we had an aaammmaaaazing vacation to hawaii. it was filled with beauty, adventure, craziness, amazing food, and lots of laughter. i'm going to do my best by recapping all that we did...starting from the top.
we planned to fly space a, which is basically a free flight to various cities around the world where military planes are flying. it's a fickle system, so you have to be flexible and willing to abandon any travel plans you might have. the schedule for outgoing flights changes by the minute, flights are constantly delayed or even cancelled, and they may make unexpected layovers in random cities. we decided we wanted to be adventurous and give it a shot. it was a crazy ride, but it was all worth it.
we started out driving from busan to daegu, daegu to osan to catch a flight somewhere to the u.s. we were hoping to first fly to california, do some traveling in the mainland and then hop on a flight to hawaii from california. it took us a few days to even find an available flight out of korea, so we decided we would just take a chance and fly to tokyo and hope they would have something going to CA or HI. luckily, we made a flight to tokyo and on the way met a man named james. he was an older gentleman, been retired from the military for many years and he was also trying to fly back to the states. it was a miracle we met him because, being space-a newbies, he gave us a huge wealth of information on how the evasive system works. seriously, i think they keep things super complicated just to make people confused. i even leaned over to peter and asked, "is james an angel?" anyway, our casual conversation continued through our flight all the way until we landed in japan. he was a fascinating man. he spoke korean fluently (his wife is korean), he lived in korea for many years and was kind, interesting and funny. in fact, we even shared a hotel room with him our first night in tokyo. we phoned the terminal together to check on outgoing flights, ate some food, and even watched oprah together.
aside from becoming friends with james, we had other adventures in tokyo. we ate some amazing meals: sushi and soba. we roamed the streets just looking to taste some of the culture. it was great to have an outsider's view into the country and culture. my experience in korea has always been so intertwined with my personal experience and identity that it's been hard to separate myself from what i saw and learned while there. in japan, i felt like i could just be a good ole' foreigner, soaking in all the unfamiliar and enjoy. i could finally empathize with peter on what it must be like for him when he tries to navigate around korea. the writing on the menu and billboards looks no more legible than scribbles and doodles, the language sounds no more understandable than tolkien's elvish. it was neat to be in a state of ignorance for a little bit...to kind of zone out all the external and just breathe in everything new.
we stayed in tokyo for two nights and three days. we couldn't really see any flights that were going to the u.s., so we decided we take another hop on a flight to kadena, which is in okinawa, japan. had some issues with my passport and we actually had to run to the u.s. embassy to resolve the issue and then run back to the terminal just in time to catch our flight. the aircraft we flew was the same kind that peter had actually flown on when he went to airborne school (he jumped out of these planes!). it was neat to see what the plane looked like in the interior. we had seats made of nets and we could see the skeleton of the plane with all its wires and pipes sticking out. the roar of the engine is so loud they give everyone a set of ear plugs. we had a family of four sit across from us. we noticed their younger son, who was about 7, not look too well. he actually spent a good chunk of our 2 hour flight vomiting in a grocery sack. good thing we had ear plugs. : )
when we landed in kadena, we got off the plane (just like you see the president does!) and we boarded a school bus which took us to the terminal so we could go through immigration. our friend james also took this flight to kadena, and being the experienced space-a bulldog he was, he immediately started questioning the airman who drove us to the terminal if there were any outgoing flights to hawaii or california. to our dismay, the airman said there was a flight going out, but check in was already in session and it would probably take us another 30 minutes before we could get there. : / well, peter the ambitious thought we still might be able to catch the flight if we ran...so we did. we ran to the terminal, grabbed our bags and approached the check-in desk sweaty and out of breath, hoping we weren't too late and we weren't! they checked us in and we waited patiently for them to call our names telling us we made the flight to hawaii. we found out we had indeed made it and got two seats on the flight. it was a total miracle!
when we landed in hawaii it was a rush of total joy and exhilaration. we couldn't wait to jump into the water. we were hot and feeling kind of sweaty in our long pants and tennis shoes (you have to fly with closed toe shoes and warm clothes on a space a flight because it gets really cold), but until we could feel the cool ocean water, we needed to find a place to stay.
we had been calling hotels from korea for the past couple weeks, but found their hotels were always booked. it was difficult calling them too, because they seem to let the phone ring for about 10 minutes before they even pick up. we called again from the hawaii terminal and they again told us, "we're sold out." they told us we could come by in person in a few hours and maybe they would have a cancellation. so we jumped on two different shuttles that dropped us off at the hale koa hotel and we just prayed there would be a room. we spoke with a lady named dolly first. she told us they were totally sold out. we could stop by later to see if anything opened up, but she couldn't guarantee anything. so we dropped off our bags with the bell hop and we walked to the beach in our jeans and tennis shoes. the water was beautiful and we were itching to jump in the water. we checked in again and, miraculously, a room had opened up and we were able to stay for 2 nights. not only that, but we were able to extend our stay for 10 nights at the hale koa.
the hale koa hotel is open only to military and their dependents. it's on waikiki beach and it's on a beautiful property. there are huge gardens and banyon trees, two pools and a short walk to the beach. the water was really calm at waikiki--perfect for swimming or just laying by the water. we had an excellent view of the ocean from our room as well as the lush gardens around the hotel.
we stayed in tokyo for two nights and three days. we couldn't really see any flights that were going to the u.s., so we decided we take another hop on a flight to kadena, which is in okinawa, japan. had some issues with my passport and we actually had to run to the u.s. embassy to resolve the issue and then run back to the terminal just in time to catch our flight. the aircraft we flew was the same kind that peter had actually flown on when he went to airborne school (he jumped out of these planes!). it was neat to see what the plane looked like in the interior. we had seats made of nets and we could see the skeleton of the plane with all its wires and pipes sticking out. the roar of the engine is so loud they give everyone a set of ear plugs. we had a family of four sit across from us. we noticed their younger son, who was about 7, not look too well. he actually spent a good chunk of our 2 hour flight vomiting in a grocery sack. good thing we had ear plugs. : )
