At the airport, I hailed a cab (タクシーを呼び止めた) and went straight to my hotel, The Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort. There are two Outriggers in Waikiki and the Beach Resort is, I think, the older of them.
The room was nothing to write home about (とりたてて言うほどもないもの、たいしたことない), but the location was great and I had a pretty good, although slightly obstructed view (眺めをさえぎる) of the ocean, which was all I really wanted. Ocean views are, as you might expect, expensive and with the weak yen (円安) even more so. But that’s okay. I was only going to be there for two days.
Despite the hotel having seen better days (よい時もあった, すでに盛りを過ぎている), it still has a number of things going for it. One, of course, is the location—right on Waikiki Beach and near both the newly renovated (改装された) International Market Place and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center—second, they let me check in early (10:30 AM) at no extra cost, and the third is Duke’s Waikiki. I first went here for drinks in 2006 and had fun. I returned a few years later for lunch that was better than I expected.
If you stay at the Outrigger, you have two choices for breakfast. I went to Duke’s both mornings.
Breakfast was all-you-can-eat, buffet style and featured a lot of the things I love about an American breakfast. I’m not a big fan of American food normally, but I still enjoy eggs, bacon and sausage in the morning. Only instead of toast, I now eat it with rice.
In addition to the buffet, you can order a la carte items from the menu. Both mornings I ordered the tropical smoothie which was to die for (絶妙). It was made with mango, pineapple and vanilla, according to the menu. Since my return to Japan, I have been making them with pineapple, banana, coconut powder, and mango, if I have some. I can’t quite replicate Duke’s smoothie, but I am having fun experimenting.
