From The Moon Back To Earth, Big Island to Kauai

View From Our Room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai

We spent our last morning at the Orchid swimming in the lagoon.  We wished we had made plans to stay longer on the Big Island.  We had a great time at the Orchid.  It had good facilities, good breakfast buffet, a fine pool, fun and safe ‘hot tub’ for kids, lagoon where kids practiced surfing and accessible snorkeling, restaurant and café on the beach and turtles!  And to boot, we had gotten a good deal.  Oh well, now I know for next time.

The Hawaiian Air flight from Kona to Lihue on Kauai shouldn’t have taken long but I don’t believe there are any nonstop flights between the two airports.  Therefore, what should have been a 30min flight and travel time turns into a 2-3 hour flight and travel time, via Honolulu.  That is the downside of hopping between islands.  You waste essentially half a day and have to deal with all the hassle of packing and renting/returning cars when you island hop.   This too, now I know for next time.  (It’s OK and worth it if you live in the Midwest or the East Coast and have to endure 10hr+ flight to get to Hawaii, but for many Californians, island hopping may not be the best option, especially if you know you will come back to Hawaii another time.)

We arrived in the late afternoon to Kauai and was struck by the vast difference in scenery.  Whereas the Big Island was barren, brown, rocky and vast, Kauai is green, lush and more populated (nothing like Oahu or Maui).

This wasn’t our first time at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.  Our whole family loves the hotel for its ambience, its extensive pool system and slide, keiki hula shows and the beach in front for access to surfing.  We have a very strong preference for rooms in the Shipwreck Wing of the hotel.  Unfortunately for us, the whole wing was closed for renovation.  Major bummer!  The room we ended up with was at the very opposite end of the hotel from our preferred location.  We were not happy.  This wasn’t what we had signed up for…I had called ahead to make sure we would be getting rooms in the Shipwreck Wing and so was very disappointed when we were told the timing of the construction had changed.

After a quick dip in the pool we all got ready for the keiki hula show at the Seaview Terrace.  Our girls love watching kids hula.  They can’t get enough of it.  Lucky for us, we arrived on a Tuesday which was keiki hula day and we were going to get to see it again on Saturday.  Perfect.  As we ordered some light food for dinner at the Terrace, our server asked us for our room number.  When he told him our room number, he quipped “You had a marathon getting here!”  And he was right.  My husband responded “Our room is at the absolute end of the hotel”.  (To get a sense, the hotel sits on 50 acres with 602 guest rooms – it’s huge and spread out.)  To which my older girl replied “No Daddy.  There are two rooms next to us closer to the exit door.”  Yes, that would make a difference!

Our stay just wasn’t going to be what we expected if we stayed put in the far corner of the property.  So my husband spoke to the front desk and they were nice enough to switch us to a much better and closer room the next day.  It still wasn’t a room in the Shipwreck Wing (couldn’t do much about that since the whole wing was under construction) but it was so much better than where we were initially assigned.  It pays to speak up.


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Excitement at Hapuna Beach, No Not The Waves

Another Amazing Sunset

My sister and her family are having a string of bad luck.  Their youngest injured himself three times in a row, the last one requiring a trip to the hospital.  Today it was car trouble.  After a morning at the lagoon/beach and bracelet making at the hotel, we decided to head over to Hapuna Beach, a beautiful wide sandy beach nearby.  My brother-in-law and his older son headed out way before us.  When we arrived at the beach they were just leaving…this was about 4pm or so.

This is probably the first time I saw the girls actually play in the ocean with waves.  Prior to this, both of them would run up the beach as soon as they sensed the waves.  This time, they both swam into the ocean, waves and all, and dove under the waves.  I was so proud of them…thankfully they don’t take after me.  I wasn’t as brave as my girls at their age.  We didn’t stay too long, about 30min, and we made our way back to the parking lot.  When we look up we see my brother-in-law, phone in hand coming towards us – which of course was unexpected.  They should have been back at the hotel getting ready for our last dinner together.

As it turned out, his car wasn’t starting.  It seems he got the car keys wet by accident.  He said he was relieved to see us, and I am glad we ran into each other.  He would have had to wait for a new car to be delivered.  So…this is the downside of technology.  Smart keys, can’t get them wet!

The hotel and car deal I bought from Costco was good, but I didn’t pay attention to the size of car.  It seems I paid for a mid-size.  My husband informed me as he came back to the airport to pick us up that mid-size was a tad small for the family.  I didn’t think it was too bad, but in this particular situation, I wished I had sprung for a full size.  We had to leave my mom behind with my brother-in-law to make room for our nephew.  After dropping us off at the hotel, my husband had to go back to the beach to pick up my mom and my brother-in-law.

Our last night together was turning out to be a somewhat stressful one.  By the time we got back to the hotel, I had 15 minutes to shower the kids and myself to make our 6pm dinner reservation at Brown’s, Orchid’s beachside restaurant.  We didn’t quite make it. Luckily for our motley crew, the restaurant staff was really nice and patient.  They were so gracious.  My girls and I were the only ones at our table with a view for 45 minutes! And they didn’t pester us at all.  In fact, our server, J’aime was absolutely wonderful.  The rest of the crew finally showed up, including my brother-in-law.  He didn’t think he could have dinner with us since he would have to go back to the beach with the rental car agents.  We talked him into ordering the entrée banking on him getting back after the apps were served.  As it turned out, he didn’t miss dinner after all.  The Hawaiians showed again how nice and accommodating they were.  The rental car agents delivered the new car to the hotel and offered to pick up the other car at the beach.

Our last dinner together was wonderful; amazingly beautiful evening by the beach, good food and superb service.  Absolutely perfect.




Monday, August 9, 2010

Trip To The Sanctuary And Really Good Vietnamese Crepe in Kona

Though we had made plans to go snorkeling off a boat, we canceled given our nephew’s condition. We opted to go to ‘the place of refuge’ Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park , a sacred ground for the Hawaiians where we could see turtles (though we saw turtles anytime we wanted right at the Fairmont). The drive was longer than we thought – it took about an hour. It was worth it…it was very pretty and there was a calmness to the place (mired only by a couple of local boys spearing fish with no intent of eating them). We were promised turtles and we saw turtles. The turtles were playing just by the shore.

We all walked out on the lava rocks (the boys had their water shoes on this time) and enjoyed the small tide pools hidden among the rocks. My brother-in-law decided to go snorkeling right there and my husband and the kids, minus the injured one, all got into the water. The water was apparently beautiful and clear and they saw lots of fish.

Come lunch time, we found out there was no picnicking on sacred ground except in designated area which seemed too hot so we opted to drive 30min+ back to town for lunch. I’m glad we did. My sister knew of a Vietnamese place from their last visit which served Vietnamese crepe only on Sundays. And of course this being Sunday, we had to go.

BaLe-Kona is non-descript, in a strip shopping center one door down from Payless Shoes. The food on the other hand was great! I wish we had this place in the Bay Area. Although we have many Vietnamese restaurants, many aren’t good at all. The crepe was crisp but not greasy and it came with a large plate of lettuce, fresh cilantro and mint. My youngest girl pretty much polished off four large fresh spring rolls declaring they were the best (they were gigantic and good but hardly the best – but then she was hungry). My husband’s pork dish was sweet, moist and tender. The rest of the gang had noodle soup, chicken and more crepe…all good. I couldn’t resist and ordered a tapioca dessert in sweet potato flavor, the purple kind. It was awful…so can’t recommend their desserts but highly recommend the rest of the menu.

After lunch we went shopping at Kohl’s and Target for water shorts for the girls. We thought they needed more protection while playing on the surfboards. It isn’t easy to find the equivalent of board shorts for girls. Girls’ shorts all were really short barely provided any more protection than their swimsuit. With a lot of coaxing, and I mean a lot, we talked them into getting boys’ shorts – they were cute, red with flowers, but the girls weren’t happy but I think their thighs were glad for the extra protection.

We had no plans for dinner that night and we thought we would just wing it at the hotel when my sister called me urgently around 7pm to come to the Japanese restaurant, Norio’s, at the Fairmont. She was holding 9 chairs at the sushi bar and if we didn’t come right away we couldn’t have them. Luckily we were almost done getting ready and I ran over with the girls. My sister was there with one of her boys, not showered, holding down the fort. She tells me that the kids can’t sit together, that the adults had to sit between them. It sounded like she had a horrific time trying to get the seats for us – took her 20minutes of sweet talking (I couldn’t have done it, I don’t think)…the hostess did not want to seat our group with the kids for dinner. She actually relented after much persuasion and her first offer was to stick our kids in a corner at the bar by themselves away from all adults – including the parents!! My sister at this point switched to Japanese (since the hostess was an older Japanese lady) and didn’t give up trying to come up with a workable solution. Thank goodness for my sister!

Of course the question is, was the dinner worth my poor sister enduring the nasty hostess? The food was good – expensive, as is the case with restaurant food in Hawaii. (The miso soup that I ordered for the girls was $8 for a bowl!! with nothing but soup in it…I didn’t know how much it cost and didn’t think it would cost much…I was wrong.) Some of the rolls were 50% off from 7:30-8:30 so we lucked out with the rolls. It was a good choice for dinner since we had no plans, some rolls were half off and it was right at the hotel. You can’t complain too much when you are in Hawaii….you are in paradise after all.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Third Time, Defintely Not a Charm, Actually It's a Trip to the Hospital

The morning started off well enough, with a big breakfast buffet, where my husband and I gorged on ripe papayas and sweet pineapples.  The girls on the other hand thought fruit loops and doughnuts were more to their liking.

After breakfast we made our way to the lagoon where the girls and their cousins all played with the surfboards.  I was thinking how cute…all four of them sitting on one surfboard.  Then I saw the board go towards the lava rocks…and the boys scramble up the rocks and the board with the girls drift away.  All the adults were on the beach and when we saw the boys on the rocks, we all knew it was not a good situation.  We told the girls to go back to the boys and when they all came back to shore we knew there was trouble.  There was blood, lots of blood.  My younger nephew had cut his toes very badly.  My sister is a physician and when she couldn’t stop the bleeding, I knew this was serious.  It was terrible.  This injury warranted a trip to the hospital.  Since the toes weren’t easily accessible for suturing, the physician at the hospital used derma bond…super glued the wounds.  Really unlucky!  My nephew had fallen twice the day before and had arrived at the hotel with huge bandages on his shin…a fall at the waterfall and at a shave ice stand, and now this.  This of course meant that my nephew was out of the water for the next couple of days and we cancelled our snorkeling trip. 

While my sister and her husband took their son to the hospital, we spent the rest of the morning at the pool and at the lagoon with our girls and our older nephew – had a great time but we worried about the rest of the group at the hospital.  They finally got back around 2:30pm – they had left around 10am.  We hung around the hotel and we were off to dinner at Roy’s to celebrate my sister’s birthday. 

Roy’s as usual is located in a shopping center – this one King’s Shops, located at the next turn off from the Orchid.  The food was good and the view of the fake lake fine (reminded me of Foster City, CA).  I ordered what I always order – misoyaki butterfish, with a spicy tuna appetizer.  For dessert – the usual – chocolate soufflé cake – yum.

As we spent more days at the hotel, we learned of more families whose kids had cut their feet on the lava rocks.  My husband ran into a man who was waiting for a wheelchair at the lagoon who had moments ago cut his feet on the rocks.   We were puzzled the hotel did not have visible signs warning about the sharp rocks.  It seemed that injury on the rocks wasn’t uncommon.  Maybe the Hawaiians know all about the sharp lava rocks but us naïve tourists certainly were not as aware.



Saturday, August 7, 2010

Big Island-The Orchid, Better The Second Time Around

Sunset in front of the Orchid

It’s brutal taking an early morning flight with kids.  I feel so bad waking them up.  Our flight on Alaska Airlines to the Big Island left out of San Jose at 7:30am, which meant we were out the door around 6am.  The kids seemed OK being woken up but then on the flight we realized quickly they were missing their sleep.  Both were so cranky and the flight to Hawaii isn’t short…about 4 ½ to 5 hrs. 

What made the flight somewhat bearable was the crew and service of Alaska Airlines.  I had never flown them before.  I was impressed with how nice, friendly and helpful they were – from the moment you line up at the ticket counter, you are greeted with smiles…imagine!!

We arrive into Kona about 30 minutes early, around 9:40am Hawaii time.  The airport is small.  There aren’t any jetways…you walk onto the tarmac off the plane…you feel you are now truly away.  The landscape also helps to make you feel you have traveled far.  When you start driving, as far as the eye can see, you see old lava fields, brown and rocky.  Very barren looking compared to the other lush islands of Hawaii. 

I found a good package deal for the Fairmont Orchid through Costco (although I think you could have booked directly through the hotel for a comparable rate).  The Orchid was built as a Ritz, but changed management years later to the Starwood group, and in its latest reincarnation was now the Fairmont.  We had stayed at the Orchid before many years ago, prior to kids.  Neither my husband nor I remembered it being particularly memorable but this time with kids, we really liked it.

I remember not being impressed with the manmade beach on the property but this time around thought it was one of the highlights!  The girls loved the beach where we bought an activity card for $60 that allowed the kids to rent lots of fun water equipment.  The girls took out a large foam surfboard and practiced surfing.  I snorkeled around the mouth of the lagoon and immediately spotted a honu, a green sea turtle, which swam right underneath me!  That made my trip.  We pretty much spent the whole afternoon at the beach. 

Since the Bay Area was 3 hours ahead of Hawaii, by 5pm all of us were starving and opted for dinner at the Hale Kai restaurant right by the beach.  The food was pretty awful but the setting was wonderful.  As we were having dinner, my sister and her family who were already on the island joined us.  They had just returned from the Volcano National Park.  We watched as the sun set and the sea turtles rested on the rocky beach in front of the restaurant and knew we were indeed in paradise.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Miyakojima, Okinawa – Sparkling Blue Waters And Sand As Fine As Sifted Flour

View From Our Hotel Room

June – July 2007

As I was planning our first trip to Japan with our girls, my husband looks at me and said, “I want to go to the beach while in Japan.” I looked at him and thought and remarked, “Are you kidding??? Who goes to Japan for a beach vacation???” I mean – we live in California for crying out loud! Okay, the waters in Northern California are too cold without a wet suit but still, the beaches are pretty and we don’t have to drive far to find them.

He was persistent…it’s actually his strength, unless of course I am the one being worked on, then it’s a problem. As I considered his unusual request, I recalled wanting to go to Okinawa when I was living in Japan. My family never did go to Okinawa. The airfare was too expensive back then. Now that I was living in the US I had an advantage…I could purchase internal airfare at a discount. (I think we paid perhaps as little as a third of what the Japanese would have paid for air.) I decided on Miyakojima, a smaller island south of the main island of Okinawa. We avoided the main island mainly due to cost. All the hotels and resorts I looked at on the main island were expensive. The Miyakojima Tokyu Resort was reasonably priced and I was happy with the email exchanges I had with one of the reservationists.

After a week or so in Tokyo we took the 5:45am flight out of Haneda Airport to Miyakojima. We had a taxi waiting for us to take us to Haneda Airport from Roppongi. We had a nice driver but not the one we would have chosen, if given a choice. He was a soba noodle shop owner who was driving a taxi on the side to make ends meet. I very much doubt he knew the best way and to make my point, he circled within the airport 3 times before getting us to the right terminal at a cost of JPY7000.

When I called to confirm our flight, the lady on the line had told me we could get to the airport 15min before departure – which seemed totally ridiculous so I decided we could get there 30min ahead of time. We left the hotel at 6am and arrived at Haneda around 6:35am. Our flight was at 7:20. There was no line. The airport was large and there were quite a few people, but it was very quiet. It’s something that you notice here – silence in large public spaces or restaurants. Unlike in the US where most people talk loudly, the Japanese are very respectful of noise. I appreciate the silence but I felt self conscious with our energetic and yes loud girls in tow.

The flight to Miyakojima took about 2hr45min on Transocean Air, an affiliate of JAL. No food was served but it still felt like a full service airline. They stocked kids books and candies. The kids got to pick a toy each from a basket full of toys the flight attendant brought. They served consommé soup in addition to the usual drinks. The hot soup was a hit with our girls. They asked for seconds!

Miyakojima was hot and appeared underdeveloped, natural – unmanicured. However, its beaches were amazing. The sand was soft as sifted flour and the water varying shades of blue. Perfect. The hotel itself was OK. The price was comparable to the Grand Hyatt Kauai but lacked the extensive pools and lagoon, scale and pristine landscaping. Our first room had a faulty air conditioner and a bathroom that was miniscule. I am not tall, 5’2” actually, and I could touch the walls of the bathroom both ways! with my arms out stretched. There were two things going for the hotel - Maehama Beach in front of the hotel with its creamy white sand and clear blue water and the Restaurant Shangri-La’s buffet. Both breakfast and dinner (we had the meal plan) were amazing!! My husband could not get enough of the steak at dinner and the first time he went back for seconds, the chef looked a little surprised. He must not get too many people eating such large quantity of meat in one sitting. (My husband grew up eating large chunks of meat everyday so seconds on steak was nothing for him.)

Despite the wonderful spread at the hotel, we opted to go into town one evening to soak up the local scene of Hirara. It was a very bad decision. When we reached the entrance of the recommended restaurant, Uomiya, my older daughter sniffed. I also smelled the odor and it did not bode well. She also remarked as we walked into the place “this does not look like other restaurants”. It did look shabby and smelled funny. We should have skedaddled out of there as soon as we smelled the place! We sat in a private tatami room and ordered the JPY3000 course.

We started off with a vinegary and sweet seaweed concoction. That was bad really bad. But the rafute or braised pork belly was good. Next was fish in cream sauce and sashimi. Sashimi was great but the most interesting thing about it was the umi budo seaweed. Cool. The highlight of the dinner the crab/prawn was not good. It was tasteless and cold. However squid ink gohan – rice - was good and so was the miso soup.

We had a 10 minute walk to town. The most distinctive thing about it was the smell of raw sewage. Not worth a visit at all. It was an expensive night as well, what with the taxi fare and dinner north of $80.

Overall, our family really enjoyed our visit to Miyakojima. We were very lucky with the weather during our stay. We found out that the rains just ended before we came and the weather would be dry until typhoon season in August. We loved our daily walks on the beach around sunset. The lighting was magical. I am so glad my husband persevered and didn’t let up on wanting to go to a beach in Japan. Okinawa is highly recommended. Keep in mind, there isn’t much to do in Miyakojima, but if you are looking for great beaches, Okinawa is the place.

Hakone - Cheesy Hot Springs, Pirate Ships, Ropeways etc...

Friday, July 6, 2007

On our visit first visit to Japan with the kids in 2007 we took two trips outside of Tokyo. One was to Okinawa and the other to Hakone. Okinawa entails flying and planning before you arrive in Japan (it is cheaper to buy air outside of Japan) whereas Hakone you can decide once you arrive whether you want to go or not.

There is absolutely no need to take the shinkansen (bullet train) to Hakone from Tokyo but our family really wanted to take the shinkansen so we did. If you have a JR Pass, by all means take the shinkansen.

Our shinkansen to Hakone departed from Tokyo Station at 9:56 am. The ride from Tokyo to Odawara took only 37minutes – too short to really enjoy the shinkansen. We arrived in Odawara and naturally my husband had to wait around on the platform after we got off to see more shinkansens pass the station. (No he is not 6 year old boy…but he might as well be.)

We took our time at Odawara station, buying food, buying the Hakone pass etc. By the time we got to Hakone Yumoto station via Hakone Tozan railway, I was really surprised that my sister and her family and my mom had not caught up with us from Kyoto. They were coming by shinkansen from Kyoto and meeting us at Hakone. Again we took our time at Yumoto, eating lunch etc. We then caught a bus to Hotel Kowakien. The bus ride took about 20 minutes, a twisty climb. The view was nice – very lush landscape.

Our introduction to Hakone was so so. The bus driver, although not in a very mean way, grumbled about the wrong bus stations being pushed. (That might have been our girls…) The man at the reception of Hotel Kowakien was a snob taking forever to find our reservation only to inform me that our reservation was at a sister inn – and he made it clear it was an inferior hotel. Anyhow we finally got the reservation cleared up and we arrived at the New Pegasus Inn. My sister and the rest of the group arrived about 20 minutes later.

http://www.fujita-kanko.co.jp/english/kowakien/pegasus/

The hotel is a virtual maze. We go up and down and on and on down long hallways and when you find yourself where you want to be, you have no sense of the relationship from where you started. We decided to check out Yunessan hot springs water park and leave the rest of the Hakone circuit for the day after.

http://www.yunessun.com/english/

Boy, were we in for a treat. The hotel is connected to the water park via long confusing hallways and elevators. Once we found it, we had to endure a 10min intro/info/rules of Yunessan. It took us what seemed like forever to find our locker rooms. And then it took another eternity to get to the various pools. We were now equipped with electronic wristbands which could open lockers, buy food and with bright color jackets to wear while in transit to various pool sections.

The outdoor pool and slides were disappointing for us because both girls were too short to go on the slide (they were then nearly 4 and 2 ½). The indoor pool (all pools are very warm since they are hot springs) had a Vegas type water show every 30 minutes. All of it was just cheesiest of cheese. The best part was the ‘natural’ outdoor onsens. Again the macha, coffee, wine onsens etc…were unbelievably cheesy but the natural pools were nice and the landscaping outside was actually in good taste. This is the kind of experience you can find only in Japan. Who thinks up hot springs made to smell and look like green tea, coffee, red wine etc??? The kids all enjoyed it though. The cheesiness was all lost on them.

Dinner at the hotel was buffet style but it wasn’t as good or high end as the one we enjoyed at Miyakojima Hotel in Okinawa. My older daughter ate a lot of French fries! And oh – to top it all off – really unbelievable, you just had to laugh about it, there was a chocolate fountain!!


Friday, July 6, 2007

We tried to get an early start but we were delayed by 40min. Our goal was to start at 9am from the hotel, do the Hakone circuit and end up at Yumoto station by 3pm.

The kids did well considering. First it was a short bus ride to Hakone Open Air Museum. The Pass gave us a measly discount and so we passed on it (not very cultural of us I know – but we had 4 kids under the age of 6, wasn’t worth the admission fee). Then it was a walk (should have waited for a bus) to Gora station where we caught the Cable Car to Sounzan. It reminded me of the Victoria Peak Funicular in Hong Kong. We then moved on to Ropeways – 2 sets of them to take us down the mountain to Lake Ashi. The views were spectacular and we got a Ropeway car all to ourselves.

We catch sight of the ‘pirate’ ships which ply the waters of Ashinoko – again only in Japan. If you get in the spirit of things, it’s quite fun. We break for lunch at the View Restaurant, aptly named for the full frontal view of the lake from its windows. The food was good too. My older girl ate 6 fried smelts. Wow!

The boat ride was nice – lots of fresh air and beautiful views. The only thing that marred our experience a little was the horde of Thai tourists who ran amok on the boat.

We disembarked at Hakone Machi where we had ice cream (and ruined a new shirt) and caught the express bus, a 20 min ride, to Yumoto station. We were able to change our tickets at Odawara for an earlier Shinkansen and we arrived back at Roppongi at 5pm. So that was our Hakone circuit experience…you can skip the cheesy onsen/water park and certainly have a more sophisticated experience. But then, no one back home would listen to your Hakone stories with a look of disbelief…what? you soaked in coffee??

http://www.odakyu.jp/english/sightsee/hakone/index.html