Waikiki Trolley

Dallas went golfing, so I decided to go shopping at Ala Moana. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea because I’m not a major shopper and Ala Moana is a major mall. After about 4 hours of shopping I’d only purchased a $14 pair of slippers and wished I’d just spent the time on the beach! Still, it was an interesting day. I had a great lunch and a funny ride over.

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So, you cant just walk to Ala Moana from Waikiki. The mall is about 2 miles away from our hotel. I guess you could walk it, but I didn’t know the way and if you bought things then you might be stuck. Dallas had our car so I decided to take the Waikiki Trolley. The pink line goes all around Waikiki and picks up at different stops and hotels then drives to Ala Moana. Plus the fare was only $2 each way, not that anyone was really paying attention enough to make sure you put the money in the box behind the driver.

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What I quickly discovered was that only the Japanese tourists take the Waikiki Trolley. I think I was the only person on the trolley that wasn’t a Japanese tourist. No biggie. Oh, and not to propagate the stereotype, but the Japanese tourists like to take photos and video of everything.

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I might be a little bit Japanese.

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Then something funny happened. This is a horrible photo of me, but see the lady over my shoulder?

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She and her husband and teenaged daughter got on the trolley and she was taking a TON of photos of her family riding the trolley. And having them take photos of her. Taking a million photos in all different configurations. She asked me to take a photo of her family. By “ask” I mean a lot of pointing. She couldn’t speak any English and I don’t speak Japanese but “please take a photo of me and my family” is pretty easy to pantomime. Then she saw my camera out and insisted on taking a photo of me. And then one with her camera.

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And then another with my camera. And another with hers.

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Basically, she couldn’t stop. All the while she was speaking in Japanese and giving me the thumbs up sign. The only thing I could understand her saying, and possibly the only thing she knew how to say in Enlglish, was “beautiful.” And when she said “beautiful” she made this sweeping motion with her hands at the sides of her head, which I think was meant to represent my hair blowing around in the open-air trolley. It was nice.. but I’m not used to having the paparazzi stalking me, so when we got to Ala Moana, I just bee lined it off the trolley!

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