Aloha from Hawaii

Will and I are both deal finders and so when a flight to Hawaii over Thanksgiving break popped up for $350 roundtrip, we jumped on it immediately.  We would only be able to go for 5 days but at that price, we figured it was more than worth it!  Both of us had interest in going to Hawaii but it was always a destination we felt like we could keep putting off and we'd get back to later.  But with this deal, we figured, why not?!  Well I'm so glad everything fell into place like it did because we loved it.  The Hawaii deal actually included multiple cities/islands but for our first time, we decided Oahu was a good place to start.  We stayed on the Eastern part of the island is Kailua in a really cute AirBnb and we rented a car so we could easily get all over the entire island.  When a lot of people come to Oahu, they just stay in Waikiki which is really a bummer because the entire island has so much to offer.  I didn't blog each day but here's a run through of the things we loved the most.

What we did...

One of the reasons we decided to go to Oahu vs other Hawaiian islands was that there was so much to do!  We got through all of the major activities we wanted to but there were lots more that we didn't go to so another trip could easily be in our future.

Coming to Hawaii, one of the things I wanted to do most was see a sea turtle.  Well what I really wanted was to be able to swim next to a sea turtle, like we were friends.  Well, my dreams came true!  We went scuba diving and saw SO MANY sea turtles.  The law strictly prohibits touching them but I easily could have, they were so close to us!  It was awesome.  Surprisingly, there weren't a ton of fish where we went though so it's a good thing we saw the sea turtles or it would've been a bit of a boring dive.

During this trip, Will and I also learned that while we both like to scuba dive, I'm not the best snorkeler.  We learned this when we went free-diving/snorkeling with SHARKS!!  You read that right!  We took a boat out from the North Shore and stopped in the middle of the water and slipped in to a bunch of freely swimming sharks beneath us.  No cage, nothing!  Apparently, sharks don't actually have any desire to eat people so while we had a guide in the water keeping an eye on the shark's behavior, there wasn't much to it except to keep eye contact with the sharks and be aware of your surroundings and where they are and oh yea, don't make big splashes so sharks don't mistake you for a wounded fish.  While it was definitely a shock to initially see the sharks when we got in, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.  However, the current was pretty rough where we were and I'm apparently not very good at diving down with the snorkel still in my mouth so I drank quite a bit of water.  It was pretty crazy looking down and seeing sharks swimming below your feet and it's crazy how close they were.  It was hard to get a good picture because I'm not a great snorkeler with the current and it was hard to time when each of us had the GoPro and when each of us were diving down a little deeper- all while trying to maintain eye contact with the sharks!  It was a pretty incredible experience though!

Long layover in Addis Ababa

An all day layover in Addis Ababa?  Funny enough, this layover option has come up for us numerous times.  Since we use airline miles for most of our international trips, and we sometimes don't book far enough advance, there are often limited options for flights at the lowest mileage trade-in.  It's come up as an option coming home from Thailand and coming home from the Philippines and both times we reconfigured our trip so we could avoid the long layover and the city entirely.  Why avoid Addis?  Well, I'll be honest.  From the quick research I had done in the past, Addis didn't seem like a city I was dying to go to, and I was a little intimidated about trying to spend a full day there.  There didn't seem to be much to see and it didn't seem like the most tourist friendly city and I was honestly just a little overwhelmed by the idea of it.  For this trip though, the only option home from Seoul (at the mileage point we wanted) was the long layover in Addis so it was either skip Seoul, or go to Addis.  We decided to finally go to Addis.  We had a 14 hr. layover and because that was a forced layover through Ethiopian Airlines, we were entitled to a free hotel room and a free transit visa so at least we wouldn't have to pay for that.  We ended up not even going to our free hotel after all and didn't have a problem spending the day in Addis.  Luckily, we found a tour group called GoAddis (that incidentally also was feature in an epsiode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown) and they took great care of us!

We signed up for a half day tour with Go Addis and since it was an off-peak time, it was just the two of us, one other guy (European dude), the tour guide, and the driver.  Our tour guide was super nice and friendly and took us to some great places!

First, we went to Shola Market where they sold all types of goods and spices.  It was really neat going there with our guide because our guide was friendly with the vendors and was able to really show us things up close.  It also helped that he would keep any aggressive salespeople at bay.

 

 

Seoul: 48 hours of LOTS of eating

The last time we went to Seoul was 8 years ago, on our honeymoon.  I remember loving Seoul.  The food was delicious, there was a ton of great shopping, and everything was pretty cheap.  However, in my quest to always find somewhere new, we haven't yet returned.  Then, upon planning this trip to Asia, we figured we might as well squeeze Seoul in, even if it was just for a few days.  So basically we went to Seoul for 2 days to eat, see some of the family (only a small portion as we were extremely limited on time), and then eat some more before heading home!  It was a glorious 2 days!  Here's a quick recap:

First, we landed in Seoul and found our hotel (Glad Mapo) which happened to be one of the nicest hotels that we'd been to!  Unfortunately for us, we only had about 4 hours to sleep before Will's aunt, two cousins, and one of the cousin's boyfriend picked us up for an entire day of family time!  They have a dog that they're obsessed with (we can relate) so the dog came along and we drove outside of Seoul to a dog friendly restaurant.  We went to a restaurant that was outdoors but "on the water" which means it is basically on a creek and you can grill outside and consequently, you can bring your dog.  Lucky for us, finding this dog friendly restaurant also meant that we ended up with the most delicious lunch.  It was SO good.

 

Afterwards, we drove to a really nice and fancy dog park where we got some drinks and watched the dog run around and play.

Japan: Tokyo Take 2 (Mega Post)

So like I mentioned in a previous post, Will LOVED Japan when we went 8 years ago.  He has been begging to come back ever since.  However, while I loved Japan too, I always wanted to go somewhere new before making a return trip.  Well, Will's dreams finally came true and while Kyoto and Osaka were new cities, we have actually been to Tokyo before.  Needless to say though, Will found plenty of new and fun experiences for us.  Our days were so full that I couldn't even attempt to write recaps when we got back to our hotel each day (the same hotel we stayed on during our honeymoon!).  Here is an overall recap of our most notable Tokyo adventures.  I'm sure that Will will quickly point out that I didn't mention every neighborhood or store that we went to, but this was the big stuff.  The stuff that made it into my iPhone photos and therefore, in my current memory.

First, let's take a moment to applaud William Choi for his detailed trip planning.  I mean, look at that custom Google map with all pins carefully picked by Will! Now you can see how we were so busy.

Back to the highlight reel...

We had the most amazing sushi with the Omakase menu at Yasuda.  Best sushi of my life. SO good.

We went to Odaiba where we saw the "Gundam Unicorn" (nerd alert!) that was a 1:1 scale.  

Then we stopped into the Toyota City Showcase where we got to try safe driving simulations and some kind of future segway wannabe.

We also went to the teamLab Borderless exhibit at the Mori Building Digital Art Museum.  It was super cool and we were lucky to be in town during the exhibit.

 

Japan: Kyoto Recap

Again, since I was a terrible daily blogger, this is going to be a recap of Kyoto.  I loved Kyoto.  The last time we went to Japan, we only went to Tokyo (and climbed Mt. Fuji) so I never got to see this side of Kyoto so I was really looking forward to it.  It was peaceful and gorgeous in it's own calm, zen type of way.  Here's what we saw:

We actually didn't stay in Kyoto, we stayed at an AirBnb in Osaka and just took the train into Kyoto for a few days.  It's a short train ride and that way we wouldn't have to move our stuff unnecessarily.  In the pic below, Will is asking for directions about which train to take.  This machine was super cool because you could speak to someone live (in English!) and there was a little camera where you could show them your ticket and they could see it and let you know if you had the right kind of ticket.  The Japanese railway is complicated so I thought this was a cool way to help in less busy stations where there weren't as many workers present.  First stop, lunch!

Then we went to the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.  This place was HUGE and there was lots of hiking/walking in the heat.  It looked really cool because of all of the red columns!

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Japan: Osaka Adventures

Will and I originally started this blog when we first got married.  Our first adventure abroad as a married couple (besides a quick little trip to Mexico) was our honeymoon and we went to Japan and Korea.  Needless to say, anyone who knows us IRL knows that Will is kind of obsessed with Japan.  He LOVED our trip there and has been wanting to go back ever since.  While I loved it as well, I've always preferred to go somewhere new but this year, Will finally had his dream come true and we are back in Japan!  However, on this trip, we were just too busy and I could not keep up with the blogging.  We crammed in so much each day and I was just passed out whenever we came back to our AirBnb.  So.... no daily posts in Japan.  Just quick rundowns of all the fun that we had.  First up, Osaka!

I really liked Osaka.  I mean, look at that picture above.  Doesn't it look like a stock photo??  Osaka is a smaller, condensed version of Tokyo but still lots to do it and a more laid back feeling to it.  It also felt less business-y and corporate which I liked.  It was awesome too because our AirBnb was literally right in the middle of  Kuromon Ichiba Market where they sold sooo many kinds of delicious food.