It has been a while (once again) and it would be great to say it is because we are so busy whisking off to all corners of Japan for more great experiences to bring to our family on the home front, but truth be told we have been a little lazy just trying to stay cool and dry. The rainy season has come to a close (although it is raining all week here) and the summer humidity has kicked in along with the sweltering heat. To get away from it all we decided to take a trip to Hawaii. It was actually quite inexpensive and nice to briefly be back in the States.
We toyed with the idea of going to Hokkaido or Okinawa to escape tsuyu, but found it surprisingly less expensive to go to Hawaii. It was a nice five day respite from work. We stayed in Waikiki and did all the cheesy tourist stuff like eat at Dukes' and kiosk shop through the International Market. The beach was fun and the water was amazing. We went to the North Shore to Sunset beach to escape the crowds of Waikiki, it was great, we were amoung maybe five other groups on the entire beach. The water much rougher but the isolation gave it a fantastic private tropical island feel. The best part is we almost got homesick for Japan and quickly lost those feelings when we discovered every restaurant had Japanese menus and throngs of Japanese tourists milling about. We sort felt compelled to assist in anyway since the Japanese have been such wonderful hosts to us in their country, so when we had the opportunity to speak Japanese we did. A woman was very surprised to hear Jennifer speak Japanese to her in a store, and we received very appreciative thank yous. When we went to find O-miyage (obligation souvenirs) for our friends here, Jennifer zeroed in the same store all the Japanese tourists were using. I was beginning to feel like I missed something, how had Jennifer become so intuned with our new home. When I finnally had an opportunity to use my newly aquired Japanese language skills and culture, I geared up went over to two nice Japanese girls on the beach and asked if they could take our photo, "すみません写真ください" they replied, " Sure, no problem." They were Americans.
We are back now and ready to take on more of Japan.
