5 More Things to do on Oahu...

My mom came out to visit for about a month and I decided I needed to blog about a few of the places we visited. She has done all of the touristy stuff (I have written about those on my Things to Do on Oahu tab) which include snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, visiting Waikiki, the Pearl Harbor Memorial, several beaches, and a lot of great hiking trails. If I forgot to write about a couple of those....you have the idea now to go google them.

In addition to all of those great things, here is a list of a few other fun things we enjoyed!

1. Visiting Haleiwa

Okay so this is still touristy, but its a great little town. There is a bunch of art galleries and tons of food- Matsumoto's Shave Ice is a landmark. We ate at the Seafood Grill and it was fantastic (Bob's Pizza is also really good.) But the most important part of Haleiwa is the food truck congretation. My mom is obsessed with Giovanni's shrimp truck- I personally love the crepe truck. Something for everyone!

Yay food trucks!

2. Lania Kea Beach/ Turtle Beach

While we are on the topic of North Shore, there's a lot of great places to go to the beach. (Waimea Bay is popular, so is the Pipeline or surfing) But we really enjoyed Lania Kea. It is just a small strip of beach that is just past Turtle Beach. At the time there was plenty of parking across the street because a lot of people continue up further.

Lania Kea. There were a lot of people surfing and it was fun to watch!

Turtle Beach! Unfortunately we didn't see any turtles this time, but it made for a beautiful sunset.

3. The Coffee Farm

This has become one of my favorite places- I would visit every morning if it were closer. This little place is on the way towards the Dole Plantation. Inside the shop is coffee galore- flavored coffees, samples, jams, honey, etc. But even better is the little cafe that is always full of fresh coffee and pastries. You can enjoy it inside or out under a tree in a colorful Adirondack chair!

I look a little like a goober haha but enjoying a delicious coffee and pastry!

4. Visit Kailua for Crepes!

If you can't tell, I really like crepes. Kailua is a fun little place to visit on its own, but this crepe place is the bomb. It's called Crepes No Ka Oi- they have a crepe of every type and so many delicious teas! My favorite is the eiffel tower crepe (it's brie with apples, honey, and cinnamon. yum!) They have both sweet and savory options. Behind the crepe place is a cute little dog boutique and there's several shops close by. (Including a consignment shop where I tried a pair of $700 Valentino shoes. They were so pretty and the most expensive things I've ever worn!)

After our crepes we hit up the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and went on up the rode to Lani Kai beach. Makes for pretty much an awesome day!

5. Rainy Day Shopping

Since a grand portion of the time my mom visited it was pouring rain- it is hurricane season after all- we had to self entertain indoors. Which was no problem because the Ala Moana mall is amazing. You can spend a whole day in there easily- its huge. But if you don't want to battle traffic down town, the Pearlridge mall in Aiea is also pretty great (and has a few more stores in the affordable, normal people price range.) There's still a bunch of great shopping. I introduced my mom to the book off- most books are 1-5 bucks and we went a little crazy. Plus they have a Jeans Wearhouse and Aloha Salads.

Japan Part 3.... Kamakura Shrines

So I had to share my favorite part of the trip to Japan. We did venture over to Disney Sea but I decided to not post pictures on that because it basically just looked like Epcot. Lots of fun though!

Kamakura is an amazing area. It is brimming with shrines and temples- we only made it to two and I wish we would have had time to go back and see more. Pictured below is Kotoku-in, or the giant bronze statue of the Great Buddha (the guessed age of this statue is that it was built around 1252. Now THAT is some amazing history. The temple around the Buddha was washed away by a Tsunami in the 15th century)

 You can pay 200 yen to go inside the statue, but really there isn't much to see and its close quarters and BAKING hot.

We had lunch at a great little local place that felt very authentic (tiny little place, tiny little bathrooms, no english or forks. Lots of pointing at pictures!) But the food was delicious- I of course got gyoza and rice because that's my safety net.

Afterwards we visited the Hasedera Temple. I had to do some googling afterwards to see what some of these statues were about- I would love to see when the hydrangeas are in bloom (its what it is known for) but this is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. 

and then there's the boys....

These statues, I later learned, are called Jizo. They are placed by parents that are mourning the death of child, a miscarriage, or an abortion. In each temple there were prayer candles and offerings- many of them involved something pregnancy related.

This is the main temple. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the shrine inside, but wow, they were so beautiful. Inside is a statute of the god Kannon. It was actually refreshing to not be allowed to take pictures, because it felt like it really would have taken away from the beauty and the sanctity of the shrine. I lit a prayer candle for happiness for my family =)

The temple is built on two levels. Above are the shrines and gardens, and below is a cave called Benzaiten Grotto. It is a shrine with very low ceilings and is filled with prayer statues to Benzaiten, who is the goddess of the sea. 

We sat on a bench drinking cokes, looking at the temple and out over the water, and I tried to picture it like it must have once been. Now it's a tourist attraction with power lines coming over the temple, but it has seen so much history. (Again in the Kamakura period, around 1192.) I tried to picture this peaceful temple up on the hillside of Japan, completely remote and without people and crowded by houses. Even so, the energy of this place was surreal and definitely the highlight of my trip.

Today's anecdote on floor exercises, Bon Jovi, and Doggy-Doo

Before I finish up the posts on my Japan trip I had to slip in a little anecdote of a few things here. 

First of all....one of the dogs I'm watching had diarrhea all night (He got into the wet cat food.) So that's been fun to clean up. Pinesol works great for the patio and baking soda works well for the carpets. Oh and Pepto is safe for dogs (not cats) in about 1 tsp per 5lbs. Now if I can just get the little guy to eat it that would be great. Maybe with some yogurt? I've been wanting to get a steam cleaner for a while now and I think I may be needing to get one sooner than planned! 

(Dog walking business is booming. I'm swamped with clients...both through the company and privately. But its not always the cleanest job!)

But! The best part of today is that I found out that my one true dearest love....Bon Jovi....has released a new album.

It's pretty good- he never fails to disappoint! But it sucks that him and Richie are still on the outs. It's definitely a softer rock album, but A Teardrop to the Ocean I and We don't run are my favorite songs on here. He's touring around in Asia right now (Singapore one the 20th. That would be a fun trip!) So hopefully he comes to the states soon.

Second of all....never underestimate the power of floor/pilate exercises. My mom got me this great book: (the author has a number of them)

Since I've been out of the gym for about a month and I'm getting range of motion back in my arm I thought it would be a good segway back. It's kicking my ass! I've been so focused on lifting and cardio that I haven't spent any time using my own body weight or small static movements. With enough reps they are a killer. I highly recommend it!

To Japan and Back Part 2: Ueno Park

So we got brave and finally figured out the train system...so we ventured on up to Tokyo on an impromptu adventure. We ended up staying the night at a crazy expensive Hyatt (but it was very luxurious. A hundred thousand times better than our place in Yokosuka! Plus we missed our anniversary so we considered it a post celebration)

Anyway, the first night we wandered around and discovered the Roppongi mall. (Roppongi itself was a bit sketchy. There were a bunch of Nigerian men selling girls and their services. They chased down my husband and said "Heyyyy leave your wife and we will show you a good time!"
Had I been drunk I would have punched that guy in the face.)

But the mall was pretty cool. Everything was very expensive and designer wear. My favorite store was a pet boutique in which everything was way over done. Little dog and cat outfits, jewelry, accessories, spa, etc. and there were those little cats with the bent ears and huge eyes in the window. Adorable.

 The view on top of the mall. Absolutely beautiful at night!











This little blue cat character (Doramon?) was all over the place and very popular. He had about a thousand little statues in the courtyard that people were taking pictures with.










And this was just awful. A huge spider sculpture. I got the creeps just walking by it.








The next day we ventured to Ueno Park, which is huge. There are ton of cool things to see. We had a long walk on the way there (and stopped at a Denny's. Which btw is way different over there because breakfast food doesn't exist.)

The shrine at Ueno Park was beautiful. We didn't have time to actually go inside but there were a lot of really neat things on the outside. This is Kaneji Temple which was founded in 1625 (unbelievable to be around something that old!)

 This is where you cleanse by rinsing one hand, then the other, then rinsing the mouth and spitting the water out. These are at each shrine they we visited.

 Prayers are all written on these. Very neat to see so many different languages come together <3








































Our goal for the day was to get to Ueno Zoo, which is Japan's oldest zoo (built in 1882). I was of course most excited to see the giant Pandas. The breeding efforts for keeping them alive is not very progressive but people are working at it nonetheless! Ueno zoo, Hong Kong, and San Diego zoo are all participating in the efforts of preserving the Panda (which is pretty great because Tony and I visited the San Diego zoo on our way to Hawaii)

Of course the zoo was filled with typical zoo- like animals, but it was really interesting to see a much bigger variety of animals. For instance, the bear here is a Malayan Brown Bear. There were a lot of animals specific to Asia that you wouldn't be likely to see anywhere else!

A beautiful view of the park! This place was huge. We had a fantastic day at the zoo and only got to experience a little bit of Ueno Park. We made perfect timing back to the train station because the sky opened up and began to pour!