Well, anyhoo, there I was, sitting down to my #1 First Breakfast at Akiko's #1 Best etc. etc. Akiko was still at work, so I wondered if I'd muddled up the breakfast schedule. See, on Mon./Weds./Fri., & on the weekends, breakfast was served at 7:30. On Tues., Thurs., breakfast was at 7, allowing Akiko to make her tai chi class in town. It was 7 on a Weds., so as you can see, I'd fucked up the days. I apologized for being early.
With a smile, she said, “You're fine. In fact, you're perfect."
She asked me if I wanted some coffee, the answer being an emphatic "yes." I was wide awake, but was still in need of a boost. Also, Kona coffee was supposed to be some of the finest on the planet. Being as I was only a couple hours away from Kona, and the beans would probably be very fresh, I was expecting something pretty spectacular. And it was very good. Not exactly transcendent, maybe, but very good is good enough.
Akiko sells her very own brand of Kona beans, which she has named "Buddha Buzz."
Cute name, that Buddha Buzz. Akiko's pretty proud of it and of the beans. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to buy any, as I was flat broke by the end of my trip. After hearing about the coffee plantations I drove past when I was on the west side of the island and about the less than stunning coffee I'd sampled at Akiko's a female acquaintance of mine picked up a bag of the stuff. It was very expensive, which makes me regret not having picked some up at a much more affordable price while I was there.
And while we’re considering my regrets over missed Hawaiian opportunities, here’s one more: Akiko’s literature states that the profits she brings in w/ her coffee support “the ongoing construction of the Temple of Gratitude to Honor the Ancestors.” I wish I'd thought to stop and look at the temple. That is one of the many, many things that slipped my mind in the midst of the chaos of my trip. So I can't speak to how far its construction has gone, but given the energy and ingenuity that Akiko brings to the things she does, I’m guessing it’s coming along just fine.
Enough about the coffee though. On to the krauts.
Akiko & I made w/ some morning chatter. She asked how I’d slept. I asked her about the dozen or so cats that lurked about the place, coming and going as they pleased. Each of them had a name and a story—and, of course, a unique personality. She asked when was I supposed to hear about my luggage, and I said that the young guy from the airport had told me I’d get a call today.
Before too long, the door opened, and there was a tall thin guy, somewhere in his 40s. His hair was brown and wavy. His tan was vigorous, rather than cosmetic. He wore thick glasses w/ plastic rims. He had a naturally cheerful face and in fact, exuded a downright boyish enthusiasm most of the time. He had a tendency to give this nervous little hop, when he was particularly excited about something.
Akiko introduced us to each other. He was amused by the slight variation in our names. (Steven/Stefan.) His English was very good.
Akiko did a fine job of hostessing. She did a lotta the talking for us at first, drawing us out by asking us questions, supplying information about each person to the other. Both Akiko and Stefan were more interested in my hobbies (writing, painting, music,) than in my profession, which was unusual. Ordinarily when people find out what I do, they start asking me a lotta questions—and are usually disappointed w/ the surprisingly mundane realities of the job.
As for Stefan, well, he definitely had some interesting shit goin' on, and most of it came out less through Akiko's urgings than it did through a conversation the two of them shared. Seems Stefan's 16-year-old son Niko had joined Akiko for meditation on more than one morning, and he had enjoyed it. (One last time, I feel compelled to say that I may be misspelling his name and would like to offer him my apologies if I am.) Akiko was telling Stefan about a monastery in the area that, if I'm remembering things correctly, she herself had studied at. Given the interest Niko had shown in Buddhist meditation, maybe he should visit the place. And if he and the senior monk hit it off, Niko could take up residence there and after a few years, maybe become a monk himself! Woo hoo!
Thing is that, as father and son only had 3 days left on the island, Stefan was gonna hafta get his ass in gear and haul the kid up there before it was too late! Gasp!
It was clear that I'd stumbled into a negotiation that was already in progress—actually, let's come right out and call it an argument—polite, passive-aggressive, but an argument nonetheless. Akiko was trying to help out by sharing her knowledge of and genuine love for the Big Island, Buddhism, and a belief in an orderly universe. She was really enthusiastic about the scenario she'd developed, but in this case, her enthusiasm seemed less infectious than it was imposing. It appeared that Stefan was trying to imply that he was not interested in following through on Akiko's plan, in the same way that you tell someone you'll try to make it to their party, when you really have no intention of showing up. It seemed that this had been his tactic for some time, and that his desire to avoid any sorta confrontation was eroding along w/ his patience.
Akiko felt this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Niko. Who knew when or if he would return to the Big Island? In fact, she thought that maybe he'd come to the Big Island because he was supposed to find Buddhism and this monastery—that it was somehow meant to be. I could see how Stefan might be hesitant to just jump into this situation. Hawaii's a long way from Germany—besides which, the kid was young, impressionable, and like all kids, probably somewhat fickle. My impression was that this was Niko's first encounter w/ Buddhism, and after a little more than a week, was he ready to relocate to the other side of the world and become a Buddhist monk? You've heard of a whirlwind courtship? This was a whirlwind freakin' conversion!
Stefan also had at least one personal reason for his reluctance: the volcano. Turns out he was planning to hike all the way up Mauna Loa. I had some trouble grasping the finer points of his plan, probably due to the ESL factor, but it was something along the lines of this: Stefan was going to drive over to Volcano National Park around 50 miles away. He was gonna set up a campsite and spend the night there. The next day he was going to hike about half way up the mountain, stopping several times to rest along the way.
That's how most people acclimate themselves to the gradual decrease in the amount of oxygen. If you don't take some measures, you can get altitude sickness, which is a bad scene, esp. if you don't get back down fast. As in a you-might-die-type bad scene, in an extreme instance. People sometimes cough up blood and all kinds of unpleasant shit.
At the halfway point, Stefan was planning on spending the night in one of the cabins the park service provides for people who want to hike up. After a night there, you are pretty well acclimated, though you still have a way to hike yet.
But, before he began climbing, he was also going out to see live lava flowing. After he set up camp today, he was gonna hike over to the Kilauea Caldera, the enormous crater around The Big Island's most active volcano. It was a long haul over a field of dried lava, which is difficult terrain, but at the end of it, you’d be able to watch the stuff glowing in the nighttime darkness.
Sounded pretty fuckin' cool. I'd been thinking about climbing some mountains while I was there. And I'd definitely been planning on hitting the lava myself at some point. I mean, c'mon, it's freakin' flowing lava. At this juncture, I had no idea how difficult these activities were.
Now if Stefan took Niko to the monastery, it would fuck up his plans. And he was upfront about his unwillingness to accept that change. I think he found it easier to assert his more selfish objections than his concern for Niko, because doing so did not come so close to a potentially volatile exchange. I’m pretty sure I heard him grinding his teeth, presumably choking back orders for her to back the fuck off and let him do the parenting.
And whether or not she understood the other reasons the guy might’ve had for objecting to her scheme, it was his personal plans that finally made her lay off.
She said, "If you feel climbing the mountain is something you need to do, then you should. That's important. You are supposed to do it."
Stefan nodded about 3,000 times over the course of this short speech, while staring at the floor and irritably saying, "Yes, yes, yes, yes..."
"And if Niko is supposed to go to the temple to study, then he will come back here in the future."
Veins bulging in his forehead: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yessssssss..."
And as the tension slowly seeped out of the room, we settled into breakfast. Awkwardly.
Fortunately, the food was very good. The pineapple was incredible—the best I've ever had. It was hardly acidic at all, but not too sweet. The bananas were grown right there in Akiko’s garden and were also remarkable.
Akiko bakes almost all of the bread she serves. While I was there, we had a few different varieties. There was an excellent wheat bread—substantial, but not too heavy. For a few days, there was bread that had been made in part from taro, a tropical plant that has roots that are sorta like sweet potatoes. Taro has a subtler taste, to my palette, and gives the bread an unusual tint—sorta a faint purplish brown. Akiko toasted both wheat and taro breads and passed them around w/ butter. It kicked ass.
On some days, squares of moist, sweet corn bread were substituted for regular bread. No complaints. It was probably the best cornbread I ever had. Then, most coveted by me of all—so much so that Akiko made them more than once—there was banana French toast. It was warm earthy, tender—all of it made w/ fresh homegrown bananas.
I’ve never been a great lover of papayas, but those that Akiko served were damn good. We had them every day, and I always scarfed down a half—not usually more than that, but that has less to do w/ my enjoyment of them than it does w/ the amount of food, all of it ranging from very good to transcendent, that made up my breakfast. The flavor was very different than any papaya I've had on the mainland—less sweet, more pleasantly light.
But as if all of that wasn't enough, Akiko also served each of us these heaping bowls of rice, nuts and grains. The rice was perfectly cooked. You were invited to add sugar or milk to yr. bowl. I tried it various ways—just sugar, just milk, some of both and plain. Each variation was delicious. The rice was lightly sweetened already and quite moist, but I think I enjoyed it most w/ a very small amount of sugar.
More on the way, yo, including real wrath of god type stuff like lava. And Wal-Mart. Stay tuned!
