Splash, dash and ponderings

I have a favourite musical. Actually technically I have two. The problem is I have trouble defining which one holds the ultimate trophy of ‘favourite’. Does the coveted award go to the one I saw on stage, or the other on TV. My earliest exposure to music as storytelling was the classic film Oliver. It was one of those movies that seemed to be on nearly every second Saturday afternoon and I could not get enough of it. Mum and Dad even bought me the book when I had my first hospital visit and I have still have it to this day. Oliver held a dear place in my heart until as a young teenage gal I discovered Sunset Boulevard. A tale of divas, desperation and disillusion, ah the sight of Joe in his crisp white suit belting out the dangers of doing what it takes to make it in Hollywood; it made my creative soul soar….

There you have a typical thought pattern in the life of Amnesty. I was contemplating the above predicament as I tried to remember the lyrics to Oliver’s opening song. Magical, marvellous wonderful or magical wonderful marvellous?

Aki had taken us to a seafood restaurant on Waikiki. I was torn between feeling blessed by his genorosity and astounded at the eagerness at which the management and staff hovered over our dining experience, motivated by the fact they knew Aki had money to spend. For every meal we ordered an extra dish would appear ‘on the house’ or ‘compliments of the manager’. The forced multiplication of dishes meant that waiters were rearranging tables to place on the end of ours to accommodate this seemingly forced gluttony. Still, it was an amazing experience and one that I know I would have little chance to have again. We fed on an absolute banquet of seafood and local Hawaiian cooking. The beer and shochu flowed freely and Taiki and Ryoko received the most amazingly decorated cocktails in hollowed out pineapples. I’ll post some photos of them this weekend. Ryokko loved the cups that they served our coffee in and after a few enquiries made by Aki the staff were wrapping up their own personal supply to sell to him.

And of course, we weren’t done yet! After thankfully waddling towards the door dreaming of a nice quiet walk back along Waikiki Beach I found myself being unwillingly pulled in the opposite direction. Apparently I was neglecting the extremely important and quite urgent issue of after-dinner drinks at the Westin Hotel, a tradition of the Ikemizu family each time they go to Aloha land. With my stomach howling for mercy at the forced over indulgence we fought our way past children busking with their stage-hungry parents and eclectic sideshow entertainers to the Westin Hotel which is right on the shore of Waikiki. Despite my reluctance to imbibe any more liquids, I must admit I absolutely love this hotel. It has a strong luxurious colonial style and I’m a sucker for a shiny chandelier. We took a few happy snaps in the foyer and recreation rooms. This was Taiki’s last night in Honolulu so we made the most of it. He had to be back in Tokyo for the new university year. He’s beginning his master’s in opera at Tokyo’s top music school. I’ll never complain about the complexities of learning an Asian language again. He’s concurrently studying French, German and Italian the clever little maestro!

On our way back to the hotel Taiki and I had the immense pleasure of becoming acquainted with sports very own superhero Basketball Man. Check him out at mysapce.com/iambasketballman. He was good at what he did but I wasn’t blown away. When collecting his tips at the end of the night he used a cute little phrase which I play over in my head lately. It’d be a nifty song lyric if it was blatantly plagiarised from a street performer!

“There’s no nation like donation, there’s no city like generosity”

Still, deep down I held a strange admiration for the quirky man who was pursuing his dream, knowing that in the depths of my bag I had a book asking me what that very dream in my own life is. I was somewhat envious of a dude who wore a foam helmet as a mark of his dream, bizarre the world is sometimes ain’t it!?!

Pondering this thought…..

Amnesty

Yesterday I was overcome by a bout of temporary insanity, deciding to join the navy and spend a life of indulgence in high tech machines and crisp white uniforms. I was on the Pearl Harbour tour and in geek heaven.

After awaking at the groggy time of 5:30am I was picked up by my tour bus as the sun crept over the mountains. The USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour is the second most visited US ‘attraction’ after the White House, hence the early morning queuing. The trip down to Pearl Harbour passed quickly thanks to our ever informative guide who was a fountain of information. It was very surreal to see the actual surroundings of places I’d studied throughout university. To get a kind of feel for how monumental this attack was, the emotions at the time somewhat compare to those of when 9/11 occurred, it was that unexpected. There are several ships lying on the floor of the sea, marked by pontoons floating on the surface. The memorial floats about the hull of the ship, which lies below and floats by on the surface from the depths. It’s known as the ‘tears of the Arizona’. I was hesitant that the whole adventure may be a declaration of American patriotism and war but overall it’s respectable and informative.

Following the Pearl Harbour memorial we headed over to the USS Missouri, which I was super excited about. The ship had been in 3 wars (World War II, Korea, Desert Storm) and was the location of the signing of the treaty that ended World War II when it was in Tokyo. It is MASSIVE. Once again, a great tour with tons of signage explaining all the intricacies of the ships’s history, equipment and day to day activities. I took a ton of photos for my dad because his geekness gene was most definitely passed onto me. My poor future children will one day endure family holidays where howling cries for ice-cream fall on the deaf ears of a mother engrossed in a display of decaying pottery, discovered in an ancient archaeological dig from the depths of the Amazon.

I met up with Aki and the fam at Ala Moana Beach Park in the afternoon. There I met up with Raymond and his extended family too. Raymond and Aki are old friends and last time I was in Hawaii I visited their house for a birthday bbq. Our bbq ran on ‘aloha time’ as Ryoko liked to call it. Started at 2pm and ate until 7pm. Whatta afternoon! I took some photos of our eating endeavours and will post them when I get back home in a couple of days.

A hu hou kakou (Until we meet again…)

Amnesty

Life with the Ikemizu family is never dull nor predictable. Last night Aki cooked us all the biggest steaks you have ever seen. I’m not just using that phrase as an exaggeration either. My steak was hanging off the side of my plate is was so big. The price of food here continues to astound me. We bought half a calf worth of meat trays for less than the price of my pedicure last week (which now seems kind of pointless considering I ate so much I’d be lucky if I can see my toes by the end of the week).

My Japanese memory has been fully restored after an intense 24 hours of immersion with the Ikemizu clan. I did remember the obligatory omiyage for my friends. It’s the tradition of exchanging gifts. I’d picked up a lovely drop of Brown Brothers Merlot for Aki and he in turn remembered my favourite traditional sweet cakes from Kagoshima, I was stoked. We spent most of the night on the balcony looking out to sea, conversing in Kagoma-ben, the local dialect of the town I lived in. It was so great to slip into again. It’s like having to wear a suit all day and act serious and proper, then coming home, flopping on the couch in trackie-dacks, slippers and having a nice hot cuppa.

Aki and his wife run a kindergarten named Kosumosu Youchien (Cosmos Kindergarten) which his house is also on and have recently completed some huge renovations. I spent the night oohing and aahing over the photos of the massive front lawn they now have which is bigger than some normal Western houses. A small patch of lawn is a luxury in Japan let alone enough to put a decent cricket pitch on (which I did suggest incidentally.) There is now a great paved area with an inbuilt spa, all in marble and a deck area for parties. The deck is fitted with three types of ovens and the whole area can cater for 200+ people. Now that he has completed the house and business renovations, he is moving onto his next big plan. He has decided that as he comes to Hawaii 2-3 times a year it would be cheaper to simply buy accommodation on the island. So at the moment he is shopping around for a 3 bedroom yacht which he will keep permanently on Oahu for his own personal use when he flies over on holidays. Now he will be able to sail between Maui, Molokai etc or even further should he so choose. I have an open invitation already and he is keen for me to bring a friend as soon as it is all organised. Applications will be opening soon

Today I made my long awaited visit to cosmetic heaven, Sephora! I went in with the intention to find a bright yellow eyeshadow and came out with so many glorious goodies. My favourite coming in the form of a super intense true red glossy lipstick. The makeup artist popped it on me right away and I just HAD to have it. There’s something strange that happens with a kickin’ red lipstick, people notice you. Seriously, I was less than 10 metres out the door and a random lady stopped me to comment on how much she loved my fire engine red pout. Another exclaiming how great it was to see a redhead wearing red. I was walking tall, and looking fine. I even had some homeless dude chase me down the main drag because he loved my rainbow pedicure and wanted to tell the world ‘BEAUTIFUL, I tell ya, just BEAUTIFUL!!!!’. People, make sure you are always prepared for the power of a good red lippy. It’s a wonderful thing.

Kisses from Amnesty xoxo