Asia Bound

I find myself in what I consider to be a very special time in life- between jobs. I am typing this on Japan airlines heading from Honolulu to Tokyo. I will have a 6 hour layover and will then fly to Hong Kong. My plan was hatched and executed pretty quickly. I am set to begin work in Boston in mid May and decided to use my time of wisely- traveling. I had such a great time in Japan earlier this year and so I decided to go there again. Also have wanted to go to Hong Kong so I made some calls and found out that I could fly pretty cheap to HK then back to Tokyo. Also found out that I could get a 2 week Japan railways pass for cheap so it was a no brainer. I will be spending 6 days in Hong Kong then fly back to Tokyo. Kuniko will be arriving in Tokyo on the same day I arrive and we will stay at her parent’s house. She will stay for 6 days and then head back to Honolulu. At that point I will start my 2 week railway pass- I haven’t planned my itinerary but want to go to Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima and probably back to Kyoto.

Flying on a Japanese carrier is infinitely better than an American. First off in Japan flight attendants still have some status in Japan so they actually take pride in their jobs and provide great service- none of that attitude that is so common on US carriers. Secondly the food is actually good- I had a pork curry dish with rice that was quite good.

Kurobuta pork tonkatsu! and fried fish private parts

It has been a Japanese food weekend...which naturally I love. On Friday we went to our local sushi restaurant (by local I mean 1 block away). In addition to some great sushi we had a tempura dish which Kuniko ordered. When it arrived it didn't look like other tempura I had tasted before. I asked what it was and was informed I could find out after I ate it (this is definately a good policy). It tasted good but the texture bordered on slimy- I would rate it as a B. I later found out it is "a reproductive organ, but I can't remember whether male or female." Who the hell would think to fry up fish reproductive organs? The Japanese of course.



Last night we went to Bairin (meaning plum forest in Japanese):

http://www.pj-world.com/bairin/

They also have another restaurant in Ginza in Tokyo. It specializes in Tonkatsu which is breaded/fried pork. This restaurant also has the option of getting Kurobata pork which is supposedly the Kobe beef of pork (if that makes sense). Basically what it means is it is very fatty and flavorful and when deep fried it is freaking amazing. In this restaurant they give a bowl of sesame seeds that you grind up and then put a sweet brown sauce (Tonkatsu sauce) and then dip the pork in that. Naturally it is quite expensive, however, is absolutely worth it. Also they had Sapporo reserve which I haven't seen before- it is excellent.

Bhutanese Art and pork buns

Today we headed to the Honolulu Academy of Arts for the opening of "The Dragon's Gift- the Sacred Arts of Bhutan." I actually didn't really know how much of a big deal it was- until I got there. First off it was for invite only- due to the nature of her work, Kuniko was invited- which meant I could tag along. Also invited were all the donors who helped make it possible- ie rich people who dress kind of funny and corporate sponsors. More importantly the princess of Bhutan was there as well as a bunch of monks and other high ranking religious people and such from Bhutan. I actually had no idea this was such a big deal, until I got there. It was like 3 years of planning to make this exposition a reality. Basically all kinds of Buddhist paintings and other pieces of art that have never been seen by pretty much any westerner were shipped over here for an exposition. In addition they allowed westerners to videotape Bhutanese dance. Today they did a traditional dance that pretty much no one except important people in Bhutan get to see. The exhibit was quite impressive and it made me want to go to Bhutan even more.

After looking at very cool Buddhist paintings we headed to nearby Chinatown to get Manapua a Char Hun Sut. As much as I bash Hawaii for it's lack of sophisticated food- there are a few things here that are really amazing and this is one of them. Basically it is a bun filled with pork. Probably doesn't sound that exciting but trust me it is:

Maui Days 2 and 3

So on Sunday I forced Kuniko out of bed much earlier than she would normally get up and so we could get started on our (epic) hike of the trip. We stopped at Grandma's coffee house in Kula and bought some fantastic baked goods for my breakfast (Kuniko had some pasta salads which were good) and then we drove to Haleakala. The drive is really cool- very windy. We were upgraded from our economy car to a mid size which was good for this drive but not so good when I had to fill it up (gas was 3.85 per gallon for the cheap stuff). Anyway we got to the top which is 10,000 feet and began our hike called sliding sands trail. First off it is a really cool hike and very unique and I highly recomend it. It is 4 miles down into the crater of the extinct volcano. The pisser is you have to hike down first and then back up it (at an altitude of 10,000 feet). They also have horseback riding up and down it on the same trail. I didn't mind avoiding the horses so much, but I did mind avoiding horse shit and the occasional odor of horse shit and pee (it's actually kind of stinky). I have to give Kuniko public recognition for doing this hike with me- it is no small task and she was a trooper.










After the hike we grabbed a beer which my have been the coldest best tasting beer of my life and grabbed some pizza that was really good (which is nowhere to be found on Oahu).

Day 3. Again I woke Kuniko up pretty early and we headed out to do the rode to Hana. There was a fatal accident on the only road out of Kula so we got the chance to sit in our rental car for a while before sitting in it for even longer on the road to Hana. The road to Hana is cool but not as cool as hiking in my opinion. We didn't really stop too much and check stuff out. To be honest I think for most people it would be really amazing but we are spoiled living in Oahu. Then we went to Pa'ia and walked around and had more really good pizza. Pa'ia is pretty intersting- it may have the highest concentration of white people with dreadlocks in all of the US. There are some serious oddballs in that town. That being said there is a fantastic healthfood grocery store and a really nice cafe- which we don't have in Oahu so we really enjoyed that. We had an awesome trip to Maui and I highly recomend going there.

Maui! Day 1

This past weekend we headed to Maui for the long weekend. I didn't bring my laptop so I have to try to remember everything now. We flew in on Saturday and rented a car and were slated to do a whale watch at 11 am. Somehow we drove past Lahaina and ended up on this really beautiful road pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say we missed the boat, however, this proved to be a good thing. We were able to get on a later boat and there were tons of whales. Whales migrate from Alaska in the winter and stay in the warm waters of Maui. The tour started out pretty weak- the whales were far away and the boats aren't allowed to go to close to the whales. But then the whales started to come very close the boat...see below pictures and video. The (extremely annoying) guide (who pretty much didn't stop talking into her portable microphone) said that this was one of the best whale watches in a while. I was really tempted to tell her that Kuniko ate whale growing up (it's served as a school lunch in Japan) and then to ask her if she had ever eaten whale....but I opted to keep my mouth shut as I wouldn't want her to freak out and throw Kuniko overboard for having consumed her favorite animal.
After the whale watch we headed to John Paul's gourmet store in upcountry which was close to our where we stayed. I bought us cheese, bread, dried salami, and chocolate for our hike the next day. If you have never been to Maui- everything is freaking expensive. It cost in the neighborhood of 40 bucks. Frankly we didn't completely mind because they had really great stuff that we can't get on Oahu. I could write a huge rant on the lack of quality fresh food in Oahu, but I won't. OK so then we headed to our "cottage" in Kula. Kuniko found this place after finding out that pretty much everything in Kula was booked. This place was fantastic and I would definately recomend it. It's called Keli's:

http://kelismaui.com/


It is located in the mountains very close to Haleakala and is located on beautiful grounds with an absolutely stunning view.







For dinner we headed to Hali'imaile General Store which is a pretty well known pricey restaurant. The food was good. The dessert was amazing. It was a "rustic" apple tart that was made with a cornmeal crust- absolutely amazing.

Hiking in Oahu

I think Kuniko and I have finally shaken the jet lag. It took a little over a week. Even though we live in "paradise" it's easy to get into the normal rut of working, cooking, shopping, etc...which is pretty much true anywhere. Anyway this weekend we really took advantage of Hawaii. I bought Kuniko hiking boots for her birthday nearly 2 months ago and we haven't used them until this weekend. She wasn't sure if she would really like hiking. This is apparently related to a bad hiking experience at age 10 in Germany which has resulted in her avoiding hiking alltogether. She also is pretty much a city girl at heart. Anyway I woke her up earlier than she is used to on Saturday and we went to Manoa falls to hike. I chose this hike because it is easy and delivers maximum scenery for minimal effort. The hike is actually pretty short and there is a much better trail above the falls. It goes through a bamboo forest which is really cool:


We got about 2 miles in or so and it started to absolutely pour. So we turned around. We headed to Inaba for Soba (buckwheat noodles) as it's on the way home. Then we headed to Waikiki beach. We finally had a sunny day (it's the rainy season and it rained a lot before we headed to Japan). While at the beach I saw in the entertainment paper that the New Shanghai Circus was in town and we decided to check it out. It was at the Hawaii theatre which is a really cool restored old theatre. We grabbed dinner at Du Vin which is a bistro. The food was OK. The caliber of the restaurants here just doesn't compare to large cities in the mainland. Anyway the show was amazing. As good, if not better than Cirque de Solei performances I have seen.

Today Kuniko had to go to a work related tea ceremony so I went back to the beach as it was another warm and sunny day. It was one of those weekends that made both of us happy to be in Hawaii.

1/8/08 last day in Tokyo

This morning we ate a rice porridge that contains very mild fresh herbs that is tradionally eaten after the new years festivities/gluttony. It was very simple and comforting- perfect after all the complex and crazy food we have eaten. The weather was warmer today and sunny so we walked around to get last minute food items and gifts. Most importantly we bought 2 types of umeboshi which are absolutely one of my favorite Japanese things- they are a salted plum- they are very sour and very salty- I love them and have been rationed by Kuniko and can only have 1-2 per day. I bought 5 toe socks which are a big thing here- apparently Matsuzaka wears them and got the other red sox pitchers turned on to them. We then headed for some ramen noodles- we actually went to 2 different places- one called Hope-Ken (the ken means store) we went because of the name and because Kuniko's dad and sister thought we should go there. We didn't finish so we could try another place called grease noodle- basically it's ramen noodles with a tasty grease sauce- the noodles were super fresh and good.

I really had an amazing time here. Kuniko's parents were very gracious hosts and I was fed all kinds of great food. The temples and shrines we went to in both Tokyo and Kyoto were amazing. I look forward to returning.

Hope Ramen noodles