A pre-wedding Honeymoon? (21 days around Asia)

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 16 (Part 1):

This was probably the ultimate R&R day for the trip. With loose plans involving food, drnks and plenty of pool and beach time. Waking up to this view, we were sure it was going to be a satisfying day.



Halekulani has 2 breakfast options so for our first morning we picked Shiroux, which is a french restaurant of an evening and does set breakfast meals of a morning. Being in a club room we had breakfast included which consisted of fruit and yoghurt, juice, coffee or tea and choice of a main as below


I went with the pancakes and my partner the eggs benedict. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.





All of it was spectacular, from the fresh fruit to the beautifully poached eggs and hollandaise on the benedict. The star was undoubtedly the pancakes though. Fluffy and thick but light to eat and that hazelnut sauce with a drizzle of maple to add sweetness was to die for. Easily the best breakfast I've ever had.

After breakfast it was time for pools number 2 and 3. First it was the quiet pool which also offers a swim up bar and is (like the ocean terrace pool) adults only. We spent a bit of time here as it also offered an amazing view and as soon as the bar opened we had a coughtail each.




After this we spent a little bit of time at the signature orchid pool. This is a much larger pool and more family oriented but beautiful nonetheless and what you most likely see featured in resort promotional material.



After baking in the sun for a little while we checked out the indoor pool and onsen/spa in there but it more of a lap pool or option for if it's raining. We decided it was lunch time so returned to change and head down to a restaurant called Shogun Burger that I had my eye on.

The staff at the hotel took us in the complimentary golf carts to the northern gate saving us a fair bit of time walking. From here it was about 5 minutes up the road. We had beef burgers and their loaded fries. Both were spectacular and I'll argue no one makes a beef burger as juicy and tender as the Japanese. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the Mentaiko mayo on some of the fries as I'm not a big fan of the taste of Mentaiko.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 16 (Part 2):
Following lunch we walked back passed the hotel to a public beach for some snorkelling. The rules around snorkelling within Japanese resorts and indeed on many excursions are pretty strict with regards to wearing life jackets. Now while I understand the cautious approach of many Japanese to this, particularly given that ocean swimming is not as common as Aus and many tourists to Okinawa aren't good swimmers, but I am obviously not a huge fan of this as it massively detracts from being able to explore underwater properly.

Luckily just up from the hotel was a public beach with no real rules so we spent the next hour or so in the water exploring the coral and abundance of sea life!




After this we returned and changed for afternoon tea in the club lounge. This consisted of a bit of a different assortment of food to the evenings and some specialty drinks, as well as the free flow champagne.








There was time for 1 more ocean terrace pool swim, before returning to the club lounge for more champagne and then making our way out of the resort (once again on a golf buggy) to then the 50 mtrs walk to Hale'aina HOA for dinner. This was right outside the resort and therefore a lot more affordable. It's Hawaiian themed as per the name, something that is massive in Okinawa if you haven't picked that up yet, and offered quite good meat and seafood.



For around $30 that surf and turf was unbelievable and the hibachi chicken was also super tender and a big hit. It was a bit of a shame not to get to check out some of the other restaurants in the hotel but with most starting at 15000y per person for food only, and with a couple of unexpected big purchases before our trip, we were happy to settle for something more affordable.

After dinner we hit up the local Lawson across the road for some more dessert before hitting the hay after a big day in the sun.

 

[Trekky1]

Enjoying your TR very much!

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 17 (Part 1):

Waking up early to make the most of our last few hours at Halekulani we immediately headed to House Without a Key for the breakfast buffet. While not quite as good as the a la carte meal the morning before it was still a high quality offering with a huge variety, which you can see per our plates below...




The barista made coffee was also fantastic and arguably one of the best of trip. The Okinawan pork was fantastically tender and the benedict while not as good as the previous days, would rival most served in cafes in Australia fresh.

After breakfast we had time for 1 last swim so headed to our favourite, the Ocean Terrace Pool, right as it opened and had it all to ourselves.




After dragging ourselves out we headed to the room to pack, checked out, had our car promptly delivered and with tears in our eyes departed towards Naha. Honestly this was one of the best stays we've ever had and was just as good if not better than any hotel experience we've had, at least certainly up there with our time at the Four Seasons HK in a club room which we thought would never be matched.



We headed south towards Naha with one very important destination in mind - Hama Sushi. This one was right near Kadena Air Force Base so was full of very loud Americans but still hit the spot.



Given we were nearby Mihama American Village in Chatan we decided to explore there for a while to kill some time as we were early for our check in to our hotel in Naha.





We spent a bit of time wandering around the bizarre collection of shops, got some souvenirs and finished with a blue seal ice cream which really hit the spot on a 32 degree day.

Finally we drove back into Naha and checked into Tokyu Stay Okinawa Naha. I picked this place primarily due to the fact that it was affordable and had a washer/dryer in the unit, something we hadn't had access to since Miyazaki. We checked in and had a high floor room with an OK view but the best part was the proximity to a monorail station and therefore access to Kokusai dori and Makishi Market.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 17 (Part 2):

After check in we showered, changed, threw on a load of washing and headed back out to explore Naha. Tokyu Stay as mentioned is right next to Tsubogawa monorail station so we wandered down there and jumped on the very busy monorail bound for Miebashi. Once at Miebashi we walked up Chuei Dori toward Kokusai Dori and Makishi market. But not before seeing some obvious safety hazards on the way...




We wandered about Makishi for a little while and took some photos of some of the staples of Okinawa, seafood and Habushu... Very curious if anyone has ever tried it, as the prices just seem outrageous!





We popped out of the market and found a little Irish bar to have a few pre-dinner drinks.



We wandered back to Kokusai dori after a couple of Guinness' and hunted for somewhere for dinner. We ended up at Yakiniku Panari. This was somewhere we just stumbled across as it seemed to have a good selection of meats and side dishes available.

Honestly this place was fantastic. I guess Yakiniku is hihgly dependent on how well you can cook yourself but the meats were fantastic and so were the accompanying side dishes. It also wasn't over the top expensive unlike some of the other yakiniku and teppanyaki places on Kokusai Dori.

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As you can see I also got a chance to get some taco rice, a big favourite of mine among Okinawan cuisine. The pork as you'd expect in Okinawa was great and the wagyu fantastic.

After dinner we ended up heading to a rooftop bar/nightclub for some electronic darts and drinks. This wasn't really planned but we ended up having a lot of fun here, and drunk cheese fries are always a great idea.



Once the club started to get a bit too nightclubby for us we started the walk home.



The architecture in Okinawa varies quite a lot and the city hall building is quite a cool example.



The walk back took about half an hour but we'd miss the last monorail so we didn't have much other option. We detoured via 7/11 for a last dessert trip as this was our last night in Japan. Once we returned we prepared for bed but I had an awful night as the washer/dryer kept showing error messages and resetting itself. Not exactly ideal when you're trying to get 10 days worth of washing done and a cycle takes close to 4 hours...

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 18 (Part 1):

We had a bit of a slow start to this final morning waking up in Japan, though we do briefly return at the end of this trip. Our first flight wasn't until 1:20pm so we took the morning to finish off the washing and re-pack for a travel day to a new country. The view from the hotel also wasn't too bad to do all this with.



We left the hotel at check out time, 11am, and headed to fill the car up with fuel before dropping it off at Times Rentacar and hopping on their shuttle nearly immediately towards Naha airport.

We checked in at the JAL first class lane which took no time at all, before doing a bit of a walk around the shops pre-security. Given the size of Naha's domestic terminal we wrongly assumed there would be some good food options for lunch passed security. That was very naive of us and a word of warning to hungry travellers here, eat before security!

Security was a breeze with a dedicated lane for OW Sapphires and business passengers, and then a dedicated room with entry directly into the lounge for OW Emerald and First class passengers.



Like a few other big domestic airports JAL has both a Sakura and a Diamond Premier lounge here but again as is par for the course with JALs domestic offerings there isn't much in the way of food. I'll post a couple of photos below but we really didn't spend much time here.





After leaving here we had a look for somewhere to eat but most of the offerings are limited. We settled for some sandwiches, nikuman and a microwaved Taco Rice which actually wasn't too bad. Given we still had an hour to kill we walked all the way to the ANA wing of the terminal for some Starbucks tea before returning to our gate. Boarding was on time at roughly 12:50 and thanks to the low load we had a seat between us on this A350 hop up to Haneda once again.

We left on time at 1:20pm and headed north towards Haneda in quite stunning weather.



Arrival into Haneda was pretty grey and miserable but we weren't sticking around all that long anyway. As soon as we were off we headed to gate 91 which is the terminal transfer bus to T3 (international). This actually ended up taking quite a long time as we'd just missed a bus and were at the first stop (it stops again at the other wing of the JAL terminal), as well as these buses being very speed limited inside the aisport. Given our situation it likely would've been faster to just catch the landside transfer bus.

Once at T3 the north Security lane which starts right where the bus funnels to was closed but at this time (about 4:30pm) the terminal was fairly quiet so we joined the main line and were through security and stamped out of Japan within 10 minutes. The it was off to one of our favourite lounges!

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 18 (Part 2):

Once airside we turned left and headed up to level 5 for JAL first lounge. As many people have covered this lounge before I won't say too much other than that it continues to meet and exceed expectations. Good food, good champagne and friendly staff as well a large lounge makes for a good time. Interestingly on every visit we've had Aussies seem to be the majority in here, though I guess with both JAL and QF having evening Aus bound departures that makes sense.




After about 4 plates of sushi each we booked showers, using our own boarding pass this time after our last mishap here. It was nice to get a chance to do this not in a rush after leaving humid Okinawa.



It was nice to enjoy this lounge at full health given we were both feeling pretty miserable the last time we were here in early 2024.

After a few more glasses of Champagne we left to (attempt) to check out the CX lounge. This was a bit of a dumb move as I didn't check the opening times and as such we walked to basically the end of the terminal in the wrong direction from our gate to get to a shut lounge. Given how far we'd come we decided to just check out the Sakura lounge here which while not being as nice as the F lounge, still did pleasantly surprise us. Not sure of what we'd be eating on the plane we grabbed a bit from the buffet here and I had a beer from the robot pourer.




Eventually it was time to walk once again from 1 end of a terminal to the other to jump on our flight to Seoul Gimpo. Boarding started at 7pm for a 7:30pm departure. We got quite lucky with the seat selection as JAL don't sell Premium Economy on this short route so we were able to select PE seats for no additional charge.




These seats were more than comfortable for this 2 and a bit hour flight. I think there was a meal service but it wasn't that inspiring and we weren't all that hungry after all the lounge food. Before we knew it were descending into a brand new country.