My father was in Japan for a week earlier this month visiting his family, who live in Hiroshima. On his way to Hiroshima, he stopped by Kyoto and took some photographs of the December foliage in the beautiful city that was formerly Japan’s imperial capital. He emailed us a bunch of the shots he took, and some were so gorgeous, I had to share…
Continuing from where we left off, we woke up early on Sunday morning of Day Three to drive down to Honolulu to have breakfast at the famous Leonard’s Bakery.
When we were asking around for recommendations on places to eat in Oahu, everyone and their mother recommended this place. They are famous for their malasadas, a Portuguese confection… it was basically an unfilled donut covered in sugar. Crispy on the outside, but very light on the inside. Simple but delicious!
We then headed over to our appointment at Masako Formals. Dan and I had never taken Japanese-style wedding photos, but our parents and relatives in Japan had been encouraging us to get some taken for a while. We always wanted to get some taken, but there’s no studio that can do them in the San Francisco Bay Area (at least, non that we know of). So when my friend Yumi told me that the place she bought her wedding dress specialized in Japanese wedding photos, we decided to take the opportunity to get them done there.
Masako Formals took very good care of us and the photos came out pretty good, but we’ll save those for another time. I want to get some photo books made for our parents and grandparents so that they can see them first before we post them online. Stay tuned! π (Huge thanks to Yumi for telling us about Masako Formals!)
The photoshoot and all the preparations beforehand took over four hours, so by the time we got out, we were hungry again! We headed over to Shokudo, a Japanese restaurant that our friend Megumi recommended! When she told me to try the mochi cheese gratin, I was skeptical, but decided to give it a shot… and it was actually really good!!!
Apparently the Honey Toast there is also a must-eat, and we saw that every table was ordering it, so we ordered it for dessert. It was pretty amazing….
After lunch, we drove up to Hanauma Bay. Dan had been really excited (and I mean really excited) about going snorkeling in Hawaii, so he finally got his chance!
Here are a couple photos Dan captured while snorkeling. To see more, check out the photoset.
After spending the afternoon in Hanauma Bay, we drove over to Diamond Head Crater Park, in hopes to hike it in time to see the sunrise at the top. Much to our dismay, when we arrived at the hiking location at 6 o’clock, the park had just closed! π How are people supposed to see the sunset if it closes so early? We were hella disappointed.
There wasn’t much we could do about the situation, so we just took a photos of the view from where we were. Alas, we couldn’t fit the Diamond Head hike anywhere into the rest of the trip, so it’ll have to be something we try the next time we’re in Oahu…. :'(
Since our hiking plans were foiled, we drove over to Sandy Beach instead to relax and take a nap on the beach while waiting for the sunset….
For dindin, we drove back down to Honolulu for some more Japanese food at Akasaka, which my coworker and friend Estella recommended! (Estella supplied me with a lot of the fabulous foodie recommendations this trip, so I am very indebted to her.)
That’s it for Day Three of our Hawaii trip! Stay tuned for Day Four, in which we climb treacherous trails to see waterfalls and brave the waters of Waikiki Beach….