Another tipsy evening at Hula’s… They were showing the Oscars, so I did get in a little bit of dishing celebrities. Also, made the acquaintance of an American fellow who lives in Tokyo… He is visiting Hawaii with his wife and her family… Apparently, the stumbled across Hula’s and thought, “This place looks nice” – not realizing until they’d been there for 45 minutes that it was all guys in the place… But they enjoyed themselves – and had thus returned last evening… It was really nice meeting them all and he was kind enough to give me his email address so we can try to get together when I return to Tokyo later this year… Also, met a nice Kiwi and his girlfriend (i.e. friend who is a girl) and had great fun yakking and dancing with them…
The view from under my umbrella (ella-ella-ella)
Despite the overcast morning, spent most of the afternoon at the beach. Weather behaved until about 330 or so when the clouds returned and it cooled down a bit. Happily, my arrival back at my hotel room coincided with the broadcast of Judge Judy, so that killed an hour before dinner.
Dinner at Ginza Bairin for tonkatsu (my favorite). Very good, though I may have ordered the wrong thing – the Kurobuta pork was really delicious, but it’s also a huge portion and has a big fatty side… I prefer my meat leaner and probably should’ve gotten the tenderloin katsu… But what’re you gonna do? And the pickles I started with were truly the most delicious pickles I’ve ever eaten… And I’ve eaten a lot of pickles, if you know what I mean… Heh…
Tonkatsu
Likely headed back to Hula’s later. It’s funny – doesn’t really get hopping there ’til 930 or 10. I guess I expected evenings to begin earlier here, what with all the mainlanders being two to five hours earlier than home. But I’ll probably try to make an early night of it regardless (yeah, right) since I actually have to do some work stuff in the morning – shouldn’t take too long and then back to the beach.
Well, at this point, the jury is still out on Honolulu… Went to the beach for a bit yesterday – the portion of it closest to my hotel is OK, but quite rocky in the water… And the gay stretch of beach was not the prettiest – beach-wise or patron-wise… However, I did walk down toward the center of Waikiki beach later in the afternoon – it looks nicer, though of course more crowded… Don’t mind crowds so much, so my plan is to head down there later today and stake out a spot… Though right now I’m torn as to whether to try now or wait and see how the weather goes – looks like there’ll be some rain today…
I did have a good burger for a late lunch yesterday at Lulu’s and then a few beers at Hula’s during happy hour… I had every intention of returning for the dancing later, but instead fell asleep at around 9PM – probably just as well. Got a semi-decent night’s sleep sans Ambien… and the bed is quite comfy…
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Aloha!
So, now it’s Sunday and I seem to have found my Honolulu groove… Spent Friday afternoon on Waikiki Beach, under my rented umbrella (worth every penny of the $10-for-two-hours) and frolicking in the water. Of course, I’d be happier if the beach had more in the way of crashing waves, but hey, I’m not complaining…
Went to Hula’s for happy hour and chatted with a nice though rather odd gentleman from Palm Springs, who told me all about his dead partner and their adventures together… He’s been widowed for three years and sounds like he’s still getting over it (as I can very well imagine). Grabbed dinner at a local place recommended by the waitress – Diamond Head Market & Grill. It was rather a long hike, but had a very tasty meal of ahi with sesame, rice and salad… Back to Hula’s later and met some other friendly guys. Hung out, checked out a couple of the other bars (not cute – I’ll be sticking with Hula’s I think…) and called it a night. No dancing for me sadly…
Saturday was low key – slept in, had lunch at (don’t judge) the Cheesecake Factory since it was on my route…
Sadly "meh"...
And let me tell you, they pack them in at that place. People just love it! The guy next to me at the counter was going on and on about how the closest one to him in New Hampshire is all the way in Boston and how he longs for their food… And the menu is like 25 pages long… Anyhow, my chicken salad was fine…
Stocked up on sunblock, but only made a brief visit to the beach… I think I was a little hungover and there were no umbrellas available – sitting in the blazing sun in such a condition did not sound appealing… Wound up watching the “Godfather” back in the hotel room, before heading out to dinner at a place along the beach in one of the big hotels.
Sadly, my fish was mediocre and rather pricey – plus they put me at a very sad Mary-Ann-Singleton-style table right by the entrance. But such is the life of the lone traveler in honeymoon headquarters… But I had a good book.
Back to Hula’s (surprise!) where I ran into a fellow I’d met the night before, so we hung out. Also made friends with a rather adorable local boy and we spent much of the later part of the evening dancing (finally!). Very fun…
Spam musubi and tuna onigiri. Delicious!
Up early-ish today – was at the beach by 11AM, got myself parked under my umbrella… Kind of a crummy day weather-wise with persistent rain… But still warm enough and my umbrella provided protection from both sun and rain… Read, did crosswords, swam, ate spam musubi and tuna onigiri… Why can’t I just spend every day like that?
That’s it for now… I don’t have much in the way of pictures since I haven’t been bringing my camera to the beach (trying to travel light and with few valuables). I suspect the next couple of days will be much the same as the last few – beach, swim, eat, Hula’s… Not feeling much like exploring the island, even though I feel a little guilty about that fact… But what’re you gonna do? I came here to sit on the beach and that’s what I’m doing…
So, I’m somewhere over the Pacific, still closer to SF than Honolulu. But so far, so good… Flight was on time and sparsely populated – sufficiently so that I was able change my seat to an exit row, which I have all to myself… Doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Well, when one is relegated to coach, that is…
Of course, one has to take the good with the bad… For example, there is no Wifi connection on board. I know! This must’ve been what it was like coming over on the Mayflower… I wonder how the pilgrims were able to go that long without checking Facebook? Though I guess they’ve always had a reputation for being austere…
Really?
Far worse though is that there is some young queen and his BFF girlfriend immediately behind me… Right now, we’re about 90 minutes into the flight (since boarding) and they have not stopped talking for even the merest of nanoseconds. “Oh my God. Seriously? I totally just told Jason the same thing… Did I tell about these cute shorts I just bought? Oh my God! They are so totally cute – seriously. Anyway, oh my God – what time is our flight back on Tuesday? I’m totally using my mileage. Seriously, you can totally get a free ticket with, like, 10,000 miles – seriously! I’m totally doing that… Oh yeah, that like totally includes international flights. Oh my God – look over there at that bright shiny object! It’s totally cute! Seriously! Wait, what was I saying? Oh my God! I think my brain just flew out of my ear! Ugh, how totally embarrassing… Oh my God, did I tell you about these cute shorts I bought?”
In other words, they haven’t actually been conversing – they’ve basically just been shouting the same five words at each other for 90 minutes – and will presumably continue to do so until well after we’ve arrived in Honolulu.
Needless to say, I’ve never been so happy to hear the “you may now use your electronic devices” announcement. Between my tight-fitting earphones and the upping the volume on my iPod, I’ve manage to isolate myself aurally from the assault I’ve been enduring since boarding… Though every time there’s a pause between songs, I can still hear them talking at each other… Why is it always those with the least to say that do the most talking?
Oh, and the feet poking through the seats was super… Just what I was hoping to see next to me…
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Jesus, are we there yet? I think I’ve been in the air for about five hours… I think the four-to-six hour flights are the worst… Shorter ones are over pretty quickly… And when faced with a long-haul overseas flight of eight or more hours, you’re just resigned to the experience…
Anyhow, a couple of observations on flying:
American Airlines, do you think maybe you could give the cabins a little updating? The torn window coverings don’t exactly inspire confidence… Plus, the lack of in-seat video monitors means everybody’s forced to watch the same movie at the same time – leading to me having to listen to a Greek chorus of buffoonish guffaws as my fellow passengers laugh their asses off at the depressingly predictable humor of the whatever lame rom-com your screening… All I want to do is read my book in peace…
Also, American, could you please be sure that every flight is staffed with at least one cute gay male FA who’ll flirt with me? And, nice though he may be, an older, rather-homespun gentleman with braces and an ill-fitting uniform does not count…
I realize that the cabin air is quite arid, fellow passengers… But if you’re going to slather your hands and legs with lotion, could you steer clear of the synthetic-strawberry-mango-jubilee you picked up at Bath and Body Works? It’s making the rest of us gag and sneeze…
If you are a passenger aboard a commercial airliner and find yourself seated within earshot of me, please shut the fuck up.
Almost there...
Well, time to wrap up… I think I just felt that delightful change in engine speed and cabin pressure that denotes that we’ve started our descent… Aloha, mofos…
It's a Complete Outrage 