My trip to Hawaii

Ok... So I read my buddy Alex's blog, and his post about his road trip inspired me to post about my trip to Hawaii.

We got to Hawaii on Thursday. My aunt and cousins who I haven't seen in over 10 years came to meet us at the airport. It just so happened that they were visiting Hawaii from Korea (they grew up in Hawaii, but my uncle is a doctor with the Army, so they are now stationed in Korea). My cousins are so big now! Last I saw them they were around 3 and 6... and now they are 13 and 16. After that we drove to the hotel. We got to the hotel around 1 pm, and they told me that the rooms wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. We put our luggage back into the car and proceeded to walk around Waikiki.

I'm always amazed at how many ABC stores there are in Waikiki. I mean they are on every block, and sometimes you can find 2 or 3 on the same block. I imagine its like Starbucks in San Francisco. And all the ABC stores have the same stuff in it. Why do you need 2 or 3 on a block? I think you can find one in each hotel. I mean it seems silly to me. But I guess whoever owns them are filthy rich, as each one is packed with tourists.

So we headed back to the hotel around 3. We stayed at the Park Shore hotel at the end of Kalakaua Ave. Let me tell you. That hotel is a DUMP. First off there are 17 floors on that hotel, and they have only 3 elevators that service all 17 floors (well 18 floors according to the elevator, but there isn't a 13th floor due to superstition... it's very common in buildings in Hawaii). Between the hours of 6am and 6pm, you can use the stairs if you want. However, after 6pm the doors on the first and second floors are armed with alarms that go off if you exit them. So essentially there are 2 elevators for a hotel that is full and has 17 floors. Sometimes you'd have to wait 15 minutes just to be able to get an elevator back to your room. That is the LAMEST thing EVER. Oh, the rooms aren't air conditioned either. It's ridiculous. There was a fan that kept the room cooler than it was outside, but you couldn't control the temperature so that sucked. I mean honestly, it was cold enough, but I'm still going to complain about that.

That night we had dinner with my aunt, my 2 cousins, her brother and his wife, their 2 kids, and her younger sister. I hadn't seen any of them in over 10 years, so it was really nice to get a chance to see all of them again. We did a lot of catching up, and they all made fun of the orange car I was driving around. Did I mention that the rental place gave me an ORANGE Chevy Cobalt. Man I think they wanted to label me as a tourist. It kills me that I'm a tourist now. I grew up on Oahu. I lived there for over 15 years. I'm off the island for 10 years and I'm considered a tourist. People even called me Katonk, which is what I thought was reserved for mainland born Japanese, but turns out can be used for any mainland Asian. How sad.

The next day we met up with a good family friend of mine. He and his brother used to lock me in the closet at church when I was a little kid. They also used to make me imagine that they were stabbing me full of needles and injecting me with all sorts of poisons. I never believed them so when they "injected" me, they would punch me where they were injecting so it would hurt. Hehe... I must have been about 5 when they did this to me, and I still remember it clearly. It's bizarre what children remember isn't it?

So we met up at Kahala Mall. I took my digital camera so we could get some pictures and I could show my family. Well, my stupid camera decides to magically jump out of my pocket. I didn't realize I had lost my camera until we had gotten back to the hotel. I raced back to Kahala Mall, and checked every store I went into, and the lost and found for the mall, and no one had it. The security guards told me that they get a lot of kids running through the mall, so the chances are very slim that anyone who found it would actually return it. I just made some kid really happy let me tell you. They're now running around with pretty much a brand new camera and a 1 gb secure digital memory card. I mean I know I'm stupid for losing it, but if you're a parent, how can you let your child use a stolen camera? I mean really? If I had a kid, and they came home with some camera, I'd smack them and make them return it. Then I'd smack them for not returning it in the first place. Oh well...

On Saturday we went to the North Shore. We had to get back for my cousin's birthday, so we were at Waimea beach for about an hour, then we had to drive back. Because it was a Saturday, it took us about 2 and a half hours to get from Waikiki to Waimea Bay. That is ridiculous. But the island of Oahu is so crowded these days. Anyway, we get back to the car and I have a parking ticket. Turns out I parked in a no parking zone. Another car was parked there, and I didn't see a no parking sign, so I thought we were alright. Well turns out there was a sign a ways up, but it was bent in some funky way, and I didn't see it. Oh well... another $50 down the drain.

We stopped in to Matsumoto's in Haleiwa for shave ice on the way back home. I can't explain how much I miss that stuff. It doesn't get much better than a rainbow shave ice with vanilla ice cream on the bottom. Good stuff. The way back only took about 2 hours, and I was able to get to Buca Di Bepo for my cousin's birthday by 6.

After dinner, we returned to Waikiki and walked around. We just walked on Kalakaua Ave. I tried to count the number of hookers that were working the streets, and sadly I only saw 3. It has become a tradition to always count the hookers in Waikiki. Last year, we counted at least 15. Either this is a bad time for hooking, or the cops have been doing a good job cracking down on it. I mean there was a time when every street corner was packed with them. It always made me sad because there were some beautiful girls out there hooking. These aren't your every day crack whore garden variety hookers. I mean Hawaii has some FINE hookers. Japanese business men have a lot of money to spend, so some high class hot hookers used to walk the streets. But the days seem to have passed.

Sunday morning was the wedding. It was at 9 am (can you believe it was so early), and was held at the Sheraton Waikiki. This was just the reception. They had the ceremony on August 2, and held the reception on the 14th. Not a bad idea. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while so that was awesome. And Alisa was beautiful. She's always been a cute girl, but to see her in her wedding dress was something else I tell you.

Monday we took to ourselves. We spent the whole day on the north shore at Waimea Bay. Michelle loves that beach so we stayed there for awhile. I didn't put on enough sun screen and burned myself. I put sunscreen on Michelle's back, and I didn't use enough, so she burned pretty bad on her back. OOOPS! I'm fired. Waimea was pretty sweet though. We got to see a pod of dolphins frolicking. They were jumping out of the water and putting on quite the show. A whole bunch of swimmers tried to swim out to them, and it seemed like they got really close. The lifeguards immediately got on the loudspeaker and asked the swimmers to swim away from them, because dolphins are federally protected, but the swimmers paid no attention.

Stopped in Haleiwa again for more shave ice. I tried Aoki's this time and Michelle got Matsumoto's. There is a reason why Matsumoto's has a line that is so much longer than all the other places. Aoki's was good, and the ice was a little softer, but it lacked the flavor of Matsumoto's. The only other place that I've been to that comes close is called Waiola's in McCully.

We had dinner that night at Alan Wong's. We went there last year and had dinner there. Once again we got the 7 course chef's tasting. It was awesome. First course was an appetizer of ahi sashimi with beluga caviar on top, and an oyster with a vinegar based sauce on sea salt. The second course was a li hing mui foie gras with mango chutney which was awesome. The third course was lobster and abalone in some kind of tasty sauce. Fourth dish was quail, I can't remember the fifth dish, the sixth dish was the main meal which was lamb with mashed taro. The final dish was the dessert, and I can't remember everything on it, but it was excellent.

And that's the trip. We came home on Tuesday. I'm tired so I'm done for now.