Here is the picture of the miso ramen I had at this place in Manoa Marketplace called Nishi Mon Cho. To be honest, it wasn't that great. The bean sprouts were really bland and the miso was congealed at the bottom, so I didn't know where the taste was until I was halfway through the bowl.
This past weekend was pretty awesome. Saturday was UFC 83, Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra. I was, of course, rooting for GSP since he's mega hot and I can't stand Serra. He completely dominated him in awesome GSP fashion and it was great to watch. Rich Franklin looked great as well and it was pretty amusing to watch him fight against a completely gassed Travis Lutter.
My mom paid us a visit on Sunday and so knowing her love for movies, we went to see Horton Hears a Who with her again. This was Buddy's third time! He loves "BIG tv". We ate at Sumo Ramen and I had a miso ramen. People are going to be like, wow, Pikko is a ramen addict now. True story!
After that, it was time to drop them off and head down to the Kokua Festival. I had bought tickets online by making a donation to the Kokua Foundation. Go Jimmy Go, Paula Fuga, Mason Jennings, Tim Reynolds, Dave Matthews, and Jack Johnson were playing. No disrespect meant to Jack Johnson since he does have a great voice and lots of catchy songs, but we went purely for Dave Matthews. He'd never played in Hawaii before and the chance to see him live was just too good to be true. Things went pretty well, Dave didn't come on until 6:30, so we got to the area at around 4:45 or so. We turned into the zoo parking lot (against my advice) and amazingly, someone pulled out right in front of us. So.. parking was a breeze. So lucky!
We decided to go into Waikiki to find a place to eat and soon found out that there really weren't that many places to eat on Kalakaua Avenue. We walked for 20 minutes and then I figured since I'd dragged Mr. Pikko almost clear across Waikiki, we would be able to just eat at Kiwami Ramen which was A-OK with me! I got the Miso Ramen with Tasty Egg (which you can kind of see peeking out of the dashi). It was VERY good! The noodles were perfect and the soup very tasty. I didn't even mind the chili peppers. Their chasu is very soft, two big thumbs up!
We got back to the Waikiki Shell just in time and found our seats in time. The announcer called their appearance "epic" and "historic" and then just like that, Dave Matthews came on stage. Now, I have a thing for mellow male voices but there is just something special and magical about the voice of Dave Matthews. I actually had tears in my eyes during three of his songs. Maybe it was because it feels like he's singing to your soul.
I'd never heard of Tim Reynolds before this concert and they made a great duo. They played for a little under an hour and a half and I can happily say that my drawn out Valentine's Day gift was a smashing success with Mr. Pikko.
My only complaint was definitely the stage camera operator. That dude needs to get another job because every time they had him focusing in on the people on stage, I swear, he'd suddenly drop the camera angle down to the stage floor and they'd have to shift to another camera. My pictures didn't come out so great since we were kind of in the back, but I was able to take the above one by going down the aisle to snap one.
Luckily there was a big screen that we could watch whenever they'd zoomed in on him.
The festival was very sold out, so a lot of people camped out on the grass in Kapiolani Park just to listen to them from outside. I took a picture during a break.
Jack Johnson on the big screen. He played a lot of songs with his band, then later came back out to play by himself and with other singers. We stayed just in case he sang with Dave later in the show...
Here I am with Mr. Pikko, who is blotted out with a picture of Pokko's face. He doesn't like to have pictures online and so out of spite, I figure I might as well dig in the Mr. Pikko embarassment bit. ^_^
I got THE last Kokua Festival T-shirt they had there, taken right off the wall of the only merchandise booth left open. I love fitting into small size shirts. :D
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