Photos journal —Hawaii (the island of Oʻahu)

“Wow, there are so many Japanese newlyweds on Waikīkī beach!” exclaimed my mother. We ran into four newlyweds in full wedding gowns as we walked alongside on Waikīkī beach. They all looked happy, staring into camera lenses held by professional photographers.

My parents, natives of Seoul, South Korea, were NOT at all surprised to see so many Japanese tourists and newlyweds in Hawaii. “Hawaii is pretty close to Japan!” my mother said. I rolled my eyes a bit. Of course, I knew that!

Later, our hotel concierge (who spoke fluent Japanese) told us that many Japanese choose Hawaii as the ideal/romantic location for a destination wedding, since sometimes getting married in Japan can be much more expensive. And this was not a piece of new information to me. I’ve heard this before.

My cram-school friend Jane Song, who lived in Tokyo as a child, once told me Japanese weddings can be much more formal compared to Korean and American weddings. There are often unspoken rules about what attire is considered appropriate, and you are much more likely to be faced with negative consequences when you don’t follow them. But, perhaps, the biggest difference is found in the cost and quality of food served to wedding guests.

According to Jane, the food provided for the guests during a wedding celebration is expected to be multi-course with careful and artful plating. Often, guests may get more than 5 or 6 mini-courses. The ingredients are meant to be carefully selected, and they will most likely include ingredients that symbolize luck and auspiciousness (e.g., red rice = good luck). So naturally, it makes sense why the cost of food for the wedding amounted to a lot more than a normal wedding ceremony meal served to guests in an American wedding (e.g., a simple salad + pre-cooked chicken/steak entree + a wedding cake).

Thanks to many Japanese tourists, newlyweds, and Japanese-ancestried people of Hawaii, finding authentic Japanese and Japanese-inspired food in the island of O’ahu, is not a difficult task. For example, my family spontaneously decided to eat lunch at a highly-rated Italian restaurant just by our hotel, only to find out that the restaurant is an international branch of a popular Japanese-style pasta house.

Instead of a regular Italian-style carbonara made with egg yolk and bacon, the restaurant served us uni (sea urchin) carbonara made extra creamy with extra sea urchin from the sea. In place of spaghetti al pomodoro, the restaurant had us served Japanese-style ketchup-bacon pasta known as Pasta Napolitan (beloved and considered very nostalgic to many Japanese people).

Intrigued by the Japanese food influences strongly imprinted on the food scene of the island of O’ahu, I found loco moco most fascinating. Known to have originated from the Big Island, Loco moco is a gravy-smothered beef patty on top of white sushi rice, topped with fried eggs. The flavor of loco moco strongly reminded me of Japanese-style hambagu—savory meat patty sitting in rich, creamy, and sweet sauce with strong umami notes (that tastes faintly like tonkatsu sauce…but creamier). Japanese sushi rice underneath will soak up the meat juices and gravy while you get ready to pop that golden egg yolk, and I guarantee you that your next bites are going to make you smile.

Here are some other photos of the Japanese-inspired food we had on the trip. Many casual mini supermarkets include refrigerated food sections full of ready-made sashimi plates, rice bowls, and rice balls.

Not too surprisingly, Spam was seen everywhere. You can see Spam fried rice photo underneath. Another commonly seen ingredient was Kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage). Kimchi was frequently found in many poke restaurants we visited—perhaps thanks to many Korean immigrants and Korean Americans living in Hawaii.

Below are some photos of Hawaii that aren’t food. Hawaii is famous for its beautiful nature and landscape, after all. :) So I am sharing them here.

Enjoy!