Dylan L.'s Profile

Ala Moana is not a mall to me. It is a way of life. I spend so much of my free time here that it has become an extension of who I am as a person. Before I go there to meet my posse of other awesome, good looking Japanese-American 20somethings, I go through a very meticulous routine. Firstly and most importantly, I spend at least an hour on my hair. This is crucial. I look at my slide show of JPEGs of J-Pop stars I've collected on my computer for inspiration while I go to work with my hair gel and straightener (the key is to make it look amazing while also looking like I didn't try to at all. That is the basic idea behind my entire look). Next, I spend a little time on make-up and selecting the clothes which best define how I am feeling at the moment (which, for some reason, tends to be a white dress shirt and black slacks most of the time). A half hour of watching Anime or playing PlayStation to psych myself up and I'm ready to rock!

I don't take Ala Moana lightly. There are definite dos and don'ts involved in hanging out here, especially if you are like someone of my stature, and I will share some of them with you because I'm a caring person and don't want you to embarrass yourself if you decide to venture into my world. Rule #1: Be the coolest, most conspicuous person in whatever place you enter. Rule #2...actually, there is really only the one rule. But it is an extremely important one and there are many facets to it. I find what works for me personally is always being seen with either my gorgeous Japanese girlfriend (and only if I've already coached her on her appearance for the day) or my aforementioned posse of Japanese friends (who I've painstakingly hand-picked to my liking...although one of them is part Filipino and another is full Haole, they both have the right attitude and look to hang with me, which is ultimately what matters the most. Plus they have lots of money). I mingle around places with lots of Japanese tourists as well because it allows me to showcase my ability to speak Japanese. Also, I make sure to always wear my sunglasses, even indoors, because nothing screams 'bad ass rebel' like sunglasses indoors. I don't care who has a problem with it, I don't take off my shades for nobody, especially not those loser mall security guards who hassle me cause they're jealous.

Now it's time to hit the stores. Shirokiya is my home base. That's where my people and I first meet up and later regroup at throughout the day. It's a great place to be seen in because of how Japanese it is, and it's got a little bit of everything (even though there are quite a bit of low quality items and poor people around). Other favorites include Sephora (a good place for getting my make-up on), the Apple Store (where I use the laptops to get on Facebook and Twitter to update my friends on where I am, what I did today and where I'll be later on in the evening), and Nordstrom (which I upgraded to from Hot Topic, as I am a much more mature person now than I was in high school). I avoid the poorer stores like the Otaku plague, and I wouldn't be caught dead in the food court unless I'm just strolling through there to make my presence in the mall known.

Ala Moana is the closest place I've ever found to a utopian society. It is one of few places I can go and immediately fit into. At the same time, it presents a challenge, because there I am not the only good looking, stylish Japanese-American with nice clothes and a nice car, so I have to work extra hard on standing out. And that challenge is ultimately what makes life rewarding, because without that, I would have no reason to get out of bed everyday and strive to better myself. This is why Ala Moana is not merely a mall to me, but a spiritual experience. I don't think most people are able to understand and appreciate something like that the way I am.

I have never felt as degraded in my entire life as when I was while relying on The Bus for transportation. I can easily say that the week or so my Lexus spent in the shop and I was forced to take The Bus was the WORST experience I've ever had. The first day of this routine alone was a torture of biblical proportions. To start, I had to walk five blocks to the bus stop in 90 degree heat with NO AIR CONDITIONING, and when I arrived I sat on the sticky remains of a soda, messing up my $100 pair of designer jeans. Ugh, there's another trip I have to make to the dry cleaners this week! By the time the bus did show up I didn't even care that it was 10 minutes late, I was just happy to have some semblance of comfort on my way to the mall where I could start to make the day a little better by getting a new pair of pants. That was until I saw there were no empty seats and I had to stand - yes, STAND, upright - in a moving vehicle holding onto a metal bar for dear life in the middle of a crowd of people who were all sorts of sad. This bus was packed with obnoxious, screaming kids, smelly people, fat people, people with no fashion sense whatsoever. I'm pretty sure a couple of them were actually real life bums! And I kept lunging forward and banging into them every time the bus came to a halt, which it did way too often because it kept making stops! I couldn't believe how much longer it took to get to my destination just because the driver insisted on stopping so much to let people on and off! Why don't these people just get their own cars already?! When I finally got off the bus, I was soaked in sweat and shame and disbelief, and I needed to go do some SERIOUS shopping to make myself right again. It was only halfway through that shopping that I realised, DOI! How am I going to carry all these bags home with me on The freakin' Bus?

That first ride was the longest 20 minutes of my life, and I did not sleep easy knowing that I would have to do it all over again until I got my car back. Was getting the new spoiler and chrome-plated rims installed and the awesome flame paint job on each side even worth all this hassle and humiliation? I ask myself this question every time my mind revisits the horror of my experience with the demonic entity known as public transportation. I don't understand why anyone would put themselves through such a horrible thing even once, let alone on a daily basis. I mean, HELLO, people, buy a car!

Not enough sodium in your diet? Come to Rai Rai Ramen! Seriously, the dishes here are HEAVY and many are what I refer to as China-fied Japanese food...the noodles are prepared Chinese style, stir-fried and soaked in so much sauce you could drink it off the plate if you had some sort of food-related death wish. There is a good variety of ramen here as well as some curry, rice and noodle dishes. The Gyoza makes a good starter, but the highlight of this place is the Chicken Katsu, which is easily among the best I have ever had. It is always tender, clean, and breaded very well. If you order only one dish, make sure to try one with Chicken Katsu.

My biggest qualm with this place is, again, how HEAVY the food is. The ramen broth has gotten thicker and increasingly overpowering in the last couple years, due in part, I think, to added competition in the form of Ajitama Ramen (now Tenkaippin) moving in down the street. While Rai Rai is delicious and certainly a good value, I feel eating here is almost like a workout and I tend to feel sluggish and over-saturated afterward, which is why I don't eat here as I often as I used to but remains a great "comfort food" spot for me on those days I have an itch for good local Japanese/Chinese-style cuisine and care more about getting my eat on than being pedantic about my health.

Recommended, but don't expect authentic Japanese food.

Apart from being a good restaurant, this place has a bit of historical value for me. A little back story before the review...when I was growing up around here, this location was a strip club with a really neat mural painted on the front. I don't remember what it depicted because I was really young then, just that it was very colorful. But alas, Waikiki needed more leg room to stretch and, like a virus, its influence spread further and further up Kapahulu. The strip club closed (along with a bunch of liquor stores and pawn shops, replaced by more "legitimate" businesses), the mural came down, and the lot was vacant until Bangkok Thai moved in. They later went out of business and Dee Thai opened up a short time later.

Despite having lived within a short walking distance from this place my whole life, I never thought to wander in. For years I would pass by it daily and it still went by largely ignored. Then one day a couple years back my girlfriend wanted to try some new cuisine and took me here. I remember thinking the food was bland, but that was because I was eating lots of Chinese and China-fied Japanese food at the time, so my taste buds were perpetually soaked in MSG. Feeding me more subtle foods such as Thai or Vietnamese was like giving Tylenol to a heroin addict.

Well, that changed in the past couple months. I'm a more mature person all around now, and that extends to my food palate. I LOVE Thai food. As a creature of habit, I really haven't tried a wide variety of it yet (I tend to stick to a curry or noodle dish, and even at that, mostly Panang curry and Pad See Ew, the latter of which I love to death because of its similarities to my all-time favorite dish, Beef Broccoli with noodles). There is a subtlety to Thai food that Dee Thai nails. There is layer and complexity to it, and unlike a lot of East Asian restaurants I frequent, I don't feel bloated after a meal and as if my blood sodium level is near fatal. This has become more important to me over the years...not only how I feel during a meal, but how I feel after. And after Dee Thai, I feel satisfied and healthy.

Again, I am no expert when it comes to Thai food. So far I've only eaten at three other Thai places (Sweet Thai Basil, S&T, and Phuket Thai, and even at that, I usually order the same things), but Dee Thai has to be my favorite. The differences between the curry and noodle dishes at these places are pretty negligible (except for Phuket Thai which is a bit more Japanese-style, but I'll go more into that in a separate review), but there is a little magic to Dee Thai that's hard for me to articulate. The food 'pops' a little more. The servings are very generous (unlike Phuket Thai), the staff has always treated me wonderfully, and the food is not only amazing, but meticulous. I can taste the amount of care put into each dish, and it is always consistent. This location that meant very little to me in the past has found its way into my heart with this lovely restaurant that put the zap of Thai into my soul and helped expand my tastes in food.

In the Kaimuki area, there are three music instrument stores: Dan's Guitars, Harry's Music, and Good Guys. Dan's has the widest selection of guitar-specific equipment by far, Harry's carries the widest variety of instruments (and is filled with an abundance of sheet music and training books), and the Good Guys are right in between. They've got a little bit of everything, but don't have a particularly good selection in any one department.

Though the people here are generally "good guys," their business can be pretty shady. I purchased my first guitar here when I began learning about ten years back, and I later found out from a more experienced player that the guitar's body was very clearly warped and it was unplayable. The Good Guys played dumb and let me exchange it for another instrument, but when I returned the next week, I saw that they'd put the warped guitar back on sale. Shady.

That said, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, as they've treated me fairly well since (though some of them are veteran guitar snobs who look down on newbies - they will help you purchase the right instrument for you, but if you need help restringing it, they'll charge you $2 per string...that's not business, that's theft). Their prices are generally reasonable, and they have a good rental system and are equipped to do basic repairs and modifications. Also, they buy used equipment, so you will occasionally find a neat rare or vintage piece of gear there.

For the most part, I just go here for accessories, as they usually don't carry anything I haven't seen or wouldn't be able to find anywhere else, plus the space is so cramped that three people can barely fit in the store at the same time, and you can't play at a suitable volume to judge an instrument's tone and dynamics because of the location between a Starbucks and a restaurant.

Overall, worth checking out and worth your business, but don't let them swindle you on second hand equipment.

The food is totally decent Chinese cuisine, and they have a great lunch special (very affordable - $6 gets you egg soup, a random dim sum dish [whatever they have leftover, I'm assuming], and an entree with rice or noodles; tea is complementary). It can be a bit on the bland side, but a splash of shoyu or dash of salt can help fill in the taste bud blanks well enough.

On a personal note: please help these people out. They can't afford to turn on their electricity most of the time, don't speak enough English to communicate effectively in this country, and have had to turn people away because they're not equipped to accept credit/debit cards. They actually go out of their way to smile and thank you for dining there, breaking the mold of local Chinese restaurant owners who are overtly racist and stingy, give minimal, robotic service, and will hold an eternal grudge against you for tipping less than 15%. The value is certainly worth your charity.