Sabbatical 2.0

 We have spent the past week in Hawaii.  For the majority of our trip, we have been based in Hilo.  It is a great location for getting to waterfalls and volcanoes, but, and it’s a big but, it has been raining 24/7 since we got here.  It apparently is the town that gets the highest yearly rainfall in the U.S.  Hawaii?  Seattle?  I don’t know. Even with the rain, there are beautiful sites to see.  Above is a shot of Rainbow Falls.  The picture at the top is Bridget with Akaka Falls.  Below is a lava tube that we walked through. Between the rain drops, we made it to a botanical garden that was just gorgeous. I Hawaii, in the minds of many, is a paradise, a tropical resort for the rich and famous.  Hawaii, in reality, has a large homeless population and a large percentage of its population living at, or near, poverty level.  We found homeless people, at every turn, living on the streets of Hilo.  The high price of real estate and the lack of high paying jobs creates a difficult situation f

  We started our experience in Tokyo in an electric Taxi. The driver found our hostel and we got into our room. People know just enough English to help us along our path. After I got over the toilets with their programs and music on the side and heated seats, we went to a park in the area we are in, Shinjuku, called Gyoen Park. It was well maintained and beautiful. It was Sunday, so there were a lot of people in the park enjoying the sunshine in many ways. We then went on to meet a friend of Wataru, our department head, who goes by the name of Swint. He runs the business school at Temple, Japan. He gave us some tips for being here and was a really nice guy. That night we went out in Shinjuku to find Godzilla and explore our area. We met a guy, Derek, who was in Peace Corps Kenya 88-90. He now lives in Sai Pan, which he told us is a US territory. He is married with children who now go to college in the States. The religion here is Shintoism. There are a few temples scattered over the ci