Plumeria

We're budding -- the plumeria and me. I've always loved plumeria. To me they are more a symbol of Hawai'i than the hibiscus despite the fact that they are, like me, transplants. (Apparently, they were not native to these islands. They are actually native to Mexico and were first brought to 
Hawai'i in 1860.) They are very beautiful, but they are also very strong and have flourished in Hawai'i.  I feel a bond with them because I, too, hope to flourish on this beautiful island. Well, a few days after arriving in Maui, I noticed one of my neighbors trimming the plumeria around his house. I asked him what he planned to do with the cuttings, and he said I could have them if I wanted. He explained that I should let them dry for a while and then stick them in dirt and they would start to bud.  So I took home a dozen flowerless, leafless, foot-long sticks.  To tell you the truth, I didn't really believe that they could be grown so easily, but I tried it. I dried them in the sun for about a week and then I stuck them in the dirt. I mean I really just stuck them in the dirt. I watered them every day, morning and night. And today, they are putting out buds. It's really kind of amazing. And it's very exciting for me, because in a way, it's symbolic. I've just been given a job. Not a big job, and not especially important, but it's a start -- a bud. I can't wait to see the flowers -- of the plumeria, of course. 

Where's the beach?

Can you believe that we've already been here 4 days, and we haven't gotten to the beach yet?!  If we were on vacation, we would have arrived here at 12:00 and been on the beach before the lunch rush was over.  But that's just it -- we're not on vacation.  After arriving on the 10th, we've been pretty busy everyday.  

On the 10th, we moved in to our new house and crashed.  Later that day, we went down to Costco and spent $500 on various things we need in the kitchen and food to stock our empty cabinets and refrigerator.  That, alone, is a concern.  Just how much is it going to take to get this house up to "running speed?"  We didn't send a lot of our stuff because we figured it would cost less to just buy it new once we got here.  Good choice, or no?  Probably not a problem -- we've got enough utensils, dishes, pots and pans to last us at least until the lady of the house arrives.  And we seem to have enough food to last us a year, although I know that's not the case.  These kids eat like there's no tomorrow.

On the 11th, we crashed.  No, it's not going to become a habit.  We're just very tired from the last few days in Japan -- the rush to get ready to leave -- the plane trip and jet-lag.  So after we managed to get moving, we tried to get the house in order.  I also popped over to my friend's place to say 'hi.'  Very important.  This friend is our connection in Maui.  Our only source of information on where to live, where to find work, where to buy food we can afford, etc.  In Maui, you can't possibly live without inside information.  Just an example, a gallon of milk bought at a grocery store in the tourist area cost me $9 with the sales tax.  Not kidding.  But if you know where to go and have the membership card, you can get it for $5.  Granted, on the mainland, it's probably only $3, but here in the islands, that's as cheap as it gets.  This is part of the price of paradise.  

On the 12th, we scoped out the local shopping mall.  It's cool.  It's basically got everything a regular shopping mall has.  That is to say, it wasn't especially touristy.  Duh, I guess.  Even Maui has to have a place that doesn't cater to tourists.  I just didn't think about it until I went there. I also got a bank account.  That's kind of cool.  I now have checks that say "Bank of Hawaii." That is such a stupid thing to get excited about.  Nonetheless...  And I bought a car.  That was kind of a story in and of itself.  While I was in the dealership, a Japanese man brings his car in for a trade-in.  The salesman knows that I'm just off the plane from Japan, so he introduces us.  He's a nice fellow, and his car has been impeccably kept.  So I bought it.  It's actually like new, but without paying the price for a new car.  Serendipity.  

On the 13th, we did a little more shopping.  "A little."  Ha.  Walmart should give us V.I.P. status.  But now we're good.  We have a microwave.  We have a toaster oven.  And most importantly, we have a coffee maker.  I can survive.  I also spent a great part of the day working on my resume and pouring over the classifieds in the past three days' newspapers.

So today is beach day.  Just have to figure out where it is.  I know, I know, I live on an island.  Walk any direction and you'll hit a beach, right.  Not that easy.  A lot of beaches are private beaches that you can only get to if you're staying at that hotel (or own that house).  And, of course, not all shoreline is beach.  So today's lesson in "life on Maui" is how to find the beaches that only the locals know.  Wish me luck.  Depending on how secret the beach I find is, I may not be able to tell you about it.  Sorry.

Appreciation

This is something I need to do before I get so caught up in my new life that I forget to do it altogether.  That something is: I need to tell a whole lot of people, "thank you" for everything they've done to help me be where I am and who I am.  

So naturally, I thank my parents.  I thank them for all they gave me while I was growing up.  And that doesn't just mean the Christmas presents and trips to Disney World.  Of course, those were great.  But I thank them also -- or rather thank them more so -- for the times they were strict.  More specifically, I'm thankful to both of my parents for all the times they took the time to explain to me why I couldn't do something I wanted to do or get something I wanted to get.  Those explanations helped me create a strong set of values which are the tools I use for making decisions in my life today.  

As for the other people I need to give appreciation to, I have a huge list, but I really shouldn't bore you with a dozen thousand names.  Rather let me say: 

"Thank you" to the people who have loved me -- both for just being me, and, sometimes, despite just being me.  More than anything, it is everyone's love that gives me the strength and courage to live.  No love, no live.  And I love you all right back.

"Thank you" to all the people who have taught me -- consciously or inadvertently.  We are all only as wise as our own experiences and what we can learn from the experiences of others.  I know I am far from wise, but any wisdom I have is less my own than it is a gift to me from the many people I've known.

And, "thank you" to all of you who have given me my smile.  It is my smile, and my ability to keep smiling even at the cloudiest of times, that helps me to do more than just survive, but to really enjoy life.  It is a gift that I love to receive and love, also, to give.

So if you've given me love, lessons or laughter, you know who you are.  You are important to me, and I hope I can return the gift.  Thank you.  

Why Maui

So when I tell people my story of why I decided to move to America, the next question they always ask me is, "Why Maui?"  Oh, come on.  Duh.  Once we got the idea in our heads of moving to Maui, there really was no runner-up.  But to be fair, we didn't actually decide on Maui right off the bat, so I'll try to answer that question as seriously as possible today.

Of course, when we thought about moving back to the States, our first thought was to "move back."  In other words, to return from whence I had come -- my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.  Not a bad idea really, I love Atlanta.  No, take that back, I loved Atlanta.  I loved Southern Hospitality and all that.  Southerners can be the most lovely people in the world.  When I was there, it was still only a moderately large city of a million people, maybe a million and a half.  Life still seemed slow, somehow.  And people were warm.   Now the population is up to what-million.  The freeways are crowded like an L.A. freeway wannabe, road-rage is a popular term, and people are just big-city busy.  Well, I'm not a big-city boy.  And I think children should be raised in smaller communities.  It's just that old-fashioned gene in me kicking in.  So that's one reason I didn't choose Atlanta.

The other reason, and I'm really sorry to say this, is ease of integration.  I need a home where my wife and children can feel accepted right away.  Just moving to a new CITY can be harrowing enough.  By moving to a new COUNTRY, they are faced with having no friends, no confidence in their communication ability, fear of not being able to keep up in school or even society.  If, on top of that, they are singled out for different skin color, eye shape or whatever, there's no way they'll come out of that with any good feeling.  Unfortunately, the South is still having some issues -- don't tell me it doesn't, we visit there as a family once a year -- and I don't need those issues dampening our new lives.

Maui, on the other hand is a perfect place for my family because of the high percentage of Asian and Asian-American families.  It's interesting because we blend in so well here, most people don't even realize we're transplants.  We expected that integration would be easier here, and we were right.  

And, of course, we live in Paradise.  Not everybody gets a chance to do that.  The kids are so overwhelmed with things that they want to do: surfing, snorkeling, hiking, gathering shells, finding coconuts to crack open...the list gets longer everyday.  Well, every weekend is a vacation in Maui, so we don't need to rush!

But just what is the price of paradise?  I'll let you know when I know.

Why Move?

I have a house in Japan.  I have a company, too.  I have friends and family.  Those things are still there, but someone else is living in my house, and Simon is running the company for me.  The friends and family are still friends and family, but I can't see them on the weekend like I used to.  And there are things I've lost.  I lost the job as a TV reporter.  I lost (well, gave away or sold) 80% of my possessions.  You know, I even lost my wedding band in the chaos surrounding our move.  So you kind of have to ask, "so why did you move?"  That is, of course, a multi-faceted answer, but the main reason -- the catalyst for our decision -- is the children.

The boys grew up entirely in a Japanese society.  We didn't have the money to send them to the international school, so we sent them to the local public schools -- Japanese public schools.  We figured that I could speak English with them at home and that would be enough exposure to the language to become bilingual.  Think again.  As I got busier and busier, I spent less and less time at home.  My schedule was at it's worst just about the time they needed me most for learning English.  For several years when they were pre-school to early elementary, I was working 13 hours a day, 6 days a week.  So Japanese was easier for them, naturally, as the greater part of their lives was spent communicating in Japanese.  Even though I spoke to them in English, they responded to me in Japanese because they knew I understood.  I even tried to hide that from them for a while.  One day, I pretended to hit myself on the head as I was getting into the car, and used that to pretend that I had lost the ability to understand Japanese.  For almost a year, we did wonderfully well at not using Japanese when I was in the home, and the boys made incredible progress.  But it would have been impossible to hide it from them forever.  I was on TV speaking Japanese every weekday, I was well-known in the community and often approached by people on the street.  I was receiving business phone calls at home.  And I didn't want the boys to think I had been lying to them if they found out that I really could speak Japanese.  So I staged a fall down the stairs that brought back my memory.  We promised to continue using only English at home, but that really only lasted for a few more months.

So for the next few years, we tried various ways to make them bilingual -- all with only moderate success.  Finally, we put our oldest through cram school and exam hell to get him into a new school where the classes are taught primarily in English.  The school itself was good and he was enjoying himself in this new environment, but we were coming to the realization that we were faced with a very expensive future if we hoped to school all three children this way.  And that brought us to the idea of making a move -- a very big move.

Sometime in late 2007, We realized that the only way to make the kids purely bilingual was to live in America.  As my wife is Japanese, her job would be to stay at home and home-school the kids in Japanese.  Since I would be out of the house most of the day working, I would not be able to give them much English input, but, of course, their world outside the house would be entirely English.  In fact, we decided that Japanese would be our language of choice at home so that we could increase their exposure, and so that I would be able to maintain my Japanese ability as well.

Well, that was the decision, and the theory.  How well it works is one thing I plan to record in this blog.

Just arrived

We have just arrived in Maui, and I must say, it's good to be here.  For now, it's just me and my kids.  It'll take a little longer for their mom to get here, and the dog is quarantined on Oahu until June 26.  So our first move is to get to the house and get settled a little.  We have 2 boxes each (each cardboard box just under the airline's limit for both size and weight), plus my bike.  I figure we'll pack what we can in our rent-a-car SUV, leave the boys with the rest, and the little one and I will make the first trip -- it's only 10 minutes from the airport to the house, so no big deal, I figure.  Well, the boys have a different idea.  They want everyone to be able to make it in one trip.  So we've got one boy up front with a box on his lap (the box is larger than he is); one boy in a little space between two boxes just behind the front seats; and the little one curled up in the back in a cubby created by three boxes and the bike box.  We yell back to her periodically to ask her if she's OK, and she hollers back that she's great.  

Because we're all having a lot of fun with our possibly illegal transport style, the drive to our new home is short despite the anticipation .  We make it to the house without incident and pull up the driveway.  I let the kids out and their little eyes tell me I've done good with the choice of our new house.  The exploration of the house is something that only kids can really do properly.  Adults tend to walk through the house, looking at each room with a critical eye, thinking, "what can I do with this room?" or, "needs a bit of paint," or, "that's carpet's got to go."  But children know how to really explore a new house.  They run, they crawl, they bounce, they thump, bump, tap, knock and touch.  They explore a house not for it's potential, but for it's playtential.  I love to watch them do that.  As they check out various locks, faucets, lights, switches and latches, they bounce up to me periodically to report on their findings, and it seems that they're finding the house acceptable.  That's a big load off my shoulders.  What would I have done if they didn't like the house?  Well, they do, and thank God for it.  Welcome to Maui, kids!