annechung

Retirement Means Time for Travels

What are your future travel plans?

I am retired!!! I was asked what my retirement plans are. In retirement, I will have time to travel! Since I’ll be on a pension, I will be looking for travel deals. If you hear of any, please let me know.

My first trip after retirement will be to Kanazawa, Japan. Rounding out the rest of 2024 are trips to San Diego, Vancouver (BC), and New York City. In 2025, I have trips to Barcelona, Japan, and Europe booked so far.

I was reading the Holomua newsletter from the Hawaii State Employees Retirement System. One article explains that after 30 years of dedicating much of my time to work, my life will change. I get to decide what to do. I plan to travel and garden. I will also exercise, read, and cook. Additionally, I want to learn new things and enjoy time with friends and loved ones. Does anyone have pointers or suggestions? Send them my way! I’m going to get my Kupuna card and look up classes at Kamana Senior Center. Anyone want to join me? Living Hilo Style.

5 comments

  1. Aloha e, Anne,

    Congratulations and mahalo for teaching, the occupation where we actually make a difference.

    I kept working until I was 73, but then: I don’t have grandchildren, golf, fish garden or farm (although I like doing yardwork). And one key was that I could retire anytime from age 55, so that I could decide “One more year” over and over. I was staying on because I wanted to, not because I had to. As you also well know, being an educator is not always easy, but it’s never boring.

    Your writing is a great service and an ongoing activity. And writing (or trying to write has been a pleasure [and frustration] for me in the past 7 years. Kamana might have some great options plus the advantage of being in-person. Another rich resource might be the community college system–even though that’s the system in which you worked.

    During the 2022-23 school year, I joined the Zoom-based Ka’ohekani Hawaiian Music Certificate Program out of Windward Community College. In addition to Zoom classes in ‘olelo, mythology/spirituality, ukulele, slack key guitar, Hawaiian singing (taught by Raiatea Helm}, Hawaiian music history, traditional western music theory applied to Hawaiian music, and digital production, we could help out at an annual fund-raising concert on campus (and even open the concert as a group last year), have five days of in-person workshops, and even attend the commencement after we completed the certification program. In 2023-24, I took intermediate slack key guitar first semester and intermediate ukulele second semester. I did not sign up this year, but try to practice ukulele each evening for 30-60 minutes.

    I am not suggesting that you necessarily consider university and community college options. I am only sharing how impressed I was with the welcoming atmosphere and quality of what I experienced, how much I enjoyed it, and how many friends I have made even if I never have met some of them. I feel that every high school student should set foot on any of our many UH-system campuses and become aware that, with some caveats such as attending class and doing the work to the best of their ability and some expenses, they belong. And regarding expenses, for some there options other than loans. There might be some superb courses in all kinds of areas that you might enjoy.

    Best to you, Anne; and mahalo nui loa for always welcoming me when we cross paths.

    Bob (Hillier)

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    • Thank you, Dr. Hillier. You had such an impact on my life from being my cross-country coach to being my English teacher at Hilo High.
      I didn’t realize you worked until you were 73! Mahalo for your service! I love your suggestions for personal development.
      I’m going to do some research and see what sparks my interest.
      I hope we cross paths again soon!

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  3. Aloha Anne! Wonderful post! My LifePartner coming up on 50 years, Noriko, said she wanted to move from Hilo after 20 years and live in Japan again. She has been so supportive of my business development projects so we sold everything and made the move in January 2023. She then suggested we buy a small cargo van (we have lived heavy for much of our lives so are loving trying to LIVE LIGHT) and explore Japan by visiting MICHINOEKI, which are rural revitalization projects designed to help provide services for visitors as well as local residents. AMAZING idea which we think may be unique to Japan. We continue to travel, particularly to visit our 8 grandchildren, but are enjoying exploring MICHINOEKI. 1222 of them around Japan with about 20 new ones being added every month. We can get a stamp at each one and when we visit all the MICHINOEKI in a region, like Hokkaido, we get the stamp book verified and receive a certificate from the government. A bit like a TREASURE HUNT for us. Very low cost approach to discovering new treasures and experiences in rural Japan. Has really been beneficial for our LifeLong partnership as well). I post about our travels at Grif Frost Facebook and here is a link talking about the development history of MICHINOEKI (we are local rural revitalization project students which is one of our LifeLong Learning projects). https://www.gov-online.go.jp/pdf/hlj/20230801/highlighting_japan_august_2023.pdf

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