Because my vacaction started before the official holiday season, it was very easy to travel there. I breezed through the airport: checking in, security, customs, all that probably took me less than 15 minutes! Awesome! There were no lines, the customs staff even walked me step by step through a form I had to fill out (even though it wasn't necessary...it was in English...but they were probably bored because there were so few people....). Actually, there really wasn't many people in the airport at all! Most of the people there were groups of high school students going off on school trips. In fact, I ended up sitting next to a group of high school boys on a school trip on the flight there. Surprisingly (although, maybe not so much when you consider they were Japanese), they were quite quiet considering. At the beginning there was a good amount of chatter, a lot of it because it was the first time on a plane for some of them, but as we got into the flight, they got really quiet (could be because it was a night flight as well, but I'd rather think it was their manners). I think the boy who had to sit beside me was a little bit uncomfortable though, he seemed frozen for most of the flight. I'm sorry if sitting beside a foreigner was scary!
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| Early morning on one of our last days... |
Unfortunately for us, there were quite a few days in that 10 day period that were rainy/cloudy/extremely windy. However, on the sunny days, most of them were spent absorbing some sunlight at the beach.
Sometimes, I got some visitors while I was on the beach...
Of course, the beach wasn't all that we did either. I, of course, did a little bit of shopping for some things that I may not have been able to get in Japan.
One day, when it started to pour in the afternoon, we went to a tiny little lavender farm and checked out all the lavender merchandise and wandered around a little looking at the interesting plants.
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| Rainy (and lots of lavender).... |
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| Bird of paradise |
After visiting that farm, we went to a glass-blowing studio/gallery. The things that they make are so pretty! I had hoped that we would be able to see them actually blowing glass, but it was on a day where they didn't do it. Too bad.
We took a drive down the road to Hana. That road had some waterfalls along the way, and the road itself was interesting. Constant switch-backs and tiny one lane bridges.
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| And we stopped at a fruit stand for smoothies! |
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| So many cats at the road stop! |
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| And chickens?! |
On our way to that road, we stopped at a lookout point, where we saw some GIANT waves! We also found out that on the beach below, it's possible to see sea turtles. And we found one! It was quite large, and attracted many people, and some of the people weren't so intelligent, getting right up next to it to take selfies. I am so surprised it didn't try to bite any of them. I would have, if I was that turtle. Of course, you all know my feelings about having my picture taken.
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| I think it's easier to see how big some of the waves are from video...we heard some of them were ~7.5m tall! |
On our second last day, we went ziplining! And we ended up having great luck! The time that we booked, no one else had booked! So, it was just the 3 of us together with the 2 staff that took us around the course! Lucky! It was a lot of fun and our guides were really funny too!
Speaking of being lucky -- one night as we were walking home from dinner, I happened to look up and saw a meteor (shooting star...whatever you want to call it)! It broke off into a couple pieces before it completely burned up, but it was really pretty!
I also got to see many nice sunsets at the beach (prepare to be bombarded with sunset photos....)
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| December 13, 2016 |
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| December 14, 2016 |
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| December 17, 2016 |
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| December 19, 2016 |
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| December 20, 2016 |
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| Bye, Hawaii... |
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| I actually found these cute things at the beginning of the month, but I didn't take pictures then, but I did this time! |
Then, on Thursday, I got a message from one of my co-workers, asking about how my vacation went, and asking if I was back yet, because she had made a soup that she knows I love, and wanted to bring me some!! I was so surprised, but extremely happy! And it was delicious!!
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| Tonjiru (A kind of pork and vegetable miso soup) |
Then, on Friday afternoon, I met up with a Japanese friend, who had asked if I would give some lessons/have English conversation together. We went to a cafe together, and had a really nice conversation, (in a mix of English and Japanese). I really enjoyed it and I learned some interesting things as well!! It seemed to have been well recieved, because he posted on Facebook/Twitter:
今日は神戸で
英会話を堪能してました。
喋れるって楽しい。
まだまだ全然やけどね（笑）
So, basically, he said he had fun talking in English, although he's not fluent yet. I'm glad he enjoyed it too! I want to do it again -- it really was fun!!
And that's what I've been up to since leaving for Hawaii. A few more days left yet...what will I get up to???
