When we stepped off the plane in Honolulu, we were expecting blue skies and little fluffy clouds. Instead, the atmosphere looked eerily like the Tokyo skies we had just bid farewell to: hazy, with a high chance of increased haziness later in the afternoon.
It was, we were to learn, the VOG.
Vog is volcanic smog, and the vog in question was produced by Kilauea on the big island. Apparently, it is not at all uncommon for Kilauea to spew vog, but it is pretty unusual for it to drift all the way over to Oahu. It requires a rare perfect storm of prolonged southerly trade winds, and our first full week was full of them. It was a relief to hear about the vog – up until then, I thought that we had seriously misunderestimated the degree of perfection to which the weather here aspires.
The upside of the vog is that it is a killer scrabble word – compact and with a high point-yield relative to its size.
Saturday morning some friends of friends from Tokyo took us to breakfast at the Hau Tree Lanai of the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel. I tried the eggs benedict at the recommendation of the waiter. If the food was good but not exactly inspiring, the surroundings made up for any shortcomings. We had a beachfront table looking out onto peaceful and (in contrast to Waikiki) unpopulated Kaimana Beach that had the added benefit of shade from one of the densely branched, hundreds-of-years-old hau trees. It is definitely a place to be revisited for special morning occasions.
So, we were told that food prices in Hawaii were outrageous. They are. What else would you expect from a place with an abundance of red clay soil and pineapples and macadamia nuts as the major staple crops? We’ve already been advised by multiple persons to get our member cards for the supermarkets and to be discerning about where we buy our veggies, meats, etc.
But there may be a silver lining to the clouds on our food budget horizon: local farmers markets. That’s right, local-grown, low-impact, organic (one optimistically assumes) and cheap(er than the supermarkets). All arrayed in a raw environment of weatherbeaten tents, wood crates and hand-painted signs. Holy granola, it’s a crunchy suburbanite’s wet dream!
We tried this one at the Waikiki Community Center on Friday. It was a modest affair, but had a steady stream of buyers coming through. Among other things picked up some nice Washington apples – I guess that’s one thing that absolutely doesn’t grow locally.
On Saturday we hit the Saturday Farmers Market at the Kapiolani Community College. This one seems to be the largest and most well-known of the Honolulu markets. In contrast to Friday’s, the KCC market had way more variety and sprawl, as well as a certain smell of salescraft, with many stalls peddling local branded goods like honeys and juices.
On Friday we drove up to North Shore and lunched at a little roadside gem we found by accident when we were here over the holidays last year. Little more than an aqua camper with an aluminum awning, fronted by a covered patio with plastic seats and tables and populated by a family of chickens and cats lazily coexisting on the property, Sharks Cove Grill is the perfect location for a low-key, delicious and healthy beach-side lunch. Grilled skewers topped with a variety of tasty sauces and seasonings (such as the pinenut pesto on the shrimp shish kabobs) are the main draw, and most dishes come with brown rice and mixed greens topped with papaya dressing.
If the North Shore view is not enough entertainment, your kid can get a kick out of feeding french fries to the chickens.
First off, let’s get one thing out of the way: this is not a post about Chiba. If you were expecting the Chiba blog, you’ve come to the wrong place. There is absolutely nothing being said here about Chiba, and, in fact, this is the last time it will ever be mentioned.
On Monday we made the big Tokyo-Honolulu flight, and settled into our temporary residence here on the canal, a few blocks from the beach. We’ve been decompressing for the last few days, trying to adjust sleep schedules and shedding our whiteness. So far the transition is partial at best.
I’ll bet you are amazed at how we found a beachfront boulevard in Chiba that looks just like Kalakaua Avenue! Maybe it is just a cardeboard backdrop, or a fancy bit of photoshop. Or maybe… not.
