«.·°·. Tuesday, March 30, 2004 .·°·.»
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
We started out our day with a dirty, nasty, but oh-so-good garlic chicken plate lunch at Mitsu-Ken's. Man, that place brings back soooo many memories like how I used to go to school (highschool) at around 5am in the morning to do homework (probably f*cked around the night before) and would stop by Mitsu-Ken's for da kine breakfast - Portuaguese sausage, fried rice, and a fried egg! Wooo...heart stopper!
We headed on over to Liliha Bakery to go coo-coo for their world-famous coco puffs.......and to use their restroom. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, I didn't get to relish any of them sinful delights *boooo*. Ah wells, gives me an excuse to go back now doesn't it?
After all that food, we somehow were courageous enough to brandish our Buddha belly at Waikiki Beach. It was one of the few days that were partly cloudy, and I even ended up charring parts of my neck and my left ear...wierd, eh? After sweating it out, we decided to go to my g/f's parents house to take a quick dip in the pool before our dinner appointment. Oh...do you like the view of Koko Head from my g/f's room?
Dinner was at Donato's Restaurant in the Manoa Marketplace with my g/f and her family. I dunno what to say. I guess the food was adequate, but after living in SF all this time, I'd have to be honest and say that I've been spoiled with better Italian restaurants. At least my g/f's loving family made it a worthwhile event!
Thursday, March 25, 2004
My g/f's oldest younger brother (uh....yeah...I think that's right) took half a day off work to spend it with us, so we decided to invite my g/f's youngest brother and his g/f for lunch and a circle-island tour.
Started the day with lunch at Kuru Kuru Sushi in the Pearl Kai shopping complex across from Pearlridge Shopping Ctr. Apparently, this sushi boat thang is making a comeback on the island. Hey, $40 fed 5 peeps, so why the hell not?!!
Some secluded beach near Laie
Crouching Lion...see it???
Restaurant where "50 First Dates", starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, was shot
Shrimp Shack - I got all hyped only to find out that the shrimp was "good" not "great"
Sunset Beach...Eh! Where da sun, cuz?!!
Matsumoto's Shaved Ice...of course! How could we not???
After our touristy day, my g/f and I met up with a couple of friends for dinner at Paesano's in Manoa Marketplace...yet again! More Italian food! This time I rather liked the food since it doesn't try to impress you with fancy ingredients. Instead, the meals are quite simple yet tasty and comes in both half and full sized orders. Mah kinda place, baby!
***posted by Mouji on 3/30/2004 09:57:00 PM*** ::
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So a part of Hawaii never left me...cuz I'm sick...like a lot of folx back home...wheezing, bronchial kinda cough...*sigh*
One thing I miss about Hawaii is, and you'll hear this from most Hawaii tranplants in the mainland, how considerate the people there are. Case in point, the following is a conversation I had with the boss:
Boss: How's it going?
Me: Alright *cough cough cough*
Boss: You got sick while on vacation?
Me: Yeah...*pitiful puppy dog eyes*
Boss: mmm...I've got a project for you. Let's meet after my 5:30pm meeting to discuss what needs to be done by the end of the week. *leaves cubicle*
After 5 minutes........
Me: *sticks middle finger high in the air...goes home*
***posted by Mouji on 3/30/2004 11:08:00 AM*** ::
«.·°·. Monday, March 29, 2004 .·°·.»
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Man 'o man...got home at around 10:30pm...pretended to unpack...ate some Yummy's my g/f bought the night before which she vacuum-packed and froze...showered and finally slept at around 1am. Now I'm at work...this f*ckin' sux! I have a couple more recaps to do, but I just gotta find time to do them.
One very cool thing about Hawaii that mainlanders should pick up on was that ATM machines (at least Bank of Hawaii machines) dispenses...get this...$50 and $5 bills!!! I'm suspecting that they also dispense $10 bills as well. I wonder if you could withdraw $5 only and not the mandatory $20 here in California....hmmmm...must try next time hehehehe.
I'm glad to say that I hate to be back...HAHAHAHAHA!
***posted by Mouji on 3/29/2004 12:35:00 PM*** ::
«.·°·. Sunday, March 28, 2004 .·°·.»
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Gonna leave home soon...guess I'll hafta update when I get back. Missing home already *sob*
***posted by Mouji on 3/28/2004 12:47:00 PM*** ::
«.·°·. Thursday, March 25, 2004 .·°·.»
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Sorry...been trying to squeeze as much activity as we can out of the time we have left here. Here's a catch up entry for y'all.
Monday, March 22 - Ihilani @ Ko'olina
No. 10 BBQ Combo - Kalbi & BBQ Chicken w/ choice for 4 sides
It was just obligatory of us to get a Yummy Korean BBQ plate lunch at Kamehameha Shopping Ctr. Out of all the Yummy's we've had throughout the island (and even on Maui), our favorite has got to be this one...lean meat + good BBQ technique will always be a sure winner!
After lunch, we headed on down to Ihilani Resort and Spa at Ko'olina for our one-day sweetheart getaway. I dunno about other Hawaii transplants who've returned home, but this island is getting smaller and smaller. Either that or I'm just waaaaaay used to driving 20 miles to get from point A to point B *shrug*
View of outside and inside our room...I like the view inside, doncha agree???
This is what a vacation should look like!
After we checked in, we noticed that there was some decent weather outside on the leeward coast in stark comparison to the Mauka - Koko Head side of the island. As such, we quickly changed into our swimwear, nearly repelled down to the pool area, ordered up a coupla frozen drinks, and just lounged for the better part of the day. After a quick dip in the pool (sidebar: why can't all pools be like ones in Hawaii? It's not overly chlorinated and it's "soft", for lack of better words?), we rolled ourselves down the atrium to our 4pm spa appointment. Ihilani boasts the largest spa facility on the island with a ton of unique treatments like this specialty Thalasso with color light therapy where you lie on this massage bench, and this huge wand dispenses punishing streams of salt water on your body insync with a personal light show to confuse and daze you. Sounds relaxing, huh? Anyhoo, I was a bit disappointed in that we had our massage session in separate rooms, but I found that I like Swedish massages more since it's pretty much an hour-long back rub...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Kinda embarrassing tho cuz I think I snored *snort, snort*
Ushio-Tei
After an awesome massage and a nap, we decided to check out the Japanese buffet at Ushio-Tei in the resort by the pool area. Much to our dismay, the variety and quantity of the buffet was severely lacking with only two items that were noteworthy. At $40 a pop, we loaded up on sashimi (probably ate a whole fish) and Wafu beef steak. Sorry folx...wouldn't recommend the Monday night buffet there.
After dinner, we walked around and took some pics...some serious, some artsy, some just plain WTF?!!
Tuesday, March 23 - Nothin' planned
Had to drag her out so we could check out in time. Bye bye, Ihilani!
Wish we coulda stayed a bit longer, but I don't think we could afford another night there *massages sore wallet*. All in all, I think we might just do this yet again, but somewhere else. Perhaps a neighbor island.
Makino Chaya
We met up with my parents for yet ANOTHER Japanese buffet at Makino Chaya. Can I just say that I love this place? It's an all-you-can-eat joint where not only is there a buffet/steam table, you can order anything on that menu (pic above) 2 at a time. Lotsa sashimi, chirashi, udon/somen/soba, etc. to choose from! At $11 for lunch, I just wish I had a more elastic stomache. And folx, that menu folds out, and there are about 2x+ more items to choose from for dinner ($21/pp)! I just hope the quality stays just as good until we come back next year hehehehe!
Ran out of her favorite lipstick, but still damned happy
After lunch, we decided to go to Kahala Mall to do some light shopping with my g/f's younger brother. Picked up a sh*tload of Hawaiian CD's at Towers while my g/f thought she got a friendly discount at the Blush counter only to find out that the make up line was on clearance. HAHAHAHAHA! She even went back to thank the sales person for the discount, too! How embarrassing!
Spent time at home with the 'rents and ate some onolicious home-cooked meal. *burp*
***posted by Mouji on 3/25/2004 11:52:00 AM*** ::
«.·°·. Monday, March 22, 2004 .·°·.»
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Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel
The buffet at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider hotel was a bit better than what I remember it to be. I gorged myself on almost nothing but seafood - ahi and au sashimi, ahi poke, tako poke, raw oysters on the half-shell, steamed snapper Chinese-style, smoked salmon, and sushi (to name a few). Then there was the non-seafood fare like Portuaguese sausage, eggs benedict, jambalaya, roast beef, honey-baked ham...man it was just pure delight lemme tell ya *burp*.
Waikele Premium Outlets
Unfortunately for us, and the rest of the spring breakers who are visiting the island, the weather has been less than spectacular. All the kama'aina's are saying that this spate of bad weather has plagued the islands for the past 2 months, which is friggin' unusual. All I'm hoping for is a day or two of partly cloudy skies so I can get my tan on. Since the weather wasn't cooperating, we headed on over to the Waikele Premium Outlets to do some damage. One thing I hafta admit about my home state is that we're f*ckin' way behind on the fashion. Even the Banana Republic outlet was a bit disappointing. We be spoiled fer sure!
Dis' fo real o' wut, brah?!!
Another thing about Hawaii is, which you probably won't see on the mainland, is that the cops here drive REALLY nice cars...for work!!! Look at the pic above. I'm used to seeing cops driving Camaros and Firebirds, but the Infinity G35 is a f*ckin' first!
Today we're heading out to Ihilani at Ko'olina for an overnight getaway from the 'rents. Since it was my g/f's idea to do this, y'all can rest assure that it's going to be a spa day fer sure. Till tomorrow! Aloha No!
***posted by Mouji on 3/22/2004 12:03:00 PM*** ::
«.·°·. Sunday, March 21, 2004 .·°·.»
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The above pics might not be postcard material, but they do remind me of my youth growing up in Honolulu's Chinatown. From the kids sitting on half-assed horse stances to the kids doing a mock Lion Dance with a makeshift drum, I can't say I was impervious to it all cuz I did the exact same things as those kids above. Scary ain't it? I captured these moments right after we went to go yum cha with my parents and stuffed ourselves ridiculous with onolicious dim sum and mini gai mein beng ("mini chicken cake noodle"...something I've never seen on the mainland) at Legend Seafood Rest. in the Chinese Cultural Plaza.
We then decided to mosey on over to Ala Moana Shopping Center to walk off our lunch and pick up a few things here and there at Shirokiya. Too bad more than half of the store was undergoing renovations, cuz we really wanted some of the fresh japanese desserts they make right in front of you *booooo!* Afterwards, we headed to my parent's condo to pick up a few things and introduced my g/f to the latest addition to the family. Seeing as to how my parents could care less about being PC, they aptly named the cat hahk jai or "black kid". Ain't dat the funniest sh*t?!!
On our way over to my g/f's parents home, we just HAD to drop by Tropicana on Waialae Ave. (across of City Mill going Ewa) to have some frozen delights (since Shirokiya proved a bit disappointing). What I'm relishing in the pic above is a strawberry "goodie goodie", the owner's take on Maui's famous guri-guri. I personally think it's a sh*tload better since it's got fine shaved-ice, strawberry syrup, Dave's ice cream on the bottom, and condensed milk swirled on top. Can't get any better than this, folx!
After taking a rather long nap in my g/f's old room, we headed to dinner with my g/f's family at Legend Seafood Rest., but this time in Waikiki. BTW, there are a ton of Chinese restaurants in Hawaii. It just so happens that it was planned this way *shrug*. We had just too much to eat there. Dinner included: that cool ying yang soup above (green swirl is made of spinach puree; white swirl made of chicken & egg drop), baked curried oyster on the half-shell, spicy salt pork spareribs, garlic lobster over e-mein, fried flounder, baked pork chop over rice, and stewed daikon radish with shrimp cake. What a way to start a vacation!!!
ABC Store purchase...Rob would be soooo proud of me
DFS Galleria...my gf's favorite place to go to in Waikiki
I didn't mean for her head to get speared like that
After dinner, we decided to play tourist in our home state and walked around Waik's for a bit. Glad to see that the number of Japanese tourists have picked up a bit since the last time we were here. It was getting kinda late, and our parking validation was about to expire, so we headed home.
OK...gotta go get ready for a buffet lunch at the Moana Surfrider Hotel with my g/f's family. Waikiki again? I know...I know...more updates tomorrow live from Honolulu!
***posted by Mouji on 3/21/2004 12:06:00 PM*** ::
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