Coupled Confessions

This past weekend, I flew down to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with a couple of my close college friends! Ryosuke had been in SoCal for a week for a business trip, and Mariko was very gracious to host us again and drive us around everywhere. We had a memorable, fun-filled weekend together!

I flew down to LAX on Friday morning, and after Mari picked me up at the airport, we went to Il Chianti, an Italian restaurant in Lomita. But this is not just any Italian food — it’s Italian food that is tailored to Japanese tastes, so it was very light yet flavorful, and it doesn’t leave you with the heavy feeling that a lot of other traditional Italian restaurants leave you with.

Il Chianti in Lomita

We got to the restaurant a little early, so we caught up on a bench outside while we waited for it to open.

Manila clam pasta with herbs

Afterwards, we went shopping to get a joint birthday present for Ryosuke, and waited for him to get out of work….

Boba Loca

Mari and I shared a watermelon slushy.

Cute Mari with our boba.

We took a walk around Charles H. Wilson Park in Torrance.

Ryosuke finally got off of work, so we picked him up at his hotel in Hawthorne and after wandering around Book Off and Marukai in Gardena, we headed over to dinner in Koreatown, at Honey Pig. My coworker Estella repeatedly recommended it, saying it was some of the best Korean BBQ in LA, so I’d been really wanting to try it!

Me at Honey Pig in Koreatown!

Mari and Richard at dinner

Doesn't it look delicious? It was a little different from the typical Korean BBQ I was used to from Annandale Koreatown.

Mari and I are ready to eat!

The service was great, and our waitress was very friendly and knew some Japanese. She showed us how to eat everything since it was our first time at Honey Pig. They even gave us some complimentary octopus to grill along with the amazing galbi and samgyeopsal that we’d ordered.

At the end, they added rice and lettuce to the leftover meat to make "bibimbap."

After stuffing ourselves to satisfaction at Honey Pig, we drove to Max Karaoke to spend a couple hours singing our hearts out! When the three of us would hang out back in Northern Virginia, we always went karaoke, so we decided to stay true to tradition!

Mariko and I at karaoke

They had a book of Glee songs!

We tried to get a photo of the three of us together with a timer, but it didn't work as well as we'd hoped... the base ended up being too reflective.

Ryosuke sang an impressive rendition of Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say” at my request. (I have been loving all the covers of that song on YouTube — they’re even better than the original!) He should be one of those YouTube celebrities that do cover songs!

The next day, we headed over to Orange County and stopped at Mitsuwa’s food court for lunch.

Mitsuwa Marketplace in Costa Mesa.

Santouka Ramen -- it was very popular, and the line was pretty long!

Everything looks so good!

My shoyu ramen from Santouka.

Mari enjoying her ramen!

The ramen was well worth the wait! Sooooo good!

After finishing our lunch and hanging around Mitsuwa for a while, we drove to the OC Fair in Orange County!

Walking from the car to the OC Fair.

Mari and I at the OC Fair, having some shaved ice.

Shaved ice... very sweet! Unfortunately not as good as Hawaii's.

These turkey legs reminded us of our football games from back at school! We were too full to get any though...

Mari with the pugs!

Ryosuke and Mari waiting for the ferris wheel ride.

Ryosuke and I patiently waiting...

Mari and I, finally on the ferris wheel!

We were a little alarmed by how shaky the ride was.

Our view overlooking the OC Fair from the ferris wheel.

The three of us on the ferris wheel!

The Ice Museum at the OC Fair - some very detailed ice sculptures!

I think it was a Chinese lion...?

Angel carved out of ice.

Mari and I by the ice dragon, in the blankets they provided us.

An ice version of Rodin's "The Thinker"

At the photography exhibition at the OC Fair. We played around with the color isolation (color accent?) settings on my camera.

Mari at the photo exhibit.

highlighted oranges

The green stripes in Richard's shirt didn't really show up, but the green in the background did!

A stylish Mari among the photographs

Lots of orange showing up!

Peeking out from behind the walls.

Mari and I with the giant camera at the exhibit.

Ryosuke and I at the exhibit

We spotted these performers on stilts. Amazing how they can walk so well in them!

Taking a break to enjoy some Dippin' Dots.

Rainbow Ice Dippin' Dots!

Mari and Ryo went on the rollercoaster, but I decided to sit it out...

Ryosuke at the end of the ride.

I played a game to use up my tickets, and ended up winning this ugly little bear doll. The pattern makes it look diseased... gross! haha*

We left the fair in the late afternoon to catch a showing of Inception. It was my second time seeing it, but it was still really enjoyable to watch and I was able to pick up on more of the details of the film. Definitely got me thinking all over again. What a great movie! I don’t think I will ever get sick of it! We enjoyed a late Japanese dinner at Sanuki no Sato back in Gardena. They are known for their udon and soba noodles, as well as their great izakaya food.

buta no kakuni

I ordered tempura with zaru-soba!

Ryosuke's sanshoku wariko soba.

A delicious dinner to end an eventful day!

The next day, after we dropped Ryosuke off at LAX for him to catch his morning flight back to Tennessee, I went to church with Mariko. Her father is a pastor and gave a very intriguing and inspiring message. It’s interesting to attend a service in Japanese, because it’s so foreign to me since I never had the experience growing up — any and all services I’ve gone to were always in English. Afterwards, we had some delicious cake at Patisserie Chantilly before heading over to the airport for me to catch my flight.

Patisserie Chantilly in Lomita

I had the Chantilly Fromage, their signature cheesecake with a creamy cheese filling, baked on a buttery honey graham cracker crust

It was really nice to kick back and relax with old college friends again, since the opportunity is so rare these days, living all the way on the other side of the country from most of them. A huge thanks to Mariko for being such a gracious hostess as usual, driving us all over the megalopolis that is LA… and to Ryosuke for extending his stay in California so we could all hang out for a couple days! Looking forward to another reunion, hopefully in the near future!

On Monday, Dan and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! We of course both had to work since it was a Monday, but we went to dinner at the world renowned Chez Panisse. Located in the “Gourmet Ghetto” of Berkeley and founded by the famous Alice Waters, it is credited as the birthplace of California cuisine. It frequently makes it into the ranks of the top 50 restaurants in the world, and reservations fill up very quickly. Dan and I were lucky to get a reservation in 8:45… pretty late for dinner, but Chez Panisse was well worth the wait!

Dan surprised me with flowers before dinner!

Pretty anniversary flowers.

Chez Panisse! The mecca for foodies in the Bay Area.

The dinner course for the evening.

Olive tapenade before the dinner.

Candlelight dinner. Note the pretty etching on the glass!

The first course.

Taku river sockeye salmon carpaccio with cucumber and anise hyssop

The carpaccio transported me to heaven.

The hubby loved the carpaccio, too! Patiently waiting for the main course...

Wolfe Ranch quail grilled over fig branches with sweet corn pudding and pepperonata

Chez Panisse's dessert drink menu... everything sounds so good!

Pêche Melba: Peaches in raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream.

A delicious dessert to end an unforgettable dinner!

They gave us cocoa-covered toasted almonds with candied blood orange peel to munch on before we left. These were really good too! (I only remembered to take the photo when we were almost done with it... oops!)

Happy 2 Years hubby! ♥

It’s been an amazing two years, and although this puts a cap on our status as “newlyweds,” we’re very excited for the many more years to come and all the anniversaries that we’ll get to celebrate with each passing year. We are constantly reminded that it is thanks to our family and friends and all their love and support that we are who we are today, and we feel humbled and so grateful for having all of you as such an important, ever-present, and precious presence in our lives. We can’t wait to build more amazing memories together with each other, as well as with you!

© 2008 Lilia Photography

Day Nine was the last day of our vacation in Hawaii! :’(  This was actually the only day that we didn’t have anything concrete planned, so we winged it. It was nice to just relax and drive around without a real itinerary for once.

For breakfast, we stopped by Sweet Marie’s, a gluten-free bakery in Kapaa. We just randomly found it and decided to eat there, but it ended up being really good! We recommend.

Breakfast at Sweet Marie's!

Gluten-free muffin and vegan cookie. The cookie was especially delicious! Who knew vegan cookies could be so yum?

Leave it to me to procrastinate on my souvenir shopping… Thankfully, the Kauai Products Fair on the East Shore had some really nice goodies — this is where we did the bulk of our souvenir shopping for my family.

The Kauai Products Fair on the East Shore

I loved these frogs! They made such cool sounds, so I got a bunch of the smaller ones as gifts. I really wanted to get a large one for my grandfather who makes bamboo carvings, but I had no room in my luggage for it.

An interesting doll we found at the products fair. Looks like something my brother Ted would like.

Upon completing our souvenir shopping, we went onto get shaved ice. (Yes, again!) This would be the last time we’d get shaved ice in Hawaii. :’(  We went to Ono Ono Shave Ice.

At Ono Ono Shave Ice in Kapaa. Look at all the flavors!

Dan's shaved ice: banana + guava.

I got the "Zen Break": green tea + lychee. Such a great combination!

In the early afternoon, we returned to the Coconut Marketplace (which is right by our hotel) and watched a free hula show. One of the girls who was performing had been at a fruit stand we went to the previous day, and had urged us to stop by to watch her perform.

Free hula show at the Coconut Marketplace. These girls were adorable!

The female singer whose songs the girls were dancing to sang the famous Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It was so pretty of it, I took a video to capture the audio:

The girls performing a Tahitian dance.

We were able to get a picture with these very talented ladies!

The dancers' mothers were selling handmade leis to fundraise for the girls' costumes, so Dan bought me a lei to support them.

We were pretty hungry after the hula show, so we drove over to The Fish Express in Lihue for a late lunch/afternoon snack. Dan’s coworker had recommended the place for their good poke.

The Fish Express storefront.

So many varieties of poke! I wanted to get everything.

We got a whole bunch of stuff for only about $11.60! We couldn't wait to dig in, so we ate in the car.

This was seriously hands-down the best poke I've ever had! Perfectly flavored.

Ocean salad. This was also amazing.

Kimchee shrimp poke. I am drooling just remembering it.

I'm so excited about all the food we got at The Fish Express!

You can see the effect the poke had on me.

The Fish Express is definitely a place you must go if you’re in Kaua’i and love raw fish like us! My only regret was not going to this place sooner. I would have been totally content with having poke from there  every day we were in Kaua’i.

One of the better known places in Kaua’i that we had not been to yet was Poipu Beach, so we drove down to Poipu once our stomachs were stuffed with poke fabulousness.

The sign at Poipu Beach.

A beached Hawaiian Monk Seal. Don't worry, it's not dead - just lazily sunbathing.

Poipu has a strip of the beach which extends down the middle, and the waves come in from either side and meet, and then retract again. I felt like Moses parting the sea; so powerful!

Dan walking further down the beach strip, where there's lava rock.

Me at gorgeous Poipu Beach!

Dan found a sea cucumber... for some reason, he is really good at finding these slimy things.

Walking on lava rock at Poipu.

Against the ocean at Poipu Beach.

The waves were really crashing against the rocks!

Never before have I seen a rooster on the beach!

Dan and I at Poipu Beach.

We had time to stop by one more location before having to grab dinner and head towards the airport, so we drove over to the nearby Wailua Falls.

Wailua Falls

With the video, you can sort of see a more accurate view of how the falls looked from our vantage point. We even caught a rainbow on camera.

Double waterfalls... too bad there was no double rainbow there, too!

The pool of water at the base of Wailua Falls.

For dinner, we decided to eat near the airport at the Japanese restaurant Kintaro.

Eating dinner at Kintaro Japanese restaurant.

My soba from Kintaro.

Tempura to go with the soba.

Great sushi!

Our last meal in Kaua'i... so sad!

I don't want to leave! :'( ::sniffle::

But alas, we had to leave. After dinner, we promptly returned our rental car and dragged ourselves to the airport to catch our flight. The lines for check-in and for the security check were heinous… it seemed like half the island was flying to LA! But after all the waiting and stress, we were able to safely board our plane. The journey back to San Francisco was anything but fun, since it was an overnight flight and I was freezing the whole time in the overly air-conditioned cabin. I barely got any sleep! We arrived at Los Angeles International Airport early in the morning, where we had a three-hour layover. Not fun!

Freezing and sleep-deprived at our layover in LAX. I knew it was a bad idea to return to the mainland...

We were surprised to find many more beached creatures lying around in LAX than on the beaches of Hawaii.

But eventually, we boarded our one-hour flight from LAX to SFO, and were able to get home safe and sound. It’s only been a month since we’ve gotten back, but I miss our time in Hawaii a lot. There’s still a lot I’d like to see if and when we ever go back, and I’d like to check out the other islands of Maui and Big Island someday, too.

Thank you to all of our friends who gave us recommendations on places to go, sights to see, and foods to eat! Our trip wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable if it weren’t for you!

My friend Megumi hosted a lovely Sunday brunch this morning at her apartment in San Francisco. Check out the fabulous spread…

…and the beautiful ladies who were at the brunch!

Thank you Megumi for being the best hostess ever! I feel so lucky to have our very own Giada among my girlfriends. Gochiso-sama deshita!

On Day 7, our first full day in Kaua’i, we woke up at dark o’clock to drive over to Eleele, where we boarded a catamaran for a seven-hour tour that would take us up the Na Pali Coast and to see Niihau Island. Neither of us is a morning person, but we fought our sleepiness and embarked on the boat, banking on the promise that we would see some of the most stunning views of the island of Kaua’i.

Here comes the sun!

Leaving the dock.

We came across a small raft, that happened to be dolphin watching!

Spinner dolphin flipping about.

Dolphins swimming right in front of our boat!

They were super cute! I don't think I've ever seen dolphins so up close!

We sped up and soon approached the Na Pali Coast...

We were greeted by an amazing view.

The beautiful Na Pali Coast

This is what paradise looks like....

Towering mountains over a lush valley.

Steep mountains... this area of the Na Pali Coast is only accessible by boat or helicopter.

The Honopu Arch, where they filmed the movie Six Days Seven Nights

More majestic views of the Na Pali Coast

Na Pali Coast against a clear blue sky.

Dan and I at the Na Pali Coast

An amazing rock formation called The Keyhole.

Closeup of the natural bridge...

The hubby and I by the Keyhole!

Niihau Island in the distance

Approaching Niihau Island, a privately owned island known as the "Forbidden Isle" because it is off-limits to the general public.

The catamaran parked itself near Niihau Island, where passengers got the opportunity to go snorkeling for an hour before lunch. Here are some nice underwater shots that Dan took while snorkeling!

Fish in blue waters.

Uni! A sea urchin.

So many fish!

Closeup of a fish.

Underwater coral.

Trenches by Niihau Island.

Underwater life.

Here’s some video footage that Dan took with my camera while snorkeling…

The crew was super nice. Thank you Holo Holo Charters!

After snorkeling and lunch, it was time to head back to Kaua’i. The crew purposely gave us a very bumpy and exhilarating ride back! You can see more photos from the Na Pali Coast and Niihau Island in this photo album. If you are ever in Kaua’i and are considering a catamaran trip to see the Na Pali Coast, we really recommend Holo Holo Charters! They had top notch service and were really knowledgeable and skilled, and very personable, too!

When we got back to land, it was still the early afternoon, so we had plenty more things to do and places to see…

Dan before leaving Port Allen.

Jo Jo’s Shave Ice was strongly recommended as the best shaved ice in Kaua’i, so we stopped by while we were in Waimea.

Jo Jo's Shave Ice in Waimea

strawberry + guava + melon

Jo Jo's storefront

Dan enjoying his macnut shave ice!

Jo Jo’s Shave Ice was really good and was very refreshing, especially on a hot day! I personally still liked Waiola from Oahu better, but Jo Jo’s was definitely the best shaved ice we had in Kaua’i. (And we got shaved ice pretty much every day while we were on Kaua’i… haha* It was so hot there!)

A river running through the Kaua'i landscape.

An epic photo of Dan.

After making our way through winding dirt roads for over half an hour, we finally reached our destination in Waimea: The Waimea Canyon!

Arriving at Waimea Canyon Lookout

Stunning Waimea Canyon.

On top of the world.

The canyon stretching before our eyes.

A gorgeous view.

People at the Waimea Canyon lookout

Dan and I at Waimea Canyon

The pictures just don't do it justice!

Clouds over the canyon.

Hubby with the canyon in the background.

Dan was fascinated by the red dirt that could be found all over the island.

We picked up some fresh fruits at this roadside vendor right before they closed up shop.

For dinner, we stopped at the Shrimp Station in Waimea. If you know how much I love shrimp, you can imagine how psyched I was to go here….

Kaua'i's Shrimp Station!

I got shrimp tacos!

Dan got the Thai shrimp. Super good!

We wanted to try more, so we even got some coconut shrimp to go...

We then drove back to our hotel in Kapaa to kick back and relax for the rest of the evening.

Dan cut open this mystery fruit that he picked up at the roadside vendor. To this day, we’re still uncertain of what it’s called, but we were curious so we decided to try it out. To be honest, it was not very good…

Looks unappetizing... and did not taste very good, either.

Me enjoying some of our leftovers on our hotel balcony.

The hubby eating... the coconut shrimp was delicious1

The view of the beach from our balcony.

After waking up super early in the morning, we were totally pooped by the end of the day! We got to see so many amazing sights though, both along the Na Pali Coast and at Waimea Canyon — these are definite must-sees if you are ever in Kaua’i.