We started the day by walking down to the Urasenke Foundation on Saratoga St for a tea ceremony. They only do it two days a week, and only twice on those days. So we had made reservations for the 10am Friday performance. We had to wait a little bit because they were expecting another spectator, but whoever it was never showed so we had a private performance. We watched a video first that showed a girl named Ayaka going with her mother to a REAL tea ceremony, but that kind takes several hours so we just had the abbreviated version. We took off our shoes and put on socks we brought with us, so we wouldn’t damage the tatami mats (which were 3 inches thick!). The ceremony itself was fairly brief, there was an older Japanese woman playing the host, and a younger woman playing the guest. Neither of them spoke much English, so there was an elderly woman there to tell us what was happening. She didn’t translate, but she let us know what was going on. After the performance was over, they prepared additional tea and cookies for us; the cookie tasted like it might at one time have been next to a bowl of sugar, and the tea – matcha, the powdered stuff – was icky and I only had about half.

Next we took the bus to ‘Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States. It was small, as palaces go – then again, my main comparison is Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul; each was created to prove its country’s modernity, but the Turkish palace is much bigger. I used a transcript instead of the audio tour because I feared I wouldn’t be able to hear the audio like I wasn’t able to at the Waikiki Aquarium. Fortunately, the ‘Iolani Palace devices turned up much louder, and I could hear other tourists’ devices, one clear enough to understand it! We both enjoyed having the transcript, though, because neither of us processes auditory information well. We walked through the whole palace, and I found Queen Lili’uokalani’s quilt very moving; she made it during her imprisonment, with the help of a maidservant who volunteered to be imprisoned with her. In the basement galleries (a more museum-like display compared to the house upstairs) I enjoyed the pictures from King Kalakaua’s era, there were some cute photographs there of Hawai’i's “citizen king.”. I looked for a book in the gift shop containing the pictures, but I couldn’t find one. We did end up spending a lot in the gift shop, though, and I earned a one-year individual membership in the Friends of the ‘Iolani palace.

After this I insisted we take the bus down King St to Down to Earth. While chatting over yummy vegetarian food, we figured that the political complaints on Yelp must be because it’s Mormon-owned. I should remember when I get home to report those reviews for being political – a forbidden category of reviews, and I’m a stickler for rules in that kind of thing. Anyway, next we went to Bubbies (come on, it was RIGHT THERE, we had to!) and ordered 12 fabulous mochi. My favorite was the “Mint Oreo” (like a thin mint) or maybe…no, that was the best. Next we walked back to the bus stop and waited forever for the bus. I think we must have been waiting in the wrong spot, because that’s twice now I’ve failed to catch a bus from University & King to Waikiki. We ended up asking the people at Down to Earth to call a cab for us.

By the time all this was over, we were pretty tired. We walked over to the Oceanarium restaurant, but their seafood buffet, which DID contain a few vegetarian items, wasn’t economical for me…$18 for some steamed veggies and salad? Fortunately we got to see the aquarium anyway, as it’s visible from outside the restaurant. We ended up eating at Cheeseburger in Paradise, where I got a pineapple on my burger! SCORE :)

Tweets for Today