The second day of our trip was mostly eating, relaxing, walking on the beach, and more eating! After a leisurely morning, we made plans to meet Nozomi's mother and sister for lunch. They rode the shuttle bus to our condominium and then we walked together to a nearby restaurant. The food was delicious (with huge, American-sized servings; most of us couldn't finish ours) and we had casual conversation and made jokes in English, Japanese, and Japanglish. On the walk back to the condominium we found what might have been the favorite 7-11 store of Hawaiian pigeons. We also enjoyed seeing beautiful flowers lining the streets everywhere we went, and stopped to take a picture that was supposed to be scenic, but turned out to be a little bit comic ("Rob, why is your head magically floating in those flowers?").
Back at our place, we shared the family history pictures that we had prepared. My mother showed photos of me, my siblings, parents, cousins, nephews, grandparents, aunts and uncles! Nozomi, her mother and her sister shared family pictures that we brought from Japan, and then we surprised everyone with a DVD that Nozomi and I had transferred from old Super 8 movies. The "stars" were Nozomi and the rest of her family when she was about 5 years old. There were scenes from the house where they grew up, a school sports day from kindergarten, and the Sapporo Snow Festival. Later that afternoon, we enjoyed a walk on the beach before and during sunset.
In the evening, we all met up again for dinner. Our meals were delicious, even though the coconut shrimp was so sweet that it tasted more like coconut-shrimp donuts... Nozomi's sister, Kaoru, and my mother have birthdays only one day apart in March, so we surprised them both with waiters singing "Happy Birthday" and mini birthday sundaes.
Back at our place one more time after dinner, we watched fireworks from our lanai (veranda). From our ninth-floor room, we could just get a view of the Hilton Hotel's show across the street. The following two days we had wonderful tours provided by Nozomi's Honolulu cousin and her husband, so that's up next...
Back at our place, we shared the family history pictures that we had prepared. My mother showed photos of me, my siblings, parents, cousins, nephews, grandparents, aunts and uncles! Nozomi, her mother and her sister shared family pictures that we brought from Japan, and then we surprised everyone with a DVD that Nozomi and I had transferred from old Super 8 movies. The "stars" were Nozomi and the rest of her family when she was about 5 years old. There were scenes from the house where they grew up, a school sports day from kindergarten, and the Sapporo Snow Festival. Later that afternoon, we enjoyed a walk on the beach before and during sunset.
In the evening, we all met up again for dinner. Our meals were delicious, even though the coconut shrimp was so sweet that it tasted more like coconut-shrimp donuts... Nozomi's sister, Kaoru, and my mother have birthdays only one day apart in March, so we surprised them both with waiters singing "Happy Birthday" and mini birthday sundaes.
Back at our place one more time after dinner, we watched fireworks from our lanai (veranda). From our ninth-floor room, we could just get a view of the Hilton Hotel's show across the street. The following two days we had wonderful tours provided by Nozomi's Honolulu cousin and her husband, so that's up next...
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