Sally and I are taking a most ambitious trip. We will be away from home the entire month of April. The “Japan Trip”, since time in Tokyo, Kyoto and a cruise stopping at the many ports-of-call shown on the map below constitutes most of the time, even including two cities in South Korea. But, on the way out we are stopping off for our second visit to Hawaii and on the way back we go to Vancouver Island, Canada.
Today we depart Boston for a direct flight to Honolulu.
Eleven hours in the air and we are there, 5095 miles from home, perhaps dropping
some love on my family as we pass over California at 450 mph. We visited Hawaii
for the first time on the occasion our 30th wedding anniversary in
2018, staying in Honolulu and also circumnavigating the “big Island” including
a visit to the Volcanos National park just before the fire goddess Pele got
frisky and major eruptions began. This time we are visiting “the garden island”
of Kauai, the large island in the northwest (upper left) corner of the map. After
about an hour delay we left Boston about 10 AM, expecting arrival in Honolulu about
2:30pm local time, aided by a 6-hour time difference. We catch our breath, some
80 degree wamth, and then move on to Kauai the next day.
When I travel to a new place, I like to find a novel or
historical fiction set in that locale. Sometimes I get recommendations from
librarians or at a bookstore. This time, I asked Gemini, the Google AI tool
about books set in Japan. The wise AI machine came up with a variety of
suggestions, some of the usual suspects like “Shogun” but also suggesting
“Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami. It proved to be a popular book at our
local public libraries, which had many copies but many hold requests on those.
I checked our local bookstores, finding it available at Belmont Books. It was
first published in Japan in 2002, then in an English translation by Phillip
Gabriel in 2005 chosen by the New York Times as one of the Ten Best New Books
of the Year. The 467 pages of small type will certainly keep me occupied for
the long airplane flights. The main character “Kafka” is a 15 year old boy –
I’m not sure it has anything to do with the weighty writer Franz Kafka.
I started reading Kafka on the
Shore on today’s long direct flight from Boston to Honolulu. There is an
introduction to the book, written by Murakami himself. Imagine my surprise when
I read the very first sentences from that introduction:
“I recall starting to write Kafka
on the Shore in the Spring of 2001. I began writing it in Hawaii, on the
north shore of Kauai”. Kauai is the very
island we will travel to tomorrow, and spend about 5 days exploring. We stay in
an AirBnB on the south shore, but may make it up to the north shore, described
in the next paragraph by Murakami as lush and green, other than nature not much
else, and “it rained a ton”.
From the on-board airline route
map, it looks like we will soon pass over Portland, Oregon and begin our long
trek southwest across the Pacific at about 4PM Boston time. For now, back to my reading…
Post arrival update: Our flight
was flawless and Delta business class delivered a luxurious amount of
comfortable seating, excellent food and congenial professional service – met my
eponymous young brother “Joey”, an exuberant and cheeky flight attendant. Best
of all, an extended time to get a good start on “Kafka by the Shore” which I am
finding very imaginative, engaging, and easy to read. We took a taxi from the
airport, a pleasant ride through the realities of rush hour traffic even in
Hawaiian paradise.
Our room at the Marriott Courtyard
Waikiki (400 Royal Hawaiian Ave) was small but clean and functional, with a
small balcony looking out onto the IHOP across the noisy Kuhio Ave. By the time
we got into the room it was about 5pm, which would be 11 pm in Boston where we
started the day. After a two-hour “power nap” we made our way toward the shore
(of course). Forgoing the great cocktails and live jazz promised from GoogleMaps
at the “Lewers Lounge” we walked the intricate
network of paths, tourist shops, sometimes dark parks and streets to the beach
path. The tide must have been in because waves were crashing up against embankments
in places. We saw kids and adults playing with electronic versions of “Roman
Candle” fireworks, much safer. There were plenty of places to stop for a drink
and hear bar-singer music but we were disoriented enough. Settled for splitting
a tuna/egg salad sandwich on a park bench to provide some fuel for the brain
and walk home. Slept soundly, appreciating the time-zone boost.
