mauna Loa.
Although I'm probably too simplistic in my thinking, nothing made the potential risk clearer than our home project this past weekend to plant two brand new Ohi'a trees in our back yard. We picked up two very handsome trees up from the farmers' market on Saturday. After digging about one foot into soft soil we reached solid rock. I was happy we had as much soil as we discovered. In both holes we reached the rock at the same depth. When you scrape away the soil and expose the rock at the bottom of the hole, it looks hard and black just like a fresh lava flow. One can imagine that top soil was brought in from elsewhere during the construction of the housing development probably to cover up the fact that it's really a lava field we're living on. And that's that.
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