And the Trip Back to Oregon

My short trip to Tokyo was over and I took the N'EX train back to Narita. It's a good way to go. By buying a round trip ticket, I saved money too. So I bought a few things to enjoy on my way to the airport and on the flight back. These almond cookies were rather good. They went well with this Salty Litchi drink. Someone had a bottle in a photo and it was at the local konbini so I thought I would try it. Well first it was to have something cold to put on my injured right leg the night I fell. The bottle is a good shape for that. The drink was interesting. I thought it would taste salty but it really didn't.

I found these at the same konbini. Chestnut KitKats and they were pretty good. I think I ate these on the plane.

This Hiroshima lemon cake was also enjoyed on the plane. I was walking back through Ikebukuro Station after returning from Venus Fort and there were booths in front of one of the department stores. I could not resist buying a few treats for the trip home, this being one of them. Like I mentioned before, a lot of lemon flavored foods this time around. I learned on the flight there that while Hawaiian Air is not a bad airline, the food left a bit to be desired, especially since they do not give you a choice at meals. So I made sure to have a couple things to eat.

Since it was dark on the ride to Narita and then the flight to Hawaii, I didn't take photos. I also didn't take photos in the airport in Hawaii since I did that previously. And there wasn't much time in between flights since getting to customs was a very long walk, followed by another long walk to the departure gates. Finally we boarded our plane bound to Portland, Oregon. Hoping we would beat Hurricane Olivia which was headed directly to Hawaii.

 Well, we sat in the plane at the gate for at least a half hour, due to inbound planes flying around Hurricane Olivia. On the same flight path our plane needed to take to get to Oregon. So I took a few photos of the U.S. Air Force planes that were landing.

Finally we were taking off. The sky was getting darker but Olivia wasn't near Hawaii yet. Still stormy weather was being sent towards us thanks to Olivia. My trip was book ended by these storms.

Honolulu and Diamond Head in the distance. 

Not as sunny as the day I first arrived. Still warm. 

Aloha Honolulu. Still the color of that water, beautiful. 

Goodbye Hawaii. 

A very long sunset off in the distance while we flew into another night. Going back in time. 

Finally arriving at Portland International Airport. Where there is a Lego version of our beloved Multnomah Waterfall. 

Complete with little visitors.

I still have a few things I want to post about from this trip so this isn't the last post. Next up will be a few food things.

Sophisticated Kit Kats

Believe it or not, I ate very few Kit Kats while I was in Japan.  Most made it back to the States with me. The lovely gift box and the fruit and Sublime were from the Ginza store. That dark chocolate Sublime was very good and I was surprised that the fruit was also good. I have found some of the white chocolate fruit ones have an aftertaste but these did not. Passion fruit and orange were two flavors I have not tried before and found they were really good.

I did pick up this small package of sakura themed bites. This was actually a winter release of a ginger tea flavor. I found the ginger taste a little distracting. It didn't combine well with the chocolate.

Besides Ginza I found more Kit Kats at the Marui One Annex in Shinjuku. Lots of regional flavors and my favorite Japanese sake Kit Kats. I should have bought two because this definitely did not last. Also much cheaper there than trying to buy it outside of Japan.

The Ginza Kit Kats were more expensive but since it was my one visit to a Chocolatory I splurged a little. In the gift box were green tea, strawberry, butter and pistachio. I expected a super buttery taste with the butter one. Good it was not that. Still not one I would consider in the future because the idea of eating a stick of butter is a little off putting to me. The pistachio were a light green color and nicely flavored. Strawberry and matcha green tea were nice, similar to others I have tried.

Shinshu apple found at Marui One Annex! Regional Kit Kat and fun taste. 

 I tend to like the chocolate Kit Kats and this had a nice apple flavor that didn't overwhelm. 

More regional Kit Kats. The momiji maple leave ones I bought at Tau Hiroshima store in Ginza. Afraid these were my least favorites. They didn't remind me of momiji sweets. There was a azuki bean flavor but the pastry flavor wasn't really there much. I would rather eat a momiji sweet.

However these Okinawa purple sweet potato Kit Kats found in Marui One Annex were some of my favorites. I like to cook mashed purple sweet potatoes so I'm familiar with their flavor. These did capture that along with being really good. Plus that purple color is a bit unusual and fun.

It's been a while since I posted about Kit Kats. Fun to be able to try this many different ones from this trip. While more flavors do show up in the Japanese market here, these more limited ones are hard to find. So this was nice.