O' Henry

Have you ever raised a butterfly? When Chris and I went to Kona to search out butterflies for his biology class bug collection, he collected a bunch of monarch butterfly caterpillars. We took them home along with a bunch of crown flowers and leaves. Apparently, these little buggers are pickier about what they eat than I am. About 3-4 days after watching these little guys chomp their way through the leaves, one made a chrysalis. After a week and a half of waiting for it to emerge, it finally did. Introducing O'Henry!
After drying out his wings, he sat on a flower and began just flapping his wings...he went from flower to flower and finally just flew away. Oh the life of a butterfly.

Hitachi Tree

Check out the tree sponsored by Hitachi!
They pay $400,000 to Moanalua Gardens just to keep the tree alive.

Anpan

Why do some bakeries find the need to make such big pastries? That's cool though, I guess...besides the ever expanding waistline...because at least some bakeries make some super ono stuff. Take for example Mr. Ed's Bakery, which used to be known as Ishigo's, in Honomu, Hawaii. They consistantly make these huge anpan that probably only locals can consume in one sitting. Normally, anpan is pretty small, like smaller than the size of your fist...but Mr. Ed's anpan...it's the size of your face! If you're ever in the area, check it out!

Toshiko

Before the sun even rose, I was up, changed and ready to take Toshiko to the airport so she could return to Japan. The pot of coffee I made didn't seem to have any effect on how alert I was. Oh well... It had been about 7 years since I had last seen Toshiko and it didn't really bother me that she was leaving Hilo, my hometown.

Toshiko spent one week with me...first in Honolulu and then in Hilo. We ran around everywhere because I wanted to share as much of the island as possible with her. I wanted Toshiko to have as much "local" experience as possible, including a midnight run for dinner at Miki's in Waimalu! We sought out some huge tree at Moanalua Gardens in Honolulu that is supposed to be famous in Japan for the Hitachi Corporation. Don't ask...it's a huge tree. We even drove up to the North Shore just for lunch at Ted's Bakery. I don't have a great video for Honolulu yet, but once we got to the Big Island, we did a Big island Cruise with Chris. We caught a beautiful sunset in Hawi after swimming all day in Hapuna. We had a little Kona Brewing Company beer while waiting for sunset in Hawi…it was beautiful. Now she's gone back home but I know we'll meet again someday. When I think of Toshiko, I think that the "world is her playground" and that no matter how far she goes, I'll always see her again someday.