Hawaii Adventures 09 day 2: The temple, the mall, and being ravished.

Sadly I don't have the time right now, as I have to sleep for an hour or two before I catch a plane to show you our Japanese toilet and explain the...um...incident which occurred with me and the toilet. So yes, ravished by a toilet, they sure make them complicated in Japan.

We started the day going to go back to the replica of the 900 year old Temple, which had a Buddha inside, along with a bell, lake, side lake, carp, all backed up to the mountains of the Hawaiian Island.

Is it located in the Valley of the Shrines (I did not see any others but we did have to drive through a cemetery to get there.) This is the first view of the temple.
The Temple was Byodo-Inn, and once you cross the arching bridge it had groves of bamboo and a gravel path (wheelies always notice the gravel path). It also had groves of the local Hawaiian flowers adding scent to the air.
Here Linda shows us what this would have looked like in the Meiji Period, or the 1880’s. For reasons I do not understand, this is barely in guide books and not really touted as a ‘sight to see’ having a nominal admission fee and very few visitors.

Due to being right up against the high mountains, there are often little showers with literally a minute or two of sunlight.
After the temple we headed to the local Japanese and high fashion mall called Ala Mauna. There was a Lego store, then a Victoria Secret store that was so popular that there was a velvet rope line up to get inside. We were waved past the line. I thought for sure some fantastic sale awaited us but no, it was just Victoria Secret and not that busy inside at all (why the rope). I did have a few rude encounters. In Victoria Secret, they had the same bra set I have but I said, “Oh they seem to be out of my size, in 38” and a worker said in the same tone as, “We don’t carry the ‘Super-plus sizes’” – “We don’t CARRY 38”, well, you do in Seattle. Then in another store, when looking at a PJ set of Hello Kitty with shorts and crop top the manager of the store said, “Oh, those are JUNIORS, you won’t fit anything like that!”

I said, “Um, everything I am wearing is Junior size.”

She took me over to the Plus size section and despite me saying, “Do you have a zero” (I can wear plus size 0), she gave me a two. They were huge, and I bought the Junior PJ set, which I am wearing right now to type this. Well, I guess, I just LOOK gigantic, but am not, that’s a comfort.

Back at Victoria Secret, we did check out some various..um…options for play.
We did find not only an anime geek store but yes, a San-X store with Hello Kitty and yes, I bought some. I will not show you EVERYTHING I bought but I will show you this Skeleanimal purse I bought, which has a skeleton rabbit bouncing across it. Because as the tag says, “Even dead animals need love too!” And the bonus with this little money purse is that it won’t smell like the other dead animals you keep.

In another store we ran into these Hawaiian Hello Kitty Marshmallows, I don’t know if you are going to try them, I’m not saying one way or another if I did.

We proceeded onto the main Japanese department store of the mall. It used to be part of a chain of stores across the islands and Japan but now no longer has a Japanese branch though is based there. The Japanese products are inexpensive and authentic. I got a Kiki’s Delivery Service Jigsaw Puzzle there that has been out of print for several years, brand new, as well as a host of Washi (Japanese Paper) delights, including more Washi Postcards (I had always wished there was more I had bought). I was so busy talking to the workers in half English and Japanese and shopping that I didn’t take any pictures.

But what did Cheryl come for? Pocky! Here we have a picture of SOME of the pocky (not the desert pocky) including banana, almond, crushed almond, crushed oreos, milk, strawberry and the odd GIANT pocky, along with dark pocky and much more.

We called the shop “Little Kyoto” as it had the old world charm and reminded us of Kyoto. Here is a Wedding Kimono, on sale, (still no price listed), I did talk to them about the dancing lacquer umbrella I got in the ancient geisha store in the Gion district of Kyoto. They said they had carried one or two but they were over $100 each, so it was too pricy to keep regularly. After stocking up on a host of MORE Hello Kitty Items (these ones for Japanese sale only!), we headed home for a nap. So, if you want me to get you a true umbrella from Kyoto, please just provide the air ticket and I will return with the authentic article, otherwise…a cheaper imitation will have to do.

Tomorrow, the complete toilet story revealed!