honolulu

honolulu is a city like any other, except it's in the middle of nowhere. as we were driven from the airport to the hotel, i was amazed at the amount of concrete, glass and steel they must have imported to build all this stuff. skyscrapers, highways, runways, office blocks, shopping centres, interstates, restaurants... honolulu is like every other cities, which makes it amazing that it even exists.

when we reached honolulu i was suffering sleep depravation from our exploits in maui. we decided to go shopping. we went to the biggest shopping centre in hawaii call the ala mona shopping centre. we went to abercrombie and fitch and i promptly sat down on on the leather sofa and fell asleep in the women's section. i must have slept for over an hour and the staff never said a word to me. that evening we went to a restaurant that our guidebook said keanu reeves likes to eat at. he wasn't there that night. it was a thai place in wakkiki.

that next day we rented a car from people that operated from a desk in an alley and dressed like cuban gangsters. they were suprisingly professional and helpful and showed us how to get to the north shore. before we went, we went back to the shopping centre and saw a japanese actress that stars in a volleyball drama here. i can't remember her name, but she's a lot smaller in real life.

we drove to the north shore, along 6 lane interstates that were still jammed. the north shore is a different world to honolulu and it reminded me of maui. there were no highrises or even hotels. there were small beach homes and fine sandy beaches as far at the sun could see. we stopped and we for one last dip in the pacific. the sound of waves and the immaculate beyond. the sun started to set and turned the sky to an orange, then bright red before fading to a heavy purple and dark blue. we drove back in along the dark roads before hitting the lights of the city once more.

we had breakfast in eggs and things, a local cafe. they did macadamia pancakes with big mounds of whipped cream. (it's the shells. they are so hard to crack that it take specialise machiney to do it. that's why they are so expensive.)

the flight from honolulu to nagoya took over 8 hours. again we passed the international date line so we jumped a day forward. i didn't know if the flight was rough or smooth because for the first time during the trip i slept.