Happy Chinese New Years!

Nǐ hǎo! 你好 

That's hello in Chinese! February 10th (Sunday) is Chinese New Years. You know what I've always wondered? How do the Chinese count years? Its not wrong, but it's different from the way Americans count and I'm interested to know how they count. If you believe in Wikipedia, this provides a decent answer (Don't read the whole thing - super long). But, this is the year of the snake and according to the Chinese calendar is year 4710. Pretty cool, right?

So, to celebrate Chinese New Year, we went with some peeps down to Chinatown in Honolulu (last week)

There was a parade going on. Lots of shopping

 
 

Tons of food

I was surprised at how many statues there were just...everywhere. They were kinda cool

Those were cool. I finally learned how Chinese women can be dangerous

Don't get in their way that's for sure. I've always been fascinated with the entertainment dragons. I thought they were interesting and I've always wanted to see one in person. Well, dreams really do come true.

You would think that they would be a little more discrete, right?

They use that little ball thing that guy is holding to direct who goes in and out and where to guide the dragon. Pretty cool.

You can see in this one that someone is holding out cash to feed the dragon! Didn't 

Little kids get scared. I probably would too if I was his age

This is kinda long, but its cool to see for a bit

This is the longest dragon I've seen in my life. Pretty dang cool!

So, dreams come true guys. Also, turtles fly

Also, ninjas exist. And they fight like crazy. By the time I could pull out my camera to take a video of them fighting, they were already done fighting. How sad is that? But, its okay. 

Now, all of you have to go to some Chinatown for next Chinese New Years: Friday January 31st 2014. Thank you all for reading and Zàijiàn 再见

What happens in Waikiki...

Stays in Waikiki. No, it doesn't. It gets posted on this blog! Went down to the famous Waikiki with Aaron! He's from Zambia. He's legit

We dropped some people off at

and then went to Waikiki for a little while. By far the coolest thing I've seen in Waikiki is the

Where they sell things like this

and this

and this

Isn't that the cutest thing in the world? My mom is going to come to Hawaii and buy one of these for my niece and she may buy extra for presents. If you notice the name of the company it is called "Add a kid" which is also really hilarious.

So, the international market place is cool. If you want to buy anything related to Hawaii or island anything, that's the place to go. The lamest thing in Waikiki??

At least Burger King put up some surfboards in front. But honestly, if you are visiting Hawaii (which is what 90% of the people in Waikiki are doing), why on earth would you waste your time going to McDonalds or Burger King that you can get almost anywhere else in the world? Super lame.

Also in Waikiki you can look at Jupiter

and 4 of its moons. And you can learn your Hawaiian name

 It's kind of blurry. My name is Iakana. But really. When you're in Waikiki, what must you do?

Photo with the goldman!

Can I tell you how freaked out I was when I saw this guy? I walked by, thought he was a statue, and moved on. But then, when we were walking back, he was looking around!! Holy cow, I almost peed my pants. But we had to get a picture with him. It was fun. Thank you Waikiki for making my adventure of the week fun. Until next time!