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Falling in Love with O’ahu

April 17, 2020

My absolute favorite memory of this year so far has been my (work)week-long trip to O’ahu back in February. With the help of my job, I was able to attend a design conference and make one of my dream destinations a reality! Since I haven’t posted about it before and only really shared stories of my travels on my older IG account, I wanted to blog about it here. With everything that’s going on, it’s nice to be able to revisit these memories and see everything all over again.

Five Days in O’ahu, HI

on solo traveling

I started solo traveling in 2015, but even when I traveled out on my own, there was always a comfort behind knowing that I at least knew someone if I ever panicked about being on my own. My first real solo travel experience with not knowing anyone was a 24-hr fluke where I got stranded in SFO, but this one was the first time I really went anywhere for longer than a day without knowing a single soul and being technically an ocean away from my family.

I think that there’s a whole mix of emotions that comes with traveling far away on your own, especially as a woman. It’s exciting, scary, a bit stressful, but there’s also this huge feeling of accomplishment and of feeling completely awestruck at knowing that you’re actually seeing a new part of the world with your own eyes; walking a new path that you hadn’t walked before, taking in new sights, smells, sounds. It’s terrifying and immensely gratifying.

Personally, I hate being at any airport for a long amount of time; the routine of it bugs me, as does sitting in my seat for hours. However, seeing the ocean, the beautiful sky and island for the first time… I didn’t want that view to ever go away. I wanted to take in absolutely every second that I was in the air glued to my window. Out of all of the thoughts swimming in my head, the loudest one was, “wow, I’m actually doing this. I’m actually here. It’s coming true.” I literally have waited my life to visit Hawai’i and finally was able to do it.

The moment I stepped out of the airplane, I fell in love. It sounds cliché, I know, but… everything about the island: the gardens inside of the airport, the ambiance, the people, everything. The moment I saw this completely different environment from what I always see, I didn’t want to think about ever leaving.

where i stayed

My conference was hosted at the A’lohilani Resort in Waikiki Beach, Honolulu. It’s a resort within a 2-3 minute walking distance to the beach. A typical night at this resort costs on average $385 USD per night. Each resort of this fashion has an exclusive hotel guest only section of the beach. This one, in particular, is more open than the Royal Hawaiian, for example, but it’s right next to the Duke statue and there’s a nightly Hawai’ian show that happens each night in the same area. Today’s Magnum P.I episode, “Farewell to Love” featured the A’lohilani (15 or so minutes prior to ending for reference) to see more about this gorgeous resort. The view, as shown in this picture, is rather gorgeous. It was a partial view of the ocean, so only like 20% of it from my balcony, but each sunset and sunrise was breathtaking. I thought Arizona and Sonoran Deserts had the most gorgeous sunsets, but Hawai’i probably wins at this point.

hawai’ian weather & what to pack

Hawai’i is famous for having the craziest sort of weather anywhere. You’ll have an absolutely sunny day in the morning, and then maybe a downpour before 10am even starts. The five days I was there, only 2 of those days were 100% sunny; The rest were a combination of heavy rain, light rain, cloudy skies, and unbearably sunny. I’m not sure if it’s the tourists or the locals that are completely unphased to this, but there’s almost no point in taking an umbrella with you. A windbreaker is typically enough or you can wait out the rain which can last anywhere from as little as 7 minutes all the way to 45 minutes at best. Depending on the area though, rain will be heavier to the point of causing floods and in some more scenic areas, trees could fall. 

Despite all of this, my absolute favorite weather in O’ahu has to be rain. There are only four highways in Honolulu, of which H-3 is the scenic one; This one takes you all the way to Honolulu’s famous botanical garden, Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden, which is located in Kāne’ohe. The one day off I had from my conference, I requested to have a day to myself so I could explore the island. The first thing on my list was this garden and it was pouring. I was the last one out after getting a warning that flooding and a tree had fallen, so the farthest I got was the visitor’s center before needing to turn back. I couldn’t really see anything past it but the drive was well enough worth the trip, rain and all.

From Kāne’ohe, I traveled towards the Ko’olau Mountains to visit the famous Byodo-in Temple, a Buddhist temple with some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve seen from any Japanese garden. The drive was only about 25 minutes away and vastly different from the rain I had just experienced. Anyway, both of these locations are favorites among many Instagrammers, and they’re both worth checking out no matter the weather. While the botanical garden is free, the temple has a $5 USD entry fee.

What to wear: I found that the best thing for unpredictable weather is a light, waterproof windbreaker. The one I bought (found here via Amazon) was light enough that I was able to fold it into my phone purse, so that was a huge plus since I didn’t want to carry anything heavy!

Where to eat & Drink

I can thank the small amount of jet lag for this one – I woke up super early for my conference on the first day and was craving pancakes mainly due to the fact that apparently there are some really amazing breakfast places in Honolulu that specialize in pancakes. I ended up finding Creampot out of pure luck! It turns out that Creampot was the original creator of the pancake soufflés; they’re a family-owned café with affordable prices and creative foods that are as gorgeous as they are delicious (and I pretty much went there every morning for breakfast).

My second favorite thing while in O’ahu was the ramen. I can’t begin to count the insane amount of ramen shops all located within the Waikiki beach street. There’s even a Japanese Food Hall that’s located in the sub-level of one of the malls there that completely transports you to a new world. Both times I had ramen, I only got the vegetarian one. Again, affordable and delicious; you’d have a hard time choosing! This is what I looked forward to the most every day that my conference ended.

My favorite ramen spots were Ramen Nakamura (pictured here) and Baikokhen Ramen Waikiki which is in that underground food hall.

My next favorite and almost a must for any solo trip I take is to have at least one nice dinner. For this, I ended up going to Tanaka of Tokyo Central. This was technically my first time drinking after the fiasco that happened in Vegas, so my first real night treating myself!

While on my walk to Tanaka of Tokyo, I stumbled across this bar called Wang Chung’s and it instantly reminded me of Wang Chung’s “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, and I decided to just like in the video, have fun that night. Wang Chung’s is a super friendly and fun LGBTQ+ bar with karaoke and themed drinks. For February, the local drag queens teamed up with the bar owners to create their own drinks (which were yummy!) 

After that, I walked over to Kelley O’Neils which was having a 90’s rock night and had a live band playing. I got there just in time to hear an old favorite from Third Eye Blind.

can’t miss: hale’iwa on the north shore

I’m forever kicking myself for not making enough time to visit this gem of a town that is Hale’iwa. Located on the North Shore, Hale’iwa is practically on the polar end of Honolulu and is also its opposite in practically every single way. Life legitimately seems to move a lot slower here. It’s not crazy busy and packed with tourists like Waikiki ism its buildings and architecture is still rather outdated with no actual skyscrapers in sight, and there are a lot of farms. If I ever have the chance to live in Hawai’i even for a little bit, I would without a shadow of a doubt live here. My favorite restaurant is literally a farm to table restaurant called Farm to Barn. Absolutely everything there is organic, the scenery is gorgeous, the people are friendly; it’s perfect and worth absolutely every bit of time it took to get there (I was stuck in traffic for almost an hour).

And that’s it! I’ll be posting all of my stories from my old account to this new one, so if you’d like to see more with actual video, head on over to my Instagram now! Also to see more pictures, head on over to my Pinterest board dedicated to O’ahu.

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About

Danyy here! Most times you can find me at the photo pit, other times you can find me babbling on about all things Gyaru.

Generational shit. . I’ve been obsessed with the Generational shit.
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I’ve been obsessed with the 80’s and 90’s for as long as I can remember. Anyway, found a pretty cool retro MTV shirt and decided to try to do some vivid makeup.
The pandemic feels like… ↑↑↑ Can we talk f The pandemic feels like… ↑↑↑
Can we talk for a minute about my obsession with pop culture and (vintage) horror? 😩💕

I used to love horror movies as a child, literally all of the classics of the 80’s and 90’s! I probably saw the Exorcist movies more than I knew how to count before I was 6 years old, lol. I’m not as huge of a fan as I used to be, especially for the newer Hollywood films, but you can never beat a classic.

My most “recent” memory is going to my favorite bar @yuccataproom for Halloween and drinking while watching a horror movie on the big TV. With Inktober as well, @creeptoberclub is hosted by the talented @tragicgirls.co and @classycreeps (and the way I discovered my obsession for this art style).

I’d actually had made it my mission back in October when I was following the Creeptober Club that I would purchase their artwork the moment I felt that I was financially stable enough to do so, and with the project of revamping my room completely and giving it life plus the pandemic and the pinch that many small businesses are in, I couldn’t think of a better way to support two of my favorite artists than by re-doing my room with their artwork. 🥰

PS: Going back to the topic of classics, I highly recommend any of the old black and white horror movies! And if you’re not big on horror, especially with what Hollywood puts out nowadays, I greatly recommend the horror movies that Abbott and Costello starred in. My favorite one is Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy!
#ohnoesdani #bedroomrehaul #quarantinemakeovers #wallart #supportsmallbusinesses #talentedartists #vintagehorror #creepygirlsclub #popculture #hollywoodclassichorror #movieclassics #countdowntohalloween
Did I mention I’m in love with my bedroom’s ne Did I mention I’m in love with my bedroom’s new look? 🥰 Here’s a look into what the bed area looks like now.

Details ↓↓↓
☆ I added stripes to my wall, because for some reason I’ve been really into gothic decor. I don’t even know if you can fully call it that due to what my theme looks like now but I was very inspired by #beetlejuice when I did these walls. I currently have 2 accent walls and they were super easy to do.

☆ I’ve got way too many clothes and had never had a chance to really wear my @bear gear (with exception of my hoodie. I swear I could live in it and be happy), so I decided to buy frames from @ikeausa to display the two shirts I bought during the DEAD TO THE WORLD tour.

☆ Speaking of IKEA, I wanted a fresh new look for my bed so I got this super cute, pink duo-tone duvet cover and these very cool throw pillows to line the top of my bed. They really complete the look I was going for!

☆ Since I’ve been going stir-crazy without being able to travel and was supposed to make my way to NYC for my birthday back in March, most of my free time has been spent looking at my old travel pictures. My favorite NYC moment was when I went to the Blondie mural that’s near what used to be CBGB&OMFUG. By the way, the mural here used to be a Joey Ramone one (which is what I was hoping I’d find) until I found out that it got replaced with Blondie. Although I love The Ramones, I’m pretty in love with this mural’s design.

☆ Keeping up with my vintage horror obsession, I purchased a few art pieces from @classycreeps and @tragicgirls.co! I absolutely love their designs and style, and luckily the colors of the prints go well with the theme I was going for (which was after I bought these 😅). I’ll take a better picture of the entire area since there are 7 prints in total.

☆ Last but not least, I purchased these buttons from @omocat quite a few years ago. I hadn’t thought of putting good use to them until now. ✨
#ohnoesdani #bedroomgoals #newlook #neonpinkdecor #highcontrastmode #roomaesthetics #bigboldbeautiful #artthatilove #travelstories #concertmerch #blondie #punkrockhistory #apictureisworthathousandwords
I’m back! It’s been a good minute, hasn’t it I’m back! It’s been a good minute, hasn’t it? Between the pandemic, my business, and a few other things, I haven’t had the opportunity to be as active as I’d like to be on here. So what’s changed? ↓↓↓

☆ I’m on a pretty nifty content calendar system specifically for Gyaru and my own interests; This was created and provided by my business @SavageSirens. It’ll be the first time I’m fully merging my own personal interests outside of the Gyaru fashion and subculture.

☆ #ThePandemicMadeMeDoIt: I revamped my room and it’s now got a fresh, new, ⚡️ELECTRIC⚡️look to it. I can’t wait to talk more about this, but in the meantime, here’s a closeup of my framed @bear t-shirt from the DEAD TO THE WORLD tour. 😍

☆ As of the end of May, I started going on this huge spree of supporting small businesses, especially POC-owned. I’ve posted a few stories of items I’ve purchased already but I can officially make posts about them properly as they deserve.
#ohnoesdani #roomdecor #inmyroom #bedroomdecor #walldecorations #DIYgoals #mysanctuary #bandmerch #savagesirens #upcloseandpersonal #blackbear
Did I mention I miss O’ahu a lot? I finally made Did I mention I miss O’ahu a lot? I finally made a blog post about it!
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Check it out for recommendations, more pictures, and if that’s not enough, head on over to my Instagram stories for a full spam of absolutely everything from that trip! 🌺 🏝 ✨ .
Have you been to O’ahu before? What did you think about it?
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#ohnoesdani #girlswhotravel #waikikibeach #beachvibes #islandlife #lifeinoahu #dreamdestinations #beachgetaway #imisstraveling #solotraveler #oceanview #gameoftones #travelholic #seetheworld #theisland
Waikiki sunsets are amazing. ✨ . Hawai’i has b Waikiki sunsets are amazing. ✨ .
Hawai’i has been a dream destination for me that was always slightly out of reach. This year before the travel restrictions, I was able to go for a full week while attending a design conference.
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I’m hopeful that I’ll go back to visit soon! Though I spent most of my time within Waikiki, there’s so much that’s still left to explore. 🌺 🏝 🌊
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#ohnoesdani #girlswhotravel #waikikibeach #beachvibes #islandlife #lifeinoahu #dreamdestinations #beachgetaway #imisstraveling #solotraveler #oceanview #gameoftones #travelholic #seetheworld #theisland
One thing that really frustrates me is that I don’t have a makeup routine. I just kind of… go with whatever at the time and never can I actually recreate the same look I had a few days ago.
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Since I work from home, I don’t really have chances to go out and dress up like  I used to anyway, so I’ve been living it up in zero makeup and pj’s all day every day.
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Now that the セレブーGAL guide is out, I’ve got half a mind to order a new tracksuit too (because yes, I own a Juicy Couture tracksuit from wayyy back in the day).
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Anyway, here’s my face from a couple of days ago. 🌺 ✨ .
#ohnoesdani #gyaru #gaijingyaru #ギャル #gaijin #セレブー  #latingyaru #mexicangyaru #soylatina #chicanoculture #latinxculture #ギャル #オラオラ系 #alamexicana #gyarumexico #jfashion #japanesefashion #ブランド #gyarulatinoamerica #blog #ブログ #ギャルブロガー #gyarulatina #motd #fotd
Blog post UP! ↑↑ I may have gone a teeny tiny Blog post UP! ↑↑ I may have gone a teeny tiny bit overboard on this guide but the Serebu Gyaru guide is finally up and running!
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I wrote about this on one of my previous posts and I really wanted to get this guide going with the different ways to carry Serebu GAL style alongside a few tips. ✨
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I’m trying to keep a similar format to the original guide which is the Old School Gyaru one, so you can expect more guides in this same style too!
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Anyway whether you love 90’s-00’s fashion or the more modern and sometimes elegant (life)styles, you’ll want to give this a read!
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Also per request, I’m already planning out the next guide so stay excited!
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#ohnoesdani #gyaru #gaijingyaru #CelebrityGal #ギャル #gaijin #セレブー #セレブーGAL #kyabajou #cabaret #hostess #Y2K #emiriawiz #ギャル #オラオラ系 #elizaikeda #voguegirljapan #90sceleb #jfashion #japanesefashion #ブランド #highfashion #blog #ブログ #ギャルブロガー #90sfashion #00sfashion #fashionbrand
Blog post UP! ↑↑ New blog post, kind of! A lot Blog post UP! ↑↑ New blog post, kind of! A lot of new followers despite my inactivity so hi there! I’m Danyy.
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I’ve been in the gaijin gyaru community since around 2007 or so, but I’ve never been quite the participant. My favorite style technically is kurogyaru and favorite gal brand is D.I.Aspec (RIP).
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For quite a while, I’ve been into oldschool gyaru style (late 90’s early to mid 2000s). My favorite western brands tend to be surf ones.
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I’m a lover of knowledge, especially when it comes to gyaru subculture and fashion, and while I’m super inconsistent in posting, I really hope the information from my posts makes it worthwhile!
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Please tell me about yourself! ↓↓
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#ohnoesdani #gyaru #gaijingyaru #kuronba #ギャル #gaijin #kurogyaru #latingyaru #gyarulatina #96gal #黒ギャル #外人 #外人ギャル #ギャル #オラオラ系  #メイク #makeup #jfashion #japanesefashion #getwildbesexy #oldschoolgyaru #aboutme #復活 #エッグ #selfie #blogger #blog #azfashion #fotd #ブログ #ギャルブロガー
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