TCB

Today we're home and taking care of business. 

I took the car to the body shop (the patient will live) and myself to the people shop (the patient will live). 

As I performed the mandatory patient weigh-in, I began considering how much every article of my clothing weighed, much as I did yesterday at the airport, when my bag was 8 lbs overweight. Between my carrying on 8 LPs and our shifting a bunch of shoes to mrguy's bag, we avoided the $50 charge for overweight baggage. 

No such luck at the doctor's office. 

Although I was willing to strip down in the hallway in the name of vanity, nobody allows you to do that.

All that poundage was worth it.

All of it :)

Hawaii 2009, Day 6

We got up early to get to Kaneohe. I had hoped to combine a few activities there and then get to Kailua to shop at Hungry Ear. It all pretty much went to plan.

At 10 the four of us were given a tour of the Kanile'a ukulele factory. We had had the opportunity to try Kanile'a ukuleles last year at the first annual Wine Country Ukulele Festival. Kanile'as have a rich sound and beautiful sustain. When we checked out the Kanile'a website recently, we saw that they give a tour and knew we had to go.

The tour was deluxe, and we were the only four on it. Kristen Souza, one of the owners, introduced us to each step of their ukulele craft, and to each person involved in the process. Among the many things that we learned was that Kanile'a's unique sound is partially due to their custom bracing system and finishes.

It's the little things that tell you about a place, and Kanile'a has that Hawaiian sensibility about relationship to the land and responsibility to people that comes through in what they do. They're early adopters of non-gassing UV polyester finishes. They won't buy koa that's been cut, only koa that has fallen. On a rare occasion they'll make a custom uke for someone out of a piece of furniture (like granny's koa rocking chair)...they're cool people, and they seem to truly enjoy what they do. Kanile'a founder Joe Souza, Kristen's husband, is also a fire fighter.

At the end of the tour, we spent some time chatting with luthier Bill Griffin, who places the bridge and does the final setup of the instrument. Joe shared the story of the song Kaneohe, which celebrates the installation of electricity at Kaneohe, and he and Bill played it for us. Another song for our electricity and technology set!

All that ukulele knowledge made us hungry. A few doors down from Kanile'a was Koa Pancake House. That hit the spot.

After lunch we had an amazing two hour tour of Senator Fong's Garden. The backstory is that Senator Fong acquired 700 acres backing on the Ko'olau Mountains, and cultivated a variety of plants. He planted things he liked, plants that were gifts, and cash crops that helped pay for upkeep on the place. His daughter-in-law Patsy gave the tour which was, in the words of Mr Finn, "multisensory". At each stop along the way she picked things for us to see and taste and smell, and shared their fragrances, flavors and stories.

As one small example of what we saw, here is achiote in its fresh state:

Occasionally Patsy would describe a recipe in the form of a story. I can't wait to try roasted oysters with ginger, shoyu, daikon and Tahitian lime. This garden is lovely, and the way that Patsy Fong shares it with visitors is very special.

Laden with pomelos, limes, star fruit and tangerines, we headed out. Mr Finn found us a place called Sumo Ramen. They know *jack dooky* about sumo, but they make a fine cold noodle dish. Tako yaki? Not so much.

Because I hadn't been there yet and it was on our way, we stopped at the Byodo-in Temple. The decay on the sound of the temple gong alone makes it worth it. But the temple itself makes for a beautiful and peaceful stop.

If you've ever looked at koi and thought about how much some of them look like calico cats, here's your chance to compare:

A final word about Kaneohe: there is penny smasher at Byodo-in Temple.

Quick! We had twenty minutes and it was suddenly dark and raining, but we made it to Hungry Ear in Kailua with 8 minutes to shop. I found the second Myrtle K. Hilo record (she's the singing cab driver). And another record by the Alice Fredlund Serenaders.

We got back to the shack by 7 or so, but the day's ambitious itinerary did me in. We got some snacks at the ABC store and crawled into bed.

Hawaii 2009, Day 5

I'm a few days behind in the blog world, but we've had early morning enjoying to do...

Sunday we went to the Ala Wai Challenge. As part of the event they were offering canoe taxi service across the canal. 

The day was hot and lovely, so after we crossed, we flopped on the lawn and listened to the fabulous ukulele stylings of Herb Ohta Jr. (a $30 value back home), and clapped for the outrigger teams as they crossed the finish line.

Later, we met up with Ms Scandiwaiian and Mr Finn. They were held up by a lion dance happening in the parking lot. I fed one of the lions and he winked at me and flirted.

Then we went to Jelly's in Aiea. Ms S found some additional sumo books for me...and I found a record by Myra English that contains a song that we will add to our "Hawaiian songs with references to electricity" set.

This left us *just* enough time to get over to Hawaii Kai to see Ledward Ka'apana at Kona Brewing. I can't think of that many musicians who are in his league, so you need to check him out. When you listen to him you know your ears are in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing. He had members of his family playing with him, and we couldn't get a table anywhere nearby so I don't know who they were.

So ends day 5.

Hawaii 2009, Day 4 (Now With Crackers)

The Kapiolani Community College farmer's market was our goal for the morning.

The vendors do slow food, plants, honey, coffee.

The college has a dry garden that we were looking forward to seeing. Mrguy likes the Seussian plants. I like the juxtaposition of spines and flowers.

We took a drive up the coast, where the water was uncharacteristically turquoise for this time of year. I don't think we've ever seen it that beautiful.

And we made a pilgrimage to this spot, where many bad guys met their end in episodes of Hawaii Five-0.

And to Sandy Beach, where we watched the surfers and recharged our batteries a bit.

We can't really go past Waimanalo without stopping in at the nut store. We chatted with the woman behind the counter for a while and played uke. She said she only knew three chords, which she uses to play Pearly Shells. Then she realized that they were also the chords to... (and I assumed she'd mention another hapa haole classic) ...Love Letters in the Sand, by Pat Boone.

We drove the Pali Highway, and fed fish food to the reef fish at the docks at Aloha Tower Marketplace. Then we walked toward Iolani Palace and found ourselves a spot on the Chinese New Year Parade route.

A little bitty girl across the street from us was obsessed with princesses, and when the various princesses and queens came by, she would do her own princess wave and yell really loud. I hope that some day she grows up to be Narcissus Queen :) Another little one kept sitting on my foot. It was kinda cozy.

We met ms scandiwaiian and mr finn at Sarento's. Akasaka was our dinner choice of the night, then we rendezvoused at their hotel to catch the last hour of Hatsu Basho. Baruto did a wiggy move on Harumufuji and lifted his leg off the ground to get him off balance. Asashoryu paused after the the initial charge and was tossed off the dohyo by Hakuho. Visibly upset at first, Asa summoned the powers before the tie-breaking match to win it handily.

All this, and friends, and sumo...

Nice!

2/1/09

Mrguy asked that I update Day 4 to tell you this story. Our last attempt to find sumo in public took us to a sports bar across from the Ilikai. When we asked whether they had TV Japan at the bar, the hostess said she didn't know and turned us over to a barfly named "Crackers", who she said was the only person in the bar who could operate the remote. In the background, the world's worst Beatles / Stones cover band did their sound check. Crackers wandered off, and we scrammed.