Brian: Hawaii, Day 5

Today was the big day: we went on the snorkeling trip that we paid $100 each for. We departed midmorning in a catamaran (a two-hulled boat, like the Catalina Flyer that takes you to Catalina Island) skippered by a young guy called Ryan. The other crew were Jay, Gardenia, and a Japanese guy called Yudai who also did translating. The atmosphere was relaxed and fun the entire time, which was good because I had a bit of nerves going snorkeling in the middle of the ocean. However, there were lots of older folks that would need more pampering than me, so I felt better and it turned out to be almost as natural as swimming in a pool. On the way to the snorkeling spot, we passed a pod of dolphins. Everybody was crowding around trying to get a good look/video of the passing dolphins. I didn't bring my camera (Patrick did camera duty for the trip) so I just stayed aft and avoided the crowd. The dolphins looked like they were showing off. One of them kept jumping up and doing spins. They do seem to be playful creatures at heart after all (either that or the boat comes back with buckets of food later :P).

The actual snorkeling went a lot better than at Hanauma Bay. I carefully checked my mask for leaks this time and discovered a tear in the seal, so I got the crew to replace it with another one. As a result, I didn't have to keep fixing my mask every two seconds or taking everything off because my eyes were stinging. The water was slightly cool at first but easy to get used to. The trouble was there'd be these warm currents that you'd enter and be like "awesome!" only to leave a few moments later and be colder than you were before. We were also given life vests that were a big help. They were the self-inflatable kind so when I wanted to dive, I released all the air, and after half an hour, when I was starting to feel tired, I just blew into it and floated around for a bit. It was much nicer than snorkeling around in Hanauma Bay avoiding reefs and choking on salt water that kept leaking into my mask. By the way, we're going back to Hanauma Bay early tomorrow morning.

On the way to the snorkeling spot I also met this older man and his Asian wife. He was a commercial photographer living in La Habra Hills and she did software development. We talked a lot about what I was doing and about his past: he stayed for 12 years in the Philippines (where he met his wife, perhaps?) and also lived in Japan for a year and a half. In a grandfatherly sort of way, he was always giving me advice like to get as much education as possible and that "you only have a strong body once in your life: use it". Patrick's dad also joined the conversation and it veered towards interest rates and property values. I didn't have much to input at that point. His wife reminded me a lot of a girl I know at Stanford (Diana Austria). I've mentioned this before but this happens to me a lot. After you meet a certain number of people, new people you meet start overlapping with the ones you already know.

After snorkeling we went once again to Waikiki Beach. I got my remaining $200 exchanged into Japanese yen at a much better exchange rate (118.5 yen to the dollar) and also bought a small gift at a marketplace. But what was really cool was the mail drop-box we saw that was painted like R2D2, one of only hundreds in the country, according to Michael. Afterwards we went back to the shaved ice place we went to on the first day with Jason and I had a delicious azuki bowl: finely shaved ice with condensed milk, mochi, azuki beans and vanilla ice cream. It seems like shaved ice is to Hawaii as pearl milk tea is to California.

Hawaii Day 5