4:30am (Honolulu) – Morning alarm rings. Both of us still in the midst of sleep get ready as shuttle will be arriving at 5:30am. We arrived to Honolulu International Airport a little past 6:00am. Hardly anyone was there and the ticket attendant told us the flight to Japan will be half empty. We wait and eat the fruits and pastries we brought from home. At the same time we talk about what to do in Japan.
It was a crisp and a sunny morning with no clouds to be seen.
A quiet morning ready to begin.
JAL 075 – The flight we took from Honolulu to Narita.
Indeed a quiet morning in Honolulu.
The flight arrived safely in Narita about 11:35am. As usual, the airport weather was overcast and the temperature was in the low 60′s. Yikes!!!
As you can see, hardly anyone was around as we walked toward custom and immigration.
The one thing inconvenient about the custom/immigration process is where the US citizens need to be in the same line as the foreigners from Europe (Russia, Italy, France, etc…) and non-Japanese Asian countries (China, Hong Hong, Taiwan, etc…). Usually, if you were in Guam or in Hawaii the non-U.S. citizen’s line is more crowded than the U.S. citizen’s line. It really felt like you were outside of U.S.
As we arrived, Emi’s parents picked us up and we stopped at the “Service Area (SA)” which is basically a stop area along the highway where there are restaurants, restroom and a parking area. This was something new to me. We all ate ramen and proceeded to head home to Yokosuka. The drive took us about 2-3 hours. The scenery reminded me of what Japan is all about. Countless mansions, ports with tall cranes, buildings so closely attached together, railways almost next to the highway, bridges that lead to no end point and the famous Tokyo bay. One thing that really caught my attention was how things were very much in order in terms of transportation and most of the cars in clean condition. You wouldn’t find a Guam Bomb or car with no windows. Trucks were even decorated like a transformer. Before arriving home, we stopped at a local grocery store called AVE where prices were so much cheaper than Hawaii. They were even very fresh!
Kimuchi Chige (Kimchee Soup) – Emi’s mom cooked us this for dinner. Here is the recipe. She stir fried the sliced onion, garlic and ginger with sesame oil. Then added the sliced pork and chopped kimchees. She added little bit more oil and stir fried until the pork was not pink. Then she transferred the whole thing to the stone pot and added a bountiful amount of sake. Added konbu and chicken dashi, water and the vegetables – Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, chives, shira taki, etc. And finally, she added ketchup, kochu-jang, shoyu, sugar and a little bit of vinegar. Ketchup and vinegar gave it the citrus like flavor. Really delicious. Everything she cooked for us was so good!!! Day 2 will feature the Fukushima trip. Stay tuned.
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