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Holidays in Hawaii (2007.9.22 – 2007.9.26)
Sept 22
It was a flight of NW originally scheduled to take off at 22:40.
When we arrived KIX Kansai International Airport,
it was found at the time of check-in that
the time was re-scheduled to depart “earlier” by 10 minutes.
While we were waiting at the waiting area for the announcement
of commencement of boarding, it was announced all of a sudden
that the flight will get to be delayed because of some trouble
needing check-up.
The explanation was full of obscurity and nobody could see
with the announcement what was actually happening – even
the person in charge of the announcement should have been
short of the sure information on the real facts.
Most of the passengers of the night flight looked Japanese –
they are very quiet and well-behaved, although some few people
were talking to the staffs of the airline company revealing
strong concerns on the happening.
A long silence was kept between the airline and the passengers.
It was perhaps around 1:00 am that the final announcement of
the captain’s decision to get the A330 fly was done to proceed
to let passengers check in.
We were all still very concerned about the safety but we saw
nobody drop out. According to the airline, the model A330 was
one of the newest – simply they paid enough precautions
just in case in view of recent air crash or accident
at Pukket, Okinawa and in Brazil.
As a result, fortunately nothing happened on the way
and got arrived Honolulu Airport with some 2 hours’ delay.
2nd Day
It was explained that there is a time difference of
19 hours between Japan and Hawaii.
The time we arrived Honolulu was perhaps around 15:00 or 15:30
of the local time. I was just anticipating of some suffering
from jet lag which I heard spoken by someone before
but perhaps because of the night flight – it might have worked
good to avoid the jet lag – nothing was suffering to me.
With a small bottle of wine and a canned beer in the aircraft,
I could sleep rather well for some hours during the flight.
But, it was rather surprising that they offer such alcoholic
beverages at 5 U.S. dollars per piece.
It was a first priced experience as it was my first flight
with a direction toward U.S.A. I asked the local travel agent’s
staff if it’s good to visit to Diamond Head from that time.
He said we can go up to there but cannot enter because
they shut up at 17:00. So, we changed our idea to try
visiting Hawaii University at some 2 – 3 km away and
got there by taxi.
Just had looked around and found some birds similar to dove
in appearance but perhaps of half of dove in size.
Also found too small birds too much smaller than sparrow.
I could not watch them well because they were quick to go away.
Furthermore, I found the trees similar to that one which appears
on the TV advertisement of Hitachi – “Sono ki nanno ki, kininaru ki”
at many places, but I still do not know what name the tree has.
We walked around the Waikiki area and got into a restaurant
filled with local people to try some American dishes.
But, just as I imagined, the beef was not a good one
and lobster was something strange and what was worse,
the cooked rice was worst. It might have been wrong
to expect a nice meal at a price of around 25 dollars U.S.
3rd Day
Got up rather early and headed by local bus to Pearl Harbor.
Because we cannot see well, before getting into the bus,
asked the bus driver (woman driver) telling her that we want to go
to Pearl Harbor. To our regret, we couldn’t understand 100%
what were spoken but the choice of the bus seemed right.
While on the bus, although we had a simple map in hand,
we could not see how far our destination would be.
I asked another person in the bus, and someone near by
kindly answered that it would take another 20 minutes or so
to reach our destination.
We didn’t know where our bus was then running
so we were apt to get to feel rather concerned.
It was found later that the bus was the one you can go directly
up to the destination, and most of the people in the bus
were going to the same place - Arizona memorial.
Admission was free to see the Arizona Memorial.
But, you must leave all your personal items
outside of the memorial hall.
The hall had a free check-room and handed our baggage.
We went through the exhibited articles telling the miserable story
about the people who suffered the attack by Japanese zero-fighters.
A precious film was also put to show to visitors.
After that we got into a theatre where we could watch
the genuine film of the Pearl Harbor attack. Then,
we went forward to the Arizona memorial that is being built
in white simple shaped construction crossing over the battleship
which got sank into the harbor.
After finishing the Arizona memorial, we went to see the submarine
and got inside of it. The submarine had 2 torpedo launching
equipments at both sides of front and rear. The engines were
of 12-cylinders (?) manufactured by GM ? First experience to see
the details of the inner side of the submarine which was
a little bit exciting.
Then, we moved to that last battleship “Missouri” – on its deck
the surrender was signed by Japan in front of Douglas Mac-Arthur
on September 2, 1945 at Tokyo bay. The ship was re-used at the time
of Ireq war in ……. Year. Historically the post-war Japan got started
from this date’s signature in agreement to the surrender to Allied Powers.
After finishing the Pearl Harbor, headed to Diamond Head in the afternoon.
We took a public bus back to Waikiki then took
a OliOli bus which was free to JTB customers up to Diamond Head.
The bus stop was just at the center of the crater of volcano
now perhaps extinct.
We got a ticket and walked up the trail toward the hill top –
highest part of the tiny mountain. The winds were so nice
and cozy to skin. When you arrive at the top, you can have
a 360 degree field of vision – I could have an opposite look
of Waikiki toward to our hotel Sheraton, Waikiki.
It took this one whole day for the visits of Pearl Harbor
and Diamond Head only. This day we found another grill bar
and tried how American do that.
Just for a table for 4 people, they asked us to wait for
5 to 15 minutes. I said “no problem” and while waiting
at the entrance I saw a local couple who came in afterward
could be automatically invited to their table before us –
perhaps because they are 2 persons ? I was a little curious.
Before long, we were also guided to our table. The person
in charge of our table was a young merry girl – she said
she speaks some Japanese but we did all in English with some jokes.
4th Day
Since I got to be here at Waikiki, I should have not missed
the chance to swim at its beach. Yes, on this 4th day,
I dived into the sea for the first time.
The beach was not so much crowded and you can find a place
you can leave your articles on the sand.
The waves were small but I saw some people enjoying
surf riding at the offshore. According to the explanation
of OliOli bus driver, the coast area closer to the road
near Diamond Head was one of the good spot to do it.
Actually we saw lots of cars parked along the road and
the people going for surf riding. At the 2 parts of
the Waikiki beach, I saw 2 different surf riding schools.
I didn’t know that before but I saw surf-riders keep themselves
connected with that surfboard with something like a black rubber strings.
2 Japanese young girls were getting lesson to learn how to do
surf-riding – how to stand on the surf-board at the sea.
The prime important point is that the surf-riders definitely
must have excellent swimming ability off the shore.
I cannot do that to my regret.
In the afternoon, we had a stroll around the town
to have a look at what are offered as the souvenirs.
In Hawaii, chocolate and coffee could be major items
to be taken back to home country. If you feel interested,
looks like that you can experience how to make a chocolate
at its factory away from city area.
In the late afternoon, I visited a gun club and had a trial
to experience genuine 2 guns and a rifle at 20 dollars + 3 dollars
in U.S. using the smallest bullets.
It was exciting but to me holding the gun connected with metal chains
to the fixed bars were rather heavy, and because of poor eyesight
even with my glasses, I could not see well the target paper
hung some 10 meters apart and could not get good marks as the result.
This day we had a dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Certainly the menu was written in Italiano and I did order
by the Italian name by just reading it on the menu.
On this last day in Hawaii, we had the last noon dinner
at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel before the departure
by OliOli express bus to the airport. It was not a crowded.
We saw their wall decorated with actual water falling down
along the lines from top to bottom without flying in the air.
We could enjoy delicious sushi with a bean-soup in a big bowl
and fresh vegetable salad served by a Japanese woman of polished
manners. We would at last feel composed with the last Japanese
dishes just before our departure.
What I missed was the Polynesian dance show – if I’ll have
next chance to visit Hawaii, I’ll never miss it.
Memories in Hawaii 2007 [blog]
Holidays in Hawaii (2007.9.22 – 2007.9.26)
Sept 22
It was a flight of NW originally scheduled to take off at 22:40.
When we arrived KIX Kansai International Airport,
it was found at the time of check-in that
the time was re-scheduled to depart “earlier” by 10 minutes.
While we were waiting at the waiting area for the announcement
of commencement of boarding, it was announced all of a sudden
that the flight will get to be delayed because of some trouble
needing check-up.
The explanation was full of obscurity and nobody could see
with the announcement what was actually happening – even
the person in charge of the announcement should have been
short of the sure information on the real facts.
Most of the passengers of the night flight looked Japanese –
they are very quiet and well-behaved, although some few people
were talking to the staffs of the airline company revealing
strong concerns on the happening.
A long silence was kept between the airline and the passengers.
It was perhaps around 1:00 am that the final announcement of
the captain’s decision to get the A330 fly was done to proceed
to let passengers check in.
We were all still very concerned about the safety but we saw
nobody drop out. According to the airline, the model A330 was
one of the newest – simply they paid enough precautions
just in case in view of recent air crash or accident
at Pukket, Okinawa and in Brazil.
As a result, fortunately nothing happened on the way
and got arrived Honolulu Airport with some 2 hours’ delay.
2nd Day
It was explained that there is a time difference of
19 hours between Japan and Hawaii.
The time we arrived Honolulu was perhaps around 15:00 or 15:30
of the local time. I was just anticipating of some suffering
from jet lag which I heard spoken by someone before
but perhaps because of the night flight – it might have worked
good to avoid the jet lag – nothing was suffering to me.
With a small bottle of wine and a canned beer in the aircraft,
I could sleep rather well for some hours during the flight.
But, it was rather surprising that they offer such alcoholic
beverages at 5 U.S. dollars per piece.
It was a first priced experience as it was my first flight
with a direction toward U.S.A. I asked the local travel agent’s
staff if it’s good to visit to Diamond Head from that time.
He said we can go up to there but cannot enter because
they shut up at 17:00. So, we changed our idea to try
visiting Hawaii University at some 2 – 3 km away and
got there by taxi.
Just had looked around and found some birds similar to dove
in appearance but perhaps of half of dove in size.
Also found too small birds too much smaller than sparrow.
I could not watch them well because they were quick to go away.
Furthermore, I found the trees similar to that one which appears
on the TV advertisement of Hitachi – “Sono ki nanno ki, kininaru ki”
at many places, but I still do not know what name the tree has.
We walked around the Waikiki area and got into a restaurant
filled with local people to try some American dishes.
But, just as I imagined, the beef was not a good one
and lobster was something strange and what was worse,
the cooked rice was worst. It might have been wrong
to expect a nice meal at a price of around 25 dollars U.S.
3rd Day
Got up rather early and headed by local bus to Pearl Harbor.
Because we cannot see well, before getting into the bus,
asked the bus driver (woman driver) telling her that we want to go
to Pearl Harbor. To our regret, we couldn’t understand 100%
what were spoken but the choice of the bus seemed right.
While on the bus, although we had a simple map in hand,
we could not see how far our destination would be.
I asked another person in the bus, and someone near by
kindly answered that it would take another 20 minutes or so
to reach our destination.
We didn’t know where our bus was then running
so we were apt to get to feel rather concerned.
It was found later that the bus was the one you can go directly
up to the destination, and most of the people in the bus
were going to the same place - Arizona memorial.
Admission was free to see the Arizona Memorial.
But, you must leave all your personal items
outside of the memorial hall.
The hall had a free check-room and handed our baggage.
We went through the exhibited articles telling the miserable story
about the people who suffered the attack by Japanese zero-fighters.
A precious film was also put to show to visitors.
After that we got into a theatre where we could watch
the genuine film of the Pearl Harbor attack. Then,
we went forward to the Arizona memorial that is being built
in white simple shaped construction crossing over the battleship
which got sank into the harbor.
After finishing the Arizona memorial, we went to see the submarine
and got inside of it. The submarine had 2 torpedo launching
equipments at both sides of front and rear. The engines were
of 12-cylinders (?) manufactured by GM ? First experience to see
the details of the inner side of the submarine which was
a little bit exciting.
Then, we moved to that last battleship “Missouri” – on its deck
the surrender was signed by Japan in front of Douglas Mac-Arthur
on September 2, 1945 at Tokyo bay. The ship was re-used at the time
of Ireq war in ……. Year. Historically the post-war Japan got started
from this date’s signature in agreement to the surrender to Allied Powers.
After finishing the Pearl Harbor, headed to Diamond Head in the afternoon.
We took a public bus back to Waikiki then took
a OliOli bus which was free to JTB customers up to Diamond Head.
The bus stop was just at the center of the crater of volcano
now perhaps extinct.
We got a ticket and walked up the trail toward the hill top –
highest part of the tiny mountain. The winds were so nice
and cozy to skin. When you arrive at the top, you can have
a 360 degree field of vision – I could have an opposite look
of Waikiki toward to our hotel Sheraton, Waikiki.
It took this one whole day for the visits of Pearl Harbor
and Diamond Head only. This day we found another grill bar
and tried how American do that.
Just for a table for 4 people, they asked us to wait for
5 to 15 minutes. I said “no problem” and while waiting
at the entrance I saw a local couple who came in afterward
could be automatically invited to their table before us –
perhaps because they are 2 persons ? I was a little curious.
Before long, we were also guided to our table. The person
in charge of our table was a young merry girl – she said
she speaks some Japanese but we did all in English with some jokes.
4th Day
Since I got to be here at Waikiki, I should have not missed
the chance to swim at its beach. Yes, on this 4th day,
I dived into the sea for the first time.
The beach was not so much crowded and you can find a place
you can leave your articles on the sand.
The waves were small but I saw some people enjoying
surf riding at the offshore. According to the explanation
of OliOli bus driver, the coast area closer to the road
near Diamond Head was one of the good spot to do it.
Actually we saw lots of cars parked along the road and
the people going for surf riding. At the 2 parts of
the Waikiki beach, I saw 2 different surf riding schools.
I didn’t know that before but I saw surf-riders keep themselves
connected with that surfboard with something like a black rubber strings.
2 Japanese young girls were getting lesson to learn how to do
surf-riding – how to stand on the surf-board at the sea.
The prime important point is that the surf-riders definitely
must have excellent swimming ability off the shore.
I cannot do that to my regret.
In the afternoon, we had a stroll around the town
to have a look at what are offered as the souvenirs.
In Hawaii, chocolate and coffee could be major items
to be taken back to home country. If you feel interested,
looks like that you can experience how to make a chocolate
at its factory away from city area.
In the late afternoon, I visited a gun club and had a trial
to experience genuine 2 guns and a rifle at 20 dollars + 3 dollars
in U.S. using the smallest bullets.
It was exciting but to me holding the gun connected with metal chains
to the fixed bars were rather heavy, and because of poor eyesight
even with my glasses, I could not see well the target paper
hung some 10 meters apart and could not get good marks as the result.
This day we had a dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Certainly the menu was written in Italiano and I did order
by the Italian name by just reading it on the menu.
On this last day in Hawaii, we had the last noon dinner
at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel before the departure
by OliOli express bus to the airport. It was not a crowded.
We saw their wall decorated with actual water falling down
along the lines from top to bottom without flying in the air.
We could enjoy delicious sushi with a bean-soup in a big bowl
and fresh vegetable salad served by a Japanese woman of polished
manners. We would at last feel composed with the last Japanese
dishes just before our departure.
What I missed was the Polynesian dance show – if I’ll have
next chance to visit Hawaii, I’ll never miss it.
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