The Japanese emperor has been on a visit to Hawaii during the last few days, which we knew since it was all over the news. I didn’t think we would notice anything from it (besides the news, that is), but, all of the sudden, we were almost in front of a road closure, in the middel of the freeway.

Imagine yourself, you’re driving on a freeway with three lanes, in the middle of Honolulu, and all the sudden you notice police lights in front of you… right, could be as you can often see those lights over here, but all the sudden we were driving slower and slower, until we were standing still, about two or three cars behind the police cars. The first thoughts were that there was an accident, but soon we thought it was for the emperor. They close every road when there are high visitors, such as the Japanese emperor, all so they don’t have to be afraid to be stopped in traffic, with the risk of a terrorist attack.

So we thought it was nice to know that we were so close, but we probably would not notice a thing of it, other than the road closure. Until we noticed a couple of police cars, driving next to us, followed by a long and black limousine, complete with the American flag on the right and the Japanese flag on the leftside. That had to be the emperor and empress of Japan. Behind them were a lot of other cars, vans and such for the imperial household, and behind them a lot of other police cars.

When the motorcade passed us, we were allowed to drive also, even though it was behind a couple of police cars which were holding us awfully far away from the imperial couple. Since we were so far up front, it actually felt like we were part of the motorcade haha.

Oh well, we did not see the emperor and his wife in flesh and blood, which wouldn’t have been easy as they only had one public appearance during the last two days that they have been on the island and there were hundreds of people who went there, so I didn’t really felt like going. Oh well, it was fun that they drove so close next to us.

For a while I felt bad as I thought that we did not bring a video or photo camera, but it turned out that Michelle actually told me that she brought her camera but that I did not respond to her. I really didn’t notice her saying that, which is a shame, otherwise I could show some photo’s or a video, made by ourselves.

Oh well, don’t be sad. I can still give you something to show you a bit how the motorcade looked like as I have found a video of the freeway camera’s It is during the day, and we only saw them in the evening, but oh well, it is the same motorcade and it’s better than nothing. Here it is:

And here are the next two video’s. In the first one we drive over the Pali from the westside (leeward) towards the eastside (windward), and in the other one, I drive exactly the other way around, so from windward back to the leeward side of the island.

It was sunny the whole morning, even when we drove towards the Pali from the consulate, but the weather wasn’t on our side for some reason (which can happen easily when you are at the Pali, there’s more rain in that area than in others as the clouds remain close to the mountains). So you will see some rain falling down in the first video.

I made these video’s actually a bit because of some people who recently asked me about how it was to drive on the Pali, this because of my earlier post about the Pali. It was those questions that made me think about making a video of the Pali, when we would drive over it again.. and so here it is

I hope you liked the videos a bit (even though they might be a bit monotone, but yeah, that is my own feeling, it is after all not the first time I drove over that road haha). I will post some more videos soon. Michelle and I want to get out more often, so we should film a bit more also

Yesterday we went to the North Shore because they predicted that there would be big waves (25-30 feet on the highest point) and there was also a surf championship going on at the North Shore.

Once we arrived at the North Shore, it indeed seemed like there were pretty high waves in the ocean. The waves break down mostly before the coast and this is mostly because there is a coralreef around the island. It doesn’t take away the fact that there are still some nice waves crashing against shore but most of the waves break before the shore. Not everywhere though, but you will see that in a bit

Ok, first some pictures of the coast at Haleiwa:

The first picture doesn’t show the true nature of the waves which are actually nicely sized. It is also pretty hard to capture the right size with a normal digital camera, it is almost impossible to do it without telelenses like pro’s use. If you look closely to the second photo, you will be able to see a surfer standing on a board, the waves might look a bit bigger there. I think the waves were about 9 feet here.

After watching for a while we drove on to Waimea Bay. You can usually see a lot of people swimming and jumping into the water from a rock over there but not today, the water was a ‘little’ bit to wild for it. First I will show you a photo of that rock where people usually jump from so you have some sort of a reference point:

When you look closely at that photo, then you can see some people on that rock (it would be the best to click on it to give it a bigger size and even then they will be small stripes). It is just to show how big the rock is, I think he is about 30 feet above waterlevel.

So ok, then here the pictures of yesterday:

It might look like we were pretty close to the water, but this isn’t exactly true. I think we were about 30 feet away from the waterline (and still we got wet feet from the water that rolled up on the coast). We couldn’t get much closer either, ok, we could if we wanted but there were signs everywhere saying it would be dangerous and such and we also heard a lot of warnings over the speakers, especially for people with little children. Ok, here some more photo’s:

Like said, the waves break mostly before the coast but as you could see on the pictures above, it isn’t always like that, they come pretty close in Waimea. Walking to the waterline over the beachsand was also a nice experience, the beach is a bit tilted at the end so you cannot see the waterline and sometimes it looks like the waves are really close and break up just in front of your eyes.

The other side of the bay was a bit less spectacular if you ask me. There were also some surfers in the water. I think it looked less spectaculair because the waves broke down a bit before the coast and not as close at the other ones.

After this we drove on and we noticed that it was a bit busier at the ‘Pipeline’ with the visitors. There were a few surfers active (which are there probably daily but oh well) because of the nice waves:

The pictures were all taken with as much zoom as possible but unfortunately we were unable to bring the surfers more close to the camera. It is not that weird either that there were some people who had camera’s and lenses of about 2 feet long, you really need those haha.

We went to Sunset Beach after this where we saw a bit of a surfchampionship. Unfortunately we did not take any photo’s here since it was really too far from shore, it was already hard to see with normal eyes and you should actually just bring binoculars (I forgot mine) to see what is really going on. Because of this, there was not much fun for us and we didn’t stay too long.

And since it was around 1.45 PM, we decided to head back south because we had to pick up Stain in town since she had a surgery the day before. I will in a new post about her, for now I will show you the pictures that Michelle took during our trip back to town:

Today was the day after thanksgiving and this is traditional the day that the shops in the US start with their Christmas sales, they also call it ‘black Friday’. And I can tell you it is indeed a bit of a black day in the US..

What a hassle today, haha. I am probably the sober Dutchman again but what a nonsense for a few percent off the prices.

To name something, at 6.30 AM, on the morning of thanksgiving day, there were dozens of people waiting in the line to get inside Best Buy.. Mind you: almost all stores were closed yesterday.. The purpose of this all is just to get as far as possible in the front of the line for a store that only opens at 5 AM the next day. And that’s another thing.. many stores were already open at 5 AM, or even at midnight, and at a lot of stores there were huge lines of people waiting. All just because those people have to shop.

It is possible that my mind sees it all too simple but isn’t it so that if the stores all open at 8 AM or 9 AM, that these people still have the same choice? I find it a bit ridiculous to open up that early, and it is a bit sad for the employees who have to get up really early, after a pretty big holiday, and get to work again.

Michelle already told me about black Friday and we said that we would go on the road around midnight to see if it would be indeed this busy. Michelle told me it would but, yah, how would I know.. I thought it wouldn’t be that bad… I guess I have to guess again.

We get outside and the first thing we see is a huge line of cars, it should have been several miles, waiting to get off the freeway and onto the parkinglots of the mall in our neighborhood (which they gave a special price of 5 dollar per parking instead of the free parking as it is normal)… Here’s a picture of those cars:

As you can see, as far as you can look there are cars.. it was exactly the same at the other side of the bridge. I am sorry to say but what a weirdlos… and I could imagine something like that if there were good deals but, really, I have seen the ads and there isn’t really all that much sales. Besides, there will be more days in this Christmas shopping season where they will give more (and maybe even better) deals since most stores want to try and get an extra profit at the end of the year.

Nah… it is not really my thing, I think this all is just a bit exaggerated.

We went also to that Best Buy store last night, we wanted to go there anyways but since a friend of Michelle was waiting in line (lol), we made sure we’d go. And indeed, there was over 300 people there.. What is it that got into these people.. it is really like camping haha.. Here are two pictures to give an impression:

The pictures are a bit vague but oh well, at least you can get an impression of how it was like. And the whole parking was actually like this, no less than 300 people were camping out. They were lucky to be in Hawaii with the nice weather and not the mainland where, as I read and heard, it was the same as here.

By the way, when we drove back home, we decided to take a bit of the freeway so we could film the line of cars, unfortunately about half of the cars was gone or the video would have been a lot longer but oh well, it still came out as a 2.5 minute recording… if you want to see the short video, you should click this link.

And this all was not even that bad, some terrible things actually happened. I heard today (and read about it later on a few news sites) that an employee of Walmart in Long Island, New York, died because, when the doors of the store opened, a huge mass of people entered the doors and literally ran over him. The man died because of his injuries because of it all.

Now that I am thinking a little bit about it (and I think many Americans will disagree with me but that’s ok, everyone is entitled on his/her own opinion), then I do think that they should get rid of the whole black Friday concept.

I think it is seriously bad, especially when there are people dying because of it all and I can only wonder what they were thinking. If you think about it, it just ridiculous to stay up all night and stand in line for just a few bucks (or worse: 22.5 hours like those people about whom I spoke earlier in this post).

Nah, after about an hour we went back home and we slept nicely in our own bed.

I will write some more tomorrow as some more things have happened last week. Some nice things and unfortunately also some not-so-nice things but ok, I want to go to bed on time so I will tell about that later.

See ya tomorrow!

We went on another fieldtrip last wednesday, this time we went towards the North Shore to grab some breakfast (haha, travelling towards the other end of the island just for some breakfast hehe). We were craving for some delicious garlic shrimp from Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. They are not quite cheap (I mean, 12 bucks for 12 shrimp is not exactly what you call cheap, right?) but they are oh so delicious and really worth going there once in a while.

On our way there we made some pictures, of course. Unfortunately some pictures are a bit blurry but that is because they were mostly made by Michelle while I was driving. I will try to make some sort of a photo report

Of course we first have the trip towards the North Shore itself which went mostly on dry out land as you can see on the picture below. You are basically driving through previous sugarcane and pineapple fields, there is still some being harvested although it is not much:

While we were going towards the North Shore we also came, completely unexpected, in some sort of traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. We were really wondering what happened until we saw some signs in the distance saying that there was some road construction going on. Right, we had to wait for about 30 minutes, if not longer, in the middle of the island and basically in the middle of nothing since everything was so far away.

After this all we found the North Shore, even though it would still be a long drive haha. The road that you can see on the following pictures is mostly a straight line, with the exception of some small corners, which goes from a few hundred meters height towards sealevel.

Once down on sealevel, you arrive in Haleiwa, a surfersvillage which is also featured in a lot of surf movies. If you have been in the south a lot and arrive in this village (or somewhere else on the North Shore), you will notice a different mentality with the people but also a different kind of buildings. A building in the style of the next picture is something that you see a lot on the north coast of Oahu:

And while being in Haleiwa, you really have to go Matsumoto’s grocery store where they sell shave ice. Unfortunately both Michelle and I thought that the shave ice wasn’t all that good as it used to be last year and we basically think the shop in Pearl City, where we go on a frequent base for our shave ice needs, is much better but oh well, Matsumoto cannot miss in a trip to the North Shore. Michelle found a Gecko while we were eating shave ice, I tried to make a picture of it but it became a bit blurry (me and my shaky hands):

Geckos are something that you can see frequently out here, we also got one at home which comes out at night sometimes. I think to search for food and because it gets a bit more cool at night. We just let it be there since it is harmless, not scary and all he does is basically eat insects that we dont want here

When I was still in the Netherlands I also told my sister and daughter about people having horses on Oahu. They did not know this but to prove it, here is a (blurry) picture of the horses that we saw in a distance::

Right, like said, we went towards Kahuku where you can find Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. On our way there we come close to the sea at some points as you can see on the next pictures. The second picture is, by the way, a picture of Waimea Beach, one of the more known beaches of the North Shore.

Unfortunately we did not see any spectacular waves as the ones that you can see sometimes at the North Shore of Oahu, it was clouded that day, pretty windy too on the North Shore but fortunately there was not any rain that day. We also passed by a spot where they were having some surfing championships (we think at the Pipeline but we’re unsure). Because we drove a bit slow on that point we could see a bit of it but unfortunately we were so stupid to not make any pictures… oh well, that will come since we want to go to some different championships in a couple of weeks

We ate at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck after this and with my stupid head I also forgot to make some pictures of this place but, if you want, you can find some pictures on this website. They weren’t taken by us but that’s ok. The food was, as expected, really great, really worth well driving there even though it is a bit expensive.

After the food we went ‘around the corner’ of the island, it is not really a corner, of course, but since we went from the North Shore to the Windward side of Oahu (or instead of driving on the northern coast, we went to drive on the eastcoast) and, honestly, as soon as we drove ‘around the corner’ (there is a corner which might let you see it like that), I got a slap in my face. All the sudden it was humid and stuffy. The humidity is a lot higher on the eastcoast of Oahu and you can really notice it from one moment to another, quite a weird feeling if you ask me. It also rains a lot more on this side so, as you can see on the next picture (which was practically taken on that ‘corner’), there was a lot more green to see.

We drove now from the north towards the south along the coastline and again we saw some horses (again my apologies for the blurry picture haha):

We even saw a cow later at the coast (I did not know they had cows here) which was being photographed. Maybe they arranged it like this, I don’t know, it is the first time I see a cow here anyways. A bit weird sighting to see that animal next to the ocean haha. We also made a picture of it but all you see on it is a spot… maybe next time I should stop a bit more along the way so Michelle can take some better pictures haha.

We did make some other pictures of this side of the coast also:

The first picture is just a picture, taken while driving towards the south.

The second picture is of Kualoa Ranch, a place where you can do lots of activities (yes, even horse riding in the mountains). We want to go here some day, many movies are also recorded near this place in the valley, such as Godzilla (the foothprints are still there) and many other wellknown movies.

The third picture is just a picture to show how the mountains can be totally inside the clouds sometimes. It was really clouded sometimes during that day, you can see it really well on this picture.

After that we went to a mall in Kaneohe to buy something (which they didn’t have haha) and we also went to a petstore there, where they had some naked Guinea pigs :S Those creatures are really something, they look just like pigs (maybe thats why they’re named Guinea pigs lol):

And then it was time to go towards home over the H3. We could have gone more south, towards Diamond Head, Koko Head and many other sightseeing spots but we wanted to keep that for later. Like said, it was really clouded sometimes and it is kind of funny to show it with the next picture where the sun goes through some part of the cloudes and where it looks a bit like the sky opened up to bring an angel to earth, or to take a spirit back up to heaven, a bit like you can see in movies also hehe:

And then we go on to the last picture since we are at the end of our journey:

On this picture you can see the entrance of the tunnel on the H3. On the top you can see, again, the clouds in which the mountains are hidden. The mountains are about 700-800 meters high at this point and since we were at some 250-300 meters height, you can see there is quite some mountain missing.

After this we went through the tunnel and back towards home (after being in traffic for a while since it was rushhour hehe).

It hasn’t been so long ago since I wrote a post but it seemed like a good idea to me to make an update since we have had some things happening the last few days

We had our wedding party last Saturday which was organized by Michelle’s mother. At first we just wanted to keep our marriage small and such but yeah, we really couldn’t do without a party haha. At first I was feeling not so happy about it, especially because I did not know anybody but it all turned out for the best, I really enjoyed myself and I have seen about everybody on this island now, haha, ok ok, not everyone on this island but at least most of the relatives and friends that live on this island. I think there was at least 60 people on the party hehe.

The party took place at our house; partially in the carport, a part at the side of the house under neath a roof and partially under a tent which was put up for this event. It was good that everything was covered since the weather wasn’t that great, it was a bit as if I never left the Netherlands last weekend as it was raining constantly (it was just a bit warmer than what it would have been in the Netherlands haha). We also had lots of food, lots of Filipino food and also Hawaiian food and where was, for example, also a complete roasted pig, as you can see on the next picture:

The gates were decorated with plants and so-called Tiki Torches. All in all it was pretty nice and I really enjoyed myself but, like I said, it was a bit sad that it was raining almost constantly last weekend.

And since I am talking about raining anyways, it is also like whenever it rains over here, you can’t really see far anymore and it looks like the clouds are very low also, its an impression which I get when I compare it to the Netherlands. And as you can see on the next picture, it is completely grey:

As you could see, it isn’t exactly a photo which you would expect to take on Hawaii hehe. And like I said about the low clouds, normally you should see the mountains in the distance of the picture (at least the beginning of them) but with that bad weather you don’t really see it, all mountains (in every direction) are completely gone into the clouds (Michelle told me last year already that you really need to turn on your foglights sometimes with that kind of weather in the mountains, I can imagine why).

And since we’re talking about things that does not really fit into Hawaii (or at least not according to our (my) European thoughts about Hawaii), what about the next pictures?

I do not think it will fit exactly in my thoughts about Hawaii.. and every time I am in that area (I am not much in that area, just sometimes), I get the feeling that I am not on Hawaii but in some part of North America or somewhere in Northern Europe. I can see that the trees and plants are different then in the Netherlands for example but since there are some sort of conifers over here (and yes, even some sort of pine trees (specially farmed though) as we know them in Europe) and other kind of trees which you don’t really expect to be here, it kinda makes it special.

Like I said to my mother before, you can basically find the world in small on Hawaii, you can find snow (on the biggest mountain (vulcano) of Big Island, at about 4 kilometers height), you can find rain forests here, forests, desert-like areas and you can go on about this. There are areas where it rains about 360 days per year and there are areas where they only have rain a few days per year. There is so much variation in the nature here, it is really incredible.

But ok, I started this post telling about things that has happened to us in the last few days. So, last Saturday I also received my social security number which is pretty fast (and which I don’t mind hehe).. I don’t like it too much, though, since I ‘may’ now pay taxes in the US but oh well, without this number you cannot do much in the States, you need it with so many things.. you need it when you want a drivers license, to accept work (when you have work authorization that is), to requests certain things in the immigration process, to open a bank account and it continues.

By the way, we went with my newly received social security number towards ‘the bank of Hawaii‘ to add me as an accountholder of one of Michelle’s bankaccounts. This way it will be easier to get credit (and something you really need in the US is not just your social security number but also a (good) credit history, it is a bit of a long story to tell so I wont at the moment haha) and to do other things such as spendi.. I mean saving money.. hahaha

I also have been added to Michelle’s membership of Costco and I got my own customercard now. I really like that store, it looks a bit like the Makro in the Netherlands.. It is pretty big, has lots of big shelves, you have to be a member to get in and you buy many things in bulk which can make things cheaper sometimes (and sometimes it doesn’t, just as with the Makro in the Netherlands haha).

As you can see, we try to keep ourselves busy, we will also do some real sightseeing soon since we still have quite a few things on our list.. to name a few: ‘Iolani Palace, Sea Life, de North Shore, and there are many more things we want to see or do but luckily we will have plenty of time for that

This morning we went towards the west, towards Kapolei, where I had to apply for a social security number (in Dutch you would say personsnumber or ’sofi’-number) at the SSA, the Social Security Administration.

I need this number basically to get a drivers license (I got a Dutch drivers license but this is only valid in the state of Hawaii for one year after entry into the US, plus a drivers license is a valid ID over here), to be able to open a bankaccount, to start certain insurances, pay taxes (oh joy :P) and there are so many more things which makes it necessary for me to get a social security number.

Requesting the social security number was pretty simple, I had the form with me to apply for the social security number, I had my ID with and some other papers which, eventually, I didn’t need to have as the form to request for the social security number and the passport were sufficient. It was my turn after about 20 minutes of waiting and after a short while I got to hear that my social security card would be sent to me within two weeks.

After this we drove towards Chinatown in Honolulu to see if we can find a white Hula shirt for me; I want one for our wedding next monday and on our way towards town we always pass by Pearl Harbor where lately you can find some large white ball on pillars in the water, it is some sort of a large radar installation. We took a picture of it from the freeway:

It might look a bit small on the picture but it is really big.

Anyways, we went towards Chinatown and found indeed a white Aloha shirt. It is unbelievable but we were looking for one since I arrived here in Hawaii, for some reason they’re all sold out at all the stores.

Since we were in Chinatown anyways, we went towards some restaurant where we ate at a ‘real’ Chinese. It may sound weird to say ‘real’ Chinese but we like to call it like that as they serve the real Chinese dishes and not the standard watered down Chinese for western people (I admit, it isn’t less yummy but still, I like the ‘real’ Chinese food also).

After this we went back home and on our way home we found out that on the receipt of the social security number request was a wrong zipcode. I called the social security administration and they asked me to go back to the office to get it fixed. After I dropped Michelle of at home (her mom had to leave so she had to watch the clients), I drove back to Kapolei.

Instead of the twenty minutes of waiting time earlier today, I was outside after being inside for less than a minute as there was nobody else (the people in front of me just left). I explained my story and it was no problem at all, they would fix it and I could go home again. I took some pictures on my way home of the area I was driving in (while I drove so some pictures may be a bit blurry):

The first two pictures are taken of the mountains, or the beginning of the mountains, at the west side of Oahu.. I see these mountains every morning when I wake up (a bit more of the side tho so they are a bit bigger and larger), the third picture is of the road which I took back to Waipahu and in the distance you can see the mountains at the east side of Oahu. Here are some more pictures::

On the first picture you can see, if you look careful, Honolulu at the far right side and you should be able to see that radar thing on the right side. In the second picture you can find Pearl City and the mountains in the distance again from the east side of Oahu and the last picture is where you enter Waipahu on the southwest side, a bit the busy side of Waipahu where we do not live (we’re at the east side). You can also see that it is about time for the rainseason to start as the grass can use some water (and from the looks of it, it already seems like the rainseason started a bit as it rained a lot of times the last couple of days (just as you think to get rid of all the rain by leaving the Netherlands haha).

So, now we just have to wait for about two weeks and I can try to get my drivers license, I can ask for a change of status and all those other things. But first: our marriage next monday