ハワイで、日本の夏に出会った。── 歩いて食べただけの金曜日

🇬🇧 English

I’m writing this on the way home, on a break, somewhere out over the Pacific.

For a while there it wasn’t clear when I’d be getting off that island — there was a hurricane heading in and every departure was a question mark. Flying for a living means delays are pretty normal, so, you know — fine. I could spend the whole time refreshing the board, or I could decide that being stuck in Hawaii is not the worst thing that has ever happened to a person. Went with the second one.

Honolulu comes around every now and then for work, so this is far from my first time here. Which means I’ve long since stopped trying to do Hawaii. No hike, no snorkelling, no sunset cruise. On the day I want to tell you about, I ate lunch, I walked, and I looked at the sky. That’s the entire itinerary.

Lunch, with someone I hadn’t planned on

Liliha Bakery, the Ala Moana location. The sign says Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner, which tells you what kind of place this is: not an experience, just a place that feeds people all day long.

I was here with a friend I went through training with, years back. He’s at a different airline now, and he happened to be in Hawaii the same day on a different flight — so, lunch. Nice when that lines up.

The room was loud in a good way — busy, bright, plates moving. The staff were completely relaxed with us, joking around, no ceremony at all. I love American restaurants for this. Nobody is performing hospitality at you; they’re just friendly.

He went for the loco moco. Rice at the bottom, hamburger patty on top, fried egg over that, and then brown gravy poured across the whole thing.

The gravy is on the strong side — properly savoury, a bit rich — and it’s delicious. It soaks down into the rice until the whole plate becomes one single thing. Loco moco isn’t plated, it’s poured, and that’s the point.

I had the burger. Honestly, whenever I’m in America, the thing I look forward to most is a proper hamburger patty — and this one delivered. Real chew to it, seriously juicy. Nothing soft or apologetic about it.

And then that scoop of cold mac salad sitting next to it. Mac salad turns up beside almost everything in Hawaii, and I’m a fan — cold, mayo-heavy, and exactly the right reset between bites of hot savoury food. The Japanese phrase for it is hashi-yasume, “a rest for your chopsticks.” That’s precisely what it does.

We shared both plates. About $20 each, and I remember looking at the table thinking there was no chance I’d finish — and then finishing. Every time. I need to go to the gym.

Liliha Bakery’s actual famous item is the Coco Puff — a chocolate cream puff with a chantilly top, sitting right there in the case by the door. We looked at them. We did not buy them. I’ve been thinking about it since.

Eight o’clock, at the end of a walk

Friday night in Waikiki has a standing appointment. Every week, the Hilton Hawaiian Village puts up fireworks — free, no ticket, no seating, just look up.

The practical details: in summer — roughly June through Labor Day — it starts at 8:00 PM. The rest of the year it’s 7:45 PM. It runs about ten minutes, and strong wind can cancel it, so check on the day.

We walked there from Ala Moana — twenty minutes or so along the boulevard — and ended up at Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon. Palm trees, the masts of the boats in the harbour, and behind all of it, the sky going red. You don’t need to be on the hotel beach. Out here there’s room to stand.

And then something I wasn’t expecting happened.

It was a warm night, a little too warm, the air heavy and still. Fireworks going up over water. People standing around in the dark, not talking much, all looking the same direction.

It felt exactly like a Japanese summer.

Summer in Japan is fireworks. Everyone goes, every year, and the whole thing has a particular feeling to it: the heat that won’t let go, the crowd, the pause between the flash and the sound. I came ten hours across an ocean to a place that is famously nothing like home, stood on a beach in Hawaii, and got handed a Japanese summer evening.

I did not see that coming. It was lovely.

Ten minutes, and then everyone just walks home. No finale announcement, no crowd control. It happens again next Friday. That total lack of ceremony is my favourite part.

The next day, the usual

Next afternoon it was hot, so I did the thing I always do here: stopped at Whole Foods and got an açaí bowl from the Lanikai Juice counter inside. Size M, Classic. Frozen açaí, banana sliced over the top, granola in the middle.

The woman at the counter had the loveliest smile — genuinely warm, not a service smile. It’s a small thing and it’s most of the reason this is a routine.

I ate it standing at a railing on Ala Moana Boulevard, watching cars go past under the palm trees. Not a viewpoint. Not a photo spot. Just a railing on an ordinary street.

Then I went through Ala Moana properly — just looking. I wasn’t hunting for anything and I didn’t buy a thing, and honestly that’s the good version of shopping. Wandering a big bright mall with no target is its own activity.

But the actual destination was this chair. The Rakuten Card lounge upstairs has a Premium Room, and I parked myself in it with a Budweiser Zero and did nothing at all for a while.

Air conditioning, a soft sofa, a cold can. That was the plan the whole time — the shopping was just how I got there.

Written on the way home

Here’s what I actually want from Hawaii, every single time: to walk around and breathe. That’s it. I think this is the best climate on the planet — warm without being heavy, a breeze that shows up right when you need it, air that makes you want to keep going one more block.

So if you’re heading to Oahu with a schedule already stuffed with tours: leave one day completely blank. Eat lunch where people eat lunch. Be outside at eight on a Friday. Stand at a railing with something cold. I’d love it if reading this felt a bit like taking that walk with me.

And I’m sitting here on the way home already wanting to go back and wander around again. Maybe up into the mountains next time — after all that talk about not doing hikes.

What the day cost

Everything below is for one person, on the day described. Nothing here needed a booking, and the whole day came to about $35 — roughly ¥5,600 at ¥160 to the dollar.

Two things that catch Japanese visitors out:

• Tax is added at the till. Oahu’s general excise tax works out to 4.712%, so the number on the menu is not the number you pay.
• Tipping. For table service, 18–20% is the normal range and it is genuinely expected. Counter pickup is different — a tip screen may appear, and zero is fine there.

Notes

• Liliha Bakery, Ala Moana — open breakfast through dinner. About $20 a head. Rich gravy, a patty with real chew, cold mac salad as the palate reset. Don’t leave without a Coco Puff.
• Friday fireworks — hosted by Hilton Hawaiian Village, free. 8:00 PM in summer, 7:45 PM the rest of the year, about ten minutes. Can be cancelled for high wind.
• Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon is roomier than the hotel beach, and it’s about a twenty-minute walk from Ala Moana.
• Açaí bowl — the Lanikai Juice counter inside Whole Foods. Size M, Classic.
• Rakuten Card lounge, Ala Moana Center — a lounge for Rakuten Card holders. Drinks, sofas, air conditioning. Genuinely the best move on a hot afternoon.