On Safari: March 2011

Akiyo and Akihiko's Birthday -March 10, 2011

Celebration with dinner at Roy's Hawaii Kai

Allen, Akiyo and Donna.

Akiyo, Donna, Allen and Akihiko.

Akiyo and Akihiko: Fish Trio, blacken Ahi, Steam Pesto fish, and macadamia nut white fish.

Roy's signature dish, braised beef short ribs(excellent)-Allen

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Donna: Steamed Mahi Mahi.(excellent)

Birthday girl, Akiyo.

Birthday boy, Akihiko. (their respective birthdays are one week apart)

With their birthday plates.

Birthday plates.

Akiyo, Akihiko and Donna

Pretty happy after dinner + desserts.

Akiyo and Akihiko in front of Roy's.

We had great fun celebrating Akiyo and Akihiko’s birthdays at Roy Yamaguchi’s Fusion Restaurant in Hawaii Kai. Especially noted was the friendly service where several of the hostesses and waiters made it a point to chit chat with us in English and Japanese. Conversing was not a big problem, our Japanese is a word of English and a lot of hand movements, Akiyo and Akihiko’s English were better than our Japanese.

As it turned out, the evening was bittersweet; our time at the restaurant was exquisite and thoroughly enjoyable. When we arrived home and turned on the television, flashed across all channels were showing a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and a 30 foot tsunami completely devastating the northeast coast of Honshu Japan.

Honshū (本州) is the largest island of Japan, called the Mainland; it includes the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Yokohama. Akiyo and Akihiko are from Tokyo, they called back home and their family is safe and coping as well as they can.

They will be leaving next week from Hawaii for Tokyo, a place of uncertainty and possible threat of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.

We wish them the warmest Alohas….

Hawaii Pacific Health Women's 10K 2011

What a great day for a race in Honolulu, Hawaii

Our gals, Nola and Jutta ready to go.

They're off and running.

Nola and Jutta in the middle of the pack.

She's coming up the hill and will finish under an hour.

Hey! how did these two guys get into the race????

Hey, that's the same guy, now he's running with Nola.

Whew, Nola's lost that guy, now she can get down to business.

Nola's very happy, she on pace to get this thing taken care of very near the one hour mark.

And here comes Jutta to the Finish Line.

She's thinking, why do I do this?

Jutta finishes with a time of 1hr 19 minutes. Way to go Jutta....

The "Promise Land".

The great volunteers to root you on.

He made it too, now what?

Everybody's happy.

"Tell me when it starts hurting"

Jutta and Nola holding their roses, O.K. it's time now for the picnic.

Jutta and the "mix master" with his jug and cup.

The Six-Pack

Front: left to right: Donna, Jutta, and Nola

Back: left to right: Allen, Bob and Ken

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"The Three-Pack"

Donna, Jutta and Nola

It's the Run for the Roses!!!!

A night out at Morimoto's Waikiki

Thanks to Ed and Ginger, our big night to Morimoto’s Restaurant Waikiki was this Wednesday. Our reservations were for 5:30PM. When we arrived, the valet took our car, we walked up the stairs to Morimoto’s, and the hostess greeted us by name and sat us in our designated outdoor table. What a gorgeous place, the décor was elegantly modern with the largest kitchen I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. The chefs were busy in the kitchen and the waiters and hostesses were busy too.

Our waiter, Thomas, came right over and put our napkins on our lap, poured our water and he said “Happy Birthday, Mr. Jue, you really look good for 75”, shook my hand and said, you can call me, Tom.

Wow, Tom was my new best friend. He asked if we had been here before. We said, no, but most of the family had been and they were very impressed with the restaurant’s décor, service and especially the food. We were told that Chef Masaharu Morimoto was here tonight and will be cooking. Tom brought our menus and we began a dialogue of the different dishes and how each was prepared and the sauces, etc.

I could tell that Thomas was very proud of the restaurant; he didn’t rush us and patiently answered our questions. Thomas brought Donna her wine and I stayed pat on my water. I had my camera with me so I got up and started taking pictures; soon I realized we were the only ones in the restaurant. Yes, the only ones. It was probably then that Thomas came over and said this would be a slow night and we picked a good night to come. Well, you can’t believe what Tom says, in 30-45 minutes, the outdoor section was almost filled and the inside was filling fast. I later walked through the inside dining area, the sound decibel was very high, I'm not sure anyone heard anyone as it sounded like the Fox channel where everyone is talking at once.

By the way, we did catch a little bit of the sunset around 6:45PM. Due to the heavy clouds, we didn’t see the “green flash” on the horizon.

The food, of course it was delicious, Donna had Spicy Tuna Maki, Mixed green salad, Black Cod and Carneros Pinot Noir wine, I had Oxtail soup, Rack of Lamb, SD Rice and 3 flavors Sorbet. They also brought me a melon sorbet with an orchid with “Happy Birthday” inscribed on the plate with chocolate syrup.

Even though the was restaurant filled, it was the two of us and a very memorable evening….Thanks, Ed and Ginger.

We made it....

My birthday plate; melon sorbet with cubes of melon underneath, a blueberry and raspberry on the side!
They gave me a break, no singing or candles.
(Thank you, Diane Sarich)