Hawai'i Big Island Trip Day1 and 2

 In December 2018, I went to Big Island in Hawai’i. It was an amazing 20-day trip. 

One of the great sunsets during this trip

 

On the first day was just flying. From Boston, Hawai’i is far. To save money I had a three-leg flight: Boston to Chicago, Chicago to LA, LA to Kona. To be honest I thought that I chose a too far destination. However, now retrospectively, it was a great choice.

Walmart in Kona, Big Island, Hawai'i

First night we stayed at AirBnB near the airport. The host works at the airport, so he told us the number to get into the house. He is Japanese American, because his name is Mark Nakagawa. In Hawai’i, you will see many Japanese Americans. Hawai’i has the biggest Japanese American community.

Walmart in Kona, Big Island, Hawai'i

 

There are many Japanese grocery stores, Hawaiian-Japanese restaurants. Even at Walmart in Kona, where we went to get food for camping, I found Japanese snacks, rice, etc. Seeing decent Japanese rice at Walmart was a little weird, but also it waas a nice surprise.

Kona coffee

After buying camping fuel and camping food for the next 10 days, we had some time to go to night manta ray snorkeling. So we went to a coffee shop.

Kona coffee is very famous worldwide for its great taste. I loved the Kona coffee. In fact, so loved it and I went to this particular cafe FIVE times during this Big Island trip.

Delicious Poke

Another important thing to mention is poke. Poke is Hawaiian food. Raw fish is flavored with various kinds of sauce. Poke is sold at every grocery store and also there are many poke restaurants. Ahi tuna is popular. We got poke seven or eight times during this trip. We had poke on the beach near the turtle (picture on the top).

Manta Ray

At night we went to snorkeling. Snorkeling on the board with light attracts manta rays. I had never seen this creature in person. The manta ray was really big. They swim like birds. They are cute and mysterious at the same time. It was amazing experience.