Hawaii, Hong Kong, Japan – John's Green Blog

Trip to Hong Kong courtesy of Millers Outpost

All credit to Laura for this whole adventure!

She randomly filled out an interest card at our local Encinitas outpost of Miller’s Outpost….

Then one day in early 1985 she got a letter in the mail (how quaint! :)) telling her she was selected for an all expenses paid trip to Hong Kong for two!

That last bit about expenses for two was key of course because that meant that I got to come along with her!

When it came to planning, the Miller’s Outpost folks were mellow about the details. Once we had been selected as the chosen ones, they just wanted it to go well and for everyone to come away feeling good about it. We did our part to make that happen!

The plane tickets to Hong Kong allowed for one stopover in each direction. Here is how we worked that:

We had a friend of a friend who was doing one of those rich kid things:
- He was a tennis instructor in a medium-sized town in Japan.
  - Work on your tennis,
  - see Japan,
  - meet cute girls,
  - … a win win win!
Neither Laura nor I had every been to Hawaii.
So we departed San Diego International
- Flew to Oahu and spent 6 days.
- Onward to Hong Kong, where they paid for a week(?) and we I think stayed for few more days on our own!
- Onward to Narita Airport in Japan where we spent 8 days.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Six days in Hawaii

Fly out of San Diego International Sunday night – Oct 20, 1985
Honolulu — six days of American-style vacation.
To get a free rent-a-car I subjected us to the obligatory time-share sales pitch. We actually signed up for it, but used the 24 hour grace period the law requires to change our minds. Whew! We explored every cool place in Oahu we could get to in two days of having the car.
We stayed at the Siam Inn.
Tu Oct 22 –
- Endure the condo sales pitch to get the good deal on the rent-a-car.
- Took a wrong turn on the hike Diamondhead,
  - so we missed the top but had a great day out!
W Oct 23 –
- Breakfast with the condo salesman,
- lovely counter-clockwise tour of the island!
- Sacred Falls, 5 mile hike,
- Sunset Beach
- Hot squid at Siam’s tonight, a life-changing experience for me!
Th Oct 24 – Still have the car.
- go snorkeling.
- All the Asian food we’ve gotten here is very good.
- All the American food is very bad.
Fr Oct 25 –
- Laura got our condo deal un-done – such drama!
- Lunch at Japanese restaurant
- See the James Brown Band arrive at our hotel!
- This got us stoked enough to actually go to the James Brown show that night.
  - Livin large on our big vacation!!
  - They charged an extra $5 for the second set!
– – – – –
Sa Oct 26 – Narita Airport –> Hong Kong

Ten days in Hong Kong

Hong Kong — ten days in the Shamrock Hotel, a nice little spot in the Victoria district. Rode ferries and took the metro and walked our asses off and did quite a bit in those ten days!
Su Oct 27 – arrive, get settled
M Oct 28 – Shop till you drop in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Take ferry to island, hike to peak!
Tu Oct 29 – Shop our way down Nathan Road.
- Wonderful appetizers!
- I shopped for cameras.
W Oct 30 – Public transit to cool temple in middle of high rises.
- Bus to Aberdeen,
- floating villages
- Jumbo Restaurant – enjoyed watching the fish we were going to eat!
Th Oct 31 –
- Dim Sum for breakie.
- I’m very tired.
- Laura explored till late!
F Nov 1 – Dim Sum again.
- I discovered a basketball game on a local park!
  - I made a nuisance of myself and they let me play. Nice guys!
Sa Nov 2 – American breakfast, hang with some Aussies.
- New Territories,
  - hike to temple,
  - burn incense,
  - bang a gong,
  - Shatin Mall,
  - Malasian satay+beer,
  - played basketball with the locals!
Su Nov 3 – Macao boat with a bunch of Danes.
- Aberdeen Bay,
- Repulse Bay,
- anchor for lunch,
- swim from boat!
- Victoria Peak again,
- hangover again
M Nov 4 – My Birthday!
- Dim sum,
- ferry to Cheung Chau island
  - Great food: squid and veggies
  - paid too much for binocs!
Tu Nov 5 – Picked up new glasses I ordered.
- Shopped, played basketball!!
W Nov 6 – Shamrock Hotel guy fucked up on shipping luggage.
- Fly to Japan
  - ->Shinkansen train
  - -> Mishimu.
  - Yamamotos picked us up. YAY!

Eight days in Japan

The first stop heading out was easy, we’d both always wanted to see Hawaii.

The stop coming home required a little more thinking. A good friend of a good friend (Rob) had scored a gig being a tennis coach an a small city in Japan. He was a good tennis player … way better than me … and was helping the good people of his part of Japan improve their backhands while he learned Japanese and they learned American English, and oh by the way he dated a super-cute local girl! I can only assume they had their own cultural exchange!

In the planning we back and forthed with him a few times via email as one did in the 80’s, and soon it was it set up! We would visit Rob (Robo-san) and the Yamamotos in Japan for a few days on the way home!

W Nov 6 – Hong Kong -> Japan -> Shinkansen train > Mishimu.
Yamamotos picked us up at the train. YAY!
Th Nov 7 – Rob lived with a lovely family, the Yamamotos, they treated us wonderfully! (better than Rob did…)
- Today we visited Rob’s school,
- ate sushi,
- ate donuts,
- shopped with the Yamamoto kids.
- We went to a calligraphy class.
- We drank beer
- (I’m exhausted just making this list!)
F Nov 8 – Mama Y took us to Mt Ku.
- Rob and Takako took us to a waterfall.
- Volleyball that night – Laura let her inner athlete out and got really worn out. 🙂
- They go me way too drunk on hard liquor.
  - I embarrassed myself. It was bad. 🙁
Sa Nov 9 – SO hungover … They drink a lot, and on their home turf they hold their liquor a lot better thn I do.
- We took train to the art museum
Su Nov 10 – “Fall leaves tour”
- Shinkansen to Kyoto
- Mt Fuji and Five Lakes with Toshio and friends that spoke good English.
- Supper with Rob at the sushi bar.
M Nov 11 – 6:45 AM – goodbye to the Yamamotos.
- Kuji > elem school, shorts+yellow cap;
- Erina(?) > jr hi, “sailor” dress;
- Takiko jr hi black, hi collar, gold button uniform!
- They were SO cool!!!!
Tu Nov 12 – A couple of more days in Japan on our own!
- Kinkaku-ji (Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto),
- Nijo Castle,
- autumn leaves
W Nov 13 – 8:10 Kyoto check out,
- store stuff in Locker,
- 8:30 catch bus to Kiyomizu Temple,
  - SUPER COOL temple high above city
- 10:52 leave on bus, go to locker get our stuff
- board airport bus 11:25,
- arrive Osaka Airport 12:10
- Pretty easy after that! Airport by 3 -> leave 4:35

Back to reality in ole boring Encinitas!

Thanks a billion to Rosie and Roy, parents of Shannon, who consented to baby-sit Martha for that whole time!

We 100% could not of conceived of doing it without y’all