Just to recap a little for September since I haven’t posted anything (sorry Michiko!). I finally finished my home renovations – there’s still more stuff that I want to do for my house but that will come later when I have time, as well as money! School also started again, taking on three classes this semester – hopefully I can finish my studies by next semester…I hope. In mid-Septmeber, me and my girlfriend went to visit the Big Island for a week. I have a lot of relatives from the Big Island so it was nice that my girlfriend could finally meet them. A favorite place for me to visit there is my uncle’s house because he has a huge farm up in Honokaa up in the mountains, so it is always therapeutic to go visit there. My uncle farms coffee for a living so they have about 50 acres of farmland filled with coffee plants as well as other trees and flowers too. All my relatives love going up there in February because that’s when all his sakura trees are in bloom. On his farm there are lines of cherry trees that lead up until the house – and when they are in full bloom it is a site to see. Unlike the sakura trees in Japan (which are white) the sakura flower there is pink in color. They are of the Taiwan sakura tree variety. While at my uncle’s house it is also good to soak in the old fashion style furo that they have there too. The furo is heated by burning firewood. We spent a couple of days in Hilo visiting relatives and doing site seeing stuff like going to the volcanoe. After Hilo we spent time in Kona. I read that David went to stay at the Hilton Waikaloa, so I was curious and went to stay there too for a couple of days. It’s a really cool hotel – but when we were there the trains were not working so we had to take the boats to our room and our room was at the far end of the hotel. But anyway, it was a nice trip to get to see my relatives again.