Aloha!

I've been back for 1.5 weeks, and it's taken me this long to come to terms with the absence of Mai Tai's and a perfect Hawaiian beach. I went on a one week vacation to Hawaii. I think that speaks for itself. Hawaii doesn't require my commentary to convey it's amazing-ness.
But you're going to get it anyways.

So Hawaii has just about the best food ever. EVER. It's unbelievable how good it all tastes. Or maybe I'm just too accustomed to eating food that I wouldn't even feed to my cat. In any case, it was a week of pure indulgence - sun, drinks, food. I even found a TCBY, and those of you who were around for my days at RIM should have no problem picturing the frienzy that ensued upon this discovery. The only thing better than the food? The scenery. We stayed on Kauai, the smallest island. It's very tiny, has a population of 60,000, and has no buildings over 4 stories. One side of the island holds the world's biggest sea-cliffs, while the rest of the island consists mostly of rainforest that ends where the sand starts. It's more lush than any place I've ever seen and has waterfalls everywhere. Beautiful is definitely an understatement.

One of the highlights of the trip was the helicopter ride we took. It was a 45 minute ride around the island and through the sea-cliffs. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing. The following day was equally as spectacular. While on a boat just off the island coast, we stopped to find ourselves surrounded by hundreds of spinner dolphins. They were as adorable and mesmerizing as you'd expect...jumping out of the water and spinning around all over the place. Very cool.

On my last day I almost realized my dream to become Kate Bosworth a la Blue Crush, but alas, the 17 foot surf had other plans for me. Instead I went for a jog around the sea cliff trails, one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. I don't even know where to begin. Waterfalls, rainbows, flowers, rivers, cliffs, turquoise water...it's impossible to do it justice. I spent my last day surrounded by all of these tropical sights before throwing myself straight into the dead of a Tokyo winter cold snap. It was f$%^ing fridgid.

Which brings me to my next point.

Tokyo=big scale, Japanese Western. I am fairly positive that Tokyo is the only other place in the world where it is acceptable to walk around in skirts that barely cover your crack. I don't care if you're wearing Uggs, spaceboots, rainboots, cowboy boots, or any other variation of this often hideous trend; it's below freezing, there's ice on the ground, you're freezing your arse off, and you look like an idiot. A hot idiot, maybe, but you won't look so good when your legs turn black from frost bite.

Idiot girls in mini-skirts in freezing weather aside, it was veeeeery hard to board that flight out of Tokyo back to Kaohsiung. Once again it was an incredible visit, but thankfully the re-adjustment hasn't been too terribly difficult. My kids were a bunch of psychotic little monsters all week long because they had the week off from Chinese school. I never thought I'd have my ass handed to me by such small people, but yep, they did. They're now back in Chinese school and - PRAISE THE LORD - at 1/92308234 the energy level they were last week.

Well, I guess that's all. My travels are sadly coming to dead hault until I finish up my contract here in August, so this will be the last of my globetrotting tales for quite some time. It's far off, but there are more to come...hopefully in the form of some Indian and Egyptian adventures...can't wait.

PS - Gwen Stefani still sucks. Real Harajuku girls: (pictures taken in Harajuko, Tokyo, Japan)