Green Espirit: First-Timer Hawaii Honolulu Vacation Review - Part 3 What to Eat: Our Honolulu/Oahu Itinerary

Part 1: What to Prepare
Part 2: What to Do
Part 3: What to Eat. Our Honolulu/Oahu Itinerary

When I was on board of the Hawaii flight to Honolulu, I realized that this is our first vacation of 2014. Isa who loves vacation has been waiting for almost 6 months. Let's make this trip really fun and memorable. Earlier, I wrote about "What to Prepare" and "What to Do". This post is about what to eat and our Honolulu itinerary for your reference.

Our dining experience has been mostly above-average with a few times memorable. The following itinerary including dining plan and beach plan is set by Isa and Margaret.

Day 1 (Wednesday) (To know around downtown Honolulu)

Arrived at Honolulu and checked-in at 1 pm at HGV at Lagoon Tower.
Lunch at Iyasume Musubi.
Shopped at nearby King's Village Farmers Market for fresh fruits (cash-only).
Spent the afternoon to settle down in HGV suite and planned what to do for the next 7 days.
Enjoyed early dinner at Ramen Nakamura to avoid peak time waiting line (cash-only), $15 per person. (We had a craving for authentic Japanese ramen soup).
Shopped at Safeway to purchase grocery for next few days breakfast.
Went to bed early; it had been a long day...

Iyasume Musubi

Ramen Nakamura - Ox Tail Soup

Day 2 (Thursday) (1st shrimp day and hiking)

Cooked our breakfast as our HGV suite has a kitchen.
Enjoyed lunch at Blue Water Shrimp inside Makai Market Food Court, with free parking available at the Walmart parking lot two blocks away, $15 per person.
Bought snorkeling set and masks at Walmart store, about $25 each set.
Enjoyed two cooked farmed abalone for $6 in the food court
2-hour hiking at Diamond Head Summit Trail to the top to have a panoramic view from the south-west corner of Oahu Island, and to burn off those extra calories intake from delicious food.
Tested snorkeling set and masks at the Waikiki Beach next to HGV.
We were not hungry, so had a very late light dinner from a nearby sushi-to-go.

Waikiki Bay view from the top of Diamond Head

Blue Water Shrimp - shrimp & steak

Blue Water Shrimp - clams

Day 3 (Friday) (1st snorkeling day)

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay for 3 hours from 10am - 1pm, first green turtle encounter.
Late lunch at Zippy, which is near Hanauma Bay. (I would not recommend Zippy)
Afternoon napping because first-time snorkeling was quite exhausting.
Dinner at Kyoto Ramen (Yotteko-Ya). We wanted to eat authentic Japanese Ramen again, something simple, filling and delicious, $13 per bowl.

Our favorite, Yotteko-Ya Pork with "hard" ramen soup

Day 4 (Saturday) (Farmer's market, Snorkeling and Sushi Day)

There are several Farmer's Market in Honolulu. Saturday Farmer's Market at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) is a must-visit. We spent our Saturday morning hours KCC, completely overwhelmed with choices of all sorts of fusion of Hawaii, American and Japanese food (cash-only). Just imagine.
Drove to Lanikai Beach and snorkeling during the afternoon; we were stunned by the beauty.
Honolulu is like little Tokyo to us. Isa and Margaret decided to try to a Japanese facial massage. I don't recommend t it as the facial massage was done poorly.
Dinner at Tokkuri-Tei Japanese sushi. $90 for 3 of us. Make reservation first.
Watched movie inside our HGV suite which came with unlimited free movie rental.

First-time at the famous Lanika Beach, prettier than Hanauma Bay

Isa at KCC

Tokkuri-Tei sushi

Chef special

Day 5 (Sunday) (Korean BBQ and Udon Day)

Sunday morning service at Waikiki Beach within walking distance of HGV.
Enjoyed lunch at 678 Hawaii Korean BBQ. $100 for 3 of us. Expensive but the beef was real fresh. The best Korean BBQ I have had so far.
Dinner at the inexpensive and hugely popular Marukame Udon, because of the hand-made and freshly-made udon. Be prepared to wait in line for at least 30 minutes. No reservation available.
Downtown shopping (mostly window shopping) for Isa and Margaret. I simply accompanied them, and my iPhone accompanied me.

Korean BBQ at 678 Hawaii

678 has best seafood pancake

Front door at Marukame Udon

One humble bowl of udon for $8

Day 6 (Monday) (Shrimp Truck Day at Haleiwa)

We drove to Haleiwa or Waimea Bay to look for more turtles, the north side of Oahu island
Along the way, stopped by Dole Pineapple Plantation to have pineapple ice-cream. The wild hen and rooster fascinated me more.
Lunch at Fumi's Kahuku Shrimp Truck (cash-only). We did not look for Giovanni's Aloha Shrimp.
We attempted to go snorkeling at Sunset Beach, but it started raining. We left after waiting for 30 minutes.
On the way back along Waimea Bay, we looked for turtles, but nothing showed up on the bay. We were informed that it is not the turtle season ...
Dinner at Mackys' Shrimp Truck.
Watched various food channels after dinner inside our HGV suite with Hawaii papaya and pineapple as deserts

Fumi's spicy shrimp

Macky's garlic shrimp

Day 7 (Tuesday) (Lanika Beach and Polynesian Cultural Center Day)

Isa and I decided to go Lanika Beach again in the morning, and target Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) in the late afternoon. Margaret stayed at HGV suite to relax.
Drove to Lanikai Beach (30 minutes from HGV) and snorkeled in the morning, 2nd turtle encounter.
Drove to PCC and toured until late afternoon, $40 per person admission.
Rewarded Isa and myself to dine at our favorite Yotteko-Ya ramen noodle soup, as Isa was super-satisfied with the 2nd turtle encounter.