Somewhere in ... Waikiki Beach

Aloha from Waikiki beach, where we are relaxing our tired bodies and souls for almost a week now. It seemed to us that we are getting less and less readers as people got used to us being away, but it flattered us when we heard from various sides, that we haven't written for some time and that we still haven't posted photos from Japan! Apologies, apologies to everyone!

We have successfully finished our great two weeks in Japan with Richard and I must say that we were really busy and we have seen lots of things (as it is difficult for us so far to upload our photos, you can look at Richard's picasa as it will be nearly the same anyway). Rich is not a big sleeper, even if he is jet lagged, and one of our mottos for the Japan trip was: "to maximise our holidays":) It was very intensive two weeks, but our bodies were telling us slowly, we are tired, give us a break for a bit. So we have hapilly accepted our planned and (very importantly) pre paid holidays. Yes, it is an ordinary lazy holidays on the famous hawaian Waikiki beach.
The trip from Tokyo to Honolulu was as well an important landmark on the journey of all around the world travellers as we left at 7pm on 13th June and we have arrived at 7am on 13th June. Yes, indeed - the Earth is turning!

The change of environment was so obvious from the moment we stepped out of the plane! First of all we understand the language around us again!!, second of all we need ID if we want to order drinks (not because we look young, but everybody who looks under 40 needs an ID)!! and finally, but not least important, it is difficult to get a decent meal for a normal price (other than making some of our meals from bread and jam, the cheaper options include KFC, Subway, McDonald, Burger King not a good everyday option as we'd end up rather overweight!). And this being Hawaii, we had to make an exception from our cheap meals and splash out on a meal of our favourite pizza - ham and pineapple, otherwise called the Hawaiian Pizza!

We can't really complain here... The weather is excellent, the sea is blue and clear and our hotel is approximately 30 seconds from one of the most famous beaches in the world - Waikiki beach - so we have decided to change the motto of our holidays and we are trying really hard to minimise them here. Our australian friends would be proud though... USA's most famous beach is actually australian! The erosion of the soil due to deforestation had already wiped out the original Waikiki beach by mid-20th century, and the latest reconstruction effort has involved shipping tons of sand from Australia! So we find ourselves back in an Australian beach, with the difference being this one is far more crowded!


This lazying about on the beach is the reason why we haven't been rushing our blog, as nothing much is happening.
We have just two more days left and we have decided to be a bit more
active and hired a car for the last day to see a bit of the island and not just the main Waikiki street. As you might not know, on this island - Oahu - is the place where the famous Pearl Harbour attack took place, so we will continue our cultural journey and visit it... after
being in Hiroshima, it will be a symbolic stop over.

On Friday night we will be once again aboard the US airline and fly to San Francisco, where our big US trip will start. We will be starting with the West Coast where we will cover all major attractions including LA, many national parks, Disneyland and Las Vegas (where we'll be spending 4th July!)... Hopefully we will be able to upload the photos as well and write more frequently...

Today's the Solstice, so Happy Northern Hemisphere Summer everybody and let us know how you are doing!